WORDS TO WIN SOULS:
TWELVE SERMONS,
PREACHED A. 1). 1620-1650,
BY EMINENT DIVINES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
3ebiseb  antr  viigeb  from a tberv  scarce 9olIection,
BY THE
REV. THOMAS S: MILLINGTON.
" The words of the wise are as goads, and as niils fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are
given from one shepherd."-EccLTES. xii. 11.
"He that winneth souls is wise."-PRov. xi. 30.
NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS,
285 BROADWAY.
1855.








PR EFACE
THE volume from which the following Sermons
are selected was published in the year 1660,
and is described in the title-page as " newly corrected and amended."  The allusions in many
of the Sermons to recent or contemporaneous
events show that they were preached at a much
earlier date; probably between A.D. 1620 and
1650.
The style of the Sermons is such as might
often be imitated with advantage at the present
day.  In most of them  the exordium, now  so
generally in use, is either very brief or altogether
omitted.  The Preacher makes the best use of
his time and addresses himself at once to the




iv                  PREFACE.
serious business of his text, engaging the minds
of his people while they are awake, and not
blunting the edge of their expectation by a long
or impertinent preface.
He then sets up certain  divisions, which,
like boundary marks, he carefully keeps in view,
proceeding from  one to another till he reaches
the end of his discourse.  Thus he loosens the
parts without injuring  their  coherence, and,
avoiding all digressions, keeps the attention of
his hearers in that track to which it was first
directed.
This. intelligent division of the text is well
likened, by one of the authors, to "unfolding
a rich piece of arras, and  pointing with the
finger to the subjects represented;" while the
earnest and sweet consideration of the several
parts is symboled by " the bee that sitteth upon
each particular flower and gathereth the drops of
honey."
In handling the several points of doctrine,
the Preacher is careful not to separate the text
from  the sense in which it occurs; but views it
both in its first and special application (if any),
and also in its present and more general meaning.




PREFACE.                   V
He ventures nothing on his own authority, but
interprets one place of Scripture by another,
and abundantly confirms every inference by the
word of God, comparing spiritual things with
s2iritual.
And in applying the doctrines of his text to
the hearts and lives of his people, he contrives
to gather something special and appropriate for
each.  The experienced Christian, the returning
prodigal, the sleepy careless sinner, and the
hardened reprobate, each finds something fitly
spoken to himself.  There is a smile or a frown,
a congratulation or a caution, a promise or a
rebuke, for every hearer; the same  fountain
sends forth bitter waters or sweet, according
to the taste and palate of him  who  drinks.
Nor are the exigencies arising  from  outward
circumstances  overlooked.   Rich  and  poor,
masters and servants, learned and unlearned,
each finds his own peculiar difficulties understood
and his objections answered.  "This is for you,
and this for you;"  there is an aurea gutta, a
golden drop, in the text for each of them.
And this helps to procure attention, and to
keep up the interest of the sermon, for, to use the




vi                 PREFACE.
words of good George Herbert, " particulars ever
touch and  awake  more  than generals."  To
which end, also, "the preacher serves himself of
the judgments of God, as of those of ancient
times, so especially of the late ones; and of
those most which are nearest to his parish: for
people are very attentive at such discourses, and
think it behoves them to be so when God is so
near them, and even over their heads."  He
shows them  God's justice and severity against
the impenitent, and his mercy and forbearance
towards themselves, that they may better appreciate their favourable condition as God's people,
and be careful not to forfeit it by indifference or
neglect.  " Sometimes he tells them stories and
sayings of others, according as his text invites
him, for them  also men heed and remember
better than exhortations." t
Exhortations, however, are neither feeble nor
deficient in the following Sermons. Few flowers
of rhetoric are  employed, but plain, earnest,
forcible language, that cannot be misunderstood
and will rarely be unheeded.  The authors do' Herbert's " Country Parson," chap. vii,
t- Ibid.




PREFACE.                vii
not indeed despise eloquence:" The wind,"
says one, " maketh a louder and sweeter sound in
the organ pipe than in the open air; and so the
matter of our speech and the theme of our discourse, when conveyed through figures and forms
of art, both sound sweeter to the ear and pierce
deeper into the heart "-but they decline all
pomp and vanity of idle words in the pulpit,
which, it is well remarked, "is no place to show
our quaint and lofty strains of oratory, but our
zeal for God's glory and the edification of his
people."  They value eloquence  only as an
effectual means of explaining and applying their
doctrines, and judge that to be the best arrow
which fliest farthest and goes most directly to its
aim. The clear and perspicuous explanation of
the text, the general aptness of the similitudes,
and the nervous impressive language with which
the lessons are enforced, have more of real and
admirable eloquence than many of the finished
periods of these days, when men think less and
write and speak more.
The Editor would fain hope that these Sermons-the legacies of men who being dead yet
speak,-may not only be the means, under God,




viii             PREFACE.
of awakening some, and confirming others in
their Christian course, but also may be found
useful to many who study rightly to divide the
Word of Truth, and to be thoroughly furnished
unto all good works, that they may win souls to
Christ.




CONTENTS.
SERMON I.
THE CARELESS MERCHANT; OR, THE WOFUL LOSS OF THE
PRECIOUS SOUL.
MATT. xvi. 26. "What is a man profited, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Page 1
SERMON II.
SECURITY SURPRISED; OR, THE DESTRUCTION OF THE
CARELESS.
1 THESS. v. 3.' For when they shall say, Peace and
safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them,
as travail upon a woman with child; and they
shall not escape"....             2. 
SERMON III.
FAITH'S TRIUMPH OVER THE GREATEST TRIALS.
HEB. xi. 17. "By faith Abraham, when he was tried,
offered up Isaac; and he that had received the
promises offered up his only-begotten Son". 59
b




X                   CONTENTS.
SERMON IV.
THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME; OR, THE RIGHT USE OF TIME'S
SHORTNESS.
1 COR. vii. 29, 30. "But this I say, brethren, the
time is short; it remaineth, that both they that
have wives be as though they had none; and they
that weep, as though they wept not; and they
that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they
that buy, as though they possessed not; and they
that use this world, as not abusing it: for the
fashion of this world passeth away".. Page 72
SERMON V.
ST. PAUL'S TRUMPET; OR, AN ALARM FOR SLEEPY
CHRISTIANS.
ROM. xiii. 11. "And that, knowing the time, that
now it is high time to awake out of sleep ".. 104
SERMON VI.
CHRIST S PRECEPT AND PROMISE; OR, SECURITY AGAINST
DEATH.
JOHN viii. 51. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a
man keep my saying, he shall never see death". 127
SERMON VII.
THE PLATFORM OF CHARITY; OR, THE LIBERAL MAN'S
GUIDE.
GALATIANS, vi. 10. "As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
who are of the household of faith "...159




CONTENTS.                      xi
SERMON VIII.
THE PERFECTION OF PATIENCE; OR, THE COMPLETE
CHRISTIAN.
JAMES, i. 4. "Let patience have her perfect work,
that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing"....... Page 183
SERMON IX.
SIN'S STIPEND AND GOD'S MUNIFICENCE.
ROM. vi. 23. " The wages of sin is death; but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord"...... 213
SERMON X.
THE STEWARD'S SUMMONS.
LUKE, xvi. 2. "Give an account of thy stewardship;
for thou mayest be no longer steward "..   33
SERMON XI.
SPIRITUAL HEART'S-EASE; OR, THE WAY TO TRANQUILLITY.
JOHN, xiv. 1, 2, 3. " Let not your heart be troubled:
ye believe in God, believe also in me.  In my
Father's house are many mansions: if it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also " 268




xii                 CONTENTS.
SERMON XII.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DESTROYER; OR, THE OVERTHROW
OF THE LAST ENEMY.
1 COR. xv. 26. " The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death ".... Page 292




SERMON  I.
THE CARELESS MERCHANT;
OR,
THE WOFUL LOSS OF THE PRECIOUS SOUL.
MATT. xvI. 26.
" WHAT IS A MAN PROFITED, IF HE SHALL GAIN THE WHOLE
WORLD, AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL?
THE patriarch Jacob, in his vision at Bethel, saw
the angels of God ascending and descending. So,
from the 13th verse of this chapter, we have the
disciples of Christ ascending and descending.
For, first, Simon Peter had made a notable confession of our Saviour's divinity, and had received,
for the further encouragement of himself and his
brethren, such an excellent testimony from the
Saviour as the angels of heaven might behold,
observe, and embrace:-Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-jona,for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven:
and I say unto thee, that tihoz art Peter, and upon
this rock will I build my church, and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it.  Which words
B




2      THE DANGER OF CARNAL WISDOM.
were not only appropriate to him, but they were
common to all the  apostles: for, as Origen
argues, Shall we think that the gates of hell prevailed not against Peter, but did against the
rest? Therefore, that which was said to him
was said to all: and, being such a glorious commendation,-behold the angels ascend!
But, secondly, what if the earthly mind of
man dream of a Messias temporal, and that they
should themselves be promoted to places of eminency, and styled gracious lords?  This was too
evidently the case with the apostles. For, if Christ
warn them of his approaching death at Jerusalem,
he shall be sure to meet with a check: —Be it
far from thee, Lord: this s/all not be unto thee.
Oh, here is a strange metamorphose!  Before, a
confessor, and now a controller: there is no wisdom of the Spirit in this, and therefore no commendation; but, because Simon was somewhat
too forward,-Get thee behLind me, Satan; thou art
an ofence unto me. Behold the angels descend!
And surely this carnal wisdom had been able
to weigh them down to the nethermost hell, had
it not been curbed, and subdued, and restrained,
by the wisdom  of the Highest.  What, not
suffer?  Yes; and Peter also must suffer; and
all that will follow Christ must suffer; they must
renounce all the enticements of the world, and
mortify all the corrupt exorbitancies of the flesh,
and resist all the temptations of the Devil; for,
what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul?




EXCELLENCY AND DIGNITY OF MAN S SOUL.  3
Which words are a true description of the
woful case of a temporizing professor, of a carnal
gospeller; and they bring to our consideration
these four generals:FIRST, the excellency and worth of man's
soul, which is of greater value than the whole
world.
SECONDLY, the possibility of its loss. A man
may lose his own soul.
THIRDLY, the compossibility of outward prosperity.  He may lose his soul in gaining the
whole world.
And then, LASTLY, the woful bargain in such
an exchange.  Thlat is a man profiled?
Of these in order-FIRsT, of the surpassing
excellency and dignity of man's soul.  It is
valued and prized here above the whole world.
It was the plausible conceit of some philosophers
that the world was a great man, and that man
was a little world.  A little world indeed, but,
as St. Austin terms him, a great wonder! For,
within this little world, there is a reasonable soul
worth many worlds.  To render an exact definition of the soul requires the tongue of an angel
rather than of a man: it passes the ability
of the wisest to apprehend its nature.  These
three — God, angels, and man's  soul    they
are unknown to us: we may more easily admire
their excellency, than conceive their nature: we
may argue of their operations, but we cannot
attain to their knowledge.
The excellency and sublimity of the soul is




4          EXCELLENCY AND DIGNITY
commended to us by three distinct voices-by
the voice of nature, of grace, and of glory.
First, in the order of nature, it is the greatest
thing, saith Plato, that we may conceive of in a
narrow compass-the most noble thing that all
the frame of nature affords.
View it in respect of its origin. The soul
had never its beginning here.  There was no
voice directed to the earth, or to the water, for
the production of Adam's soul; but a serious
consultation of the sacred Trinity, and a breathing
into his nostrils of the breath of life.  Therefore,
even the heathen philosopher might well conclude
that the soul is not of the earth, but immortal:
and, therefore, the Manichees extolled it too high,
supposing it to be a portion of God's essence.
Let not others abase and depress it too low, nor
esteem it unworthily.
View it again in respect of the image in
which it was created.  Saith Plato, saith Aristotle, "The soul is most like God:" and God
himself signifieth so much; Ziet us make man
in our imnae.  Therefore, the soul of man is not
stamped with a Roman Caesar, but with God's
own image and superscription; and that in many
respects.
In respect of the substance,-being not only
a spiritual, intellectual, incorporeal, invisible
essence, but explaining in  some sort, by the
plurality of powers in the unity of essence, the
plurality of persons in the unity of the Deity.
Also, in respect of its being furnished with
singular endowments; as, in the state of inno



OF MAN'S SOUL.               5
cency, with perfect wisdom, and holiness, and
righteousness.  Yea, and even in the state of sin,
some generals are still left, some broken fragments of the creation, moral qualifications, that
may lead us by the hand to the knowledge of our
Maker.
And again, in regard of the commanding
power it hath over the body. It is to the body,
as Moses was to Pharaoh, a god: it actuates it,
and moves, and commands, and restrains it:
whereby, next and immediately under God, We
live, and move, and have our being.
Seeing then the soul is the immediate work
and character of God himself, so excellent for the
original and for the image, nature testifieth that,
in these regards, it is of greater value than the
whole world.
Secondly, in the kingdom of grace, the price
of the soul is far above the dignity of the world;
and that both in the grace of redemption, and in
the grace of renovation.
For, in the soul's redemption,-its ransom
mounts so high, that the whole creation is not
able to discharge it. It cannot be gotten for gold,
neither shall silver be weig hed for the price of it.
It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, nor
with the precious onyx,.  It cost more to redeem
the soul of sinful man.  The precious blood of
the eternal Son of God, this was the price of it.
He could alone redeem it, who at the first created
it.  You are bought with a price; Christ hath
purchased you with his own blood.




6          EXCELLENCY AND DIGNITY
And, in the soul's renovation,-nothing is able
to cleanse it from sin, but the Spirit of God. The
Spirit alone can enlighten the understanding and
rectify the affections, and purify the will, and
sanctify the conscience, and seal up the image of
God in righteousness and true holiness.  And
the soul thus renewed is as a garden inclosed, a
spiritual paradise, where the God of heaven himself delights to dwell. It is, in the language of
the Church, the spouse of the beloved: As the lily
amony thorns, so is my love among the cldauylers.
Seeing, then, that the universal world is not
able to redeem, nor, when redeemed, to cleanse
or renew the soul, let grace subscribe to that
which nature concludes, that the soul is of greater
value than the whole world.
Lastly, for the passage of glory, the contents
of the whole universe are not able to come near
the soul.  Well saith St. Bernard, "It may
indeed be busy and taken up with other things,
but it cannot be satiate and replenished with
them."  And Democrates imagined that if there
were millions of worlds, it were all one in comparison of the soul for blessedness: all of them
together could not be weighed against the soul.
The world is transitory like the dew of the morning; it fades as the grass and as the flower of
the field: whereas, on the contrary, the soul of
man is immortal, capable of an exceeding, surpassing, eternal weight of glory. For if, in the
time of grace, we behold, as in a glass, the glory
of the Lord, and are changed into the same




OF MAN'S SOUL.               7
image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the
Lord, how resplendent shall the righteous be in
the beatifical vision of God's excellencies! How
wonderful shall that divine capacity be, that shall
be capable of God himself for a perpetual residence!  Insomuch that the Ancient of Days
shall give to the soul fulness of knowledge and
wisdom, and his sacred Spirit shall fill it with all
the fulness of God, and the sacred Trinity shall
be all in all to it!
Seeing, then, that the soul is capable, and is
the subject, of the happiness and joys of heaven,
and partner with the glorious angels in the
fruition of the chief good, let the sentence of
glory be joined to that of grace and nature, that
the soul of man is of greater value than the
whole world.
Behold, then, 0  man, out of the mouth of
three witnesses, the surpassing excellency and
dignity of the soul. It is the breathing of God,
the image of God.  He created it with his word,
redeemed it with his Son, and, in whomsoever
his grace abides, he will crown it hereafter with
his glorious presence.
What then remains, but that we esteem our
souls even as God values them?  Let us not,
with the unhallowed voluptuousness of these
times, make lords of our bodies, and slaves of
our souls.  Let us not spend our days in providing for the lusts of the flesh. Let us not, in
affectation of fair possessions, hopeful sons, good
friends, and able servants, content ourselves with




8        THE POSSIBILITY THAT A MAN
bad souls.  "A  man's soul is himself," saith
Plato; and, "Oh, wretched wight," saith St.
Austin, " how hast thou deserved so much ill of
thyself, as, among all thy goods, to be only thyself bad!  Oh, remember the sublimity of thy
soul! thou knowest not what a precious pearl
thou hast in thy body: like the hidden treasure
of the Gospel, it is of greater worth than the
whole field."  I say not as he did, " Know that
thou hast a God in thee;" yet, know that, in the
better part of thy nature, thou art like to God;
for he hath given thee a soul of his own breathing, and stamped it with the impress of his own
image, and created it capable of the fruition of
his own presence, in endless glory. In the consideration whereof, walk worthily of this divine
inspiration.  Thy  soul is a  spirit,-let thy
thoughts be spiritual.  Thy soul is immortal,let thy meditations be of immortality; and renounce thy body, and good name, and gifts of
the world, for the gaining of thy soul.  For what
shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul?
So much shall serve to be spoken of the first
point, the surpassing excellency and dignity of
the soul.  It is valued and prized here above the
whole world.
Now the SECOND point is,-The possibility
that a man may lose his own soul. The mention
whereof causeth me to remember that passage
between Christ and his disciples, where the disciples point their Master to the stately buildings




MAY LOSE HIS SOUL.              9
of the temple, but they are soon damped, when
Christ tells them that, after a while, there shall
not be left one stone upon another. So, perhaps,
you, who were taken with admiration at the former part of this discourse, concerning the excellency of man's soul, are somewhat damped to
consider that a man may lose it.  It is immortal
in respect of the being of it; but, when defiled
with sin, it is adjudgeable to death in respect of
its well-being.  And a possibility so to die is
nothing repugnant to the immortality of the soul.
The damned spirits, they are always dying and
are never dead; they are always deprived of God's
comfortable presence, and are never released of
their hellish torments.  As the apostle saith, in
another case, as dlying, and behold we live; as
living, and yet behold they die. The soul expiring
is the death of the body; and God forsaking is
the death of the soul.
But you will say, How is it possible?
The question is soon resolved, if we ponder
the causes of death. A thousand mortal maladies
there are to kill the body; and there are a thousand deadly diseases to destroy the soul. There is
no sin so small, but, in the rigour of God's justice
and in its own nature, it may damn the soul.
When God in the beginning stated man in
Paradise, he gave him a special caveat about the
tree of knowledge:-In the day that thoo  eatest
thereof tMou s8alt surely die.  What, for bare
eating? No, beloved, but for the sin; for transgressing even so small a commandment of so




10       THE POSSIBILITY THAT A MAN
great a God.  Sin alone maketh a separation
between God and the soul, and so causeth the
death of the soul; The soul that sinneth it shall
die.  The sin of Adam may teach us that, all the
time we live in this world, there is nothing easier
than to sil.  There is a tree of life, and a tree of
knowledge; and by eating of the tree forbidden
cometh death.  There is a way of felicity, and a
way of destruction; there is a God of salvation,
and a ghostly enemy; and by adherence to the
principality of sin, a man may lose his soul.
Have we not then great reason to try and to
suspect ourselves touching our standing towards
God?  Is there not a main necessity to seek the
means to preserve us in the compass and seal of
grace?  It is lamentable to consider how, in
bodily diseases, men can open their grief, and
seek for help from some learned physician, who,
after all, has, perhaps, no power to give relief.
In case of law, too, we can go readily enough for
advice to some learned counsel; but, alas I the
soul lies wounded in the way, overladen with the
grievances and pressures of sin, distracted with
the affrightings of a troubled conscience, as if
there were no balm in Gilead, no physician nor
counsellor to afford help. There is no seeking
abroad after spiritual good. A lion is said to be
in the way, and Solomon's sluggard folds his'
hands to sleep.  O let not these things be so!
Be not as the horse and mule that have no understanding; neglect not the helps of your preservation in grace; but be continually watchful,




MAY LOSE HIS SOUL.            11
with suspicion and jealousy, and abstain from
flesly lusts that war against the soul.  The poet
could say, "Thieves rise by night to rob, and
steal, and slay:" and wilt not thou wake to save
thy precious soul?
God, for the most part, saith St. Chrysostoum,
hath allotted to nature all by twos-two hands,
two eyes, two ears, two feet; that if we chance
to maim one, we may help to relieve the necessity
of it by the other: but he hath given us but one
soul; and if we lose that, what shift shall we
make for another?a. piercing contemplation, if
we had grace to consider it! Therefore, 0 my
soul, let me cherish thee, and tender thee, as my
only dependence for joy and happiness for ever!
If thou be translated to heaven, then the body
shall in time come thither: this corruptible shlall
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on
immortality. But if thou be haled with the fiends
to the nethermost hell, the body also shall, in
time, be tormented with thee. It is altogether
just, with the righteous God, that they that meet
in sin should also consort in suffering. Save thyself and save all; and by woful consequence, lose
thyself and all is lost for ever. For what is a man
profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose
his own soul?  So much for the second point,'the possibility of a man's losing his soul.
Come we now to the THIRD point,-the cornpossibility of outward prosperity: A man may
lose his soul in gaining the world.
In the diversity of opinions concerning the




12         THE COMPOSSIBILITY OF
chief good, some there were that placed it in
riches; others in honours: and, however they
differed in their judgments, yet they were alike
in this,-that they were both deceived.  For,
although it cannot be denied that both riches and
honours are blessings sent from God, yet they
are no demonstration of a blessed man.  Lest
any man should take them to be in themselves
evil, they are bestowed upon the good; and, lest
any should reckon them for the chief good, they
are bestowed also upon the wicked.  God maaketh
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. External blessings are but common favours, vouchsafed to good and bad.  Was Abraham rich?
So was Abimelech.  Was David a king?  So
was Saul.  Was Constantine an emperor?  So
was Julian. Salvation depends not on the multitude of riches nor upon eminency in place: the
tallest cedar hath the greatest fall; and the fairest
houses many times the greatest ruin: and outward prosperity, unguarded by inward sanctity,
may soon lose the soul.
For, first, rich men are tainted with covetousness, which, saith the apostle, is idolatry.
And if you would know the reason, it is this.
The more tenaciously a man loves his own, the
less devotion he offers to God.  You cannot live
in the service of Mammon and of Christ: the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,-ye cannot
serve God and Mamnmon.  If the young man in
the Gospel have great possessions-if Judas carry




OUTWARD PROSPERITY.             13
the bag-if Demas embrace the present world,
then farewell Christ, farewell Paul, and farewell
soul too. So true is the saying of the apostle,ThLey that will be rich fall into temptations and a
snare, and into many danyerous and hurtful lusts
that drown men in destruction.  He saith not,
they that are, but they that will be, rich.  It is
not simply money, but the love of money, that is
the root of all evil. Riches are good with a good
conscience: but if the soul be infected with
avarice, if it savour of that bitter coloquintida,
then death is in the pot. The desire of worldly
men is as the unsatiable thirst of the dropsy
patient; there are no means that they will leave
unattempted, no policy unachieved, for the accomplishment of their ends and advancing of
their estates. Balaarn, for a bribe, will curse
where God hath blessed.  Ziba, for an inheritance, will (as much as in him lieth) bring his
master within the compass of treason.  Demosthenes, for a little more gold, instead of pleading,
will pretend he hath a cold.
There are no greedy monopolizers, wheresoever they be, in city or country, but they are like
the eagle in the fable; and the coals they carry
shall burn their own nests.  They shall have
Ahab's curse with Naboth's vineyard; and with
Naaman's reward Gehazi's leprosy shall cleave to
them; for, while with eager pursuit they hoard
up unrighteous mammon, it is but wrath heaped
up against the last day: the heap up wrath to
themselves against the day of wrath.




14         THE COMPOSSIBILITY OF
Secondly.  Great men are in danger of ambition, and a swelling inordinately on their promotion.  And the ambitious man is so strangely
dazzled with the beams of his own lustre, that,
in the greatness of his power, he thinks of nothing
but how to be most admired, and how to become
yet greater.  He forgetteth the Lord that made
him, and God that raised him out of the mire, to
set him with the princes of the people: and like
that famous fool in his new coat, he knoweth
not himself.  So, though God hath some noble,
some wise, that he hath drawn to himself, yet, by
means of this impediment, not many mighty, not
many noble, not many learned, are called. The
gates of heaven are too strait for the swelling
dimensions of ambition.  There is nothing so
easy to pride as to purchase a fall; and there is
no fall so great as from heaven.  If Lucifer long
for advancement, it is a sign that he shall be cast
out from heaven: if Adam desire the apple, it is
a sign that he shall be cast out from Paradise: if
Haman abuse his promotion, he shall be brought
to the gallows. To comprise it in a word-the
greater the dignity of eminence and honour, the
greater the execution of pains and horror. The
sum then is this:-In a world of promotion, and
temporal advancement in worldly possessions and
unmeasurable treasure, the covetous and ambitious man may lose his own soul.
Now for a word of application. If this be so,
then, how taxable are the thousands of worldlings
in this kind, that imagine the gain of this earth




OUTWARD PROSPERITY.            15
to be the greatest happiness! That say to the
gold, Thou art my god; and to honour, Thou art
my glory! that make gold their god, and mammon their mediator! Saith St. Bernard, "Yea,
covetous generation, that glory in silver and gold,
in that that is neither yours, nor yet precious:
precious they cannot be, but by the avarice of the
sons of Adam that prize them: and if they be
yours, take them  away with you when you go
hence." Yet the children of the world are wholly
for great Diana. Gods of silver and gold, multitudes of lands and revenues, and an increase of
their secular estate, are all they desire.  Many
can complain of the vanity of this world and the
deceivableness of it, but few complain of that
idolatrous confidence that themselves repose in
this false world. There are few that recount how,
in enjoying outward  things-Martha without
Mary, prosperity without piety-they may lose
their own souls.  0 let a word of exhortation
prevail against this sore disease; if riches increase,
beware of covetousness: be covetous for spiritual
things, for immortality: hoard up your treasure
in heaven.
So much for the third point, the compossibility
of outward prosperity: A man may lose his soul
in gaining the whole world.
The FOURTH and last is,-the woful disadvantage of such an exchange: What is a man
profited? You may call it, not unfitly, the account
of the careless merchant.
For, (a little to countenance the allegory,)




16       THE WOFUL DISADVANTAGE OF
every unsatiable worldling is but a merchant
adventurer; one who bartereth and exchangeth
his precious soul for the deceivable riches of this
world.  But when God, in his judgment, transports him  to his own place, the unfortunate
abode of cursed spirits, then he begins, when the
time is past, to cast up his doleful account, to
compare his gains and his losses; and, after all
the enumeration of his imaginary gain-so much
by usury, so much by extortion, so much by
fraudulent dealing-he perceiveth that for these
things that are past and gone he hath lost his
own soul for ever.
Then what is a man profited? The bargain is
such that there is nothing gotten by it: nay, that
is too sparing an expression; it is short of Christ's
meaning, who leaves us to draw the inference for
ourselves.  For, indeed, it were a happiness if
we could make the balance of such an account as
this to be nothing: this were profitable for the
damned, and a thing that they would most earnestly desire.
But let us see the end of this bargain in some
particulars.
Suppose the case of a man that glories in the
resplendency of his fortunes, and blesseth himself
in magnifying his estate-a commander of kingdoms and nations-an engrosser of preferments
and dignities; yet
First, death will attack him; there is no
carrying his dignity and honours with him.  He
must, of necessity, take leave of his mammon, and




THE EXCHANGE.               17
then, whose shall these things be for which he
hath lost his soul?  Who gains by the smallness
of the epha, the greatness of the shekel, the refuse
of the wheat?  Where is the man that gloried in
his abundance and store, and thought himself the
only happy man?  Saith the prophet David, —
went by, and lo, he was gone; Isomg/ht Aim, but his
place could no where be found.  There is a lively
expression that illustrates it,-As the partridge
sittethl on egsc and hlatchLeth themn not, so Ae that
getteth/ riches, and not by right, shall leave them
in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a
fool.  What, not before his end?  Yes, he was
always a fool; but then, by conviction, his own
conscience shall call him so: the confession of
his own tongue shall call him so: the proclamation of just men shall declare him so. Lo, this
is the man that took not God for his strength, but
trusted unto the mnultitude of his ric/es and
strengt/hened himself in his wickedness.
Secondly, having lost his supposed good, he
loseth the fruition of God, the chief good; he
loseth the countenance of the beatifical presence,
the fellowship and melodious harmony of the
glorious angels, and his place and portion with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom  of
heaven.  And all for his own deservings.  In
his lifetime he refused God; being dead, God
refuseth him.  He turned his face from the poor
and needy; God, in his affliction, eternally turns
his face from him,-a loss so exceeding great,
that whosoever descends deepest into the medic




18       THE WOFUL DISADVANTAGE OF
tation of it, he shall not know how to find a full
definition of it. For, as Chrysostom truly affirms,
"though a man tell thee of ten thousand hells,
all is one in comparison of this misery, to be discarded of blessedness and glory, and to be hated
of Christ."
But if this be so, what shall we say to yet further
misery?  Having lost the chief good, he receives
his punishment with hypocrites and unbelievers
in the dungeon of extreme ill; a place where
there is nothing but desperation and horror of
conscience and a company of affrighting devils, and
with all this, weeping, and wailing, and gnashing
of teeth. Instead of merriment and jovial laughter, and scurrilous, lascivious songs, and wasting
and abusing the creatures of God, nothing but
weeping and gnashing of teeth. So that, having
come into the straits of the grave, the chambers
of death, the man, like the hedgehog in the fable,
leaves the apples behind, and only reserves the
prickles of a wounded spirit; receiving that sentence of Babylon, -  How much she hatl glorified
herself and lived deliciously, so much tormnent and
sorrow give her.
Zastly, that that is the hell of hells, that nothing may be wanting to this deserved woe, he is
out of hope of all gracious means of deliverance:
he must never look for the revocation of God's
sentence, though he seek it carefully with tears:
he must never look for the mitigation of his horror, though he beg, with the unmerciful glutton,
for one drop of water. The date of repentance is




THE EXCHANGE.               19
out; the day of grace will never dawn again; the
justice is implacable, the fire unquenchable, the
worm insatiable, and all continual, without intermission, for evermore.
O bottomless depth of horror  O inexpressible torment of a forsaken soul I "What greater
misery," saith St. Bernard, "than to be always
wishing for that which shall never be, and for the
removing of that which shall never be removed?"
Therefore the sum is this: Hath the covetous
exchanged his soul for riches, the ambitious for
honours; hath he lost it for the riches of Crcesus,
the power of Alexander, the empire of Augustus;
yet, considering the end of his life, the loss of
his God, the extremity of his pain, the eternity of
all, what is a man profiled?
Now, then, for some application, and to draw
towards a conclusion. Suffer the word of exhortation, brethren, and captivate your thoughts to
the obedience of Jesus Christ. You, especially,
whom God hath blessed above others concerning
the enjoyment of outward, temporal things, if
ever you be desirous to avoid the direful slaughter-house of hell, to escape those burnings and
those everlasting yellings, bethink yourselves,
while you have time, of some saving course
to flee from tIe wrath to come.
And now, in time, cast up your accounts;
take heed lest, for the love of this present world,
you lose your God, the life of your souls.
lThere is a way which seemeth right unto a
man, saith Solomon, but the end thereof are the




20       THE WOFUL DISADVANTAGE OF
ways of death.  Some Babylonish garment, some
Naboth's vineyard, some sweet preferment, engage the affections; but if the means be unlawful,
if it disturb conscience, and prejudice the glory
of God, and occasion the destruction of thy soul,
then say,-What shall I do, when God shall rise
up.? and when he shall visit, what shall I answer?  This will be the reckoning of fools at the
last,-What hath pride profited us, and what
hath riches brought us? Surely the gain will be
no other than that Prometheus is fabled to have
got by Pandora's box -a place full of torments;
or what Hercules got by Dejanira's garment.
Such will be the final issue of all Mammonists
that live amongst Christians, and under means of
better reformation and more  sanctification in
their ways: I say, this will be the final issue;
the worm of despair always gnawing and never
dying, and the flames of eternal Tophet never to
be extinguished. Therefore, in such a case, if
thou tell me thou knowest what thou clost, and
what thou gainest, let me tell thee, thou little
knowest thy damage, and what thou hast lost.
Alas! what are the goods of this life when they
are bought with eternal damnation?  And the
sweetness of imaginary gain, what proportion
hath it with the bitterness of so great a loss?
Riches have wings, they take their leave; honour
is transitory; pleasures fly away: but the soul is
the subject of immortality; and thy poor neglected soul must bide for an everlasting pledge,
and pay the penalty.




THE EXCHANGE.              21
0 then contemn this glory that is nothing.
First seek God's kingdom  and the glory of it.
Suffer not Heaven to stand at so great a distance
from thy soul. Taste and see how gracious the
Lord is, by one drop of water from that celestial
fountain, by one crumb from that heavenly table;
and then, as concerning the things below, thou
wilt account them as dross and dung in comparison of that joy and peace of conscience.  Be as
Themistocles; when he saw a goodly booty, he
would not stoop to take it up:-leave these things
for the children of this world.
But let your care be to please the Lord, and
to gain the peace of a good conscience.  First
seek the kingdom of God, which consists not in
meat or drink, but is righteousness, peace, and joy
in the Holy Ghost.  Remember the vanity of the
things of the world: remember how unable the
soul is to endure Hell, and to lose Heaven, without eternal horror.
And, in consideration of this, use the world
as though you used it not; and keep this text as
a curb to your desires: hide it in a sanctified
memory; write it on the tables of a sanctified
conscience, as with a pen of iron, or the point of
a diamond: "What is a man profited, if he shall
gain the whlole world, and lose his own soul?




SERMON  IIo
SECURITY SURPRISED;
OR,
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CARELESS.
I THESS. v. 3.'FOR WHEN THEY SHALI, SAY, PEACE AND SAFETY, THEN
SUDDEN DESTRUCTION COMETH UPON THEM, AS TRAVAIL
UPON A WOMAN WITH CHILD; AND THEY SHALL NOT
ESCAPE."
IN the latter part of the chapter going before,
the blessed apostle, St. Paul, revealeth to the
people of Christ certain comfortable truths concerning the resurrection from  the dead, and the
coming of their Lord to judgment.
In the beginning of this chapter he prevents
an objection that some might make. For, having
fallen upon the course of the Resurrection, he
well knew  the curiosity of man's nature, that
leaves those things that are most profitable, to
inquire after such things as God hath hid; and
therefore some men  might say,-  Since there
shall be such a time and such a change, when
will those times and seasons be?  When shall
that great day come, when all shall be brought
together before God?




THE MEANING OF THE WORDS,          23
Of t1e times and seasons, brethren, saith the
apostle, ye have no need that I write unto you.
As if he should say, This is no needful, no necessary thing, for you to inquire into, or for me to
tell you: rather let us fall upon those things that
are necessary and useful: for neither you nor I
can tell the particular time when that shall be:
yet know this, that very suddenly such a time
shall come, and that when the world least thinks
of it.
The suddenness hereof he setteth down by a
twofold comparison: First, by the coming of a
thief in the night: —Yorselves know pezfectly,
that the day of the Lord so comethl as a thief in
the night: and, secondly, by the travail that
cometh upon a woman with child: -Fhen they
shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruclion cometh upon theyn, as travail upon a woman
with child; and they shall not escape. This latter
comparison I have made choice of at this time for
my text.
A  little for the explanation of the words.
/hen they 8hall say, Peace and safely. The apostle intendeth not to condemn either the speaking of peace to the children of peace, or their
rejoicing in the peace they have. But that which
he condemneth is, that they cry peace to themselves, against whom God denounceth war. Men
that go on in a course of sinning and in security,
and yet will persuade themselves that all shall be
well with them in the end, these are the men
upon whom Death shall come thus suddenly, and




24       THE MEANING OF THE WORDS.
upon whom  the judgment-day shall come thus
unexpected. WIen hey shalllsay,Peace and safety;
that is, when they are living in their sins, walking on in their rebellions against God, and yet
flattering themselves that it shall be well with
them, then  shall judgment come upon them,
then sudden destruction cometh.
By destruction of the body or the soul, he
meaneth not here the destruction of their being:
for the soul, even after the death of the body,
shall have a being; and the body shall be restored again to its being and parts, in the resurrection from the dead.
It were happy for wicked and ungodly men,
if there should be such a destruction of their
being as that they should cease any more to
exist: for then, this body, the members whereof
have been the servants of sin, should not be tormented in hell; and then, this soul of theirs,
that hath set all the body to work in the service
of sin, it would not be sensible of that anguish
that shall cause gnashing of teeth. It were well,
I say, for them, if there should be such a destruction: it is that which, if they might have their
desire, they would wish above all things in the
world.  But it will be no such utter destruction
as this; it shall be worse with them: it shall only
be the destruction of their joy and comfort, of all
their contentments, of all those things wherein
they solaced and flattered themselves upon earth.
All these things shall be destroyed.
Their riches, that fed their lusts, shall be de



THE MEANING OF THE WORDS.         25
stroyed; and their company, that encouraged
them in sin, shall be destroyed; and all things,
wherein they have delighted  themselves here
upon earth, shall be destroyed: the whole earth
shall be burnt with fire before them. And beside
this, that same cheerfulness of spirit, and that
free disposition whereby they encouraged themselves in the ways of their pride, or whatsoever
else it was that made them  seem  somebody on
earth, all this shall cease, and fail them, and forsake them. There shall be no mirth, no wisdom,
no courage, no friends, no wealth, no houses, no
apparel, nothing to pride and delight themselves
in: there shall be an utter destruction of all these
things: Then shall destruction come upon them.
A4s pain upon a woman with child.  This
showeth the manner, the kind, of their destruction.
First, it shall be a sudden destruction: it
shall not give them warning either of the time
or place: they shall have no other warnings than
those general admonitions that they have in the
preaching of the word.
Secondly, it shall be a painful destruction;
full of misery and sorrow.
And then, thirdly, it shall be an inevitable
destruction; such a destruction as they shall
never be able to avoid.  All their wit, friends,
power, strength, wealth, or whatsoever else they
have, cannot put off the stroke of judgment that
shall come upon them.
So, then, the meaning of the words is, as if




26         MEANING OF THE WORDS.
the apostle should have said,-When wicked and
ungodly men, living in a course of sin, shall cry
Peace to themselves, and flatter themselves in
their rebellious courses, saying, in their hearts,
God hath forgottenl: he hideth his face; he will
never see it: then shall a sudden, painful, inevitable destruction of all their comfort, of all their
props, and hopes, and helps, fall upon them.
In the words, you have a twofold description.
You have the state and condition of the men of
the world, when Christ shall come to judgment:he shall find the world at rest. As the angel that
stood among the myrtle-trees spake, in Zechariah,
Wle have walked to andfro througlh th/e earth, and
behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest; so
shall it be then.  He shall find all the men of
the world il peace, every man applauding himself in some vain conceit, in some hope and confidence or other. They shall cry, Peace and safety.
And you have also the consequent that followeth upon  this vain flattery of themselves:
Then shall destruction come upon themz.
Thus you have the opening of the words.
Let us come now to the points of instruction that
may be raised hence.
Here, then, you may see, and he that runs
may read it, that-They are most secure who are
in least safety.
A man is in the greatest danger when he is
in the least security; his judgment is nearest when
he least thinks of it, when he least feareth it.
This is the main thing that the Holy Ghost




SPIRITUAL SECURITY.             27
would have us take notice of here. At that very
time, not before that time, they shall cry, Peace:
not after the time, when they have done it, and
repented of it; but just at the very time when
they are in the midst of their sins, applauding
their own estate, living under the power and
guilt of sin,-then cometh the destruction upon
them, and they shall not escape.
That we may make this point clearly understood before we come to prove it, give me leave,
first, briefly to tell you, what we mean by that
security which is upon men, even in their chiefest
dangers.  Know, therefore, that there is a twofold security: there is a holy, spiritual security;
and there is a sinful, carnal security.  There is,
first, a holy and spiritual security (and that even
in this state whereunto we are fallen), which
consisteth in a man's reconciliation with God,
being at peace with him, having obtained remission of his sins, and his favour, through Jesus
Christ: so that God is pleased with him in his
Son, hath received him  into the covenant of
grace, hath interested him in all the promises,
and is become his God by a covenant for ever.
Now here a man may be secure, yea, and he
must be so, in a spiritual manner.  Confidence
upon the goodness of God in Christ, upon the
promises of God in the Gospel, is that which is
requisite in every Christian; it is that which God
commandeth.  Fear not, saith he, in one place:
and again, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
The Scripture is full in calling for such a security




28            CARNAL SECURITY
as this; that men should lay aside all carking
and distracting cares when once they are in the
covenant of grace; that thenceforth they should
mind nothing but duty, and not be troubled
about success.
This was the kind of security that David had
and rejoiced in:-I will both lay me clown in
peace, and sleep, for thiou, Lord, only makest me to
dwell in safety. This it is that the Lord commandeth to the people of Israel:   Come, my
people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy
doors about thee: hide thyself, as it were for a
little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
He would have them secure themselves under his
protection, and in his ordinances. This is such a
security as draweth men nearer to God, bringeth
them  to further acquaintance with God, keepeth
them in a constant communion with God, causeth
them to walk in God's presence, &c.  This is a
good security.
But then, secondly, there is a sinful, carnal
security: that is, when a man, yet living in a
course of sin, beareth up his spirit against all
fear, either of judgments threatened, or of
judgments approaching unto him, under a vain
hope of I know not what mercy in God, and
of I know not what assurance from men; and
upon worldly conceits and flatteries, either from
others or from  his own heart.  Here is now
a sinful, carnal security; not warranted, but
condemned, in the word of God.  This is the
security that is ever an ill prognosticator and




A FORERUNNER OF JUDGMENT.         29
forerunner of some heavy judgments to fall upon
that person in whom it is. This is the security
that we have now in chase.
We will make it then appear, that it is an
infallible sign of God's judgment upon a person
or a people, when they cry peace to themselves,
and are secure, and no way troubled at their
estate, though God is at war with them, and
with their evil ways.
You shall see instances and examples of this.
Look for it in particular persons, and in states
and kingdoms, and you shall generally find that,
before the destroying judgment came upon them,
they have been given up to this security whereof
we speak, this crying of peace upon a false
ground.
See it in Agag: Surely the bitterness of death
is past.  But was it past?  Nay, at that very
time it was upon him; for the very next thing
we meet with in the story is, that Samuel hewed
qAga in pieces before the Lord.
Ye have it in Belshazzar. Wondrous secure
was he, carousing and quaffing in the holy vessels
that were taken out of the temple of the house
of God which was at Jerusalem, amongst his
princes and nobles, his wives and concubines, as
if there would be no change of his estate, no
translation of his empire.  But what?  Was it
so?  Nay, at that very time, In that same hour
came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote..... upon the plaister of the wall of the king's
palace,...... MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.




30             CARNAL SECURITY..    God hati nwumbered thy kingdom  and
finished it.  Thou art weighed in the balances, and
art found wanting.  Thy kingdom is divided, and
given to the Medes and Persians.  And immediately, in that very night, was Belshazzar the
king of the Chaldeans slain.  He was taken
away from  all his comfort and jollity.
See this also in the rich man.  Sozl, soul,
saith he, take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry:
and why so?  Was it because his soul was indeed in safety, being washed in the blood of
Christ?  Far'from it: but take tiine ease, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years: thou art
well provided against a hard winter, against a
dear year, now take thine ease. Well, what of
this?  Had his soul any whit the more ease?
Had he many years to enjoy that which he had
laid up for many years?  Nay, mark the answer
of God: Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
taken from thee; then whose shall those things be
which thlot hast provided?
It is ordinary, as Job noteth of worldly men,
thus to flatter themselves. They spend their days
in wealth, and, in a moment, go down to the grave.
They spend their days in wealth: this it is that
they resolve upon, while on earth; they will be
merry, and enjoy their wealth and worldly contentmients to the height, and want for nothing:
but, in a moment, while they are in the midst of
these thoughts of raising a happiness to themselves out of their worldly estate, in the midst of
these thoughts they go down to the grave.




A FORERUNNER OF JUDGMENT.         31
So it is also in nations and states. See it in
the case of Sodom  and Gomorrah.  They were
eating and drinking, and building and planting,
and marrying and giving in marriage, till the
flood came upon the one, and fire and brimstone
upon the other; till sudden destruction came
upon both, according to my text.  See it again
in Jerusalem.  Their prophets were flattering
them, and crying, Peace, peace.  According to
the word of Jeremiah the prophet, —They  ave
healed the hurt of the dauylhter of my people
slightly, saying, Peace, peace; where there is no
peace. TNay, they were not at all ashamed, neither
could they blush: therefore they sh fafall amony
them that fall: at the time e  that I visit them tey
shall be cast down, saith the Lord.  Mark the
prophet's cry,-Peace.  It had been well done
of the prophets, to cry peace to those Israelites
that, in truth, were at peace with God; but they
cry peace to them, to whom there was no peace.
What then?  did the people reform? did this
make those that, before, were rebellious against
God, come in, and accept of the conditions of
peace, and forsake their sins, and turn to God?
No such matter: nay, though their sins were
reproved, by Jeremiah and by other faithful prophets, yet they were not ashamed: though they
had committed abomination, yet they could not
blush: they stood it out; they remained in their
impenitency.  Well, what of this? therefore,
saith the Lord, they shall be cast down, they shall
cease to be a people.




32             CARNAL SECURITY
See it also in Babylon. The Lord observeth
her boasting. 1 am, saith she, and none else beside me.  I shall not sit as a widow, neither
shall I know the loss of children. But mark what
God saith: Hear now this, thou that art given
to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly; these two
things shall come upon thee in a moment, in one
day,-the loss of children, and widozwhood.  All
thy props, all thy stays, shall be taken from thee;
yea, and that in one day, in a moment, when
thou least thinkest of it; suddenly thou shalt be
husbandless and childless.
Nay, this is that which the Lord speaks of
Romish Babylon.  She had heard of the pride
and boasting of old Babylon, and she would fain
be like it.  I sit as a queen, saith she, too, and
am  no widow, and shall see no sorrow.  She
stands upon her outward hope, and pomp, and
glory, as worldly-minded men do, specially when
they come to greatness and eminence.  Well,
what will the Lord do?   Therefore shall her
plagues come in one day; death, and mourning,
and famine; and she shall be utterly burnt with
fire, for strong is the Lord God who juzdeth iher.
Thou sayest, I sit as a lady; I shall see no
change.  Well, saith the Lord, thou shalt indeed
be famous for something,-even for such judgments as shall fall upon thee, above all other
places: there shall be famine, and death, and
burning.  And this shall happen to her, when
all outward means, that should bring it to pass,
seem to fail.  When this Babylon shall seem to




PROCEEDETH FROM INFIDELITY.        33
advance herself above all other churches, when
there is nothing but strength and might on her
side, then shall God do it; for strong is the Lord
that judgeth her.
God shall deliver his Church and people from
the adverse party, when it seemeth to thrive most
against them; when men are taken off from selfconfidence; when they are in fear, and weakness,
and have none to fix their eyes on but God, then
will God do this for his Church.  He saith
plainly, that Babylon shall be burnt with fire;
and that at a time when it shall plainly appear to
be impossible, except He put his strength to the
work.  Thus, ye see, the security of a people or
nation is an infallible sign of judgment about to
fall upon it.
And it must be so, and there is great reason
for it: if we consider either the causes of security,
whence it cometh; or the concomitants that accompany it; or the fruit and events of it; it
must be, that great judgments must befall men
and places, when they are under this carnal
security.
First, look to the causes.  Whence is it,
that men that are not at peace with God, yet
flatter themselves that they shall do well?  It
proceedeth from that unbelief and infidelity that
is in the hearts of men: therefore they flatter
themselves, and pride themselves, in things that
will not hold them up in the en(l. I say, infdelity
is the cause that men are so secure.
Did men believe the word of God, that every
D




34           CARNAL SECURITY:
threatening that goeth out of the mouth of God,
against any particular sin, should certainly fall
upon the head of the sinner, durst they go on in
a course of sinning against God?  Durst they
add drunkenness to lust  one wickedness to
another?  No, certainly.  In that measure a
man hath faith; in that measure he feareth God,
and his judgments that he hath threatened.
See it in Noah: By faith Noah, being warned
of God, moved with fear, prepared an ark.  He
believed the word of God was faithful, that had
threatened a judgment upon the world:  he
believed the word of God that commanded him
to provide an ark, for the safety of himself and
his house, and therefore he feared the deluge to
come, and prepared an ark.
So, likewise, Josiah, when he read the book
of the law, and saw what was threatened against
the sins of the people, his heart melted within
him.  And why?  Because he believed that this
was the word of God; and he believed that God
would be as true as his word: therefore, his
heart melted within him at the sight of those
sins, wherein the people had continued so long a
time.  Nay, it is made a description of a believer, that he trembleth at God's word.
On the other hand, what is the reason why
infidelity doth presently bring judgments upon
men?  The cause is apparent.  Infidelity draweth men from God; an unbelieving heart departs
from the living God; and when a man departs
from God's presence, God pursueth him with his




ITS CONCOMITANTS.             35
judgments.  All the judgments of God are upon
that place where God's presence, in his graces,
is not.  If I go, saith David, to the uttermost
parts of the earth, thou art there: if I go down
into the deep, thou art there: and how?  Not
only as an observer, but as a punisher,-an
avenger to pursue and to execute judgment,
when men flee from  God.  Now unbelief is a
drawing of the soul from God to the creature;
therefore it provokes God: it sets up an idol in
the heart of man, and idolatry exceedingly pro,
vokes God; and, therefore, he bringeth judgments upon it.
Beside that, mark the threatening of the word
against this: — iThen a man heareth the words of
this curse, and blesseth himself, and saith, I shall
have peace, though I walk in the imcaination of
mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the Lord
will not spare that man; but then the anger of the
Lord, and his jealousy, shall smoke ayainst that
man; and all the curses that are written in this
book shall lie upon him.  When shall that be?
When is it that the wrath of God shall smoke?
At that very time and instant when he flattereth
himself, with his vain conceits, that he shall have
peace, though God threaten judgments,-then the
wrath of God shall fall upon him.
You see, then, it must needs be a grievous
forerunner of a judgment upon a place or city,
or people or nation, when they remain impenitent in their sins, and yet cry, Peace.
Look, in the second place, to the concomitants;
and it will also appear from them, that security in




36            CARNAL SECURITY:
men's hearts must, of necessity, bring a judgment
upon a land.  For, what is it that accompanieth
this carnal security, but a disrespect of God in
all his attributes?  When a man heareth the
word and the judgments of the law, warning him
to take heed of wrath, and the Gospel alluring
him to repent, and is nothing moved, but still
flattereth himself, and goeth on in his sinful
course, this is a slighting and despising of God
himself. God's power, wisdom, justice, truth, all
are despised. Yea, and his mercy, and patience,
and long-suffering are especially slighted, when a
man hardeneth himself in sin by a feeling of
security.
Wherefore do men shut their ears against all
exhortation to repentance, but because they presume  upon  the continuance of God's longsuffering towards them?  Mark how the Lord
takes notice of this: the forbearance and longsuffering, the goodness and mercy of God, should
lead thee to repentance; and therefore God hath
forborne, all this time, that he might bring thee
to repent; but, if thou wilt not repent, then,after tliy hardness and impenitent heart thou
treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath.
Thy daily going on in sin, and despising the
long-suffering and patience of God, doth but add
wrath to the day of the revelation of the righteous
judgment of God.
So it is, likewise, when God warneth a man
by his patience towards others.  We see God
hath been merciful to many sinners, and this
often hardeneth us in security.  Why may He




ITS CONSEQUENCES.             37
not be merciful to me, too?  He gave them repentance, after many sins committed; why may
He not do so to me?
Mark what Solomon saith;-Because sentence
against an evil-doer is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in
them to do evil.  This they presume upon-this
they venture upon: God hath been thus to
others-patient and  long-suffering-and  why
may He not be so to them?  Yet surely I know,
saith Solomon, it shall not be well with the wicked,
neither shall he prolong his days.  Why?  Because he feareth not before God.  They are not
awakened by the example of his judgment on
others; they are not allured by his patience and
long-suffering; it doth not make them  to fear
Him, therefore it shall not go well with them in
the end.
Thirdly, look to the end: What is the consequence of this carnal security?  What follows
upon it?  Where there is carnal security, there
must, of necessity, be an increase of sin, and,
consequently, a hastening of judgment; for the
more sin hasteneth to ripeness, the more judgment also hasteneth upon the sinner.  God hath
set unto particular men a certain limit or stint,
and it is not known to them what that stint is:
The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
They were a sinful people all that time; but, the
nearer they came to the fulness, and stint, and
limitation, that God intended to be the immediate forerunner of the judgment, the faster




38             CARNAL SECURITY
judgment hastened upon them. So, for particular
persons, there is a certain stint limited.  Let
every man look to it.  The adding of one sin
more may be thy uttermost stint, the filling up
of the measure of thine iniquity, that shall bring
the stroke of judgment and destruction upon thee.
Thus, you have seen the reason and the truth
of this assertion, that when kingdoms, or states,
or men, running a course of sin or impenitency,
cry peace to themselves, then judgment and destruction is coming upon them.  Let us now
come to make some use of it.  What doth this
teach us to think of ourselves-of the estate of
this land wherein we live-of these times wherein
we are fallen?
What can we expect, when we consider to what
a height of sin we are come, how impenitent men
are, how obstinate, and hard-hearted, and stiffnecked against the voice of God in the Gospel,
but-destruction to come upon us?
If we look upon the sins of men, we may
perceive a general ripeness for judgment. When
the sins of the Amorites were full, judgment
came upon them.  How near the sins of this
land are come to that fulness, we know not,-we
have cause to fear. We see, in other countries,
the shaking of the sword over us;* it hath not
yet awakened us to fear God.  At home, we
have had the voice of the prophets, the ministers,
crying unto us from day to day, to return, lest
* See Note. p. 41.




OF THE PRESENT TIMES.          39
destruction come upon us; but it hath not
brought us to turn again from  our sins.  We
have seen the mercies of God upon particular
persons and families; but it hath not awakened
men to walk faithfully in their places.  We see
no reformation; there is rather an increase of sin.
And what can we expect is yet wanting, but one
sin? and, when that is come, then cometh sudden
destruction.  What is that sin?  Security.
And is not security already beginirg to prevail amongst us very generally?  May not the
angel of the Lord return that answer, as he did in
Zephaniah, All the world is at rest?  Go into
the streets, the houses, the shops of men: every
man is at rest: no man is troubled about his
estate, nor affected with God's displeasure, either
against himself or the land we live in. See, is
not the land as secure as was Laish, or worse?
They were secure, because they did not hear of
the danger-of the purpose of the Danites against
them; therefore their security was not altogether
so culpable and blameworthy.  But I will tell
you what our security is: nay, the Holy Ghost
hath told us to our hands, and that judgment that
is threatened against a man that goeth on in sin,
seems to be a judgment executed against us at
this time:-Thou shalt be as he that lieth down in
the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the
top of a mast.  They have stricken me, shalt thou
say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and
Ifelt it not. Is it not thus with us, in these dead
and secure times that we live in? And shall we say




40            SIGNS OF SECURITY.
that we are not asleep? Hath not the Lord sent
the destroying angel among us, that hath smitten
thousands in our streets? * And yet we have not
felt it. Shall we say that we are not in danger?
We are as a man that sleepeth on the top of a
mast at sea.  As a man in the midst of the
waves, in a dead sleep, like to one drunken; we
feel nothing, we are not aware of our danger.
Truly we have little cause to be secure; we have
little cause to flatter ourselves with vain conceits
of peace and continuance of prosperity, if we look
well about us.  Where is any man that takes
occasion, by what he hears abroad, or sees at
home, to enter into the reformation of his own
house, of his own heart? It may be some men
will say: This is an unjust charge that you make
against us.  We are not so secure as you speak
of: you shall scarce come to any man's table,
but they will be talking of the judgments that
are stirring: you shall scarce meet a man in the
streets, but he will leave other occasions, and tell
you how ill it goes with the churches beyond the
seas: you shall scarce meet with one in the field
but all the time is taken up with discourse of the
evils at home, or troubles abroad; and is this a
sign of security?
Alas, beloved, this is to be asleep in the midst
of the waves.  Every man is in the midst of
danger, and yet he is secure.
How shall that appear?
* Allusion is here made to the plague of the year 1625,
when 35,417 persons died in London alone.




SIGNS OF SECURITY.                41
I will prove it by demonstrations and signs
that may convince you, before the Lord, that we
do indeed add this to the rest of our offences;
that, in the midst of our sins and impenitency,
we are secure; and, therefore, that destruction is
coming upon us.
The first sign  shall be this.  When  men
profit not by the judgments of God.  Certainly
it is an evident sign of a deep sleep in sin, when
neither the afflictions that are upon others, nor
yet those which are upon ourselves, do any good
to us.
Look how  God hath smitten others.  Hath
he awakened us?  You will say that that child
is bold and secure who seeth his brother beaten
before his eyes, and yet goeth on in the same
fault.  You will say that that is a secure malefactor that seeth such a person executed, before
his face, for a theft, and yet goeth on in the same
felony.  And must we not say that we are a
secure generation, when we can see our brethren,
in other countries, how they have suffered,* and
yet go on in those very sins for which we think
* The preacher here alludes to the Protestant Church
in Germany, which had suffered severely under the Emperor
Ferdinand II., a zealous Romanist; and which was only
preserved from total annihilation by the intervention, under
God's providence, of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden.
Shortly before the date of this sermon, James I. had
sent a feeble armament in aid of the Protestant Elector
Palatine; and it was the refusal of adequate supplies for
this enterprise that caused the first quarrel between his
successor, Charles, and his parliament.




42           SIGNS OF SECURITY.
the hand of God is upon them?  We can talk of
their sins, of their unrighteousness, and injustice.
We can talk of their neglect of the Lord's day,
and other holy duties; and for these, we judge
them smitten of God.  How is it then that we,
ourselves, are like them? How is it that we go
on in unrighteousness, in profaning the Lord's
day, in neglecting the house of God? Have they
found such sweetness in these sins that we walk
on in the same?  Is it a pleasant and comfortable thing, to be driven from God's house,
and from our own houses, and to be a reproach
to all the world?  If we think that the hand of
God is upon them for these sins, how is it that
we are not awakened? I remember Daniel, in his
prophecy, taxeth Belshazzar for this:-Though
thou knewest how the hand of God was upon thy
father for this and this, yet thou hast done the
like, and hast not h/mbled thine heart.  So may
I say:-You have known what God hath done to
your brethren in other countries: yet you do
still the same, yourselves, for the which they have
been punished.  Is not this security?
Look again, and we shall see also a general
neglect of those judgments of God, which have
been upon ourselves.  Hath not God smitten
this land-this city especially-with the pestilence?  And may we not say, we have been
smitten, and yet have not felt it?  Is not this
security and a dead sleep?  Look upon yourselves, upon your houses, upon your dealings,
your company, your conversations. See if there




SIGNS OF SECURITY.          4 3
be any reformation, since there was such a mortal calamity as drove you from  the city, and
frighted you from your own houses, and from the
house of God.  Well, these are fearful presages,
that, when former judgments prevail not, worse
are coming. I have given you cleanness of teeth,
and want of bread in all your places, saith God;
yet have ye not returned unto me.  What then?
I have smitten you with blasting and mildew, yet
have ye not returned unto me.  What then?
I have sent among you the pestilence, after the
manner of Egypt, yet have ye not returned cunto
me.  And what then?  Therefore, thus will I do
unto thee, 0 Israel; and because I will do this
unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, 0 Israel.
As if he should say: —I have tried you, and
found you obstinate, and rebellious: and since
you will stand out against me, notwithstanding
the judgments executed upon others, and afflictions upon yourselves, see if you can stand out
against my last stroke! You have escaped some
lesser judgments upon your own bodies: you
have escaped the pestilence already; but you
shall find it a hard task, when God biddeth battle, to escape his last stroke, if you will not now
be reconciled and come in and seek his face.
This is the first demonstration, whereby it appears that we are sinfully secure; which is a
forerunner of judgment, because we are not
awakened by the judgments of God upon ourselves and others.
Secondly, another sign is this: the contempt




44           SIGNS OF SECURITY.
of God's ordinances, the slighting of the prophets.  This is an evident proof that we are
under this carnal security of which I now speak.
Mark how  the Lord describeth a people
whom  he meant to destroy.  They refused to
hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.  Yea,
they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest
they should hear the law, and the words which the
Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the
former prophets: therefore, came a great wrath
from the Lord of Hosts. A great wrath,-what is
that?  Therefore it is come to pass, that as he
cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and
I would not hear, saith the Lord of Hosts.
Beloved, little do you know what time and
ways God hath to make you cry and roar, in
the anguish of your hearts, because of judgments
and afflictions, if you will not hear, now that
God striveth with you, and crieth unto you, with
the voice of his Spirit, in his prophets, from day
to day.  When men will not hear God speaking
to them in his word, it is always a forerunner of
judgment.  In the sixth of Micah, God challengeth his people, and telleth them that he hath
used many means for their reclaiming, but nothing would do them good: Well now, saith he,
Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. As if
he should say, There is no more dealing with you
by word; but I must come with the rod, and
with judgment.  Is it not thus with us at this
day?  May not the Lord say of us, as he did of




SIGNS OF SECURITY.           45
the people in the time of Jeremiah, —They have
forsaken the law which I set before them, and have
not obeyed my voice, nor walked therein; and then,
what follows — Therefore, tAus saith the Lord of
Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed
them, even this people, with wormwood, and give
them water of gall to drink: and I will send a
sword after them till I have consumed them.
Do not many cry out now, as they did of old,
What is the burden of the Zord?  Where is it
that the ministers have not been threatening
judgment, and telling you that God is coming
out to be avenged upon a sinful nation? Have
they not been crying out thus, this seven, ten,
twenty years; Where is that burthen of the
Lord?  Well, you shall find what it is, when
the day of the Lord cometh, a day of blackness and terror: it hasteneth; and this very
security is an evident sign thereof.  Even as
in the days of Noah, that preacher of righteousness, and in the days of Lot, they would not
believe their words, but they seemed unto them
as if they mocked: and then came the judgment
of the Lord upon them.
If this be not the estate of the land at this
day, what mean the complaints, the heaviness of
the spirits of the prophets? what mean their
tears, and cries, and prayers, because of the
obstinacy and hard-heartedness of the people,
that will not be drawn from their sins by any
means?  When all this crying and calling will
not awaken, this is a second sign that we are
in a deep sleep of security.




46            SIGNS Or SECURITY.
Thirdly, another evidence is, the vain confidence of this land.  It is a sign of carnal security, that we are all in a dead sleep, when we
have such idle confidence, and vain dreams, that
delude and deceive men.
What do men rest on to secure and persuade
themselves of immunity from wrath? Certainly
this; that we  have the ordinances of God
amongst us: —Oh, the temple of the Lord, the
temple of the Lord!
Alas! had not the people of Israel the ark?
and yet the Philistines took the ark, and slew
the sons of Eli. Had they not the temple? and
yet the Lord sendeth them to Shiloh for an example: —  will do to this house, which is called
by my name, wherein you trust, as I have done to
Shiloh: that is, I will utterly destroy it; there
shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall
not be 1trown down!  Had not the churches of
Asia the golden candlestick? and yet they are
now tributary to the Turk. The ordinances of
God, beloved, are means to increase and hasten
a judgment, when we shut our eyes and will not
open them, but choose to walk in darkness.
Oh, but you may cry, there were never so
many preachers before, nor so many means:
there seems to be a new spring of the Gospel:
there are men enough that come daily, furnished for the ministry, and are zealous, and forward, and powerful prophets, and the like; and
this is a sign that much good is intended towards
us, and that no judgment shall come.
But do we not read, that immediately before




SIGNS OF SECURITY.           47
the seventy years' captivity  there were more
prophets than in many years before?  Why
should we rest in such things as these?
But, nevertheless, we have many good people,
that are full of prayers, and tears, and they shall
deliver the land.
It is true there are many, blessed be God,
and we have cause to wish that there were many
more; and to say, as Moses said to Joshua, when
he would have had him forbid Eldad and Medad,
that prophesied in the camp of the Israelites,
Would God that all the Lord's people were propphets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit
upon them!  So we, of such godly men that
walk with an upright heart, Would God that
there were many such! But yet, are not these as
lilies among thorns; a few good amongst many
bad? are not these the objects of reproach and
contempt amongst an unrighteous generation,
that are cried down most by the world, that are
most opposed and injured by all men? Are not
these they that support the land by their prayers,
and hold up all by their standing in the gap?
May we not rather fear, that God will avenge the
quarrel of his servants upon an ungracious and
ungrateful people, amongst whom they live?
What shall we speak of other things?  Did
not Bozrah boast herself of her situation, that she
dwelt in the clefts of the rock? Saith God to
her, Thou that holdest the heyight of the hill,
though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as
the eagle, I will bring thee down from  thence.




48            SIGNS OF SECURITY.
It is idle talking, that our island is situate in the
sea, and well protected; judgment can leap over
the sea, as the pestilence hath done already: this
is a vain thing; and yet, if you hearken to the
discourse of most men, you shall see that it is
this that keeps them secure.
What mean these idle dreams and vain conceits, that when we go on in an unreformed
condition, and in a course of sin and impenitency,
yet we fear nothing, because we have the ministers, and the ordinances, and the people of God
amongst us; because we are convenient for situation, and such-like things!  These are vain
things: they will do us no good at that time;
and, for the present, they show our security, our
horrible security.
Fourth/ly, take another evidence; and that is,
the abounding of the sins of the land. Were it
possible that, at such a time as this, of shaking
the rod, of unsheathing the sword over us, when
judgments are upon the nation, that there should
be such abundance of sin in all places, if men
were not in a deep sleep? How doth drunkenness stagger and reel in every street!  How
doth pride vaunt and boast itself in every church
and assembly, though it be cried down never so
much! Alas, beloved, are these times to pride
ourselves in vanity?  Are these times to run
after the sensual and sinful courses of an ungodly
generation?  These are times when God calleth
for fasting and brokenness of heart.  Put off thy
ornaments from thee, saith God, that I may know




SIGNS OF SECURITY.           49
what to do unto thee.  Men generally do so
abound in wickedness and ungodliness, that we
may rather conclude, as it is in the Revelation,
that the time is now come too near.  It is evident and apparent, that sin is increased since the
sickness: it is apparent that our sins are aggravated, though they are daily cried down. And
now, at this time, as if we would defy God to his
face, and call upon him to hasten his judgment
upon our land, upon our families and persons,
every one strives, as it were, who shall outdare
him most in our excesses, in our impenitency, in
hardening ourselves in a course of sin.  These
things convince us of our security.
There are many more that might be named, if
the time would permit. But put these together,
and they may show us our wretchedness.  When
we consider how little we have profited by judgments, how little we have profited by the ordinances, how full of vain confidence and idle dreams
we are,-how, notwithstanding  all these, we
still abound in wickedness, and there is no reformation of our hearts and lives; what may we
not conclude against ourselves?
If ever men were drowned in a drunken
security, we, of all people under heaven, are so at
this time.  For, of all people, we are in a manner the last.  God hath spared us to the last.
We have had warning by judgments inflicted
upon others, for many years together.  It hath
come nearer to us by degrees.  It began afar off,
in Bohemia, and then in the Palatinate, and in
E




50        MOTIVES TO WATCHFULNESS.
Germany.  The Lord would have us see how he
cometh to us by degrees, by steps, that at the
last he may win us to repentance. But where
is the man that yet gets out of the bed of security,
that cometh out of his sleep, to meet the Lord;
that comes with a broken heart to beg for forgiveness of his sins past, and to seek for mercy
for the time to come?
Well, now, since it is so, that we are convinced by these signs that we are in a carnal
and sinful security, we see (so many of us, at
least, as are children of the light and of the day)
what cause we have to be awakened, and to do
that for others which they will not do for themselves; to be more earnest in prayer, more frequent in humbling our souls for our sins and
theirs, that God may lay aside and cast away his
judgments and displeasure, that either are to be
feared, or else already lie upon us.
Is it not a fearful thing, that when the lion
roareth, the beasts of the forest tremble; yet the
God of heaven roareth against the world at this
day, and the proud hearts of men do not tremble
before him?  Shall the beasts of the forest be
afraid of the lion, more than we poor worms of
the earth, of the mighty God of earth and heaven?
But this is the horrible atheism and infidelity
that is in the hearts of men,-they believe not
God's power and justice, nor his threatenings.
I beseech you let every man be exhorted to
stir up his soul to this business; to awaken himself in his own particular person. Consider that




MOTIVES TO WATCHFULNESS.         51
there are others that are awake, that may bring
you sorrow enough: be you awakened to prevent
those miseries.  Satan is awake to tempt you.
Your adversary, the devil, goeth about, seeking
whom he may devour. Satan is busy and watching to make you his prey; watch you therefore,
and pray that you enter not into temptation.
Your own corruptions are always awake.
The concupiscence and depraved disposition of
the soul is awake still, to further every evil motion, to draw  you aside by its temptations.
Therefore saith the apostle, I beseech you, as
strangers and pilrrims, abstain from feshly lusts,
which war against the soul.  Do as men in war,
when they know that they have a waking enemy
against them: be sure to keep your watch. Beloved, you cannot but know that your corruptions
are always awake; you may perceive it even
when you sleep, in your dreams: take heed that
you be not sound in a spiritual sleep, that corruption prevail not over you.
Besides these, the enemies of the church are
awake; Scribes and Pharisees, men who teach
their own inventions, who bring in their vain
superstitions and doctrines of Antichrist, are
awake to turn men from the faith, to prevent the
faith of many.  Oh then, be you awake, that
you may be at peace with the Lord of Hosts, the
God of armies, that laugheth the devices of the
ungodly to scorn, and hath all power in his hand
to keep you safe.
Again, consider the evil of this security you




5h2        HELPS AGAINST SECURITY.
are in, when you cry Peace, peace, to yourselves,
in the midst of God's displeasure.  It is an evil
disease, a spiritual lethargy; it takes the senses
from the soul, and not only overcometh it, but
preventeth men from seeking a cure.
And, as it is an evil disease, so it causeth
much evil.  It is that which driveth away the
Spirit of God.  It is the counsel of the Apostle,
-Grieve not the Spirit: quench not the Spirit.
When we neglect the motions of the Spirit, the
Spirit withdraweth itself.  Doth not your own
experience tell you this? Consider a little, what
motions you have had; how God, by the voice
of your conscience, and sometimes by secret incitements, as it were a spur upon your hearts,
hath moved you to duty, and to leave your sins.
How have these moved you?  You have had
purposes, it may be, to perform those duties, to
walk in the ways of God, to please him  in all
things: the neglect of those purposes hath driven
away the Spirit; and  it may be, God now
leaveth you to final hardness.
Again, it letteth il Satan.  Wihen the unclean
spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through
dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none; then,
he saith, I will return unto my house whence I
came out.  Then yoeth he, and tacketh with him
seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, and
they enter in and dwell there.
Alas! how many men there are that, for a
fit, have altered their course, and have thought to
become new men, yet rushing upon former occa



HELPS AGAINST SECURITY.          53
sions and temptations to sin, they have grown
secure and careless, and now Satan hath gotten
stronger hold of them, with seven spirits worse.
How  then shall we escape from  this mischievous security?  How shall we come to be
awakened?  I will tell you some helps for this.
First, I will propound sobriety as a main
help.  Would you be watchful, and kept from
spiritual slumber,-take heed that you keep yourselves sober. I speak not of sobriety as it is opposed
to drunkenness, though that is one thing; Be
not illed with wine, wherein is excess, but befilled
with the Holy Ghost.  As if he should sayYou cannot be filled with the Holy Ghost and
with excess of wine. Persons that take liberty in
excessive drinking, certainly they are destitute of
the Holy Ghost, and so of life and salvation.
But I mean a further sobriety: that is, as it is
opposed to worldly-mindedness. Take heed that
you plunge not yourselves too much in the world
and worldly pleasures and cares: for these are
against the rule of sobriety. Be sober in your
diet, in your apparel, in your gaining, in your
spending, in your mirth, in your company, in
every thing: that is, moderate yourselves and
your affections in these things. A man may soon
grow to such a drunkenness, by excess in worldly
affections, that he may be in a dead sleep, neglecting God's judgments and his own estate; as
we see men that plunge themselves overmuch in
worldly business do. It takes away the thoughts
of those things that concern our spiritual good.




54         HELPS AGAINST SECURITY.
I say not that you should leave off the business of the world; for every man must continue
in the calling that God hath set him: but I say,
moderate your affections to the things of the
world. Do worldly business with heavenly minds,
in obedience to God: do them  with waking
hearts, to repent for the sins of your callings, and
to avoid them for the future.  And what I say
of labouring in your callings, I say of pleasures,
and of everything else: we should be watchful
and sober.  As St. Peter saith, Be sober, and
watch.
Secondly, if you would be free from security,
which is a forerunner of judgment, be sure to
keep yourselves in exercise. A man that would
keep himself awake must busy himself in some
exercise or employment. What exercise should a
Christian use?  The exercise of grace, and the
duties of obedience. Be sure to keep yourselves
in the exercise of all the advantages that God
giveth you in your lives, for the employment of
your graces. In difficulties and straits, exercise
your faith. In provocations to anger and discontent, exercise meekness.  In crosses and troubles
and afflictions, exercise patience. In the miseries
and wants of others, whether spiritual or corporal, exercise mercy.
And what I say concerning grace, I say concerning duty.  Keep yourselves in the exercise
of prayer and reading and meditation and conference; some one thing or other, some holy
employment or other, that may keep the soul




HELPS AGAINST SECURITY.          55
waking. For, I tell you, you shall find that, whensoever you let fall spiritual exercise, you will, at
that very instant, fall into carnal security in some
kind or other.
Thirdly, would you keep yourselves from this
dead sleep of security, then keep your spirits in
fear. Sorrow and grief make a man heavy; but
fear keeps a man waking.  When Jacob feared
Esau, he kept a watch that night.  Samson
feared the Philistines, and it wakened him out
of his sleep.  Fear makes a man watchful.  In
that measure that the fear of God prevaileth,
security is expelled. Keep fear, therefore. Hapw y
is the man that feareth alway: bu t he that hardeneth  i8s heart shall fall into nischief.  Mark
how he opposeth the hardening of a man's self,
in carnal security, to the fear of God.  Keep
your heart in a constant fear.  Reason thus;How can I do this yreat wickedness and sin against
God? Will not God be offended and displeased?
Shall I go on in this vanity?  Would I have the
judgment of God find me in this company?
Would I have it seize upon me in this employment, in this business?  Fear, lest God should
strike thee in such an act, lest death should
seize upon thee in such a place, and let that
make thee keep a constant watch against the
snares that are in those places.
Fourthly: Keep good company. Company,
you know, is a good means to keep men awake.
Two are better than one; and woe to him that is
alone, saith Solomon.  I say good company; for




56        HELPS AGAINST SECURITY.
there is a company that will infect you. Make
no friendship with an angry mart, lest thou learn
his ways, and get a snare unto thy soel.  So keep
not company with drunken and swearing persons: these are the devil's instruments to keep a
man in carnal security. No; keep company with
those that have a charge given them, to exhort
one another daily, to provoke unto love and to
good works.  Keep company with the saints, and
make use of all opportunities to provoke others to
good works.  That is the fourth help.
ifthly: Keep God always in your sight. It
is a good way, for a man that would keep himself
awake, to fix his eye upon some object. Fix your
eye upon this main object, God; remember that
his eye is always fixed on you.  Am I a God at
hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar of? Do
not Ifill heaven and earth?  Can a man hide
himself from God in any secret place?  Think,
in thy chamber, in thy parlour, in thy shop, in
thy house, in thy friend's house, in the street,
in the church, in whatsoever place thou art, that
there God is also.
If a man had but always some one before
him as a witness, he would not venture upon
many things that he now doth.  If a malefactor
should see the judge before him; if the child had
always his father's eye upon him, or the servant
had always his master sitting about him and
above him, he would serve him  busily, at the
least with eye-service. Now set yourselves in
the sight of God, that sees you in the dark, hears




HELPS AGAINST SECURITY,        57
you in your most secret whisperings, knows
every action of your life and every thought of
your heart. This will be a means to keep you
from security.
I will add but one more help: consider thy
latter end. The night is now coming upon us.
If we were told, any of us,-T/his night thy soul
shall be required of thee, I think there is none
that heareth me this day, but he would certainly
keep waking this night.  But it is not bodily
waking we plead for, but spiritual waking,a waking from  sin —a waking to repentance.
And we tell you that death is now at the door,
ready to seize upon you.  We speak not only to
you that are aged, that are at the brink of the
grave; but also to you that are young. Death
may seize upon you and strike you this night:
be awakened now to repentance.  I remember
what God said to the Church of Sardis:-Be
watchful, and strengthen the things that remain.
That church was asleep, as many of us are, at
this day.  God cometh to awaken you now, as
he did them, that that little goodness you have
left, may be renewed and confirmed. You that
are quite out of the way of grace, and go on in a
course of sin, sit now down and humble your
souls: get into a secret corner, wherein you may
confess those many provocations whereby you
have provoked God all your days, and resolve to
amend, if the Lord spare you. Begin now; delay
it no longer; it may be the last night; take this
warning now; be awakened to repentance.




58        HELPS AGAINST SECURITY.
It is appointed unto all men, once to die; and
after that the judgyment.  The judgment of every
man is immediately after death; I do not mean
in regard of time, but in effect. Man falls asleep
in death,, and wakes to judgment.  So, I say,
this may be the night of thy death, and the
morning may be the day of thy particular judgment.  Judge yourselves now, that ye be not
judged of the Lord.  Bring yourselves, as prisoners, before the bar: arraign yourselves, as
malefactors, before the judge; bring out the particular bills of indictment against yourselves,
whereby ye have provoked God: agree with thine
adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with
him.  There is yet mercy; the day of grace, and
opportunity of repentance and turning unto God,
yet lasteth: therefore do it now. You know not
what a short time you have, whether you be
young or old; you know not what sickness you
nay have; you may be deprived of your reason,
and senses, and never regain them  until the
morning of your judgment: therefore now, while
health and reason and sense are afforded, take
time, and make use of time, lest your security
make good this text upon you:-  hLen they shall
say, Peace and safey, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with
child; and they shall not escape.




SERMON  I11l
FAITH'S TRIUMPH
OVER
THE  GREATEST TRIALS.
HEB. XI. 17.
4 BY FAITH ABRAHAM, WHEN HE WAS TRIED, OFFERED UP
ISAAC; AND HE THAT HAD RECEIVED THE PROMISES,
OFFERED UP HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON."
THIS chapter speaketl in commendation of the
faith of many of the Patriarchs; and Abraham is
brought in among the rest.  There are two things
observable, which Abraham's faith strengthened
him to do: one was to give up his country; the
other was to give up his son.
By faithi Abraham, when he was called of God
to go out into a place which he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not
knowing whither he went.  To leave our friends
and our parents, to take our journey we know
not whither, to live among we know not whom,
to part with good land for a few good words,
this were not an easy thing: sense derides it;
reason condemns it; but faith can see more in
God's promises than sense can understand; and




60          DIVISION OF THE TEXT.
Abraham will leave his country, when God calls
him.
The second thing he is to part with is, his
son-his only son.  He must sail against wind
and tide: he must overcome, not only the arguments of sense and reason, but also the pleadings
of natural affection.  God had given Abraham a
son in his old age,-the child of many prayers,
and an heir of life, according to the promise:
and now God suddenly calls upon Abraham  to
give back his son-his very son Isaac.
Now, what doth Abraham  do?  Doth he
expostulate  with  God?  Doth  he murmur?
Doth he repine?   No, he offered up  Isaac.
As if he had said, Lord, what is it that thou
callest for? Is it for my only son Isaac, the son
of my love, the son of thy promise, the son of my
age?  Verily Lord, thou shalt have him; it is
true I love him well, but I love thee better: I
got him by believing, and I shall never lose him
by obeying: though I am  a father, yet Lord,
thou art a God: without thee, he had never been
born; and though I kill him, thou canst quicken
and raise him  again.  I shall never lose my
Isaac, though I offer up my son; for thou hast
said, In Isaac shall thZy seed be called.
Now the parts of these words are two:first, we have Abraham's great trial; and then,
we have his triumph.  Abraham was tried, when
God commanded him  to offer up his son: he
triumphed, when by faith he obeyed the command.  From these two parts I shall collect two




STRONG TRIALS BEFALL STRONG CHRISTIANS. 61
propositions. The first is this:-that strong and
great trials may befall strong and great Christians.
And the second is this:that faith will make a
man acquit himself, even in the greatest trials.
Abraham's trial was very great.
He was to part with his only son, the child
of promise, the child whom he loved.  He was
an old man, and could not hope that another
would ever be born to him.  And not only this,
but he was to kill him, to slay him, and to offer
him  up, with his own hand: the tender father
must take away the life of his tender child. No
one could impose such a trial, but a God; and
none could answer such a trial, but an Abraham.
For the full and clear opening of this point,
I desire now to show you wherein the strength
of a trial may consist; and also, why God is
pleased to lay strong and great trials upon strong
and great Christians.
One thing that may make a trial great is the
goodness and kindness of him that deals with us;
as, when any near relation shall seem  to turn
against us: when a dear friend shall prove a
bitter enemy.  For a man to meet with trouble
and sorrow, when he expects all mercy and tenderness of love, this doth cause singular affliction.
Abraham had often heard God's voice in blessing,
but now it was to bring him sorrow and distress
too great for utterance. For a Christian to find
scorn and hard usage from the world, this is but
an ordinary thing; but when he looks to heaven,
and receives from God such frowns and rebukes




62 WHEREIN THE STRENGTH OF A TRIAL CONSISTS.
as fetch tears from his eyes and from his heart,
this is the sorest wound of all.
Again, the strength of a trial may consist in
the nearness of the object we are compelled to
lose.  For a man to lose his money is something; but to lose a child is much more. For
David to lose his servant, is not so much; but
when he loses Absalom, then he cries out, O
Absalom, my son! would God I had died for thee;
0 Absalom, my son, my son!  Yet David had
many sons; and Abraham had but one.  God is
pleased many times to try his servants, by taking
away the delight of their eyes, and the joy of
their heart, and the hope of their lives.
A trial is also the more severe as it is more
sudden.  When the prophet saw the cloud ascend out of the sea, being warned of abundance
of rain, he hastened to escape.  So, if a person
have fore-notice of a cross that will befall him, he
may be somewhat armed and prepared; he may
be able, in some measure, to bear his trial. But
Abraham had gone on hoping and delighting in
his son Isaac, until the day when God called him
suddenly to sacrifice this only child; to be, himself, the murderer of his son.
Now the reasons why God layeth such strong
trials upon  strong  Christians may be these.
First, grace will be obscure, and will scarcely
show itself, unless there be trials. To St. Paul
there was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger
of Satan, to buffet him; lest, when he was lifted
up to the third heavens, he should be exalted




FAITH ACQUITS A MAN IN GREAT TRIALS.  63
above measure.  He was oppressed with trials
and temptations, that the grace of God might the
more appear in his deliverance.  They who have
much grace, have also great conflicts: the soul is
thus kept busy, and hath little leisure for glorying or admiring its own fulness.
Again, God is wise in all his actions; and so
he proportioneth the affliction to the strength of
him who is to bear it. A little blast is enough
for a tender plant; but an oak, well grounded,
may endure the strongest winds.  A poor, weak
Christian, will be cast down by a little trial; but
one who hath enriched himself with the promises
of God, who hath had experience of his goodness,
and who standeth by faith, he can endure a hard
storm, he can bear great trials.  The more his
grace is exercised, the more he gaineth: he goeth
from strength to strength.  He can say with Job,
Thow7 iu  He slay me, yet will I trust in him: he
can go through a great fight of affliction, and his
faith will make him conquer all.
I come now to the second proposition, and
that is this:-that faith will make a man acquit
himself in the greatest trials.  Faith will enable
a man to give back his dearest comfort again to
God.  Though Isaac lie in Abraham's bosom,
though he lie at Abraham's heart, yet Abraham's
faith will take him thence, and present him to
God who gave him.  Faith can take a mercy,
and be thankful; and faith can part with a
mercy, and be content.  Paul had learned how
to abound, and how to be in want; and this




64  FAITH ACQUITS A MAN IN GREAT TRIALS.
was the lesson of faith. If God give him any
mercy, he is cheerful; if the Lord take away
any mercy, he  sits down with  contentment,
quieting his soul in patience. If God give him
any mercy, he is not swollen with pride; if God
take away any mercy, he is not cast down with
sorrow.  Lord, I am unworthy of the least of all
thy mercies, saith Faith: dost thou call for this
blessing back again? here it is, Lord, do as thou
pleasest.  Like an honest debtor, he saith, If
thou wilt spare me a little, I will thank thee;
but if thou wilt have all, here it is.
There is a double manner of acquitting ourselves: there is a yielding to necessity; and
there is a pious, cheerful, submission to God's
will.  A  man who wants a lively faith, may
acquit himself in a trial; for when he sees that
floods of tears will not help him, he resigns that
comfort, he parts with that blessing, that he can
keep no longer.  But faith presents the comfort
to God again when he calls it back: Abraham
offers up Isaac with his own hand: God, saith
he, is the Lord who gave him; and now  God
calleth for him again, and he shall have him.
Thus faith acquits the soul in great trials, and
makes a man to sit down with much patience
in great losses, to submit to God's call and to
God's appointment.
Now, the reasons why faith can thus prevail
may be these:First, Faith can exalt God's will, and submit
our wills to God. Remember this.  God is the




FAITH ACQUITS A MAN IN GREAT TRIALS.  65
author of mercy: when he will, he gives us;
and when it pleaseth him, he takes it from us.
It is well to have abundance, saith Nature; and
Sense-We cannot do without it.  No, saith
Faith, I will yield to God's will. It is good to
enjoy this, saith Sense. It is better to part with
it, saith Faith, when God calls for it.
Secondly, Faith can give God the glory of all
outward comforts.  This is a great means of
quieting our souls, to find out the right owner
of our comforts.  God is the God of our bodies,
of our souls, and of our comforts.  We are but
tenants at will; and whatsoever our outward
estate may be, faith overlooks all and submits
all to God, and receives it by God's permission,
and hears, as it were, God say-I must do what
I will with mine own.  Faith makes a man acknowledge-Nothing is mine own; my child is
not mine own; my riches are not mine own.
Faith resigns every thing as God's due: faith
renders unto God the things that are God's.
Thirdly, Faith can make the soul acquit itself
in great trials, because faith finds no loss by
submission. All our unwillingness to part with
any comfort doth arise from  infidelity.  Either
we stubbornly desire to have and hold our comfort, contrary to God's will; or else we fear
some damage will redound to ourselves, in parting
with such a blessing.  But faith sees safety only
in obeying God's command and yielding up all
into His hands, who is the father of mercy and
God of all consolation.  Thus we see Abraham,
F




66  FAITH ACQUITS A MAN IN GREAT TRIALS.
being put to it about his only son, he gives up
his child, his Isaac.  And God bestows Isaac
upon Abraham  again: nay, he gives him  a further degree of blessing, confirmed with an oath;
In blessing I will bless thee; and in multiply'in
I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven.
This is ever true: faith makes a man give back
a blessing, with this conviction,-that either
God will restore the comfort to him, or else he
will give him more, or a better, for it.
A  fourth reason why faith makes a man
acquit himself in all trials is, that faith can find
all hopes made up in God alone.  Faith doth
look upon God as a most ample and universal
good, a good that answers for all others, that
abundantly makes up all losses.  Many broken
pieces of comfort must concur here to make up
our outward good: our children, our friends, our
health, our riches, many of these are compounded
together to make up our good below: but God
is all this in himself, and much more than this, to
faith.  What is it thou findest in a husband, a
wife, a child, or a brother, that thou mayest not
see in God?  What is there in riches, that thou
mayest not have much more in God?  A friend
may counsel and direct thee, but he cannot deliver thee: a child may comfort thee, but who
can comfort thee so much as God?  Faith sees
more in God than in all outward blessings. God
and his favour, God and his gracious countenance, these alone support the Christian, these




PREPARE FOR TRIALS.            67
make up his comfort.  In the want of all things,
faith can comfort itself more abundantly in the
favour of God.
A  fifth reason why faith can make a man
triumph in great trials is, that faith knows upon
what terms we possess those outward comforts
that we are called upon to resign. We possess
them  upon moveable titles.  Here we have no
abiding city.  Our place and being here is but
for a short time: all the creature is but vanity;
it is of a shifting nature, and therefore it is said
of riches, Tiey make to themselves winys: riches
are soon gone, honour is soon gone, life is soon
gone.  All our comforts are of a changeable
nature, and that whereon we set our affection
may be taken from us in a moment.
Thus I have opened these two points. There
are now two uses that I will make of these two
propositions.
The first use is this:-since great trials may
befall Christians, then let us prepare for great
trials; forasmuch as such afflictions and crosses
may befall us.
There are two things that a man should
always provide for: one is, while we live, to provide for death: the other is, while we are in
prosperity, to provide for affliction. Our outward
condition is but a shadow; it hath a natural aptness to change.  Man is born unto trouble, saith
Eliphaz, as the sparkcs fy upward: as if trouble
were his natural sphere, wherein he is to move.
Thou canst not assure thyself of life, no not




68          PREPARE FOR TRIALS,
for a moment, nor of any of these outward comforts. Thou mayest get assurance from God that
he will save thee; thou canst not get assurance
from him that he will never try thee. Abraham
was sorely tried, and Job, and David, and
Daniel, men greatly beloved: so mayest thou be
tried: the things nearest thy heart may be taken
from  thee in a moment.  What is life, but a
shadow?  What is honour, but a blast?  What
are the things in which we pride ourselves so
much?  They are but as Jonah's gourd, which
perished in a moment, and many times cause us
sorrow and affliction.  The loss of them is often
a greater grief than the want of them: the
staff on which we lean too strongly breaks and
pierces our hand.  What is the wise man's verdict of all things under the sun?  He concludes
they are all vanity, nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit: how little then are we to expect
from them! how needful is it that we be ready
and provided for a change!
For when these changes do befall us, when
they strip us of our usual comforts, verily we are
put to it. It is not so easy to bear the loss of a
dear friend, or to give up wealth and honour, as
it may seem.  We may be very bold  before
affliction comes, but when adversities and trials
fall upon us we are soon ready to faint. It is
with us as with a ship: when the sun doth shine,
and the seas are calm, and the wind fair, then
she goes on pleasantly in her motion; but when
the storm  cometh, what can keep her steady?




PREPARE FOR TRIALS.           69
In our easy days, in our days of peace, in our
calm estate, then we can hold our heads well
enough; but in our losses and crosses we shall
hardly bear up, unless the Lord do mightily
support us.
There are in the world some insensible persons, who are like the rock, that nothing can
break; who are so hardened, that though God
do scourge them yet they feel it not; though
God threaten them, they fear not; though God's
hand be even upon them, they regard it not. To
such persons it is all one whether God bless or
whether God curse; whether he speak by his
word or by his rod; they feel nothing, they fear
nothing.
But there is another sort of persons, who are
sensible persons; sensible of God's love, and
sensible of God's anger: they know that God is
good and wise, and that he doth not strike off
our comforts from  us but upon some special
cause. Now, say they, to stay upon God: it is
the Lord, let him do what seemeth good unto
him: God doth not deprive me of such a comfort
but he seeth it best for me.
Beloved, it were good to learn this lesson:
else it will cost thee something, in a near trial,
to acquit thyself by faith. To submit to God's
chastisement, to kiss the rod, to judge the sin,
to bend the soul, to better the life, this were an
excellent lesson for us in all our trials and
afflictions.
Secondly, since faith is that which will make




70                GET FAITH.
a man acquit himself in great trials, then get
faith, use faith.  If there were no other reason
but this-that faith is able to support us in our
days of trial and to give us comfort in our greatest sorrow, this were motive enough to make -us
labour for faith; the day of trial being so common and we apt, every moment, to fall into some
affliction.
Faith gives us comfort and assurance under
every trial: it can eye God as our God: and
though the storms be very great, yet God can
quiet them.  Faith assures the soul that God
will put an end to the trial: for though there be
changeableness in the outward condition, yet
there is safety and stability in God. Though a
man may look with a dull eye upon his loss, yet
if he can look upon God with the eye of faith
as his God, the absence of the creature cannot
so much trouble him as the presence of a great
and glorious God can comfort and support him.
Again, faith works in us submission to God's
will: it fashions the heart and the mind to the
condition; it makes us stoop to our burthen,
and that contentedly, knowing that God will not
lay more upon us than we are able to bear.
I became dumb, saith David, because thou didst it.
Zacharias was made dumb because he believed
not; but David was dumb because he believed
in God: unbelief procures dumbness as a judgment from  God; but faith makes a Christian
dumb from complaining: it quiets the soul from
murmuring against God: it doth not make a




USE FAITH.                71
person dumb so as not to pray and to praise
God, but dumb in complaint.
Moreover faith, as it is an active grace, to
enable the soul for the performance of duty, so is
it also a passive grace, to strengthen the soul to
suffer and bear affliction.  To you, saith the
Apostle, it is given, not only to believe, but also to
suffer for his name.
Faith will call in strength enough to bear
affliction. God is pleased to exercise a Christian
with great trials; but faith carries the soul along
through all. Faith bears God's trials with God's
own strength.  There is no cross nor affliction,
but faith can find support in the promise of deliverance.  Faith makes a man see the affliction,
as it were, come out of the hand of the Lordout of the hand of mercy. Faith discerneth God's
purpose of love in the chastening he inflicteth.
Faith sees all things measured out by God himself, and taketh with patience the portion allotted to him.  Faith enables a man to conquer
himself; it silenceth all murmuring and makes
the soul to bear its cross with patience.




SERMON IV.
THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME;
OR,
THE RIGHT USE OF TIME'S SHORTNESS.
1 COn. vii. 9, 30.
"BUT THIS I SAY, BRETHREN, THE TIME IS SHORT; IT REMAINETH, THAT BOTH THEY THAT HAVE WIVES BE AS
THOUGH THEY HAD NONE; AND THEY THAT WEEP, AS
THOUGH THEY WEPT NOT; AND THEY THAT REJOICE, AS
THOUGH THEY REJOICED NOT; AND THEY THAT BUY, AS
THOUGH THEY POSSESSED NOT; AND THEY THAT USE THIS
WORLD, AS NOT ABUSING IT: FOR THE FASHION OF THIS
WORLD PASSETH AWAY."
THAT I may briefly open out to you the sum of
that I have to deliver out of this scripture, I
desire you, beloved in the Lord, in few words, to
take notice of the drift and scope of the holy
Apostle in this place; and that is this. The
Corinthians, as it appeareth in the beginning of
this chapter, had written a letter to St. Paul,
wherein they did propound to him divers cases of
conscience, and did entreat him that he would
send  his judgment concerning  those points.
Some five or six, we may gather, they did write
to him  about: one was this;-Whether he




CONNEXION OF THE TEXT.          73
thought it either a lawful or a fitting thing for a
man to marry? Another was, Whether, if a man
were married, his wife and he might not separate
themselves one from  another?  A  third was,
Whether, if one of them being a believer, and
the other an infidel, it were lawful or convenient
for the believer to remain a yoke-fellow to the
infidel?  These, and divers other cases of conscience, they entreated St. Paul to resolve for
them.
Now the Apostle, in the beginning of this
chapter, writeth an answer to every one of these
questions that they propounded.  To some of
them he answereth thus: Indeed I cannot give
an absolute determination what is to be done,
but I suppose this and this is best. To another
-I advise such a thing: I cannot directly determine the will of God; but I have received mercy
to be accounted faithful; I think also that I have
the Spirit of God; and if you would know my
opinion, it is this. And so he giveth divers
doubtful answers to their questions; only he
telleth them  that which seemeth fittest for each
occasion.
When he hath done all, he cometh to this
that I have read, But this I say, brethren, &c.
As if he should say-The answers I have given
you may not be enough to resolve your doubts,
because I say only, this is my counsel, or this is
my opinion: but in this I am peremptory; that
is, that ye be mindful that the time for all these
questions is short; it remaineth that they that




74          THE APOSTLE'S PREFACE.
have wives, be as though they had none; and they
that weep, as thou/h they wept not; and they that
rejoice, as thougyh they rejoiced not.  In  this
matter I do not say-I suppose, and I think it
fit, or I give my advice, or for the present occasion it is fit to be thus; but herein I am  confident and resolute, that you should be as if not
in all things. This is the drift of the Apostle;
that he would bring in one thing wherein he is
confident, after the resolution of divers questions
wherein he could not be so confident.
So, then, the words I have read contain two
general things:
FIRST, the Apostle's preface to his exhortation:
-But this I say, brethren.
SECONDLY, the exhortation itself:-iThe time
is short, &c.
The first general thing in the words is the
Apostle's preface:-But this I say, brethren.
And in this I would note but two things:
first, how confident, and earnest, and resolute
a faithful minister will be, when he cometh to a
point that mainly concerns his people.  In all
other things the Apostle giveth them his answer,
so as it might seem he had not fully resolved
their questions. I give my advice, saith he; and
again, I suppose this. But now, when he cometh
unto the right use of the world that it be not
abused, and the thought of heaven that they
might set themselves about it, he useth no ifs
and buts; he setteth it down resolutely and positively: Brethren, this Isay; this you must do.




THE APOSTLE S PREFACE.         75
And I would note in this preface, secondly,
the appellation or title  that he  giveth  the
Corinthians,-Brethren: as if the Apostle should
say, I am putting you now upon such a duty,
that if I could not give you the term brethren, I
should hope little to prevail with you. To come
and tell a young gallant that is in the midst of
his ruffe, and his jollity, and pleasures, the fashion
of this world Opasseth away; and I would have
you use these things as if you used them not: I
know he would not receive it.  Or to come to
an old soaked worldling, whose mammon and
penny is his god, whose thoughts run altogether
upon his wealth, and to tell him that he should
use the world as if he used it not: or to come
to another that is newly married, and it may be
hath made a goddess of his yokefellow for a
while, and to tell him that he must be as if he had
no wife: I should have little hope to prevail with
these.  But you are brethren; and because
brethren, you know the good things of God, you
are acquainted with things concerning eternal
happiness: therefore, as long as I can call you
brethren, I am bold to put you upon the duty.
So, Brethren, this is my preface to you.  I
shall anon speak to a point that I shall have little
hope to prevail upon with many in the congregation.  When I come to speak of the immoderate use of the world and all the blessings
in it, it may be that both your ears will be
stopped against it. But as many of you that are
brethren, that have given up yourselves to God




76       THE APOSTLE'S EXHORTATION.
and have taken him  for your portion and his
word for your guide in all things, I hope you
will bring willing and yielding hearts to resolve
what is delivered out of the word of God, you
will embrace it and endeavour it during all the
course of your lives. And so this will suffice for
the preface.
I come now, SECONDLY, to the exhortation:
It remaineth that they that have wives be as
though they had none, &c.; wherefore? because
the time is short; that is the ground of this
exhortation. I will begin with this, and afterward proceed to the exhortation itself.
The word translated "short" signifieth in the
original, time "cut off;" and the Apostle here
alludeth, as the best expositors agree, to seafaring men that have almost done their voyage,
and begin to strike sail and to lower down the
yards, and are even putting into the harbour,
and preparing to unlade their goods.  So, saith
the apostle, the time is short. As if he should
say: —If a company that are going out on a long
voyage should strive who should be master, and
who be master's mate, and who should have this
or that office in the ship, I could not greatly
blame them. But when they are almost at home,
when they are within sight of the shore, when
they begin to strike sail and to go themselves
out of the ship, then  if they should fall a
quarrelling for places, and contend and use all
the friends and means they could make, it were
a ridiculous folly. So it is with us. Time was




GROUND OF THE EXHORTATION.          77
when the world was but beginning, and then
when a man came into it he might say, By the
course of nature, I have a matter of six or seven
or eight or nine hundred years to go on in my
pilgrimage, before it will be ended: and then
when a man might live perchance to see himself
the father of a thousand children, and might
come to people almost a whole country, then I
say, if a man should greet the world he might
be excused. But brethren, God hath so cast out
the time of our age, that as soon as we begin our
voyage we are ready to strike sail presently. We
have but a little time to continue, and much
work to be done for another life: therefore, for
us to stand striving about wives and children
and estates, to cry out concerning afflictions and
inconveniences, when we are ready to strike sail
and even to go out of the ship on to the shore,
it is a mere folly. These things are not worthy
the while: heaven is the thing we should look
after. Therefore let us be moderate in all temporal affairs.
Brethren, the serious meditation of the little
and short time that we have to remain here below, should be a great means to cut us off from
the world, and to put us upon thoughts and
actions concerning heaven. I might give you a
world of Scripture to prove this; but you have
proof enough in the text.
The time is short, saith the Apostle, the time
is contracted; you are ready to strike sail:
therefore forget the things that are behind, and




78      GROUND OF THE EXHORTATION.
look forward: set not your hearts on those things
that you are about to leave for ever.
We know  that all things that a man can
enjoy in this world, they die as soon as ever his
time is gone.  Mark it: all things here below,
let a man dote never so much upon them; let
him have wife, and children, and beauty, and
credit, and pleasures, and learning, and whatsoever else, if his glass be out, if his time be
gone, there is an end of all those to him. Now
the soul of man careth not for that happiness that
hath no continuance at all in it: yea, the rarest
things that mortal men seek, if they should know
beforehand that they should enjoy them but a
little time, the soul would not care for pitching
upon them.  If a man were offered the goodliest
woman for his wife that ever lived in this world,
and if God should send him this message,-There,
take her; I bestow her freely upon thee; but tomorrow thou shalt die: who would care for marrying?  To be a king, we know, is simply the
greatest thing that men seek after in this world;
yet, among the Grecian cities, as that of Sparta,
because one was to have the kingdom but for a
year, and then to lay down his  crown and
become a private man, all the wisest men of the
city strove not one half so much to be king
as we to get great places. Why? because they
knew that that honour was but for a year, and
that would be gone presently; therefore they
cared not for it.  So the Apostle teacheth in this
place.  Thou that hast a wife that thou lovest




C" THE TIME IS SHORT."         79
mightily, thou that hast pleasures in which thou
takest full content, why doest thou so? We are
ready to strike sail; we have but a little time to
continue.  So that, because all the blessings of
this life, let them be never so many, never so
great, yet they all die with us when our time is
ended; therefore, he that could but seriously
think that he hath but a little time to continue
below, will never let his heart be violently set
upon them.
Another reason why the meditation of the
shortness of our time should be such a marvellous means to take us off from the things of
the world, is this: that we shall find work
enough in this short time for things that more
concern us.  Now the very nature of our soul
that God hath put into us is this, that a man
cannot intend, earnestly and violently, two things
different in their nature, at the same time. Let
a man, for a certain hour, be earnestly engaged
about some business, and though there may be
a great many other things that he could find in
his heart to think upon, yet the soul intends that
one mainly and can find no time for the other.
This is our case.  We have but a little time;
but in that little time, admirable is the work we
have to do before it be spent, if we would give
a comfortable account.
What have we to do?
I tell you in a word. The main and needful
thing of all that we have to do in this little time
here allotted us is, to learn and practise how to




80      GROUND OF THE EXHORTATION.
shoot the gulf of hell,-how to make our peace
with God,-how to get his favour in Christ,how to have the corruptions of our soul cured
and healed,-how to grow up in grace, and to
get sure evidence against that day when all shall
stand naked before him, that then we may be
found in Christ.  Have I ever heard that I have
a great work to do, and that I have but a little
time to do it in? Surely then, if I think seriously
of it, I cannot find in my heart to let my soul
pitch earnestly upon the things below. Beloved,
our time here is the only time we have to make
heaven sure. It is the most precious thing that
ever we have in the world.  Now if a man have
such a precious thing, and but a little of it, will
he go and spend it for toys and baubles?
This is a thing that the Emperor Caligula is
laughed at for in all stories. There was a mighty
army provided, admirable and strange and all
trimmed; and every one expected that with it
the whole country of Britain should have been
conquered; and so it might have been. But he
employed his soldiers to gather a company of
cockle-shells and pebbles, and so sailed home.
Had not every one cause to laugh at the folly of
this emperor? Verily such a fool is every man;
and so we should acknowledge, if we would but
weigh this: —God hath given thee but thus much
time; it may be twenty years, it may be but a
day or two more: in this time, he hath furnished
thee with that which may be a means to conquer
heaven itself. Now if thou lay out this little




CC THE TIME IS SHORT."         81
only about wife or children, or to purchase a
little of the things that are below, is it not the
greatest folly that may be?
Suppose that a servant hath a great deal of
work to do, and knoweth that he must give an
account to his master thereof, and that if all
be not done that should be done, he can never
appear with comfort before his master; and he
seeth also that the sun draws low, and the day
hasteneth to an end: do you think that this
servant can find time to play?  If a man have
much to write and but a little paper to write in,
he must write small and thick and close as ever
he can. So it is with every one of us. I warrant
you there is not any soul of us, but he shall find
so many thousand things to repent of, so many
graces to obtain that he stands in need of, so
many evidences for heaven to get that yet he
hath not got sealed, so many particulars concerning a better life, that a man may wonder that
ever any one should find one half day to attend
to anything else.
Oh that we had learned this excellent lesson
that the Apostle here teacheth the Corinthians;
what wondrous happy people should we be!
You shall find evermore in the Scripture, the
Spirit of God putting the neglect that is amongst
men, and their carelessness of heaven, and all the
wickedness of their lives, upon this-the not
serious meditation of that small time they have
to continue below.
If a man come and speak to the worldlyG




82         THE APOSTLE'S PREFACE.
minded with these words that St. Paul useth
to the Corinthians, they will say:-This is true,
and a good point to be pressed upon a man that
is in a consumption, or one whom the doctors
have given over, to tell him that he cannot continue a week, that his time is short.  But for
our parts, we are but in the beginning of our
voyage; we are (it may be) but twenty years
old; we began but the other day to be furnished
with our stock for trade; we are but newly
entered, and do you think that we are already
striking sail? Or another, that hath lived forty
or fifty years in the midst of a full trade, that
hath got something in the world and beginneth
now to enjoy the goods he has laid up; do you
think that he is about striking sail?  Thus
people put it off. Alas, what is all thy time,
what is thy whole life?  Is it not a vapour, a
dream, a tale that is told-like a ship that
saileth by and is gone almost in the twinkling
of an eye?  If thou have no more time of life
here, but only while a little sand is running out
of a glass, while a ship is sailing out of sight,
while a short tale is told (God saith it is no
more), wilt thou account that thy voyage is not
yet near its end?
I beseech you, beloved, often think, at home,
of this point. Say within yourselves, How long,
Lord, am I to continue below? and what is there
for me to do before I go out of this world?
But the truth is, men dare not think of
this: and the Devil laboureth for nothing more




CC THE TIME IS SHORT.         83
in the world than this,-to make them put off
the serious consideration of the brevity of their
lives, and to persuade them  that they have
longer time to continue here than they have:
because he knows the truth of this that I have
spoken, that the meditation thereof will stir them
up to make clear all reckonings with God, before
they go hence and be no more seen.  You may
find this to be true in your own experience.
How loth men are to entertain thoughts of their
latter end! Go to one that lies sick of a consumption, and he will tell you: The doctors say
that I may live, and I doubt not but I shall get
up again: such a one hath been brought as low
as I, and he is recovered, and why may not I?
I once knew one that, when the physicians came
and told him that he must die,-Good Lord,
saith he, what a deal of work have I to do! I
have all my seed to sow, all my evidences to seal,
that my soul should  be saved, &c.!  Such
thoughts should enter into us now. Pitch on
them seriously; buckle to them soundly.
We may learn this point of wisdom from the
Devil himself: he, because he knoweth his time
is short, is so much the fuller of rage and malice,
and plies his work with so much the more eagerness.  Woe be to the inhabiters of the eartl and
of the sea! for the Devil is come down unto you,
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he
hath but a short time.  So should we do.  Think
with thyself: The seventh angel will come ere
long, and swear by him that liveth for ever and




84        THE EXHORTATION ITSELF.
ever, that there shall be time no longer. But God
will have an account for the time that is past:
and what if the angel should come now, and
swear that, for some of us, there shall be no more
time, after this week or this day! Put the case,
-it may be thine, or mine, or any one's case,that God should say:-Go fetch such a man:
I will give him no more time; it is true I gave
him some; but now his voyage is at an end, his
sail is struck.  Then we should be called at
once to go and give an account to God. What
have you done with all your time? will God say;
I must have a reckoning of it.  And then
cometh, Imprimis, so much time in drinking;
so much time in revelling; so much time in
dressing myself every day. And then God shall
say, Were these the things I gave you time for?
did I bestow time on you for to be spent about
your miserable bodies?  No, it was that you
might serve me and gain heaven. Beloved, how
could we answer to these things?
It is good and profitable seriously to consider of this betimes. Say to thyself, I have not
long to live; after a while I must go hence and
be no more; I must give an account and a reckoning unto God of all that I have done, whether it
be good or evil.
So much for the ground whereon the Apostle
resteth his exhortation. I come now to the exhortation itself. It remaineth, that both they that
have wives be as though they had none; and they
that weep, as though they wept not; and they that




MEANING OF THE EXHORTATION.         85
rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they tlat
buy, as though they possessed not; and they that
use this world, as not abusing it.
In a word, I take the meaning of the exhortation to be somewhat as follows.  Brethren, you
are ready to cast anchor: trouble not yourselves:
be steadfast: gird up the loins of your minds:
let your care be greatest for heaven.  As for
these things that are here below,-if you have
wives, be as though you had none; think, as soon
as you are ashore you shall have none. If you are
sick or under any cross or affliction, be as though
you wept not: suppose you be as a fellow that
is fain to ply the pump all day,-as soon as he
is ashore he is free. If you rejoice, if you be in
prosperity, if you be as the master of the ship
that hath great preferment, be as if you rejoiced
not: why? you are almost come ashore; your
preferment will soon be at an end: therefore be
as if not in all these things.
I will briefly open the meaning of each part
of this exhortation, and then put all into one
point of instruction, and so come further to
apply it unto you, as God shall enable me.
What, therefore, is the meaning? First: Let
them that have wives be as thouyh they had none.
Now  a man that hath a wife hath two things
that another hath not that hath no wife.
The first is, he hath a great deal of joy and
comfort.  He hath a second self, a loving yokefellow; one in whose bosom he can pour out his
heart at any time; one that he can make par



86            THE EXHORTATION.
taker of all his contentments; one that is willing
to help him to carry all his crosses. So in a
wife, supposing her to be a good wife, he hath
that comfort that another knows not of.
Secondly, he that hath a wife hath a great
many cares that another hath not. He hath a
great deal of fear lest he should leave her in distress; a great deal of care how  she, and the
children that are begotten of her, should be
provided for when he is gone: so that, as St.
Paul saith, he cannot but care for the things of
the world, how he may give content to his wife.
Now what is it to be in this as if he had no
wife?  It is this.  In all contentments that
come by a wife, to use them as if he had none
at all: that is, to be moderate; not to glut himself and to think,-Now I am a happy man, I
need no more: God hath given me such a yokefellow and I have abundant joy in it: but to
moderate his heart in this.
And for the other thing, for care and thought
how to provide for her and her children, to do
his best like an honest man, and then to be at
peace in his mind as if he had no wife and
children to provide for; to leave all to God; to
go on in his calling in obedience to God, and
let God do what he will.  This is to have a wife
as if he had none: to be as moderate in the
enjoying of the contentments that come by his
wife, to be as moderate in cares required for a
wife, as if he had no wife at all to joy in, none
to take care for.




BE IN ALL THINGS " AS IF NOT."       87
For the second; They that weep, as though they
wept not.  One man rejoiceth and glorieth exceedingly in his happiness, that he hath a wife:
another complaineth —  No man is so full of
crosses as I; every day one cross after another:
no man hath such children, such a wife, such an
estate, so poor, so afflicted, so weak: ever groaning and complaining.   Now to such saith the
Apostle, Be as if not, in weepiny.  That is, let
the thoughts of the nearness of the shore make
you so contented, as if there were no cross at all
lying upon you.  For (I still follow the same
metaphor) he that is the poorest man in the ship,
he that doth nothing but dress the sails and ply
the pump, and, it may be, is beaten withal and
poorly fed, yet in the midst of all these hardships
he thinketh, -I shall by and by cast anchor,
and though I work hard, yet one hour more will
make me free.  So it should be with us in all
our afflictions, as if not: that is, we should
always remember this: Death will soon come
and end all: I am  sick in body; I am crossed
in my good name, in my yoke-fellow: well, death
will end all these: I have but a little while to
tarry in this world, and short things cannot be
tedious.
Thirdly: He that rejoiceth, as though he rejoiced not.   That is,-in all the contentments
of the world, in all the joy a man hath in the
things below, in his estate, in his credit, or in
anything else for which the world accounts a
man happy, let him remember that these things




88           THE EXHORTATION.
will soon be gone. Let him be as the master of
the ship, who thinketh with himself-All these
are under me; I can command themi, and punish
them if they disobey: yet I am now near the
shore and shall soon be out of the place I am
in, and lose all authority and power; let me,
therefore, moderate myself. So let us, in all
worldly contentments, be so moderate as if we
should take our leaves of them and they of us.
And so,fourthly-for them that buy, as thouyh
they possessed not. That is, for a man not to enlarge his heart as his estate increaseth: but if he
have so many pounds, and therewith maketh such
and such a purchase, let him not be too much
wrapped up in his possession; but let him  live
and carry himself in his thoughts as if he had
nothing but food and raiment.
And then, lastly, cometh in the main of all
the rest: They that use this world, as not abusing
it.  By world, St. Paul means all the good things
of the world: all that I have already named, and
all else that you can think of,-wife and children,
prosperity and adversity; everything on the right
hand and on the left; all cometh within the compass of the world: use all these things so. But
especially he aimeth at worldly businesses, the
things we are exercised about. Do them as not
abusing them: as not letting your hearts be too
much set upon them: but be temperate and
moderate in all, that you may ever be fit for
that greater service that God hath to employ
you in.




BE IN ALL THINGS "AS IF NOT."      89
This, then, is the point I would have you observe and consider. That in wife, children, prosperity, crosses,-a believer must be in them tas
if not; as if he were not in that condition. And
this duty I cannot better explain to you than by
such a comparison as this.  Look how worldly
men use the things of heaven: so let a heavenly
man use the things of the world.
To instance a few duties in which this comparison may apply.  Suppose it be the duty of
prayer: bring me out a true believer and a worldling; let them  both be put upon this duty of
prayer.  The true believer, his heart, before he
goes to prayer, is full of care that he may pray
aright, full of fear lest he should not carry
himself as he ought when he is in the duty;
his heart is violently bent to it; it struggleth
and striveth that he may do it so as may
please God.  When he hath done, he hath much
joy and comfort if he have carried it well; and
much sorrow and grief if he have carried it ill.
Thus a religious heart carrieth itself in this
duty. Now a worldly man doth the duty too: but
how? as if not: that is, he hath none of this
care before he cometh to it; he hath none of this
trouble when he is at it; he hath none of this
perplexity when he hath done, if he have miscarried in it. If he be able to come off, it is
well enough, though it be performed in never so
ill a manner.  Why? his mind is after other
things: he intends greater matters, as he thinks:
the minister hath taught him to pray, and he




90            THE EXHORTATION.
can say his prayers, and so he doth the duty;
but still, as i not.
Or again, suppose a man whose heart is set
upon mammon; put this man to  recreation.
He may, perhaps, find time to play at bowls or
cards or tables with a friend; but how?  He
cares not for the game for its own sake: he
whiles away the time and occupies his hands, but
this is not the thing his heart is set upon: that
which giveth him contentment, and on which his
mind resteth all the while, is his commodities,
his wealth, his trade, his merchandize, his business in the world.
Just so, beloved, it must be with every true
believer, in the using of all the things of this life:
that is, without care, without fear, without perplexity, without distraction; and if they come on
pleasantly, so: if they fail, so: he must be
pleased if he have them, and content if he want
them; and howsoever these things fare with him,
his thoughts must be carried higher and better.
To think thus,-I am  a servant of God; I have
a calling here; I will follow it in obedience to
God; I have a wife, I will use her as a wife
should be used: I have children, I will have a
care of their education.  But I must not come
to be distracted about my calling, about my wife,
and children, and servants, and good name, or
anything that is here below. I am here to-day;
it may please God, I may be gone to-morrow;
my heart's desire must be to be content with
this,-that God is my all-sufficient portion.  If




BE IN ALL THINGS "AS IF NOT."        91
I be in prosperity, to be as if not: if in affliction,
in the midst of sorrow and trouble, to carry myself so as if God freed me from all: to feel that
I can lose nothing if I lose not God's favour; I
can gain nothing while He is mine.
And this point that I have now opened out,
namely, that a true believer must be as if not in
all the thinys of the world, though it is plainly
laid down by St. Paul in the text, yet for the
better confirmation thereof I will add to that
two or three other plain passages of Scripture.
There is one eminent place for this purpose in
the Epistle of John.  Saith the Apostle: Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the
world; if any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.  Now he that must thus
use wife, children, credit, friends, good name,
prosperity, without loving them, it is likely he
useth them as if not; for love is the great wheel
that setteth all the faculties to work: therefore
the Spirit of God doth directly forbid all Christians
to love the world, or the things of the world:
the Scripture absolutely enjoineth that we should
not love them: that is, that our hearts must not
be fixed on them.
Another place, likewise, is this;-Set not
your affections on things below.  Now, as I said
before, if a man use or do anything that his
affections are not upon, that he doth not love
and joy and delight in, that he doth not take
care for, and the like, certainly that man useth it
as if not: and thus must every true believer use




92            THE EXHORTATION.
the things of the world; so that he must not set
his affections upon them.
Other Scriptures I might give you to make
good this point; but it is proved already. Two
or three arguments I will add to make it plain
why every true believer must be as if not in all
these things.
First, because all the things in this world
(which are contained in the text), they are all
but empty, poor things to a believer. To another
man, who makes them his god, in his conceit,
they are full; but to a true believer these things
are well known to be but empty things. I need
give you no better proof to make this evident,
than that which followeth in the text: for the
fashion of thi, worldpasseth away.
The fashion of the world: what is that?  It
is a show without a substance; such a fashion as
is in a comedy or stage-play, where all things
are but for a while, to please the eye. A man,
it may be, acts the part of a king, that is no
better than a beggar or a varlet. So all things
in the world are no better than shadows, and
empty like a piece of a stage-play:  and no
marvel therefore if believers, that know this, use
them as not.
Secondly, another argument why believers
must, in all these things, use them as if not, is
because they are none of a believer's; and being
none of his, it is mere folly for him to set his heart
upon them. How are they none of his? you will
say.  First, because these things are below, they




BE IN ALL THINGS " AS IF NOT.      93
belong to the men of this life, whose treasure is
in the earth; but the treasure and estate of a
believer is laid up in another life: he is but a
stranger and pilgrim here below; and therefore
they are none of his.  And then, likewise, they
are none of his, because he hath resigned them
all up to God in the day when he made the bargain for Christ.  For when  we come to be
Christ's, we must sell all to buy that pearl;
and in selling all, we sell not only our corruptions and lusts, but wives, and children, and
credit, and pleasures, and all.  We have them
now no longer to have and to hold, to do what
we will with them; but we return all to Christ,
and have them as copyhold, to be tenants at will
to that great Landlord: we have only a little title
in them.  The children of the world are, truly,
no better off than we in respect of this: they
cannot hold or enjoy the things they value longer
than God leaveth them in possession, but the
believer hath voluntarily given up all to God, and
is resolved to live as if he had nothing else but
God for his joy and hope.
And if it be so, that every believer hath no
more to do in this world, but merely to use and
employ that which belongeth not to him, but is
lent to him for a time, so that he can properly
call nothing his own, but God and Christ; then,
certainly, he must use all these things as if not.
Conceive it thus.  A  traveller goeth a long
journey: he cometh at night to his inn: when
he is there, he is wondrous glad of his table, of




94            THE EXHORTATION.
his meat and drink, of his fire, of his bed, and
everything; and he is wondrous welcome: but
he doth not so delight in them  as the host of
the house, who is living there, and is the right
owner, and hath the whole estate. No, he only
resteth there for the night, after his weary journey; but on the morrow,-" God be with you,"
and then he is gone.
So a worldly man, he may say,-Here is my
estate, here is my stock, all that I have is laid up
here: but a believer saith,-I am now in my
journey; I am here only as a pilgrim; my home
is in heaven: and while I am passing through my
pilgrimage, if I have a piece of meat in my hunger, and a cup of drink in my thirst, and clothes
in my nakedness, there is all that I need care
for.
Thirdly, the last and main argument, to prove
that every true believer must be as if not, in all
things of this world, is, that if he be any otherwise in them, he will be so entangled that he
shall not be fit for the service of God. And this
third argument will be of the greatest force to a
true believer. For the other two, you will say,If they be none of mine, why should I meddle
with them? and if they be empty, why likewise
should I desire them? but now, thirdly, if I
meddle with them, they will directly make me
that I shall not be a Christian; they will hinder
me from the service of my God. This will make
a believer carefully to look about him.
The Apostle saith directly, that none that




BE IN ALL THINGS " AS IF NOT."      95
warreth entangleth himself; that is thus: suppose
a man to have received press-money to go a soldier; will he be so mad as lay out his money
upon a farm in the country, when, upon the command of his captain he must, upon pain of death,
follow presently to a distant land?
Beloved, he that entangleth himself with the
things of the world and of the flesh-if his wife,
his pleasures, his reputation, or anything have
taken up his heart; or if sorrows and afflictions
drink up his spirits and eat up his very soul,when God calls this man now to come to prayer,
to come to the church, to hear his word, to fight
against his lusts, or to do any duty, alas! his
head, his heart, and all, are eaten up with his
farm, with his oxen, with his wife, with his
crosses and afflictions, so that he is altogether
unfit for any service that God hath called him to.
Therefore, saith St. John, he that entangleth'
himself with these things below, he cannot possibly have the love of the Father dwelling in
him.
This shall suffice for the clearing of the point.
I have spent the more time in it because I would
fain lay as good a foundation as I might, that the
application may take a deeper impression in your
hearts.
We that live in the country, when we come
up by occasion into the city, and here see all men
so full of trouble, every man so toiled in his work,
so full of business, and so little time taken for
anything else, then we learn how easily we may




96            THE EXHORTATION.
be so taken up with worldly things, as not to
look beyond them; then we see how that such a
point as this that St. Paul speaketh of may be
of special use to all believers.  Be in all these
thinys as if not.
Shall we resolve, as obedient children, to
carry this point home, and examine, in deed and
in truth, whether we be in these things as if not?
Alas! what shall I say? I remember a story of
one Thomas Lennot, a learned Englishman, whoreading once, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh
chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel, how our Saviour
saith, Ye have heard how it hath been said of old,
Ye must do thus and thus; but I say unto you,
Love your enemies, pray for them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you and persecute you,
and so goeth on, enjoining strange duties to flesh
and blood, broke out into this exclamation,-Oh
Jesus, either this is not thy Gospel, or we are not
Christians! Truly, beloved, I would to God a
man might not have just cause to say so in this
point: that when he cometh and readeth this of
the Apostle, It remaineth, brethren, that he that
hath a wife be as though he had none; he that
buyeth, as though he possessed not; he that useth this
world, as not abusiny it, &c. I say, I would to
God he may not break out and say,-Oh Paul,
either thou art not the writer of this, or we
are no Christians!
We talk and profess in words, that we purpose to do it; but if we come to the deed and
the truth, it is clean contrary: we are not at all




BE IN ALL THINGS " AS IF NOT.'      97
moderate in the use of these things.  In matters
of heaven and in things that concern our everlasting welfare, where God would have us take the
kingdom of heaven with violence, where we should
cry out, as the horseleech's daughter, Give, give,
and never say, It is enough, we are even like
children that go to school, that care not how little
they have for their money.  In hearing, if the
sermon be but half-an-hour, we think it enough;
and in prayer and conference, a little will serve
the turn. Like the Jesuit that, when he thought
he had a vision and a revelation, he was terrified
and cried out, Enough Lord, I have revelation
enough; so we in matters of religion, Enough,
Lord.  But turn us to wives, to children, to
clothes, to honours, to preferments, to riches, to
ease, to pleasures, and the like, there we are as
the horseleech's daughter, that crieth Give, give,
and can never have enough. Brethren, is not this
true?
But methinks I should bring you some particular instances to convince you of thus; and I
would to the Lord I could convince your hearts
that it is thus with you. Suppose now, a man
comes and meets with a citizen in his business,
and saith to him, How have you spent this day?
Truly, he will say, I am so full of business that
I have not time so much as to eat my meat.
But I hope you have been at prayer with your
family; have you not?  Alas, he will answer, I
cannot get so much as a quarter of an hour's
time.  Do you call this, as if not, brethren?
H




98           THE EXHORTATION.
Come to another that hath a wife,-all his care
is for her; Oh my wife and children; if I should
die and leave them poor, what would they do?
when I sleep I dream of them: when I awake in
the morning my thoughts are of them.  Is this
to be as if you had no wife or children?
Another is ever complaining and mourning:
Oh I have such crosses, I am so full of affliction;
I have lost such and such friends, and such and
such an estate; and though I go to church, and
hear such and such comfortable doctrines one
after another, and all telling me of the all-sufficiency of God, of the comforts and joys of the
Spirit, of the good things that are laid up in
heaven, yet, like Rachel, I can never be comforted under my losses and trials.  What shall
we say to these things? Do you think the Lord
speaks not as he meaneth? or that when the
Apostle saith here, absolutely and determinately,
thus and thus you must do if you be Christians,
we may yet do contrary to all this, and think that
we are God's people?
I know you may put it off, many of you, and
allege many things: We have callings, and we
must follow our callings; if God bring me in
employment, blame me not if I follow it; and I
know not how I should live, if I busied not my-.self thus and thus.
But be not deceived; God is not mocked.
If thou findest, in the midst of thy trading and
merchandizing and whatsoever calling thou art
of, thy heart daily gathering toward heaven; that




BE IN ALL THINGS " AS IF NOT."     99
thou canst say, Blessed be God for this and other
commodities, but Christ is my real treasure:
this is good. And then, in these things, if thou
hast a care to use them aright, as well as to get
them and to thank God for them, and that thy
project is, how thou shalt do good with that thou
hast, that thou art always saying with thyselfLord, how shall I do good with so much money
that I have gained by such and such a bargain?
then, God forbid that I should blame thee,
though thou be full of business from morning to
evening.  But alas, there are many good people
and godly, that have hope that they serve God,
yet if they go home and examine themselves
thoroughly, their own consciences will tell them,
that in the things of this world they are not as
if not; but rather that they have; been overcareful, and too full of distractions in business.
And so for matter of joy. If a man have a
little pleasure or preferment given him and his
heart is so up that he knows not where he is,he is so transported that he hath clean forgot
himself,- this cannot stand, this is not to be as
if not; and therefore I beseech you, in the fear
of God, think of it.
Now if a man would know how he should
come to have his heart in a good temper, to be
in these things as if not; in one word let me
tell you that rule of St. Paul. In all things be
filled with the Spirit, and then thou wilt not take
thought much for other things: if once you let
your soul be filled with the things of a better




100          THE APOSTLE S SPUR.
life, then wife and children and wealth and
pleasures or anything else, will not draw away
your hearts.
Get a good hand-fast of Jesus Christ; work
out your salvation; be sure that you are believers
upon good grounds, and that you have the graces
of the Spirit of God in you, in deed and in truth;
that you are really new creatures.
And then, often think of the rare things that
are provided for you in another life. What! to
have God to be your Father, and angels your
keepers; to be children of God, and companions of
angels! Weigh these things daily, and then you
will be as if not, in all these outward and worldly
things: and until thou dost this and thinkest
withal of that I have formerly said, that thou art
ready to strike sail, I will never believe that thou
wilt be as if not.
And now a word or two as to the spur which
the Apostle useth; and it is necessary he should
use such a spur, for it is a very hard lesson.
If you would be as if you were not, consider
this, - te fashion of this world passeth away:
that is, it is even such a fashion as is on a stage:
all these things below they are but as the acting of a comedy or a scene, which, it may be, is
done in half an hour; and though it make a fine
show, yet in truth there is no substance in it.
It is but a fashion, and even that fashion passeth
soon away.
Our life is but the acting of a part in a
comedy; and even as in a scene or play, things




THE WORLD PASSETH AWAY.          101
that have a glorious, glittering show to the eye, if
you look closely upon them, are of little or no
value; so in all the outward things thou possessest, thy contentment in wife or children or
credit or pleasures, thou dost but act a glorious
part: it may be thou hast a goodly outside, fine
clothes, rich apparel, an outward representation
of comfort; but look through them, and there is
no such matter.
And then this poor appearance, this vain
fashion, it passeIt away; it is suddenly gone.
As a man hath but a little time to tarry in the
world, so all the things he enjoyeth in the world
are wondrous inconstant.  As it is in a play, he
that now acts the part of a king, it may be next
lie will act the part of a beggar; or as it is with
some of your delicate fashions, that while you are
speaking of them the fashion is spoiled; even so
the fashion of this world, it will not continue.
This is the sum of that I desire you to take
notice of, that if you will not be persuaded by
me, or by the Spirit of God in his unworthy
minister, to use the things of this world moderately and to carry yourselves as you ought in
crosses and afflictions; yet know this, that the
fashion of these things will shortly be spoiled:
and if they be all inconstant, what a folly is it to
set thy heart upon them!
We may learn this wisdom from the foolery
of our English nation, esteemed now the idlest
people of the world for changing their fashion.
They will never make clothes twice of one fashion;




102          THE APOSTLE S SPUR.
but one gown of this fashion, and another of that;
and though he be never so good a tailor that
makes it, yet he must make no more of the same
fashion, but the next term  they will come to
another.  Learn, I say, this wisdom from  that
foolery.  Now the Lord giveth thee comfort in
thy wife, set not thy heart too much upon her;
the next season the fashion may change.  Now
thou art rich, let not thy heart doat upon thy
riches; it is but a fashion, a show, it passeth
away, and to-morrow thou mayest be a beggar:
-to-day, a man; to-morrow, none.
But if thou wouldst keep the fashion, get the
fashion of grace; get a right to heaven, an interest in God; and be content, in God's name,
to follow his fashion: if God will have thee to be
in the fashion of a humble, dejected man, be
content with that fashion.  If, anon, he will have
thee on the top of the wheel of prosperity, thank
God for it, and take heed of abusing the things
thou enjoyest.  Remember, the things of this life
are inconstant: as a flower, as a nosegay, that
seemeth as a dainty, fine thing, but while we
are smelling at it and praising it it withereth
away, so is it with all these things.
I would I could tell how to speak home to
your souls; and yet I know that that little I have
spoken, if it be entertained with faith, if you
believe it to be the truth of God, not as the
speech that a man makes to you, but as the
speech of St. Paul, an inspired apostle of Christ,
who sets it down by the direction of God, that




THE WORLD PASSETH AWAY.         103
thus it is; I say if you lay down this as a truth
that comes from God, and seriously think with
yourselves,-I have but a little time to tarry here
below, and when I am  out of the world I shall
live for ever in heaven or in hell.  While I do
enjoy the things of this world, God will have me
to be as if not in them; and there is good reason why, for they are shows and not substances;
grace and the favour of God is the only thing
that is substantial; riches  and  honour and
worldly contentments, they are but shadows; like
one in a play, that is but a peasant under the
coat of a king, these have but only outsides,
under them there is no such matter; — this, I
say, being seriously considered and faithfully
received, may, through the blessing of God and
your own prayers to God to teach you this, be a
means to moderate you in the use of all those
things that are here below.




SERMON V.
ST. PAUL'S TRUMPET;
OR,
AN ALARM FOR SLEEPY CHRISTIANS.
ROM. X1ii. 11.
" AND THAT, KNOWING THE TIME, THAT NOW IT IS HIGH TIME
TO AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP."
THE  holy Apostle, in this chapter, delivers a
number of precepts and general rules for conduct, and enforceth them with sundry reasons.
Among them  all, the words that I have read are
the principal, both precept and reason enforcing
them.  Considering the season, it is time that ye
arise from sleep.
These few words may be called St. Paul's
trumpet to rouse the sluggish Christian.  They
were the occasion of the conversion of that famols instrument, St. Austin, as he saith in the
eighth book of his Confessions, in the last chapter.  He reports that when the time of his conversion drew near, he was in a marvellous great




DIVISION OF THE TEXT.         105
agony and conflict, beset with a number of
temptations, whereby Satan would still have detained him  in the spiritual sleep he was in.
Being in this marvellous conflict, he could not
but go from  his chamber to his garden, and
there he prostrated himself on his face before the
Lord and earnestly and ardently called upon
God.  And in his prayer, as himself records, it
seemed to him that he did hear the voice of a
child speak to him:- Tolle legqe: Take up the
book and read.  Hereupon, running back again
to his study, the book being open, the first place
that he cast his eye upon was this verse: Now
it is high time to awake out of sleep.  "And,"
saith he, "with the end of the sentence, I found
an infused life." He found, in the reading of
this sentence, grace, as it were, infused into him,
turning him from dead works to serve the living
God.
This place of Scripture hath been famous in
the Church as the means by which one famous
disciple received his conversion.  I would to God
that the Lord would bestow the same blessing
among some of those who not only hear these
words read, but also have them  expounded in
their ears.
For the understanding of which, we are to
inquire,FIRsT, What is meant by sleep?  It is time
to awake out of sleep.
SECONDLY, What is meant by arising, or
awaking, out of sleep?




106        WHlAT IS MEANT BY SLEEP.
THIRDLY, Who they be that must arise, or
wake out of sleep.
For the FIRST of these, What is meant by
sleep? Sleep, in Scripture, is threefold,-natural,
moral, and spiritual.
Natural sleep is that spoken of by David. I
laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the Lord
sustained me.  This natural sleep is the rest and
restitution of nature.
Moral sleep is natural death: this is the death
and dissolution of nature of which the Scripture speaketh: —They that sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake: and again, -   VWen Stephen
had said this, he fell asleep.
Spiritual sleep is the sleep of sin and security: this is the death and privation of grace in
the soul, as the other is the privation of life in
the body.  Of this our text speaketh: It is high
time to awake out of this sleep.
Now the state of sin and security is compared
here to the state of sleep, because there are many
resemblances and likenesses between the state of
a sinner and of a sleepy man; for what effect
sleep hath on the body, the same effect hath the
sleep of sin in the soul. I will show you this in
a few instances, and then pass on.
First, Tltey that sleep, saith the Apostle, sleep
in the night.  This is the same that he aims at
here: It is time to awake out of sleep; because
the night is past. The night is the time to sleep
in: and so, those that sleep in sin, it is because
they are in the night of sin: there is a darkness




WHAT IS MEANT BY SLEEP.         107
around them; the canopy is spread over them;
the sun of grace and the day of salvation shines
not upon them: their eyes are closed up in
darkness, as it is with a sleepy man.
Again, when a man goes to sleep, he puts off
his clothes; he lies naked, exposed to all dangers.  And so, when a man is in the sleep of sin
and security, he wants his garments; he needs to
be clothed with Christ's righteousness and holiness; he lies naked, exposed, and open, to all God's
displeasure and to all the arrows of God's wrath.
He is in the same condition as the Israelites,
when they had made a calf, and Moses came and
found them naked unto their shame among their
enemies.  He is destitute of God's protection,
and wanting that garment, that armour of proof,
that righteousness, that Christ giveth to his
people.
Again, a man naturally lays himself down
willingly to sleep; he is willing to take his rest.
So it is in the sleep of sin: every natural man is
willing to lay himself down to sleep in sin, to
take his ease, and to rest in sin.  There is no
man but hath a natural inclination to sin, though
none have a ready will to do good.
And again, as sleep surpriseth a man suddenly, ofttimes before he is aware, or before he
can remember himself, where he is or what he is
doing; so the sleep of sin, it oft surpriseth a man
before he is aware.  This we see even in the disciples of Christ; bodily sleep surprised them
even when they intended to watch: but the sleep




108       WHAT IS MEANT BY SLEEP.
of their minds and souls was much more; for
that was not a time to sleep if they had known
what they were about.
Again, further: The sleep of the body binds
up the senses and makes a man unconscious of
that which is good or evil.  Offer a kingdom to
one that sleepeth, and it moves him not; threaten
him, draw a sword, offer to stab him-he shrinks
not; he is not sensible: a man that continueth in
sleep, where you left him  there you shall find
him  still.  So it is also in the sleep of sin: it
binds up all the spiritual senses, so that a man
that is in this sleep, he wants a seeing eye and a
hearing ear; he sees nothing, he apprehends
nothing, he knows nothing of God; he feels
not how good God is to him: offer him  the
kingdom of heaven, and grace in the means,it moves him  not: threaten  him, draw  out
the sword, the weapon of God's wrath, against
him, -he fears nothing: though he may even
feel its point in some temporal or bodily affliction, it rouseth him  but for a moment; he
sinketh again in sin, as one who foldeth his
hands still to sleep. As he is insensible in these
courses, so he is immovable: look, where he was
at the first, there you shall find him still: he is
altogether as a dead man while he continueth
thus in sin and security.
To conclude this point; The sleep of the
body deludes a man with many vain dreams and
foolish conceits; false joys and false fears and
false hopes.  So the sleep of sin in the soul hath




WHA  T T IS TO WAKE OUT OF SLEEP.  109
the same effect; it feeds a man up with false joys
and false hopes; it casts him  down with false
fear, where no fear is.  A man in the state of
sin, he fears the face of man, the hand of man,
and the word of man: he fears not the eye of
God, nor the word of God, nor the mighty power
of God.  So likewise for false joys: a man that
is a beggar dreams that he hath gold enough,
that he rolls and tumbles in it: and thus do
beggars in grace, those that have not a rag of
righteousness upon them, dream  that they are
rich and increased in goods, and that they have
need of nothing; not knowing that they are all
the while poor, and beggarly, and naked. Spiritual sleep filleth a man with false conceits and
hides from him all the true occasions of joy and
fear.
A man sometimes, when he goes to sleep, he
thinks not to sleep long, but to take a nap and
awake by and by: yet it may be, he sleeps beyond his compass, and sometimes he wakes no
more.  So it is with a man in sin: he hopes to
wake; he thinks to sleep but a little; but
sometime he sleeps long, and sometime he never
wakes at all.  So we see how aptly the Spirit
compares the state of a man in sin to sleep. This
is the first thing in the meaning of the words.
Now the SECOND thing is, What is meant by
arising, or waking out of sleep? It is for a man
to do in the matter of Christianity, as a man
that awakes out of the natural sleep of his body.
There are three things that a man doth, when he




110  WHAT IT IS TO WAKE OUT OF SLEEP.
awaketh.  First, there is an opening of the eyes
and a beholding of the light: and this is likewise
the first thing in awaking out of the sleep of sin
and security.  A man must labour to open his
eyes, to behold the light of God's word, and that
shining grace that the Lord propounds to him in
the Scriptures.  He must open his eyes to behold the light, and that will discover such objects
to him as will then keep him awake.  Men sleep
in the night because they are in the dark and
no light shineth around them; but in the daytime they see many objects that keep their minds
a-stirring and awake.  So, if we would keep
awake from this sleep of sin, let us open our eyes
to behold the light of grace, and in the light of
the Scriptures we shall see objects that will help
to keep us waking.  We shall see God's mercy
and God's displeasure, things that the carnal eye
cannot see, nor the ear hear, nor the heart conceive. We shall see them in their beginning and
degrees (though the full degree cannot yet be
conceived), and this will help to keep us waking.
Then, in the next place, when a man hath
opened his eyes to see the light, there must be a
rousing of the senses. This awakes a man, when
his senses that were bound up by sleep, are
loosed, so that now he is able to see and to
move and to talk.  Now what is it that unbinds
the spiritual senses of a man in this sleep of sin?
Only faith in the Son of God that opens the eyes
of them that were dead in sin: this restores new
senses and new life, so that they are able to walk




WHO ARE THEY THAT MUST AWAKE?  111
in the ways of God, and to move in the actions
of godliness and Christianity.  Therefore the
second thing that a man must do, to arouse himself from sleep, is to get faith in his soul, that he
may suck virtue from  Christ; and so get his
senses loosed, that he may see and taste and
feel the goodness of God, which, without Christ,
he cannot attain.
Thirdly, and lastly; a man must get out of
his bed, that he may completely shake off sleep,
when his eyes are open, and his senses loosed.
That is, by repentance, and by ceasing to do evil,
he must get out of the bed of sin.  Therefore,
when the Apostle exhorts to rise out of sleep,
these are the three main things that he intendeth.
First, to get the true knowledge of God, to see
those objects that may allure and draw  our
minds; and then to labour to get faith in the
Son of God, whereby our senses may be unbound: and then to get out of the bed of sin by
repentance, to cease to do evil and learn to do
well. This is to awake out of the bed of sleep.
THIRDLY: who are they that must arise out
of sleep? Every man: for so the Apostle plainly
expresseth it: Awake, thou that sleepest; whosoever thou art that sleepest, awake; it is now time
to rise out of sleep. Now all men may be divided
into these two classes,-the natural man and the
regenerate man: and both of these sleep.
The natural man is in a fast, dead sleep; you
shall as soon get a rib out of his side, as God
did out of Adam  when he was asleep, as wake




112   WHO ARE THEY THAT MUST AWAKE?
him: you shall sooner drive a nail into his temples, than disturb him.  He is in a fast, dead
sleep; in the sleep of death.  He is as a man in
a lethargy, that never wakes.  Therefore, this
man hath need to arise, to be called upon, and to
be roused out of the sleep of death. Awake, thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give thee life! Arise, as Lazarus arose out
of the grave at the call of Jesus, thou that art in
a dead sleep!
But not only are the natural men in a dead
sleep; the regenerate also are asleep: they keep
not themselves so waking and so watchful, as
they ought to do. Therefore the Apostle applies
it to himself and to all the saints:  It is time
for us to awake out of sleep.  He puts himself in
the number: for he that is most wakeful had
need to be yet more so, and to rise still out of
sleep. It was the voice of the Church; I sleep,
but my heart waketh.  Even the Church herself,
that was waked already in great part, yet confessed that she slept: her sleep was not so dead
nor so fast as formerly; yet she slumbered.  So
it is said of the wise virgins, as well as of the
foolish,-They all slumbered and slept.  And so
the  disciples themselves, by the side of our
Lord, even when a temptation was near and the
tempter was upon them, they fell fast asleep and
were not able to watch with Christ, no, not one
hour.
Thus we see, brethren, that those also who
are regenerate, those that have received the




THE DEAD SLEEP OF THE WORLD.   11
greatest measure of grace, and are in the highest
form, (for who was higher than St. Paul?) they
themselves have need to be called out of sleep; it
is time for them to awake out of sleep, though
they be waking persons.  Even those that have
received  grace to believe  and  obey and be
watchful, in some measure, even these must be
called out of sleep.
Therefore, this is the counsel that is given to
the Church of Sardis, that had received some
grace, and was in some measure watchful: saith
the Holy Ghost to that church, -Be watcfudl,
and strengthen ite thinys that are ready to die. He
tells them before,-Thoug hlast a name that thou
livest, and art dead: that is, thou art almost dead;
there is but little life of grace left in thee, wherefore
strengthen the things that remain.  Thus we see
the difference between the calling of the wicked
and of the godly in their sleep. The one is called
from sleep, to stand up from the dead; the other,
to strengthen the things that are ready to die:
and thus we see the persons who must wake.
The point thus opened, we are next led to
the consideration of that woful sleep that oppresseth the world, and after that, to the sleep
that oppresseth the church of God.
First, to consider the sleep of the wicked and
unregenerate, those that are in the dead sleep of
trespasses and sins. Even as the prophet observed
in his time, so now-who doth not see all the
world at rest and at ease?  Like Lachish, that
secure people, crying Peace, peace, to themselves,
i




114    THE DEAD SLEEP OF THE WORLD.
and fearing nothing till they be awaked.  There
is nothing but security among all classes.
First of all there is, everywhere, a numerous
generation of idolators: they are fast asleep in
the bed and bosom  of that Babylon that hath
enchanted and bewitched them with the cup of
her fornication. They have laid themselves down
to sleep in her lap, as Samson did with Dalilah,
until like him they lose both their locks and their
lives; and all the means that God hath used
for a long time, the light of grace, the light
of knowledge, the ministry that hath been so
powerful and so plentiful, cannot pull them out
of her lap.  They trust themselves to her keeping, and so sleep in a treacherous security.  But
the Lord hath threatened, not only Jezebel, that
whore and strumpet, by which he means Rome,
but also all those that commit fornication with
her, to cast them  into a bed of sorrow: he
will cast them  upon a bed of little ease, and he
will slay her children.  The conclusion of this
fearful sleep shall be death.
So, likewise, there is a generation of unclean
adulterers: they are asleep upon the foul bed of
voluptuousness and immorality. Blow a trumpet
in their ears; ring a peal of ordnance against
them, that is able to make the stones quake and
the rocks to break asunder; tell them that wAoremongers and adulterers God will judge; nay, let
the.world follow them with a cry of infamy, and
reproach, and shame; yet all this awakes them
not: they will scarce open their eyes, except it




THE DEAD SLEE  OF THE WORLD.    115
be in the twilight, as Solomon saith, to seek food
for their lusts; until God cast them  upon the
bed of shame and sorrow and scorn and curse,
from which they shall never rise again. It is a
lamentable thing that a man's conscience, hearing this, should not apply it to his heart; that
he should dare to shut his eyes, and dare still to
cast himself on his bed of wickedness, not thinking what will be the issue of it.
And so, likewise, there is a monstrous generation of drunkards-monsters against nature,
for no unreasonable creature so much extinguisheth the noblest gifts of nature as they. These
cast themselves upon the bed of surfeiting and
excess, where no covering is large enough to hide
their shame.  Let a man speak to them  and
advise and counsel them, there is no hearing of
him while they are at their feasts or in their
cups.  Nay, let God speak to them, and pinch
them in their bodies, in their strength, in their
estates, let the Lord make them feel the smart,
be their dangers never so near, they will not forsake their abominable course.  Though they be,
as Solomon describes them  notably, in most
extreme peril, yet they will not be roused: as he
that lieth in thle midst of ZIhe sea, upon the top
of a mast.  They have stricken me, and I was
not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it
not: when shall I awake?  I will seek it yet
again.  He will follow his cups still.
The like may we say of a number of Sabbathbreakers, that cast themselves upon the bed ofi




116    THE DEAD SLEEP OF THE WORLD.
profaneness and atheism; sometimes, for form
and fashion, they will come to the temple, perhaps, and listen a little to the word spoken; but
presently you shall see that they cast themselves
fast asleep, as Eutychus, who, when at midnight
Paul was preaching, fell from the loft and was
taken up dead. But there is this difference, that
was at midnight, these will do it at mid-day.
So little have men gained of instruction, and of
the knowledge and fear of God.  They can
scarce keep their eyes and their ears open, to
hear one quarter of what God saith to them for
their own good.
What shall I say of those unjust, injurious,
usurious persons, whose jaws are as knives to cut
those that they deal with?  Those that use
injustice in their weights, in their wares, in all
that they touch; that use any manner of deceit,
for the defrauding of their brethren; and then
cast themselves upon the bed of their mischief,
and solace themselves in their present unjust
gains and unlawful riches.
Let a man speak to these, and tell them their
estate, out of the Scripture; alas! they hear not.
Deal with them as we deal with men in a swoon;
rub them and chafe them, pinch them and wring
them, if it be possible to make their consciences
feel; alas! such a man dies ill our hands; there
is no life to be got in him.  All that we can get
from such a wretch, so bound up in his own selflove and his temporal wealth, is a rude repulse,
8A brush or a blow.  This senseless man lays




THE DEAD SLEEP OF THE WORLD.   117
about him, he knows not upon whom: the love
of riches hath blinded his eyes, and closed them
in a dead sleep.
In one word, when I consider the secure
course of the multitude of men amongst whom we
live, it seems as if they had found that cave of
sleep which the poets feign and speak of; a place
very fit for these persons; a cave of sleep, as
they describe it, where sun never shines; a place
far remote from all company, where the houses
have no doors, for fear the hinges should wake
them, where they suffer no cocks, nor clocks, nor
nothing that may hinder them from sleep. For
the generation of men that I speak of, they are a
kind of people that are loose, and lazy, and
sleepy, and lascivious, that will not endure any
clocks nor bells, nor any artificers that use tools
and hammers, to knock and disturb them.
But why do you speak these words?  They
seem strange to us.  What have we to do with
such people?
Yet you, yourselves, shall say that they be
true in the application.
For do we not see most men, except only a
few, whom the Lord hath taken into his own
teaching, that they cannot abide the place of the
sunshine, the place where the light of grace
shineth?  Do we not see them  absent themselves upon every occasion from the house of
God, and from  the means and ordinances of
grace?  And do we not see that they cannot
abide the society of godly men, of religious




118    THE SLEEP OF CHRIST'S CHURCHB
people, who fear God, and deal truly with them,
in exhortations and admonitions and loving rebukes?  They will none of these.  How ready
and willing are they to chase away, if it were
possible, all the Lord's servants and prophets,
that they may not cry against their sins, that
they may not awaken them, nor come near them.
And for the ministry of the law, which Jeremiah
calls a hammer, to break the hard heart, and to
knock and rap the sleepy soul, it is an intolerable
thing.  They cannot endure this hammer, they
cannot abide these dogs that bark against their
sins: whereas dumb dogs, that can neither bark
nor bite, they can like well enough. Somewhat
they would have, some apology for religion; but
they choose an outward fashion, and flatter themselves with smooth things; and those men that
speak against their sins, that discover the true
state of their lives and souls, these they cannot
endure.  Now tell me if these men live not in a
carnal sleep-if they are not dwelling in the cell
and cave of darkness, where they desire to sleep
for ever.
But, to come from these natural men, let us
consider, in the second place, that not only are
these unregenerate worldlings cast into a dead
sleep, but that even Christians are also overcome
with sluggish indolence.  Is it not a wonder
that the disciples of Christ, that men so near to
the side of their Master, that men in the midst of
danger and temptation,-is it not a wonder that
they should not watch one hour with Christ?




THE SLEEP OF CHRIST'S CHURCH.    119
Let us then, that are infinitely behind the disciples in grace, beware much more of a careless
security: let us rate ourselves for the heaviness
and dulness of our hearts.
But because men are baptized and hear sermons, &c., they will not believe that they are
asleep: let us therefore consider whether they
that hear the word, and are professors of the life
of grace, and are already awakened, may not be,
notwithstanding all this, in so dangerous a state
of indifference that it may rightly be called
sleep.
Observe then, that this is one mark of a man
that is asleep,-he hears not, he understands not
the things spoken to him. And so it is with the
sleepy heart and conscience: it hears not, 6r it
understands not that it hears.  It is one judgment upon wicked men that the Book of God is
clasped to them: they read and hear, but they
discern not: if the book be open, yet their heart
is clasped fast, and they get no good by it. And
this is not the least part of the misery upon the
saints-that the book is not so open to them, nor
do they so understand and discern that which is
in it, as they might.
We hear the word, many of us, many times,
and we seem to receive it; but yet, who is he
that may not find in himself, that the sleep and
security of his mind and soul make him  not
much to attend and regard it? And so it comes
to pass, that God's word that we hear hath no
effect upon us: we are overpowered by the sleep




1t20    THE SLEEP OF CHRIST S CHURCH.
and sluggishness of earthly cares, instead of
maintaining that we hear, and framing ourselves.according to it.
Again, a man that sleeps, you shall know it
by this; he doth not mind his ordinary business;
he neither troubles his head nor his hands with
it; his business sleeps with himself, for while he
sleepeth he can do nothing else. So hereby we
may know ourselves to be in the sleep of sin,
when we give not our serious thoughts to God,
and to the practice of piety and godliness: this
is an argument of sleep and slumber in us. The
mind of man should intend the principal thing
for which God hath put us in the world; and
when we give not our thoughts to God, and
mind not the things of God's kingdom, it is
a sign we are asleep.  When we move not,
nor stir our hands and our feet in the way
of God's commandments, it proceeds from this
sleepiness and drowsiness; whereas would we be
wise for ourselves, and awake as we should, we
should neither be idle nor unfruitful in the work
of the Lord; we should ever be doing something
that might glorify God and further our own
reckoning. But this is the sign of a sleepy person;
in the main and principal things his heart is not
upon them; his hands and feet move not in the
ways of God; he works not to the principal end
for which he came into the world.
Once more, you shall know a sleepy man by
this; he knows not of the passing of the time,
but so'much time as he sleeps he wastes: it is as




THE SLEEP OF CHRIST'S CHURCH.    121
the time of death to him: for what is sleep but
the shadow of death? Even so it is with many
of us, that profess the teaching of grace.  Alas!
how do we waste time insensibly, and pass away
the time without profit! Some feast away the
time, others play it away, and spend it in amusement-days and weeks and months togetheras if we had received time only for recreations,
and sports and pleasures; and not rather that
we might further our repentance and our reckoning, and help the servants of God, and get oil in
our lamps and faith in our souls, and patience
against the time of trouble, and assurance of a
blessed inheritance, when we shall be turned out
hence.  Time is given us for these ends, and yet
we, silly as we are, devise pastimes to ourselves,
as if our life did not pass away as a weaver's
shuttle /
Alas, brethren, we may speak to the shame
and sorrow of many that have exchanged their
care of godliness for sensual indulgences; that
have exchanged their seeking of God, in the
appointed means, for company and good fellowship and drunkenness.  Let the Lord's mariners
come to such, and say: IFhat meanest thou, 0
sleeper? arise, call upon thy God: why dost thou
not do thyfirst works? why art thou lazy? And
they will grow angry, as Jonah was, who thought
he did well to be anyry unto death.  This is the
misery of many that live under the teaching of
the Gospel, in the light of the Gospel: they cannot bear to be awakened from their slumber.




122        " AWAKE OUT' OF SLEEP!"
To draw to a conclusion. The consideration
of this point serves to rouse, and to raise us from
this sleep and security, this slumber that is in the
best of us.  And know, my brethren, I speak
not now to those that are out of the church, and
those that are notoriously wicked and scandalous,
and rebellious to good counsel, but I speak to
those that live in the bosom of the church, that
possess goodness and godliness; yea to those
that are disciples, and are near the side of Christ:
let this exhortation be to them, to raise and
rouse themselves out of this sleep.  It is time,
saith the Apostle, to awake out of sleep.  The
suni of this exhortation I will propound, and so
conclude.
First, consider how unprofitable a man, a
Christian man is, when he is asleep. What is a
man when he is asleep?  But that there is hope
of awaking, and coming again to the actions of
life, he is no better than a plant, that hath nothing but being and nourishment.  A  waking
beast is more profitable.   So, when we sleep
and slumber, and toss ourselves in dead security,
how unprofitable are we to God's glory and to
our own selves!
Secondly, consider, when a man sleeps in sin,
how unfit he is for any Christian duty and exercise, for the main parts of godliness and Christianity. How unfit is a sleepy man for the actions
of life and of his calling.  And how unfit and
unable and indisposed is a man that sle
sin, to the actions of spiritual life.




( AWAKE OUT OF. SLEEP!        123
There be some main parts and branches of our
general calling to which this sleep makes us
unable.
The first of them is the exercise of godliness,
the main duty in the profession of a Christian.
For how can a Christian exercise himself in his
praying, in his hearing, in his reading, while he
sleeps?  If these duties be done coldly, what
are they worth?  Actions that are done in a
man's sleep, they come to nothing.  So a man
that sleeps in sin, let him do never so many good
actions, they are of no value.
A second main branch of our Christian calling, is the spiritual combat to be maintained
against our corruptions. Now, alas! how unfit is
a sleepy man, either to expect or to repel an
enemy.  When he is asleep, he lies open to all
disadvantage. Sisera himself, a strong and noble
captain, was so weak that a silly woman, Jael,
slew him  when he was asleep.  Therefore we
know this part of our Christian calling cannot
hold, as long as we sleep in sin.
Another part and duty of Christianity is to
expect our Master's return, to wait for the
coming of our Lord, that we may enjoy that
sweet blessedness that he hath promised. Now,
how unfit must a sleepy man be to prepare and
watch for his Master's coming, and to set things
in order. Thus we see in these particular main
duties of Christianity, they cannot be performed
by men that are asleep, and therefore we had
need to wake ourselves. If we will either honour




12^4      "' AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP!
God or profit ourselves; if we will be fit to do
service to God, or to his church; we must keep
ourselves awake, and bestir ourselves in the exercises and duties of Christianity.
Thirdly, consider, while we sleep and are secure, the enemy never sleeps-he is then most
watchful against us.  We may sleep, and think
we do well to take our ease, but Satan sleeps
not.  We have a watchful enemy to deal with.
And then he hath some advantage by our
sleeping.  The enemy sows tares while men
sleep: he comes into the field of the heart, where
the word of God, the good seed, is sown, and
what doth he do there?  He sows a crop of
thorns, and they make the heart of the believer
like the field of Solomon's sluggard: Ipassed by
the field of the slotlful, and lo, it was all grown
over with thorns, &c.  Thus is the heart that is
neglected, of a man that is sleepy and secure in
sin.  When do robbers and thieves assault the
house?  In the dead of the night, when they
may take men at advantage, in their first sleep.
Shall thieves and burglars watch at midnight to
break the house and cut men's throats, and wilt
not thou watch to save thyself?
Further, consider, as the enemy never sleeps,
so God's mercy never sleeps.  God's mercy is
ever watching over us to do us good; and it
watcheth to keep us watchful: for what should
all the mercies of God do to us, but to keep us
watchful?   Our God that we serve is not as
Baal, the god  of idolaters,-Peradventure  he




"AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP.!"          12S
sleepeth, and  must be awaked.   No, no, the
Strength that keepeth Israel neither slumbers
nor sleeps.  Therefore let not Israel slumber
nor sleep: because God watcheth over his children, let them watch with him, and keep themselves near to him.
And if this will not move thee, then consider, as God's mercy sleeps not, so God's judgments sleep not. The Apostle saith of those that
were led away by false teachers, Their damnation
sleepeth not. God's judgments are always'waking:
thou mayest sleep on both sides in sin, but God's
judgment sleepeth not.  And thou that art the
Lord's, if thou sleep, know that correction and
chastisement sleep not, and they will awake
thee: thou wert better to awake by slighter
means.
To conclude all, consider that we  are all:
going surely to meet the mortal sleep of death;
and if, when that meets us, our consciences shall
tell us that we have also a spiritual sleep within
us, that we carry a spiritual sleep to meet that
mortal sleep, what a miserable and  mournful
state will that be.  When the heart of a man or
woman that is about dying shall speak aloud,
and witness against his master,-Oh thou that
hast been a sluggish and sleepy Christian, thou
that hast had good means, but hast not kept
thy watch,-thou wouldest sleep in spite of the
exhortations of the word, and now thou shalt
sleep the sleep of death for ever.
How many are there who, when they come




126        "A AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP!
to grapple on their death-bed with that mortal
sleep, cry, Oh!that I had but one day, but one
hour more, that I might awaken and strengthen
the things that are ready to die, and that it
might be better with me than it is! But alas,
now their short day is passed, and one perpetual
night cometh, and it is too late to awake out of
sleep.
Therefore, let not time go, but know  that
that mournful day must come upon us; we must
meet that mortal sleep.  Let us labour to shake
off spiritual sloth and drowsiness of soul, and to
make our peace in the meantime, that conscience
may witness with us, and for us, at the day of
judgment.  Let us labour to be watchful, and to
be ready for the Lord, and to have our accounts
settled, that when he cometh and reckoneth with
us, we may not be found wanting.




SERMON VI.
CHRIST'S PRECEPT AND PROMISE;
OR,
SECURITY AGAINST DEATH.
JOHN VIII. 51.' VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU, IF A MAN KEEP MY
SAYING HE SHALL NEVER SEE DEATH."
IT is not long,   men and brethren, since Death
rode in triumph through this city, and did bear
down all before him: he locked up your houses,
pulled down your windows, and made the wealthiest among  you put upon them  the semblance
of bankruptness, by locking  up  their doors,
and turning their backs to their houses, and running away: so it played the tyrant then.  There
died thousands a week; and the grave, that always crieth Give, give, was almost choked with
carcasses.  Death served himself so fast, that tile
prison could scarce hold the prisoners: it might
* This sermon appears to have been preached in
London, in the year 1626, when the plague, which in the
preceding year had carried off no less than 35,450 persons,.
had mercifully been removed.




128        WHO SPEAKS THE WORDS.
almost have been said then of this city, as once it
was said of Egypt, There was not a house where
there was not one dead.
Now, it hath pleased God to show you more
favour, and men die but by scores. Death goeth
his old pace, and takes away a few, secretly,
without public observation: but death is amongst
you still, and will be so long as sin is amongst
you; and therefore it can never be unseasonable
for me to speak, and for you to hear something
that may arm you against this last enemy; which,
though he make not such a stir in these times of
less mortality, yet he will certainly take us all
away, one or two at a time: and who can tell but
he may soon be among the fewer hundreds that
die now, as no man could tell whether he should
be among the number of the thousands then?
Death  is always an  enemy, and  always
fighteth against us: and though he urge us not
always with like fury and violence, yet it is a
part of wisdom in us always to hear and to practise that which may secure us'against the danger
of death.  And this is the lesson that the text
teacheth us; a lesson that we ought to learn in
our days of ease and comfort, that we may be
able to practise it when the time of our last contest draweth nigh,-Verily, verily I say unto you,
If a man keep my saying he shall never see death.
Wherein I pray you, first, to take notice who
speaks the words:-the Author of truth; the
Destroyer of death; He that hath vanquished it,
and.overcome the uttermost of its assaults; Our




MEANING OF THE WORDS.          129
Lord Jems Christ, that hath overcome death, and
brought life and immortality to light, he it is
that giveth us this direction for the avoiding of
the hurt of death.
Then, observe the manner of his speaking;
Verily, verily, Isay unto you: with an affirmation,
earnest and redoubled.  He never affirmed anything untrue; therefore that which he speaks is
an undoubted verity. He never spake anything
rashly; therefore that which he affirmed so earnestly is a weighty thing, and of great consequence.  And, in the third place, observe that
which I shall alone insist upon, the matter of his
direction.  This is here comprehended in a proposition which hath two parts    an antecedent
and a consequent.  There is a duty to be done,
that is the antecedent; and there is the benefit
that followeth upon the duty, that is the consequent. If a man keep my saying, he shall never
see death.
You see now the only and perfect remedy
against the evil of- death; that is, to keep the
word and saying of Christ.  If any would know
by what means he may be secured against the
terrible of all terrible things (as one calleth death),
here is a sure and certain rule for him; and he
need not doubt it, for it cometh from the mouth
of Christ: let him keep his saying, and death
shall never do him harm.
I will first interpret these words unto you;
and then make them  good by Scripture and
reason; and then apply them; and at the last
K




13:0       DOCTRINE' OF THE GOSPEL.
commit myself and you and all to the blessing
of God.
The saying of Christ, or the word of Christ,
is the doctrine of his Gospel; which is so called,
because he is the author of it, and the worker of
that salvation which it declareth to us.
Now this doctrine of the Gospel hath two
parts-the first acquainting us with our misery;
the second, with the remedy.  For as the bond
and acquittance both specify the debt, but to
different purposes,-the one to tie the debtor to
the payment, the other to absolve and acquit him;
even so the Law and the Gospel both declare the
misery of man,-the one to tie it fast upon him,
the other to loose him from  it.  The physician
inquireth of the sickness, but only for the cure's
sake.  The judge passeth sentence of condemnation, and so doing, largely rehearseth the crime
and punishment due to the offender: the pardon,
likewise, makes mention of the fault and of the
punishment, but to a different end.  So the
Gospel declareth man's misery, and borroweth so
much of the law as may prove our wretched estate,
and then showeth us that which is the main
and principal part of it, the remedy of our souls.
And this first part of the Gospel St. Paul
succinctly delivereth in a few words: All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. All
have sinned, in such a manner and degree that
they are fallen short of life eternal; for the soul
that sinneth it shall die.
The second part of the Gospel is concerning




DOCTRINE OF THE GOSPEL.         131
the remedy whereby a man may be helped against
this misery; and for that purpose it showeth who
helpeth us, and how he helpeth us, and also
what is to be done by ourselves that we may
obtain and enjoy this help.
The person that helpeth us is the Son, manifest in the flesh: the Son of God, taking our
nature upon him, and clothing himself in the
similitude of sinful flesh: the Eternal Son of the
Father, assuming the very nature of man into the
unity of his person. He being thus, in the same
person, God and man, is the sole Redeemer; neither is there any other name given under heaven
whereby we must be saved, but by his alone.
Again, it showeth us by what means he
saveth us: as the Apostle speaks plainly enough
in the next verse to that I spake of before, being
justified freely by his grace, tbrough the redemption that is in Cchrist Jesus.  To the intent that
he might free us from the wrath of God and the
danger of eternal death, he vouchsafed to be made
sin for us; he satisfied the justice of his Father
by enduring the curse of the law, being born
under the law, that he might suffer its penalty,
and so make atonement for the sins of the whole
world.  Thus Christ, by this perfect satisfaction
made to his Father, and by that perfect righteousness whereby he was subject to the law for
our sakes, hath absolutely and fully delivered us
from  the power of sin and of death, and hath
performed the work of our redemption; by the
merit and value of which we are delivered and




132      CONDITIONS OF THE COVENANT.
redeemed from  this death, and from  all other
evils that cross our eternal happiness.
And, thirdly, the Gospel showeth us by what
means we may become partakers of this happiness and redemption in Christ. It telleth us of
three conditions to be observed by us as members of the covenant of grace; which conditions,
if we faithfully keep them, we shall assuredly enjoy the promised mercy of God in the Gospel of
Christ.
The FIRST condition is repentance; the SECOND
is believing; and the THIRD is our new obedience.
All and each of these is plainly expressed in the
word of God.
FIRST: As for repentance, it is that wherewith John the Baptist began his preaching.  It
is that that our Saviour commanded his apostles
to declare to the Jews, —Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand.  It is that which himself
preached at the first, as St. Mark witnesseth. It
is that which St. Paul began with when he came
to the Athenians, saying,-God now commlandelt
all men everywhere to repent.  This repentance
is that which the Lord requireth absolutely of
the sons of men, as a condition of the new covenant, the covenant of grace, and without which
they cannot possibly be made partakers of the
same. 
And this repentance hath four parts; every
one of which is so needful, that without it the
rest are little worth.
Pirst,:.cnmenting for our sins, and being sorry




REPENTANCE.               133
for our iniquities; as David said of himself, Iwill
declare my iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
And so the Apostle St. James expresseth it,Be qfflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mournin,, and your joy to heaviness. Therefore Christ was sent to preach glad
tidings to the prisoners and captives, and the
opening of the prison to the prisoners, and to
bring the oil of gladness to those that mourn in
Sion.  A man must first be a mourner in Sion,
one that smiteth on his thigh, and saith with
Jeremiah, Woe is me, for my hurt, my wound is
grievous /
Secondly, to this sorrow  must be joined acknowledgment and confession of sin to Almighty
God, for so witnesseth the wise man,-He that
covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso
confesseth, and forsaceth them, shall have mercy.
And St. John telleth us, If we confess our sins,
he isfaithful and just to foryive us our sins. So
you see, confession, as well as sorrow, are absolutely required to obtain remission. A man must
even arraign, and as it were, indict himself before
God: he must plead guilty, acknowledge his
trespasses, whatsoever they be, and judge himself worthy to be destroyed for them, or else he
repenteth not, though he should weep his eyes
out with mourning and lamentation. Many persons weep and groan for the effects of sin, who
have no real sense of its sinfulness.  Many feel
or fear its consequences, who forget their own
guilt and offence against God.




134     CONDITIONS OF THE COVENANT.
The third thing requisite is, a firm purpose
of amendment of life. Whosoever will have God
to accept his tears, and bend a favourable ear to
his humiliation and confession, he must so acknowledge what evil he hath already done, that
he put on a steadfast purpose of doing so no more.
This direction our Saviour Christ giveth to all
whom he pardoneth, - Go, and sin no more.  St.
Paul also teacheth, —Let him that stole, steal no
more. There must be, I say, a settled purpose and
a fixed determination in the soul of every man to
cast off those transgressions that he hath confessed,
and to return to them no more; at least no more
to allow those sits that he hath acknowledged.
Lastly; there must be added to the former
three, or else  these  will avail nothing, an
earnest supplication to God for mercy and forgiveness, through the mediation  of his wellbeloved Son Jesus Christ.  We must specially
and particularly prefer our thoughts and desires
to the  Son, begging mercy  at the Father's
hands, for his sake alone.  We must both pray
for forgiveness and believe that we shall have it.
So David, after the numbering of the people,I have sinned greatly in that I have clone; and
now, I beseech thee, 0 Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant.  Thus did David when he
renewed his repentance, and thus must all men
do when they begin to repent,-Have mercy
upon me, according to the multitude of thy mercies,
and blot out my transgressions.
These are the parts of repentance; and this




REPENTANCE.               135
is the first thing required at our hands, as the
condition of the covenant of grace, without which
we can never obtain life eternal.  And this repentance consisteth, as I have shown you, of sorrow for sin, and acknowledgment of it to God,
with a firm purpose of amendment, and earnest
petition for pardon, for the sake of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
And this is such a doctrine as the law, the
covenant of works, never taught to the sons of
men: nay, verily, it will not admit it: the law
scorns, as it were, to admit repentance; for it
absolutely excludeth all sin- and repentance implieth sin in all degrees and kinds.  If thou
hast once broken the law, repent or not repent,
amend or not amend, be sorry or not sorry, thou
shalt never be pardoned nor forgiven.  It is a
rough and stern schoolmaster, that will whip and
scourge offending children, though they crave
pardon and promise amendment never so earnestly. It is a rough creditor, that will throttle
the debtor and cast him into prison, though he
confess the debt, and be never so importunate in
asking favour and patience.
But the covenant of grace, it is a sweet doctrine-a comfortable doctrine. Thou hast sinned,
0 man, and broken the law, and fallen from the
favour of God, and all possibility of salvation in
thyself; but come, be sorry for thy sin,-acknowledge it to thy Maker, - resolve to run on in it
no longer, - cry to him for pardon, and he will
graciously forgive thee.




136     CONDITIONS OF THE COVENANT.
This is a sweet doctrine you see, fall of comL
fort and consolation: yet it is a doctrine that
doth honour, as well to the justice of God, as to
his grace and love.  The Lord could not prescribe other conditions for receiving us to favour
but that we should repent. What judge would
so abuse mercy as, having passed sentence of
death upon a malefactor, yet to pardon him and
save him from the halter, if he be not sorry for
his crime nor yet entreateth  for mercy and
favour, and neither confesseth that he hath offended nor promiseth never to do so again?
There is no mercy and pardon for such an one,
because mercy must not oppose justice.  The
blood of Christ, if it were shed a thousand times
over, could never corrupt the justice of God: it
may satisfy it, but not corrupt it; and the justice
of God would be corrupted if it should admit an
impenitent and hard-hearted sinner to favour. It
were a violation of justice to bestow remission of
punishment and an everlasting reward upon him
who would never leave his sins, but still go on to
offend God and trample under foot his authority.
The blood of Christ is of that value that it satisfieth the justice of God, and so causeth him,
upon the penitence and humiliation of a sinner,
and on those conditions alone, to receive him
again to grace and favour.
The SECOND part of the condition required
on our side, for the obtaining of life by Christ, is
Faith.  This we are taught everywhere. Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, saith the Apostle to the




FAIrI.                137
trembling jailor, and thou shalt be saved: and our
Saviour teacheth, This  s ite work of God, that ye
believe on him whom he hath/ sent.
This believing on Christ is, I suppose, nothing
else but a staying and resting and depending
and relying upon the merits and satisfaction of
our blessed Saviour, by the virtue of which to
obtain remission of sins and eternal life and all
good things promised in the new covenant by
God.  He that goeth quite out of himself, forgetteth all his own actions, casteth behind him
whatsoever seemed good in him, and wholly
claspeth on Christ and cleaveth to him, stays on
him, rests on him  for the remission of sins,
and for the favour of God, and for grace and
salvation, this man believeth in the Lord Jesus:
and this man performs that duty which makes
him one with Christ, that causeth him to become
a member of that mystical body whereof Christ
is the head, and that causeth him  to be one
with the Father, and to be the child of God; for
byfaithi are we become the children of God.
This faith in Christ the law doth not teach,
the former covenant would not accept.  What,
to bring to the law the righteousness of another
-the satisfaction of another-and to trust upon
that to be entertained and received! The law
rejects such a plea.  Thou must pay thyself, in
thy own person and with thy own goods; thou
must yield perfect obedience to the law, and fully
accomplish it in thy own person: it will not
receive payment of another for thee: it will not




138     CONDITIONS OF THE COVENANT.
accept satisfaction of the righteousness of another
on thy behalf.
But, oh! the sweetness of the doctrine of the
Gospel. If we have a treasurer that is able and
willing to pay the debt, that will tender and
make payment of it, it is one that will not, under
the new covenant, be refused. He is not ashamed
to call us brethren, and as a brother, he redeems
and ransoms us.  He giveth us the means of
discharging the burdens, so that we only give
him the glory, and be not so absurd as to mix
any action of our own to that payment that he
hath made, fully and completely, for us. This is
a doctrine of sweetness and favour and great
compassion, that though we cannot do it of ourselves, yet God hath promised and engaged in
the covenant of grace to accept us if our surety
will do it for us, so that we give our surety the
glory of being a perfect and able paymaster, and
rely wholly on his satisfaction.
The LAST part of the condition on our side
is, that we yield new obedience to the law, perfectly to obey it; to which we are tied by the
former covenant.
But now this is the obedience of the Gospel,
a thing far different from the obedience of the
law that was formerly required in the old covenant: there a man was tied and bound to obey
perfectly, fully, completely, without any defect:
in a word, he must pay lte uttermost fartiing:
he must do his duty, his whole duty, in all the
parts and degrees, with all fulness of perfection,




NEW OBEDIENCE.             139
absolutely, without any defect or want, without
any imperfection at all.  An impossible labour
for corrupted man; a service that none cculd ever
reach to, all having lost those abilities that God
gave man at the first.  But then cometh the
sweet Gospel, the doctrine of grace and favour,
of tender compassion, and saith thus,-If ye be
willing and obedient, ye shall eat the fat of the
land. If ye, througyh the Spirit, do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live: but if ye, though
never so much in appearance, under the covenant
of grace, live after theflesh, ye shall die.
Ye see, then, that new obedience is required,
absolutely, as a condition of the Gospel, for the
obtaining of everlasting happiness, for the escaping of death: and St. John saith, —If we walk in
the liygt, we havefellowshfip one with another, and
the blood of Christ p/ryeth us from all sin.  So
that this walking in the light and new obedience,
is absolutely required of all those that intend to
be made partakers of Christ and his benefits.
They must give up their souls and bodies as instruments of His glory, and not serve sin any
longer in the lusts thereof. They must not give
their members as weapons of unrighteousness to
sin, but live as becometh them that are one with
Christ; mortifying all the lusts of the flesh, and
quickening themselves, or being quickened by
him, to practise all good things required in his
word, and to obey all his commands, which were
first written in Adam's heart, and then in tables
of stone.  This new obedience is the same, in




140      CONDITIONS OF THE COVENANT.
substance, that was required in the former covenant; but now  with a gracious acceptation of
endeavour after perfection, instead of perfection
itself. The former tied us to the obedience of all
that was required in all fulness, and then promised
acceptance; but the obedience that the Gospel
requires is a striving to this perfection in truth
and sincerity; a desiring and labouring after it,
which if we do, it promiseth acceptance through
the perfection of Christ, in and by which our
imperfections are done away.
Now, brethren, you understand what this
saying of the Lord Christ's is, by virtue of the
keeping of which we can alone be secured from
the hurt of death.
What is it to keep Christ's saying?  It is to
inform  our judgments in the understanding of
these truths, and to assent to them as truths; to
practise and follow them; to do the duties which
we have heard; to practise the doctrines of
repentance, and faith, and new obedience.
I confess our Saviour doth include all in this
-Repent and believe the Gospel: but for the
more clear explaining of it, we make new obedience a thing of itself, and not included in the
doctrine of repentance.  For obedience is the
acting and fulfilling of that whereof repentance is
a resolute wishing and desiring. A man cannot
possibly rest on Christ for salvation till he hath
so asked pardon, as he resolveth amendment;
and when he hath this resolution and relieth on
Christ for the pardon of his sin, then from him




BENEFIT OF KEEPING CHRIST S SAYING. 141
he receiveth power to amendment of life, and so
his purpose cometh to action and his desire to
execution. Herein only is the difference between
repentance and faith, and obedience; obedience
springeth of repentance, and is brought about by
faith.
This, then, is the doctrine of the Gospel, the
saying of Christ; and to keep it, is to know and
believe and to follow it: as Christ saith, -If ye
know these thinys -there is one part of the duty,
— appy are ye if ye do them, - there is another
part; for they can never be done except they be
done as known.
Let us say somewhat now of the second part
of the proposition: viz. the benefit that followeth
upon the duty of keeping Christ's saying, and
for the obtaining of which the duty is necessary:
- he shall never see death.
What is it to see death? and what death is
meant here?
To see good things, in the Scripture phrase,
is as much, oftentimes, as to enjoy them, to have
the benefit and commodity of them, to receive
them, to entertain them; Withfout holiness no
man shall see God; that is, no man shall enjoy
God: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall
see God; that is, they shall enjoy God.
On the contrary, to see a thing that is termed
evil, is to be annoyed with it; to have the hurt
of it lying upon a man, and pressing him down;
as they (in Jeremiah) said, Let us go into Egypt,
where we shall not see sword nor famine; meaning




142   BENEFIT OF KEEPING CHRIST S SAYING.
that they should not suffer those evils: so, by
seeing death, is meant suffering hurt and damage
from death.
And by death is meant both natural, and, as
we may term  it, supernatural, that is, eternal
death.  For the keeping of Christ's sayings so
freeth men from the latter, as that they never
come near it; and it so freeth them  from the
former, that they never can suffer harm or loss
by it. The first death, which is the separation of
the body from the soul, is no death, if it separate
not from God; which it can never do if a man
keep the sayings of Christ: therefore, though his
body be taken from his soul, yet he seeth not
death so as to have any hurt by it; he feeleth no
ill by it; nay, it is good to him, for it is a passage from misery to rest and felicity.
Thus ye have these words interpreted to you,
as faithfully as I know how.
And now I will make proof of the doctrine
thus  explicated: namely, that thus to keep
Christ's sayings, to know  and follow the doctrine of the Gospel, is the only sure way to
escape the danger and hurt of death.
St. Peter acknowledged as much when he
said to the Lord Jesus Christ that he had tAe
words of eternal life; for then, he that keepeth
those words is certainly safe against the hurt of
death.  So the angel spake to the apostles whom
the Pharisees had imprisoned, when he brought
them forth of prison, and bade them speak to the
people the words of this life: for since Christ's




" HE SHALL NEVER SEE DEATH."    143
doctrine is the word of life, it must needs follow
that the keeping thereof is a perfect antidote
against the poison of death.  And St. Peter,
when he gave an account to the rest of the
apostles of his going to the Gentiles, said, that
an angel appointed Cornelius to send for him,
that he might speak words to him, whereby himself and his house should be saved: and those
words which cause a man to be saved, you know,
will give him freedom enough from death.
The point being thus proved by express texts,
I come now to show two reasons for it. The first
reason is delivered by the Apostle St. John, in
the first epistle and second chapter, where he
saith,-  Let that abide in you which ye have
heard from the beginning (that is, the doctrine of
the Gospel which Christ taught, - the sayins of
Christ): if that which ye have heard from  the
beyinning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.  He that
hath  fellowship with  the Son  and with the
Father can never see death, for God is the
Fountain of life: therefore those that are one
with  him, and continue in  him, cannot see
death; no more than he can be overwhelmed
with darkness that is where the sun shineth
fully, no more than the body can be dead as
long as it hath communion with the soul. Those
in whom  the word of Christ remaineth and
stayeth, they are assured that they shall remain
with the Father and the Son; and therefore,
being united to that that is life-God the Father




144     APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
and the Son, it is impossible that they ever
should be hurt by the first death, or at all taste
of the last.
The second reason is, that the word of Christ
freeth him in whom it remaineth from the power
and hurt of sin, bringing to him both remission
of sins and sanctification; and being free from
sin, the cause of death, it is easy to conclude that
he shall be freed from death itself.  Let a man's
debt be satisfied, let the favour of the prince be
obtained and a pardon granted, the prison shall
not hold him long, he shall never be brought to
the place of execution, but when his gyves are
knocked off he is set at liberty: so, when we are
freed from  the power and guilt of sin by the
work of the Spirit of God, it is impossible that
death should lay hold upon us, as his prisoner, to
carry us to the dungeon of hell, and to hold us
under the wrath of God, and that fiery indignation of his which causeth hell to  be hell.
Therefore, certainly, the words of Christ are an
undoubted truth, and we must rest upon them
without distrust or wavering,-He that keepeth my
sayings shall never see death: for the knowledge,
and believing, and obeying the doctrine of Christ,
is the only way to escape the hurt and ill of death
itself.
Let us make some application of this doctrine
to our souls.: Firs, to stir us up to a. right hearty thankfulness unto Almighty God, who is pleased to
cast our times and days into that age, and those




INCITATION TO THANKFULNESS.    145
places, where the doctrine of the Gospel, this
saying of our blessed Saviour, is so clearly and,
plainly and evidently laid open to us, so frequently and earnestly pressed upon our souls;
where the Lord cometh to declare unto us the
way of life, where he scoreth us out a path that
will bring us quite out of the clutches and danger
of death: this is the happiness of our present age
and place wherein we live. The grace and mercy
of our loving God hath so disposed of us that
we do not live in times of Pap- nism and ignorance,
when there was no news of Christ; nor yet in
places of popish darkness, where the doctrine of
the Gospel is so mixed and darkened with tricks
and devices of man that Christ cannot clearly be
seen.  It is our happiness, I say, that we do not
live  in those places and  times where either
paganism or popery, with their darkness, covered
Christ from  men, and caused them  that they
could not clearly see him nor hear him, and so
not keep his sayings.  Now  grace is offered;
light is tendered to us: we may be saved, we
may escape the danger of damnation, if the fault
be not solely and wholly in our own carelessness
and wilfulness and neglect and abuse of the
means that God hath afforded us.
The heathen men that have not heard of
Christ cannot possibly attain to life, as far as we
can judge by the Scripture.  And it is very
difficult for the Papists, that hear so darkly, and
are told of the doctrine of the Gospel with so
many sophistications, to come to the knowledge
L




146     APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
of salvation. But for us that have the saying of
Christ so plainly and carefully taught and revealed
unto us, we may be saved and may easily see the
way to obtain forgiveness of all our sins.  So we
go beyond them' in blessings, and ought to exceed
them in love and thankfulness.
Oh, blessed be the name of the everliving
God, that beside the peace and plenty and other
temporal benefits wherewith he hath crowned this
unworthy nation of ours, he hath added this
blessing of blessings, this king of favours, to give
us so clear a revelation of the doctrine of salvation
by faith in Christ alone. Blessed be his name,
and let your hearts say Amen to this thanksgiving; and let it be one part of your endeavour
this day to give solemn praise for this unspeakable mercy of his, in making you live in the days
of light, and in the bright sunshine of the Gospel;
and you shall thus prove yourselves to have begun
to keep Christ's saying, if you be thankful for his
making of it known unto you, and for writing it
in your hearts.
Next, I beseech you, let me take boldness to
reprove-I fear, a great number of you-of a sin,
whereof I will make it appear that you are guilty.
Men there are that make large promises to themselves that they shall never be damned; they
shall not go to hell; they hope death shall not
have power to drag them fiom this world to the
place of darkness.
Dost thou hope so?  Come, render a reason
Af thy hope.  To hope without ground is to




REPREHENSION.            147
deceive one's self with extreme folly.  As for example -there are a number of prisoners in Newgate, or in some other prison: if these should
hope for some man of great wealth to pay their
debts and to save them from  hanging, would
they not be arrant fools, except they could show
some ground for their hope, and some reason for
their expecting such a kindness?  Thou that
hopest thou shalt never see death, come, answer
God in thy conscience,-Dost thou keep the
saying of Christ, or no? Where is the knowledge
of the doctrine of the Gospel? Dost thou believe
that which concerns thee touching thy misery,
and so apply that to thyself to make thee a
penitent sinner? Dost thou believe the doctrine
concerning the remedy, and so apply that to
thyself to make thee perfect thy repentance, by
being not only grieved for sin but taking boldness to confess it and to ask pardon, and by
framing thyself to amendment of life and new
obedience? Dost thou, I say, know this doctrine,
and so know it as to practise it? Then hope and
sparenot: the more thou hopest the better thyhope
is; and the stronger and surer it is the more thou
glorifiest God and the more it shall comfort thee.
But oh, unhappy man, if thou findest not in
thyself the care and power, in some measure, to
do these things, cursed be thy hopes because
they be disgraceful to Almighty God, tending to
make him  a liar and an unjust person, and
because they are dangerous to thine own soul,
tending to rock thee asleep in the cradle of security.




148     APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
Cursed be those unsound and sandy-built hopes
of most men, that never yet applied themselves to
confess and lament their sins; that never applied
themselves to crave pardon and to resolve upon
amendment; that never studied to throw themselves into the arms of God's mercy in Christ for
pardon; that never intended to mortify the deeds
of tAe body and to subdue theflesh with the lusts
thereof: and yet they hope they shall not be
damned.  Thou mayest as well hope that the
Devil shall come out of hell into heaven, as that
thou shalt go out of earth to heaven. If thy hope
be not grounded upon the workings of these
graces, making thee sad and penitent and careful to rest wholly upon Christ for salvation, leading thee diligently in the study of newness of
life; except, I say, thy hope be thus grounded, it
is the vainest thing in the world, and it will
never do thee good at thy last hour.
Brethren, give me leave to tell you that there
are two gospels in the world: the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and the gospel of Beelzebubthe gospel of the Devil that comes from hell and
tendeth to bring men thither. Christ's Gospel is,
Repent and believe and obey, and be saved. The
Devil's gospel is, Say you believe, make yourselves
imagine that you have faith, and then never care
for repentance nor obedience, and you shall be
saved.  Christ's Gospel is summed up thus by
the prophets,-Return to him and live. But the
Devil's goeth thus,-Assure thyself thou shalt
live, though thou care not for repentance.




EXHORTATION.             149
Oh, let not the Devil beguile you with that
false, counterfeit gospel of his; whosoever leaneth
to it shall find it, like the author of it, a liar; and
when he hath trusted to it, that confidence and
hope of his shall be as the spider's web; the
besom  of destruction shall sweep it and him
down to the depth of hell.  Death shall have
dominion over him, and carry him  from  this
present world to the region of darkness into
eternal torment.  He shall see death in the
grimness and terribleness of it; he shall feel it in
all the extremity that the wrath of God can inflict
upon the children of disobedience.
Tiirdly, I have to command and require you,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you
apply yourselves to a thing tending so much to
the honour of him  and to the commodity and
comfort of your own souls.
I have showed you that Jesus Christ hath
revealed a way how you should escape the danger
of death eternal, and the hurt of death natural.
I beseech you now fall a-doing at once, as you
have now been busied in hearing.  To what
purpose is it that you flock to hear sermons and
throng to receive the word, except you lay it up
in your hearts, and apply yourselves to practise?
If thou hast not begun before, now begin: if thou
hast begun before, now resolve to proceed with
more life and courage. Either begin or persist
in the practice of the doctrine of the Gospel.
If thou hast not yet repented, I require thee,
in the name of the living God, to make this hour




150     APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
the first beginning of thy repentance; and apply
thyself to lay the foundation of that work before
thou lay thy head to sleep. Go and call to mind
thy sins, and make thy cheeks wet, at least thy
heart heavy, for the multitude of thy great offences: down on thy knees in thy closet; make thy
confession of them to God; sigh for them; mourn
for them; labour to weep for them; afflict thy soul
with great sorrow and remorse: then cry for pardon
and remission. As the thief begs at the bar for
mercy, so do thou for the forgiveness of thy sins
through Christ Jesus; and put upon thyself a
firm resolution and steadfast purpose to go on no
more in the ways of wickedness, to practise gross
sins no more, nor no more to allow any sin that
thou knowest to be a sin, though it seem never
so small.
Do thus, my brethren, and then you may
and will (it will follow almost of itself) rest on
Christ for salvation.  He that so seeth his own
sins as unfeignedly to lament for them and to
judge himself before God, if he apprehend the
truth of the doctrine of the Gospel, he cannot,
for his life, but come on amain and throw himself down before Christ, to embrace and receive
and entertain him, and lie in his bosom.
And that man cannot for his life, when he
seeth the sweetness of the grace of God in Christ,
but resolve to obey him, and determine to walk
in the ways of holiness, and take pains, and use
industry, for the overcoming of all sin. And by
the virtue of Christ, he shall prosper in this.




EXHORTATION.              151l
I beseech you therefore, set yourselves a-work
about this great business, to get repentance and
faith and new obedience: it is much more needful than sleep, than meat, than attire: there is
nothing in the world so requisite for thy welfare
as these things.
Scrape thou riches together, in the same
quantity that Solomon did, and ten thousand
times more    yet death shall take them all from
thee, within an hundred  or half an hundred
years.  Get wisdom-yet thou shalt see death
after a few years. Take pleasure with as much
greediness as Solomon did once, when he forgat
himself for a space-yet soon thou shalt see death.
These things that the foolish world hunts after
with so much earnestness of desire, will not
secure thee from the sight of the King of fears.
But if thou once get faith and repentance and
new obedience, then thou hast obtained that that
all the riches and honour and pleasures and
learning, or whatsoever seemeth desirable in the
world, will not help their possessors to.
What will you do, brethren; grovel still on
the earth, and still be mad after things that
perish with the using? or will you now begin to
think — I must die; I must shake hands with that
dismal enemy, pale-faced death, that is able to
strike terror into the strongest heart and amazement into the stoutest soul that is not well confirmed: and if this death find me destitute of
true repentance and faith and new obedience, it




152     APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
will seize upon me and drag me before the judgment-seat of God, where I shall be henced away
with a malediction and a curse, and be forced to
take my place with the devil and his angels in
unquenchable flames?  Oh what shall I do then
to secure myself from the great, from the strong
arm of death?  I will repent; I will begin now:
Lord, draw me, help me that I may do it.  I
will believe now: Lord, do thou work faith in
me, thou that requirest it. I will obey: Lord,
enable me to perform such needful duties as thou
commandest me.  Shall this be your practice
when you come home?  Will you thus study to
practise repentance, and faith, and obedience?
and study to cry and call for it, and use all your
endeavour? or what will you do?  Will you be
as idle and careless, as negligent and slothful in
making after these graces, as before?  Will you
be as greedy of the transitory vanities of this life
as in former times? Oh, abuse not the word of
God: if thou go out of the church without a full
purpose to  apply thyself, from  henceforward,
either to begin or to proceed in the practice of
the saying of Christ, then-cursed art thou in thy
hearing; cursed is this hour that thou hast spent
and thy misbestowed labour, thou dissembling
hypocrite.
But if thou labour to practise this of Christ,
namely, to keep his sayings, to repent, to believe,
and to obey, then blessed art thou in thy hearing, and in thy doing, and in thy obedience:




CONSOLATION.              153
happy is the time and the place and all things
that concur to draw  thee  to so  needful a
work.
I pray, brethren, set not your labour upon
gold and silver and money and trash: not upon
the pleasure and delights and contentments of
the world, nor on any other earthly thing: but
mainly and principally, above all things, let your
chief care be for faith and  repentance and
obedience.   If you  strive  for these  things
earnestly and heartily and constantly, as sure as
the Lord is in heaven he will bestow them upon
you, and with them the benefit of benefits, freedom from death.
And now, lastly, I shall speak comfort to those
few that are in the world, that keep these sayings
of Christ. Let them be of good comfort: if their
capital enemy, the King of fears and the King of
afflictions, be held from a possibility of doing them
harm, nothing can harm them.  Him that death
cannot hurt, pain cannot hurt, poverty and disgrace cannot hurt, nothing can hurt him. You
know, if the king of an army be reconciled to a
place he will keep his soldiers from spoiling and
burning and destroying that place. If death be
put out of power to do thee hurt, and God be
reconciled in Christ because thou keepest the
saying of Christ, nothing can hurt thee; thou art
the happiest man under the sun.
Why should the poor, sad, afflicted, grieved,
mourning, lamenting, saints of God, envy them




154     APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
that are rich and jolly and merry worldlings
any of their pleasures and profits, any of those
things wherewith they, like idiots, make themselves laughed at?  What! hath not God given
thee better things than these, that thou shouldest
murmur and whine and weep for want of them?
Remember what St. James saith: Let the
brother of low degree (that is abased and despised
in the world) rejoicein that lie is exalted. This is
the exaltation of the saints; Christ, writing his
Spirit in their hearts and inclining them through
the operation of his Spirit and the powerful work
of his word, to repent and believe, hath freed them
from the danger of death and made them heirs
of eternal happiness and of that bliss that no
tongue can express nor no heart conceive. This
is thy happiness. It is not to be rich, nor to be
great; for these cannot deliver the owner from
the hurt of death natural, nor from the danger of
death eternal: but to have faith and repentance
and obedience; this is riches and exaltation: for
he that hath them  shall not alone escape the
dungeon of eternal darkness, but be advanced to
the palace of everlasting felicity.  The saint is
the happy man; the penitent believer and true
practiser of Christian obedience, he is the sole
and only happy man under the sun: for whatsoever storm he suffereth in this present world, he
shall certainly escape death and obtain glory.
Bless God and bless thyself in God; magnify
him, rejoice in him, take comfort in thy lot and




CONSOLATION.              155
portion.  Death, that devoureth kings, that destroyeth emperors, that conquers captains and
men of valour, shall not be able to approach thee
for thy hurt; for thou keepest the saying of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoice, I say, in this; magnify him that is the author of it; and account
thyself happy that thou hast received from him
so excellent a gift, as to be in some measur(
enabled to keep his saying.
Yea, if it were so, may some Christian heart
object, then I should esteem myself the happiest
man alive: but alas, where is this repentance you
describe? where is this new  obedience in me,
that still, still find myself captive and thrall to
this and that and the other lust and passion
and corruption?  Where is, I say, that repentance, when I find so much sin? where is that
faith, when I find so much wavering and quaking,
so much aptness to distrust and almost to despair?
Where is it?  It may be in thy heart, for all
thy complaining: tell me, when thou findest
those corruptions whereof thou speakest, and for
which thou exclaimest thus against thyself, dost
thou allow them or not? dost thou confess them
and lament them, or not?  Art thou sorry for
them?  Is it such a sorrow as draws thee to
God  and drives thee out of thyself? such as
makes thee to fall before him and judge thyself
worthy to be damned, and to submit to his justice? Is it such a sorrow as makes thee confess,
and then purpose amendment? such as makes




156    APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
thee cry to him for power and strength? such as
makes thee rest on him for ability?  Dost thou
determine still, still to amend that which still
troubleth thee? Dost thou continue to fight with
the lusts of thy flesh by the spiritual weapons
that God hath ordained for thee?  Then I say
to thee thy repentance, thy faith, thy new obedience, may be true, though they be weak. When
a man hath a shaking, palsied hand, yet it is a
hand.  A sick, weak man that lies crying and
groaning, and can scarce turn himself between
the sheets, is yet a man, a living man.  A poor
child that is new-born and hath nothing almost
that discovereth reason, but the shape of a man,
that poor child is a reasonable creature. Faith
beginneth with weak apprehensions and faint
leanings on Christ.  Deep godly sorrow  and
other parts of repentance may bring small fruits
at first, and amendment of life may proceed but
gradually; but if it be true and sincere, and constant,-if thou go on and continue, daily renewing thy repentance and obedience and faith, and
striving by God's help to get the increase of these
graces and to be upright and sincere in them,
then thou art blessed notwithstanding thy weakness: take comfort in a little, and be thankful
for it: God will give more; and the only way to
get more is to take comfort in a good measure
in that thou hast; and the way to take comfort
is to labour to increase these graces. Let not
the weak, trembling, feeble Christian be troubled
in mind as if he had no grace, because he hath




CONSOLATION.               157
but a little; as if he did not at all keep Christ's
sayings, because he keepeth them  but a little.
He is a scholar in the school, that is but just
entered: he is a student in the college, that
beginneth but in a low book with the first rudiments of logic; and he is a member of a family,
that began to be an apprentice but yesterday,
and comes not yet to a deep knowledge of his
art and  mystery, but is glad  to  do  sorry
work.
Believe it, brethren, there may be great conceits of repentance and believing and obeying,
that may make a man good in his own eyes, and
yet be altogether false. There may be a small
measure of repentance; but if one be humbled in
the smallness of that measure, and labour and
desire and pray and beg for the increase of that
measure, and take pains to edify himself in it by
the means of God, then it is true and upright,
and shall save him.
It is not with the covenant of grace as it was
with that of works.  The covenant of works, the
law, required perfection of obedience to all the
things prescribed: a man must not only love
God, but love God perfectly.  But the Gospel
satisfieth itself with accepting earnest endeavour
to the thing required.  If there be repentance,
though it be not in full perfection; if thou believe, though not with the fullest measure of
believing; if thou obey, though not in the highest
degree of obedience; this Gospel, this sweet, this




158    APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
favourable, gracious doctrine, giveth thee consolation enough.  Go home therefore, comforted
in the beginning, and resolve to proceed, and
know that thou shalt enjoy that which Christ
hath promised- freedom  from  condemnation;
Thou shlalt never see death.




SERMON  VII.
THE PLATFORM  OF CHARITY;
OR,
THE LIBERAL MAN'S GUIDE.
GALATIANS, VI. 10.
"AS WE HAVE THEREFORE OPPORTUNITY, LET US DO GOOD
UNTO ALL MEN, ESPECIALLY UNTO THEM WHO ARE OF
THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH."
IN the sixth verse of this chapter the Apostle
begins to persuade the Galatians to beneficence,
and in the ninth verse he giveth them great encouragement in this course: Let us not be weary,
saith he, in well doing: for in due season we shall
reap, if we faint not. The words I have now read
to you are an inference upon that which went
before. Seeing that, if we hold out, we shall in
due time reap the harvest of our labour, therefore
as we have opportunity, let us do good unto all,  c.
As we have opportunity. The old translation
reads it, as we have time; but the word signifieth
more: there is a chronos and a kairos; a time,
and an opportunity of time: there is a time,
taken in the largest sense; and there is an opportunity of time, that a man may make to himself




160             EXPLICATION.
for the performing of any duty that God requires
of him.  This must be understood with reference
to what was spoken of before,- We shall reap, if
we faint not.  There is a time for all things: a
time to sow, and a time to reap.  Now is the
sowing time: let us, while it lasts, embrace the
opportunity of doing good.
Do good. This precept is of large extent; of
as large an extent as the law.  All is good that
is agreeable to God's will revealed. But in this
place it is limited to some particular acts of beneficence towards men, towards the servants of
God, which are then said to be good deeds, when
both the action and the affection are according
to the rule.
First, there must be deeds. It is not enough
to speak good or to mean good; we must do
good.  Solomon compares such charity as goes
no further than outward expression to clouds and
winds without rain.
And secondly, these actions must have a good
rise: they must proceed from a good affection,
or else they deserve not the name of good actions.
Make the tree good, and the fruit shall be good;
the actions are not good if the affections be
nought.  And therefore the same God that requires beneficence, commands benevolence also;
a good will as well as a good work: he would
have men become tender-hearted, and put on
bowels of compassion; that they should sympathise with others, and be like affectioned to
them; to mourn with those that mourn, and to




EXPLICATION.             161
be with those that are bound as being bound
with them.  This our Saviour called being merciful: Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father
also is merciful: he saith not only —do works of
mercy; but, be merciful: do such works from a
merciful heart, from bowels of compassion that
yearn towards those that are in necessity.  That
is the second thing.
But then, thirdly, these actions and these
affections whence they rise, must both hold conformity with the law.  There is no good but
what is conformable to the rule of goodness,
that is the written word of God; and therefore
all those will-worships and almsdeeds which are
done to be seen of men, are not good works,
because they want that good rule that should
uphold and make them  so.  Good deeds, then,
are such actions as rise from a sanctified affection
and receive ground and warrant from God's will,
revealed in his holy word.
There is yet a third term. —Do good to all men.
What, doth the Apostle mean that every man
should receive the fruits of our beneficence?
There are some men notoriously idle and wicked,
and rather to be punished than relieved. The
Apostle means not such, for he giveth a caution:
If any man work not, neither shall he eat.  Relieve not him that hath ability to get and will live
idly and unprofitably, but do good to all men,
that is, to all men so far as you see them in extreme want, and unable to help themselves.  If
their lawful necessities call upon your charity,
M




162             EXPLICATION.
then all men must be looked to; but especially
the household of faith.
By household of faith is here meant the multitude of true believers; and not only those that dwell
near us and about us, but those that are dispersed
throughout the whole earth, —all members of the
church of God. All the saints of God, in what
difference or distance soever one from another,
yet they are of the same household together, of
the same Church of God.  So the Church is
called the House of God. Christ so speaketh of
the church triumphant,-In my Father's house are
many mansions: and St. Paul exhorts Timothy
how he should carry himself in the House of
God-that is, in the church militant. As for the
saints that be above us, they need not our good
works and actions, therefore the household here
intended is the church militant, and that is called
God's household, because there is such a communion among believers as among those that
abide in the same house, that live under the same
government, that eat at the same table.
So then you have the meaning of all the parts
of the text, which is no more than this: Take
those opportunities which you can obtain to do
such actions of mercy as tend to the relief of
those that want them.  Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might, or the occasion may slip by unprofitably. If there be extreme necessity, do good to all, but if you may
make choice of persons to whom you shall do
good, then choose the household of faith.




DIVISION OF THE TEXT.       163
Thus you. have the substance and the meaning
of the words, and in them you may observe these
three parts:The FIRST is a determination or limitation of
time, to which the saints are tied in the performance of the duties that are enjoined them,-As
you have opportunity, and while you have time.
SECONDLY, there is a declaration of duty,do good.
THIRDLY, there is a description of the persons
to whom  this good must be done-first, more
generally, do good to all; and then more particularly, especially to the household offaith.
First then, embrace the times and opportunities of doing good. You shall not always have
life to do good; and it may be, if you have life,
you shall not always enjoy means and ability to
do good.  While you have life therefore, while
you enjoy means, embrace these opportunities:
do good.
Do good while you have life; let your good
works go before you.  Do things while you live,
and defer not the performance of them till your
death.  Mlake to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may
receive you into everlasting habitations. Not only
that which is unlawfully gotten is called unrighteous mammon, but that which is unlawfully kept
is unrighteous to you; and if you would dispose
of it rightly, do so now, that when your time
and your worldly possessions come to an end, you
may be received into everlasting habitations. It




164     OPPORTUNITIES OF DOING GOOD.
was the folly of the five virgins that they took
not the opportunity of life (while the Bridegroom
tarried): they left all to the last, and hoped to
effect that in a trice which would have given
themn employment through all the days of their
lives; and therefore they came short of heaven:
the gates were shut against them, as you see,
when the Bridegroom came.
If any man  imagine, because it is said,
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for
they rest from  their labours, and their works do
follow them, that therefore it matters not so long
as a man doth good at his death, though he may
have neglected the ways of goodness all his life;
let him  know  that in this text is not meant the
actions of men, but the fruits of their actions.
Their works follow them, not the works they have
deferred until death, but the fruit of those works
they did while they were living, and of which
they received not the benefit before.  It is more
good and pleasant by far to have the actions go
before and the fruits and comfortable effects to
succeed and follow after.
But if any man yet suppose that he may
make that up in his will, which he hath neglected
all his life long, and though he have lived miserably, covetously, and unprofitably, may hope by
charitable bequests to make at the last fit compensation and satisfaction for neglect of former
duties, this is a pitiful delusion; for this is a sign
of infidelity,-that a man will not trust God,
for fear he should want in his life-time: what




THE TIME OF LIFE.          165
is the reason else that he defers doing good
in health, unless it be for fear of wanting himself? such distrust hath he in the providence
of God.  Besides, the same God which bids thee
do good when thou hast opportunity, and while
thou enjoyest the advantage of life, he expects it
now; and it were no good deed, no gift at all,
to resign that which thou canst keep no longer:
this were no sacrifice acceptable to God, that
costs thee nothing. It may be truly said of many
that neglect the times of doing good while they
live, and would supply the defect when they die
by the large benevolence of their wills, their will
is good but their deed is nought.
But thou must not only take the time of thy
life,-thou must use also the opportunity of thy
means and of thy estate, while there is yet a
price in thine hand. The time may come when
you may desire to do good but cannot, wanting
an estate and opportunities whereby to do it. It
is the vanity of men that they still forbear and
stay while their estates increase, pretending that
they shall be better able to do good, and to
extend themselves more largely by and by: but
why wilt thou trust in a thing of nought? Riches
make themselves wings as an eagle, and fly away;
thou hast them now in thy possession and retainest them fast in hold, but presently they are
departed.  Solomon, when he exhorteth men to
cast their bread upon the waters, he gives them
this reason,-Thou knowest not what evils God will
bring upon the earth.  Thou knowest not what




166    OPPORTUNITIES OF DOING GOOD.
judgments and calamities God intends to bring
upon that nation where thou livest, upon the
city, upon the family wherein thou dwellest,
upon thy person or estate.
Observe the case of Job: he discourseth of
this very point.  He was now a man stripped of
all he had,-but the other day the richest man in
the East.  In a moment all his goods, his cattle,
his children, were taken away.  Yet there was
one thing that ministered comfort in the day of
his affliction, and it was this: saith he,-If 1 have
caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten
my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten
thereof, &c.: if I have not done thus and thus,
then let the Lord's fiercest judgment fall upon
me: but herein consists my comfort-my conscience bears me witness, that when I had wealth
and estate, and enjoyed the goods of this life, I
did good; I was afather to the poor,feet to the
lame, and eyes to the blind. I did all the good
that lay within the compass of my power when
I had the means to do it.
Little dost thou know, whosoever thou art,
how soon God may turn his hand upon thee,
when thou mayest be as Job was on the dunghill, deprived of all comforts. What should be
thy consolation then? that when thou hadst wealth
thou didst good with it. It will but add to thy
affliction, if having had great possessions, thou
didst neither glorify God thereby nor do good
to men.
Now this point serveth to the reproof of many




THE TIME OF LIFE.          167
to whom  God hath given the price into their
hands, but they want hearts to embrace the
opportunities of doing good.  Remember what
Solomon saith: Say not unto thy neighbotr, Go,
and come ayain, and to-morrow I will give; when
thou hast it by thee. The Lord will not only
have a man not deny to do good, but he would
have him not delay to do it; and how often does
it arrive that men delay their purposes until they
lose them altogether?
Nothing is more ordinary, than in cases of
distress and sickness for men both to purpose
truly and to promise heartily, that if God will
deliver them  from  such and such fears and
dangers they will perform these and these acts
of mercy.  But how many of these promises and
purposes come to nothing! They flattered the
Lord with their lips; they vowed, but they have
not paid. Is it not so with many of us? Have
we not promised many things,-one to become
more liberal and bountiful; another, to make restitution of unjust gain; another to be more gentle
and courteous towards his weaker brethren; and
the Lord hath waited, week after week, month after
month, year after year, and yet you are the same
men, as far as ever from accomplishing your promise to God, or rendering him his due.
Again, let this stir up every one of us not
only to take opportunities of doing good, but also
to seek them. In Judges, xix. we see a good old
man, as he observes a stranger passing in the
streets, taking occasion to question his wants, not




168       THE DUTY OF DOING GOOD.
waiting till the man complain.  We see also
David inquiring if there were any of the house of
Saul to whom he might show kindness, for Jonathan's sake.  So should we do.  Is there any of
the household of faith unto whom I may show
kindness, for the Lord's sake?  He hath been
better to us than Jonathan was to David, and yet
we are much more backward in thankfulness
than David was to Jonathan.  We ought always
to inquire after men's needs, that we lose no
opportunity of doing good.
So much for the opportunity. I come now to
the SECOND point of the doctrine: — et us do good.
I told you what this goodness is that the
Apostle here intendeth: it is a relieving of those
that are in necessity,-and it is the especial duty of
God's servants to employ themselves in this wise.
Men are apt to think they do well whenever
they spare any little trifle out of their abundance
for the relief of their fellows, and not very ill in
omitting such deeds of mercy.' They conceive
charity to be a thing of choice, and not a duty of
necessity. They agree that it is a duty to lay up
wealth, but they forget that is a still greater duty
to lay it out as stewards for God. And here is
the reason why there are such lavish expenses
bestowed upon every vanity, that the portion
which by virtue of God's commandment belongeth to the poor is swallowed up.  It is spent
by some in excessive apparel-by others in superfluity of diet-by others in hawks and hounds
and dogs; and thus is the portion of the poor




HOW TO DO GOOD.             169
consumed, and themselves, for want of the same,
exposed to all the misery that the world can inflict.  What is the reason of it, but that there is
naturally, in the heart of every man, rebellion
against God, so that they will employ their estates
in any way rather than to that purpose for which
they are given by God? Oh what account shall
such be able to make at the day of judgment,
when the books shall be opened, and they shall
find that the money they have wasted is all set
down by God, though they have never troubled
themselves to keep account thereof?  What shall
they answer when the diaries and passages of
their life shall be examined?  Item, so much for
a feast. Item, on such a day, for such another
feast; and many a hundred items for as many
hundred feasts, while thousands of the servants
of God have endured extreme want, because thou
couldest find nothing for one of them in a corner
of thy purse! What, nothing for the servants of
God? Are they so empty while your houses
appear so full? live they so poorly while you are
richly clad? can you spare nothing for Christ
and the suffering members of his household all
this time?  Oh my beloved, remember what St.
James saith: Go to now, ye rich men, weep and
howl, for your yarments are moth-eaten whereon
you have bestowed so much cost; and your gold
and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall
be a witness ayainst you and shall eat your flesh,
as it were fire.
But how shall a man, in his actions of mercy




170       THE DUTY OF DOING GOOD.
and bounty and liberality, make it appear that
he doth good? for this is the main point to be
endeavoured after. Take, briefly, some helps in
this.
And first, he must do what he doth justly;
he must not, out of mercy to one, injure another;
he must not do evil that good may follow; he
must level his charity by his own ability.
You see how Zaccheus gives: If I have
wronged any man, I restore itfourfold; and half
of mny goods I give to the poor: that is, I will first
make full restoration of what I have unjustly
gotten, and then, of the remainder I will give
half to the poor.
Secondly, he must give wisely; for this is the
mark of a man fearing God, —  good man showeth
favour, and lendeth, he will guide his affairs with
discretion.  So must thou order thine affairs, or
perchance, thou mayest give that which is not
thine own, so that another man may lose by thy
liberality. Also, thou must consider wisely of
those to whom thou wilt afford relief. There are
some persons, as I told you before, who ought
not to be relieved, except in extreme necessity.
Extend thy benevolence to those of the household
of faith. Give unto Christ, and to the naked and
hungry members that belong unto him, and thou
shalt not want a sweet and comfortable return of
thy charity.
Again, as it must be done justly and wisely,
so, if we desire to do good in relieving, we must
do it simply, in the simplicity and plainness of




HOW TO DO GOOD.           171
our hearts: Let him that distributeth, do it in simplicity, saith the Apostle. What is this simplicity?
When a man looks up to God, and respects God
only in his actions of charity, and makes no other
reckoning of any outward object, then he looks
with a single eye: for the eye may be said to be
single when it views but one object at a time.
A double-minded man, he looks up to God, and
yet carries some respect to the outward honour
which he expects of the world, and more, oftentimes, to the world than to God.  But he that
desires to bestow his benevolence with a purpose
to receive recompense from above, let him do it
for his sake that commands it, and reflect upon
God in all things.  This is the testimony of our
conscience, saith the Apostle, that in sirnplicity
and godly sincerity we have had our conversation
in the world; not affecting the praise of men, but
aiming to approve ourselves to God in that we
do. This is that that Christ advised his disciples:
Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand
doeth.
Lastly, as it must be done simply, so it must
be done cheerfully.  God loveth a cheerful giver:
and this is a perfect sign of cheerfulness, when a
man doth not only give without grudging upon
all occasions, but will also be careful to seek
opportunity, as I said before. So much for the
second point-the duty itself.
Now I proceed to the last thing-that is, the
description of the persons to whom this must be
done. First, generally, all men; and then, parti



172    TO WHOM GOOD MUST BE DONE:
cularly, the household offaith. It is, as I have told
you, to all that endure such wants and necessities,
as that it may be a work of mercy, and no transgression of the rule, to relieve them. Though
they live wickedly and unprofitably, yet if they
be in extreme necessity, relieve them. Have we
not all one Father? saith the Prophet; hath not
one God created us? 3o then we are children and
brethren by creation, though not, it may be, by
adoption and especial grace,-and as they are the
creatures of God and bear the image of their
Maker, there ought on this account to be some
consideration extended towards them in their extreme necessity.
But some man may reply in this fashion,-My
will is to do good, but I have nothing to do with
such and such a man; he is a stranger to me, and
one with whom I had never any acquaintance.
What is this but the churlish reply of Nabal to
the servants of David? P ho is David? and who
is the son of Jesse? Shall I take my bread and
my flesh and my water that I have provided for
my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know
not whence they be?  Nabal was his name, and
folly was with him.  Abigail did truly interpret
his nature to be answerable to his name, which
signifieth a man of folly; for if he had been otherwise he would not have sent the messengers
empty to their master, knowing their absolute
necessity, which ought to have been relieved
though they were strangers.
Another may object,-Such an one is not a




ALL MEN.               173
stranger, I confess; but he is an enemy: when it
lay in his power he procured me all the mischief
he could, and should I relieve him now?
Mark the rule of the Apostle: If thine enemy
hunger, feed him; if he be naked, clothe him; if
he thirst, give him drink.
But some man will say,-There remains so much
unthankfulness in the world, that one is soon discouraged by people's ingratitude from doing good.
But what saith the Lord,-Cast thy bread upon
the waters, for after many days thou shalt fnd it.
Though it may seem to thee but as a stone sunk
down into the deep, or as a morsel of bread in
the water that floats from the sight of him that
cast it in, yet cease not to cast it there; for after
many days thou shalt find it.
But some man replies,-I do good to some
already; I give something to the education of a
poor scholar; somewhat I do for binding a poor
orphan child to an apprenticeship; I contribute
to these and these good works: is there to be no
end of doing good?
Mark again the advice of Solomon for that:
Give a portion to seven, and to eight.  If thou
have done good to one, extend it to a second, to
a third, to a fourth; nay, cease not while there
remains any object of mercy, and power in thine
hands to do good.
Some may argue, that by this course, if all
bestow their benevolence so largely, none could
become rich; and God appoints some rich men
in this world as well as poor.




174    TO WHOM GOOD MUST BE DONE:
Solomon answereth this objection also,-If
the clouds be full, tey pour down rain. God hath
bestowed riches on men, as he hath given rain to
the clouds; he gave them  that superfluity of
waters to pour down on the earth for the benefit
of the same, and not that they should detain it
to no purpose at all.  So God hath given riches
to men, that when they arrive at a fulness of
estate, they should then pour down and distil
the fruits of that blessing on them that live in
necessity, as the rain descends upon dry clods of
earth.
But some may answer again,-I have continued a great while in the exercise of doing
good; I am now old, and have continued thus
long at my trade; or thus long I have had an
estate, and all this time I have busily employed
myself in the performance of good offices for
others. Is it not yet time to cease? No, saith
Solomon, In the morning sow thy seed, and in the
evening withhold not thine hand.  Give in the
morning of thy life, when thy condition begins to
improve; and then in the evening of thy life,
when thou hast left off gaining, cease not to persist in giving.
Saith another man,-You must not lop the
twig too soon that is but beginning to grow. I
am now in the way to thrive, and when I am
further advanced in that course I will not fail to
extend my goodness to others.
Fear not that you will lose by deeds of
charity and mercy.  He that yiveth to the poor,




THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.         175
lendeth to the Lord; and look, what he layeth out
it shall be paid him again.  God is able to pay
thee back with interest, and if thou wouldest
prosper, make him thy friend. If thou hast little,
do thAy diligence gliadly to give of that little.
Sow thy seed in the morning of thy life.
But, saith another man,-I have done that
already; and now it ceaseth to be with me as
before, by reason I follow not my trade, and
have no more possibility of getting.
But let not thy hand cease in the evening,
saith God.  When thy shop windows are shut
up, thy compassion must still continue open.
When thou hast bid adieu to gain, still, if there
remain ability in thy hands to do good, thou
must not cease from  bestowing, though it be
evening with thee.
Thus, we see, there is no time excepted, nor
any person to be refused, if necessity require;
but a man must do good to all men, at all times.
So much for that.
It remaineth only to point out those to whom
we are to have especial regard in our charity,especially to them  that are of the household of
faith.
This tells us, first, that God hath in the
household of faith some that stand in need of
relief; and secondly, that all who are better off
in the household should especially look unto them.
There are many true believers who suffer
want in this world. Christ speaks as it were for
himself, when he speaks of them:: I was hungry,




176    TO WHOM GOOD MUST BE DONE:
and you did not feed me; naked, and ye clothed
me not.  Those that Christ owns as his, and
accounts as a part of himself, even those are
hungry and naked.  And so likewise God hath
cAosen the poor of this world, rich infaith. They
be rich in faith, and so of God's household, yet
poor, nevertheless, in the world. You may find
many examples of this.  One shall suffice.  We
see a poor man, and yet an heir of heaven, lying
full of sores and in want at the gate of that Dives
who was afterwards thrown into hell.  An heir
of heaven, and yet on earth a beggar.
You see then, beloved, this point is true:
now we will descend, and see how it appears to
be so, and wherefore it comes to pass, by God's
providence.
First, it becomes so that there may be a conformity between the head and the members: for
Christ, that was rich, yet for our sakes he became
poor; so poor that the foxes had holes and the
birds of the air had nests, yet our Redeemer had
no shelter, no not so much room  as to lay his
head.  Now if the root be poor, the branches
will be poor also; if the head be afflicted, all the
other members suffer with it.
Again, if you observe the condition of God's
saints on earth, you shall find small occasion to
wonder at their simple estates, since they are
but a company of travellers and pilgrims in this
world.  I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims,
&c.  Here they have no abiding place: they are
travelling from one place to another, and the




THE HOUSEitOLD OF' FAITH.      177
proverb is true, that a rolling stone gathers
nothing.  They are pilgrims, and desire nothing
further in this life than a staff and a scrip.
There is another reason for their poverty, and
that proceeds from the opposition they find in
the world against their course.  The world
hateth them, and striveth against them.  You
shall find that our Saviour, intending to go to
Jerusalem, made his way  through  Samaria,
and despatched  some before to provide him
lodging. But the Samaritans, suspecting that
he was going thither, refused to entertain him.
They would not receive him, saith the text:
Why? because he was going  to  Jerusalem.
Beloved, thus deals the world with the members
of Christ.  The world, which persecuted him,
persecuteth his disciples also: if they would rely
on the world and make that their, end, then
riches should flow  in  in abundance and  all
would go prosperously for a little time; but if
their minds be resolved for Jerusalem  and their
eyes turned that way, let them seek their own
entertainment, for the world will give them none.
Lastly, God disposeth it so, by his wondrous
providence, that his glory may be so much the
more conspicuous and open.  Ile provideth that
they of the household of faith should endure the
scourge of poverty on earth, that so the work of
his grace may appear the more in them: for
when doth grace make itself more manifest in
the heart than in the midst of such extremities.?
The stars make the brightest reflexion in-the
N




178    TO WHOM GOOD MUST BE DONE:
obscurest night, and grace appears most glorious
in the deepest distress.  Ye have heard of the
patience qf Job: but had not Job endured much
sorrow and been exercised in many afflictions,
the world had been ignorant of his virtues. You
have heard of the faith of those which wandered
in sheepskins and goatskins, but how could you
have been acquainted with their faith if you had
not heard of their clothing?
Is it so then that God's servants are thus?
Then let the world wonder their fill at it; but
let not us account it a strange matter, when we
see those of the household of faith in poverty,
that God bestows not riches in this world to one
that is rich in grace.  You see a multitude of
believers stripped of all they had, and yet they
were holy and good: and you see that God had
wise and merciful reasons for dealing so with
them.
Seeing then there be many poor who are of
the household of faith, it is our duty to look
especially unto them.  David saith, My goodness
extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in
the earth; and the Apostle witnesseth of Philemon,
that he had refreshed the bowels of the saints.
This is the duty.
And the reason of it is that God hath, for
this intent, given riches unto some that have.grace, that they might especially administer the
comfort that wealth brings with it unto those
that are poor, of the same household and profession of grace.  Let the brother of low degree




THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.          179
rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that
he is made low. What is the low bringing of the
rich brother, but that he becomes servant to him
of low degree? his wealth and revenues, nay, all
that he hath, he confesseth to be for the service
of the poorest Christian. Also the near union
and relation between one member and another
should be a strong obligation upon those that
are rich to extend their care to those of low
degree, and not to please only themselves.  For
they are brethren: they have all the same Father,
being begotten by the same word of truth; and
they enjoy the same mother, the church: Jerusalem that is above is free, and is the mother of
us all. Therefore let us see and acknowledge this,
that whatsoever difference there may be of nation,
yet all that believe are of the same household in
this respect: they are brethren together of the
same family.  The Jews, notwithstanding they
were distinguished by tribes, yet they are denominated together-the house of Israel: so all
the people of God are called —his family upon
earth.  Beloved, let us look to this point: whatever differences there may be in respect of wealth,
of natural birth, of descent, or outward ornament,
we are all brethren and all of the same house.
Is it not a shame, when one brother is full,
to suffer another to die with famine and hunger
in the same house? or to let him  sink under
reproach and disgrace, not offering a hand to
help him, and to prevent his extremity? It is
therefore the duty of Christians to look especially




180       INCITEMENTS TO DO GOOD.
to the wants of their brethren, and to let the
respect they bear to the people of God be
advanced above all the affection they bear to
others.
And the more to incite you to this duty,
know that Christ calls for it, and doth continually expect it.  Neither doth he demand
anything that is not his own: as David confesseth, in his provision for the temple-of /tine
own have we given thee-so you may account of
whatever Christ calls for: if you possess it, it
came from him; he entrusted it to you to be
used according to his command.  If you confer
any gift on your children, you think you may
reserve to yourselves the power to take it again
at your pleasure; and shall not God be allowed
that privilege-he that confers so many liberal
blessings on thee?  Sure thou art much in his
debt, and it argues too foul an ingratitude if he
lend thee a million and thou refuse to pay him a
mite.
Again, if he call for it thou shalt not lose
thereby, but he will give thee better riches.
A/sk of him, and he will give you the Holy Ghost,
nay the kingdom of heaven, and these are riches
far above the value of any substance thou enjoyest.  Ask of him, and he will forgive thy
sins-ten thousand talents; whereas he demands
but one penny of thee.   If you do his will you
may ask for these great mercies, and you will
receive: but if you refuse to obey his commands
then he will not hearken to your prayers: he




INCITEMENTS TO DO GOOD.       181
will answer only, Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and
do not the thinys that I Say?  I dare say he doth
greater things for thee already than he desires at
thy hands for others.
And mark who it is that asks this from
thee: even he whose favour thou must one day
seek, for whose countenance thou wouldest then
give all the world. It is he, before whose judgment-seat thou must appear, poor and blind
and naked, except he make thee rich in the
merits of Christ, and clothe thee with his righteousness.  No man, desiring the favour of a
prince or judge in some business of importance,
but would gladly embrace an occasion of doing
him a pleasure before the trial of his cause, that
so the judge may take notice of his good will,
and deal with him  kindly.  Beloved, we have
special need of the favour of Christ, and we
have opportunity sufficient to do him pleasure by
relieving his poor members: for inasmuch as ye
do good unto one of the least of his people, ye
do it unto him; and what ye deny unto them, he
takes it as an injury to himself. Therefore look,
how you extend mercy here, to enjoy it hereafter; and as you desire the favour of the judge,
make way for his kindness by the performance of
his will. Ile that useth not mercy here, shall
find none hereafter; and judgment shall be
merciless, saith the Apostle, to them that show
not mercy.  Wouldest thou reap liberally in the
last day? then sow liberally whilst thou hast
opportunity.  Do according to your several abi



182        INCITEMENTS TO DO GOOD.
lities; seek occasion to do good; take it cheerfully, and make use of it willingly.  Look to it,
for Christ looks for it.  It will much commend
thy love to religion, and greatly improve thine
own good in the end,




SERMON VIII.
THE PERFECTION OF PATIENCE;
OR,
THE COMPLETE CHRISTIAN.
JAMES, i. 4.
" LET PATIENCE HAVE HER PERFECT WORK, THAT YE MAY
BE PERFECT AND ENTIRE, WANTING NOTHING.'
IN the second verse of this chapter, the Apostle
persuadeth the distressed servants of God to bear
their afflictions cheerfully: My brethren, saith
he, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.   This exhortation  he presseth, in the
third verse, by showing the gracious effects of
temptations when God sanctifieth them; knowing this, that the trying  of your faith worketh
patience.  Yea, but if this be all the fruit of our
afflictions and temptations, that we shall be made
patient-what great matter is that? what great
advantage cometh by patience? it is but a dull
grace, it is merely passive. The Apostle answereth
this objection in the text, and telleth them that it
is, notwithstanding, such a grace as is necessary
to the being and perfection of a Christian.  Let




184       EXPLICATION OF THE TERMS.
patience have her perfect work that ye may be
perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
I shall speak something for the explication of
the terms and phrases used here, and then come
to elect such points as shall offer themselves to
us from them.
First: I will show  you what is meant by
patience.
Secondly: What is meant by letting patience
have her perfedt work.
Thirdly: What is meant by this, that, doing
of this, ye shall be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing.
Patience, in a word, it is a grace or fruit of
God's Spirit, whereby the heart of a believer
willingly submitteth itself to the will of God in
all afflictions and changes in this life.
I say it is a work, or fruit, of God's Spirit.
He is called the God of patience; and longsuffering, which is the same thing with patience,
is said to be a fruit of the Spirit.
And the effect of this patience is to make a
man submit himself willingly to God in afflictions.
I say willingly, for there is a submission which
is by force-when God subjects a man to himself,
not by a gracious and sweet inclining of the will,
but by a powerful subduing of the person.
Now when I say there is such a willing submission to God in afflictions, the meaning is
thus-that there may be in a believer, in a child
of God, an inclination of the will, a natural desire




DEFINITION OF PATIENCE.         185
to be freed from afflictions; yet, nevertheless,
there is in him that willingness to suffer that is
able to subdue every other longing.
In every renewed soul there is a principle of
nature and a principle of grace: there is a desire
that ariseth from nature, and that tendeth to the
conservation of a man's being, and to the conservation of a man in all the comforts and contentments
of his being.  This is, and may be, in a child of
God; but then it is overswayed by grace, which
makes a man now resign up this will of his to
God's hand-to be content against his own natural desires to be disposed of according to God's
will. This we may see in our Lord and Saviour;
faither, saith he, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me.  Here is a desire to continue, not only
in his natural being, but to continue in the comfort of nature and life; and this is a lawful and
good desire, for these affections are the works of
God upon the soul of man.  The will of man
moveth naturally by these affections: these desires, they are the fruits of nature, and so the
works of God in nature, and therefore in themselves not to be blamed.  But now that which
keepeth them within compass is an over-ruling
work of grace, whereby the creature is made to
acknowledge his distance from the Creator, and
that subjection he oweth to God as the Sovereign
Lord of nature and of all creatures. And in this
sense our Saviour, Christ, doth check his natural
desires: If it be possible, let this cup pass from
me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt,




186        DEFINITION OF PATIENCE.
saith he. So here is a work of grace ordering
and over-ruling nature. And this is the kind of
willingness we mean,-such a willingness as, in
the issue and close, resteth in God's will.
The object of this patience is-affliction and
the changes of this life. Affliction is, properly,
anything that is grievous to a man's sense, anything that crosseth a man's will. There are some
things that are indeed afflictions, but not to this
or that person, because he is not sensible of them,
or because he is not carried away by any desires
against them.  But when a man is crossed in his
will, that is an affliction to him, and that is an
object for patience. When a man that hath tasted
the sweetness of prosperity is suddenly cast down
into the depths of poverty and distress, as was
Job's case, this is especially an object for patience.
Ye have heard of the patience of Job.
But how  did Job's patience appear in the
afflictions and changes of his life? In this: that
notwithstanding he had felt the sweetness of a
prosperous estate and the comfort of friends, yea
and the comfort of God's favour shining upon his
heart, and many other particular mercies, yet
when God turned his hand and took away the
comforts of his life, the society of his friends, the
comfortable expressions of his own love to his soul,
and threatened the taking away even of life itself,
Job could now, in this case, resolve to rest in the
determination and appointment and will of God.
Here now is patience.
Thus briefly you have heard what the duty is




THE PERFECT WORK OF PATIENCE.   187to which the Apostle exhorteth. It is patience:
that is, a willing resignation of ourselves to God's
appointment in the changes of our life.
But now that is not enough.  The Apostle
contents not himself to say, Have patience, but
Let patience have her perfect work.  He would
have them grow in patience; to grow from one
degree to another; to abound in patience (as the
Apostle speaks of hope and joy); that they might
not only have patience, but have it brought to
perfection, which is called all long sffering; that
there might not be the least defect, that they
might have a measure of patience proportionable
to the measure of trials,-that as God suffered
the measure of their trials to increase upon them,
so they might have more and more patience to
answer those trials, and to support the heart
when the greatest weight should be laid upon
the soul to press it down.  And the word here
translated patience, signifieth to bear up a man,
to support him under a burthen, that he be not
pressed down by it.  So he would have them
have such a measure of patience as might bear up
the soul in the greatest pressures, that though
they were afflicted, they might not be broken in
their afflictions. Thus you have the duty opened.
Let patience have her perfect work.
The reason is, that ye may be perfect and
entire, watiing nothing. That you may be entire.
Some understand it thus, that you may be entire
in respect of every grace, in respect of all gracious habits; that you may have one grace as
well as another; that as you have knowledge and




188          PARTS OF THE TEXT.
faith, so you may have patience too, which is a
necessary grace for a Christian, as well as for alny
other.
Others by entireness, and wanting nothing,
think that the Apostle meant this; that they
might have that which could supply comfort to
their souls in all their wants.  A man is then
said to want nothing when he is content and
satisfied with that estate wherein he is, as if he
had all things.  So David, when Ziklag was
burnt, his wives carried away captive, his soldiers
beginning to mutiny and to threaten him, yet
he seemed in these troubles to want nothing,
when he could comfort himself in the Lord his
God.  Godliness is great gain; but how? with
contentbnent: that is, there is such a sufficiency,
with contentment of heart, as if a man had all
the things he wants.  So then, here is the point,
that you may be entire in respect of all gracious
habits necessary to the being of a Christian:
that you may have that inward store and supply
of comfort that may support your hearts in all
outward wants.  Thus you have the meaning of
the words.
The parts of the text are two: an exhortation
to duty, and an argument to enforce that exhortation.  The duty whereto we are exhorted
is that we should be perfect in patience. Let
patience have her perfect work.  The argument
whereby we are persuaded to this duty is that
we may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing:
that we may have all that is necessary to a
Christian.




THE DUTY OF PATIENCE.          189
We may observe two  conclusions hence,
which we will follow at this time.  The first is
this: that patience is necessary to the perfection
of a Christian; or a Christian is not perfect
without patience.  The second is this: that
every Christian should strive for the perfection of
patience; he must labour to attain the highest
degree and perfection in patience.  These two
conclusions we will handle separately in the explication and proof, and join them together in
the application and use.
For the first then, that a Christian is not perfect without patience.  Our Saviour, exhorting
his disciples to patience because they should
meet with many enemies and injuries in the
world, concludeth thus,-Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
What perfection speaks he of here?  Such a
perfection, such a work of grace, as might enable
them to carry themselves as became them in the
midst of those many enemies and oppositions
they should meet withal.
There is a twofold perfection of a Christian:
there is a perfection of parts, and a perfection of
degrees.  A child is a perfect man in respect of
parts, but not in respect of degrees; because it
is not yet come to that measure of strength and
stature which a man hath.
Now there is a necessity that there should be
a perfection of parts, for this is but the making
up of all those graces which are necessary to a
Christian, and without which he cannot obey




190         THE DUTY OF PATIENCE:
God, nor walk according to the rule.  And
patience is one of those parts-one of those habits
of grace with which every renewed soul is endowed, and without which a man is not truly
sanctified.  St. Peter saith, Add to your faith,
virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge,
temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to
patience, -godliness; and to godliness, brotherly
kindness;  and  to  brotherly kindness, charity.
Thus, patience is one of those necessary graces
which make a man to be neither barren nor tnfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But it is more than this.  It is a means for
preserving and keeping alive other graces in the
soul: this is its perfect work.  Patience is as the
wall of the soul, whereby those riches and treasures
of grace that it possesses are defended from a
battery of temptations, and from the fiery darts
of the enemy.  in your patience possess ye
your souls.  The soul, which is the seat and
subject of grace, cannot itself be kept without
patience.
For once let impatience into the soul, and
you let in all sin with it.  Impatience is a
destroying of all grace, a pulling down of the
wall.  Nay, what, is all sin but a species of
impatience?  What is pride but the impatience
of humility?  What is uncleanness but the impatience of chastity? What is covetousness but
the impatience of abstinence?  Every sin beginneth in impatience; so you see that, for the
very preserving of the soul-the subject of grace,




ITS NECESSITY.           191
and of grace —the treasure of the soul, it is necessary we should have patience.
Again, it will plainly appear that a Christian
cannot be perfect without patience, because he
cannot do his work without it.  He cannot do
the works of religion, the task that God lays on
him, without patience.  Look, in what measure
patience is defective, in that same measure he
halteth in his duty, and in the very acts of religion
he goeth about.
Take any one duty of religion that you can
name, and see whether a man can do it without
patience.  Suppose it be prayer.  How can a
man go on in the duty of prayer without patience?
Sometimes God delayeth the grant of a man's
petition: now will he sink and give over in discouragement if he have not patience to support
the soul.
The Canaanitish woman, when she came to
Christ and spake unto him  and he did not
answer a word, she had so much patience as
to speak the second time to him, and then he
answered her, yet not favourably: but her patience held her to the third trial, and at the last
she received her desire.  Had she not been
patient to go on with her request and to repeat
her prayer, she had lost her petition.  The
Apostle Paul saith, For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice. He would have given over at the first
seeking of the Lord, if he had not had patience
to uphold him to the second and third petition
-to  the renewing of his suit twice, yea thrice.




192         THE DUTY OF PATIENCE.
Come from  praying to hearing the word
preached.  How can a man hear the word profitably without patience?  Therefore, those who
are like the good ground are said to hear the
word, and to bring fruit with patience: and it is
the commendation of the church at Philadelphia,
Thou has pt kept te word of my patience.  There is
need of patience if we would profit by the word.
For first, if a man will obey the word, he
shall be sure to have many set against him in the
world.  He had need of patience then, or else he
will leave the rule of the word because of the
reproaches of the world. Again, there are many
secret corruptions in his own heart that will be
shown him in the preaching of the word, which
a man cannot abide to hear of; but he will be
vexing and fretting and discontented at it (as
we see in Ahab and divers others), unless he
have patience to keep him from raging against the
preacher and the word preached to him.  You
have need of patience, that you may bear the
reproofs and exhortations of the word. Therefore  saith  the Apostle  James, —Receive wit-I
meekness the enyrafted word, which is able to save
your souls.  There is no engrafting the word in
the heart, except those forms of impatience, those
hindrances of the growth of the word, be taken
away.
But, further, the whole life of a Christian is
a continual exercise of patience; and a man,
though he begin in the spirit, yet he will without
doubt end in the flesh, if he have not patience to




ITS PERFECTION.             193
persevere in well-doing.  Therefore, saith the
Apostle, ye have need of patience, that afleqrye have
done the will of God, ye mizht'l receive the promise.
You have need of patience, because, between the
time of the making of the promise and the time
of its accomplishment to the soul, there is often
a great distance; and you must wait after you
have obeyed  the word, and  not expect the
promise to follow immediately.  You must run
with patience the race set before you; looking
to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.
Our Lord himself had not perfected the work of
our redemption if he had wanted  patience;
neither can we finish our course of Christianity,
wherein we must follow Christ, except we have
patience added to other graces.  You see then,
a Christian cannot be perfect without patience.
This is the first point.
The second point is, that it is the duty of a
Christian to strive to bring patience to the uttermost perfection; to make this the effort of his
life, that patience may have her perfect workthat there may be no defect in it.  The Apostle
prayeth for the Colossians, that they #may be
strenythened with all might unto all palience and
long-sffering.  And our Saviour speaketh expressly concerning patience, in that place where
he telleth his disciples, Be ye perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.  This then is
the duty of a Christian to aim at perfection, as in
other graces, so especially in this grace of patience.
Why so?
o




194        THE DUTY OF PATIENCE.
First, because a Christian is to follow the
best pattern.  The best patterns are propounded
in the Scripture, and God doth not propound
patterns and examples in vain: but as he gives
us rules and precepts to tell us what we should
do, so he giveth us patterns and examples to
direct us in the degree and manner of doing.
Therefore we have God set as a pattern of
patience,-Be ye followers of God as clear children.  Wherein? In all those examples wherein
you have a rule; for the examples of God and
Christ and the saints bind men no further than
there is a rule in the word.  There are many
things in which we cannot follow God, but the
patience of God. is expressly set forth as a pattern
for us. In that glorious proclamation of him in
Exodus, among other of his attributes he is set
out to be a God long-suffering and patient: and
saith St. Peter, God, that he mnight sow his lonysugffering andpatience, bore with tie world.  God
hath borne with this ungodly world many ages,
many thousand years already; and yet beareth
still with the world.  The most holy God, that
perfectly hateth wickedness, yet showeth his
patience in  bearing with the ungodly; the
mighty God, that is able to destroy the earth and
the heaven with the breath of his mouth, even as
by a word he made them, this mighty God beareth with weak rebellious men; he suffereth all
their sin and hardness of heart and contemptuous
boldness, that his patience and forbearance may
appear. So then you have God for an example.




ITS PERFECTION.            195
And Christ for an example too; and for this
very end are you predestinated, that you may be
conformed to the image of his Son.  Wherein?
In all imitable and necessary graces; and this
his patience among the rest. See the patience of
Christ-in his carriage towards his Father, how
he bore the displeasure of God with submission;
-and in his carriage toward men, when he
might have commanded fire from heaven upon
his enemies, how he bore with them and rebuked
his disciples,-Ye know not what manner of spirit
ye are of. HIe was led as a lamb to the slaughter;
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
opened not his mouth.
Again you have the example of the servants
of God.  Take, my brethren, saith St. James,
the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the
Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of
patience.  The prophets suffered long, and endured the frowns of the world and the rage of
princes: they endured a thousand miseries, and
all to discharge their duty.  Again, you have
heard of the patience of Job, and what end the
Lord made with him; and this was written for
our example, to teach us to be as patient as he
was.
Again, as it is necessary for a Christian to
strive for the perfection of patience in the degrees of it, because of the conformity that should
be between him and those examples of God, of
Christ, and of the saints; between  God the
Father, and  believers his children; between




196        THE DUTY OF PATIENCE.
Christ the head, and believers his members;-so
also it is necessary in respect of the trials whereunto a Christian may be put; you had need to
strive that you  may be perfect in patience,
because you know not what trials ye shall be put
to, what times ye are reserved to. Every man
must expect troubles and afflictions, which are
called tribulations; and you know what tribzalum
was,-an iron ball that was full of spikes round
about, so that wheresoever it was cast it did
stick: an instrument used in war.  Tribulations
are unavoidable: they will fall and stick; ye
cannot escape them on any side, by any turning
to the right hand or to the left.  It is the will
of God that through many tribulations we should
enter into the kingdom of heaven, and whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer
persecution.
Now, beloved, is this so, that this is a statute
in heaven, decreed and ordained by God, and
one that, like the laws of the Medes and Persians,
will not be reversed, that every man must pass
to heaven through much tribulation and affliction
upon earth? Then it concerns every one to be
armed and prepared with such a measure of
patience as may support him in such afflictions.
Ye know not what afflictions ye may have, what
particular trials God may put you to.  How
miserable is the case of that man who, when he
is in the midst of the pikes, hath to seek for his
armour: yet he is no worse than the man who
when he is in the midst of trials, disturbed and




APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.    197
distracted with vexation of spirit, hath then to
seek for patience.   What foolish, disorderly
speeches proceed from men in the time of affliction! We may see it in David: Sofoolish was I,
and ignorant, saith he, Iwas even as a beast before
thee.  What foolish, senseless, brutish speeches,
unreasonable absurd passages, proceed from men
in these times of trouble, if they have not got to
themselves beforehand this grace, and are not
fitted  in  time  to  a  Christian  carriage  by
patience.
Thus ye see the necessity of patience for the
perfection of a Christian, and of the perfection of
patience for the ornament of a Christian.  We
come now to make use of both these together.
First, it serveth for the just reproof of Christians that are careful for other parts and acts of
religion, and are not so seriously mindful of this
duty of patience as they should be, but are so far
from striving for patience that they seem rather
to strive for impatience, that makes their crosses
more heavy and their afflictions more bitter than
they would be.  Indeed we make God's cup
(that of itself is grievous enough to nature and
to sense) far more bitter that else it would be,
by putting into it our own ingredients, that are
inbred in our own earthly minds, in our own
passions and pride and self-will.
Far from perfecting patience in themselves,
men take divers ways whereby they wholly destroy
patience.  I will enumerate some of them, that
you may be warned against them.




198    APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE:
The first is, by aggravating of their afflictions,
exaggerating them by all the several circumstances
they can possibly invent. All their eloquence is
used in expressing the grievousness of that cross
and affliction that is upon them. They that in
the times of mercy would scarcely even drop a
word of thankfulness and acknowledgment of
God's goodness to them, now they can pour out
floods of sentences in expression of God's bitter
and heavy dealing with them in such afflictions
and crosses and distresses that befall them.  As
the Church speaks in Lamentations: Is it nothing
to you, all ye that pass by?  Behold and see if
there be any sorrow like my sorrow, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me?  The like is, ordinarily,
in the mouths of those that are in trouble.  Is
there any affliction like mine? Who is so wronged
in name and credit as I am? Who suffereth such
pain of body or such heaviness of heart as I do?
Never any man hath endured so many injuries,
by friends, and enemies, and all sorts of people,
as I have. As if all the afflictions in the world,
the waves and billows of trouble, were met
together upon one person. This is the language
whereby  men  aggravate their afflictions and
increase impatience in themselves.
Another way whereby they do this is, by giving
free vent to their passions.  Passions are like a
wild horse; if they have not reins put upon them,
if they be not pulled in, they will fly out to all
excess.  If once we give our passions vent, there
is no stopping of them.  David, we see, checks




FOR REPROOF.             199
himself —he hath a curb to bridle his passions.
Why art thou cast down, oh my soul?  But otherwise, when men give the reins to their passion
and do not stop their course, but think they have
reason for it, they break out into all exorbitancy.
Jonah, when the Lord challenged him for his
anger: Doest thou well to be anyry?-Aye, saith
he, I do well to be angry.  So David, though as
we have seen, able to check himself sometimes,
yet breaks out for the loss of his son: Oh Absalom, my son w/ ould God I had died for thee,
oh Absalom, my son, my son! What hurt was
done to David?  What wrong had he that he
should take on thus?  His son was taken from
him, but it was that son Absalom, who if he had
lived, would have killed his father: and yet he
takes on as if the father could not live because
the son that sought his death was taken from
him. Such unreasonable passions, such causeless
distempers ofttimes are in the souls of men, that
they mistake God's ways; and that very way in
which he intendeth and doeth them good, they
complain of it as if it were their utter undoing.
Again, another way whereby men increase
their impatience and distemper is, when they will
not give way to consolation, refusing to be comforted: they will not only be exceeding vehement
and intent upon their passions, but besides, stop
all passages and inlets against comfort.  This
was Jacob's fault concerning the death of Joseph;
when he hears that Joseph is dead, not only his
heart sinks within him  but he rends his gar



200    APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE:
ment and covers himself with sackcloth, and
takes on so, that when his sons and children rise
up to comfort him  he will not be comforted:
why? —because Joseph is not, and I will go to the
grave to Joseph. Nothing would comfort Jacob,
but he would go down to the grave to Joseph by
all means: what an extravagance was this!
He only heard that Joseph was missing, he
heard but a present sound of fear, and he was
carried away with that.  Joseph was yet alive,
and if Jacob had gone down to the grave to seek
him, he had not found him there.  So it is with
us; the very apprehension and fear that we ent:ertain are as bad, or worse to us, than the things
themselves could be.  The more we think on
them  the more we multiply our fears and evils,
because we will not receive counsel nor comfort.
Again, a fourth thing whereby men increase
impatience in themselves and  aggravate their
sorrows is this: they are apt to look only upon
their present afflictions and not upon the mercies
they enjoy, as if they had but one eye to behold
all objects with; and so could only look upon
one thing at a time. There should be a looking
upon the affliction, and a looking upon the mercy
too.  This was Hamnan's case: when he was
vexed that Mordecai did not do him reverence,
all his wealth and his honours could do him little
good.  He had much wealth, and the glory of
his house was increased; he had the favour of
the king, and every worldly advantage he could
desire; yet all t1is availeth me nothing, saith he,




FOR REPROOF.              201
so long as T see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the
kiny's cgate.  He looks only on this particular
that vexed and grieved him, and not upon the
rest. So it is with us. If there be but one particular affliction upon us, we fix our eyes upon
that.  Like a fly that flieth about the glass, and
can stick nowhere till she come to some crack;
or as a gnat, that cometh about the body of a
beast, that will be sure to rest on the galled part,
or on some sore or other: so it is with these
disquieted thoughts of men, that are of no other
use but to further Satan's ends to weaken their
faith  and discourage their own hearts; men
stick on the gall, on the sore, of any affliction;
and there they will rest.  It is true, they argue,
God hath offered us such and such opportunities;
but what is this? This and that particular affliction is upon me, and I can think of nothing else.
This it is that increaseth impatience, when a
man will not look on the mercies he receiveth,
but only on that that he wanteth.
Again, a fifth course that men take to aggravate their sorrows and increase impatience in
themselves is this: they look upon the instrument
of their sorrows and afflictions, but never look up
to God that ruleth and over-ruleth these things.
Men look upon such a person, such an event,
that bringeth them into trouble, and no more.
Ye see how David was disquieted at this: if it
had been an enemy that had reproached him,
then he could have borne it; but it was thou, a
man, mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance:




202    APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE:
we took sweet counsel toyether, and walked unto
the house of God in company. This troubled him;
by this he multiplied his sorrows, looking on the
instrument: but when he looked to God he
found quiet and resignation: then, saith he, Iwas
dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst
it. There is no quiet in the heart when a man
looks upon man; nor till he looks to God, that
ordereth all things by his wisdom and counsel.
Lastly, men aggravate their sorrows and increase their impatience by another course they
take: that is, when they look on their sorrows
and afflictions only, and not upon the benefit of
affliction: they look only upon that that flesh
would avoid, and not upon that which, if they
were spiritual and wise, they would desire. No
castening, saith the Apostle, for the present,
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless,
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of riyghteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Now men look upon that only which is grievous
in affliction; upon the smart of it, but not upon
the profit, the quiet fruit of righteousness that
cometh thereby.  As if a man, when he hath a
corroding plaister put to a sore, should cry and
complain of the smart it causeth him, and take
no notice of the healing that cometh by it and
the cure that followeth.  Men complain thus of
God, as if he grudged them the comfort of their
lives; as if he intended to rob them of all conveniences, and to make them utterly miserable, to
begin a hell with them  on earth; because they




FOR -EXHORTATION.            203
never look how God, by this means, fitteth them
for heaven, purging out corruption and strengthening grace in them: We are chastened of t/he
Lord, that we sh8ould not be condemned with the
world.  Men look too often upon the affliction,
not upon their freedom  from  condemnation, to
which God intends to lead them by that means.
So much for that.  I come now to a second
use.  Let the doctrine and admonition contained
in the text stir us up, every one, in the presence of
God, to set ourselves upon this task of Christianity; to labour for patience, that we may be
perfect Christians.  Let patience have Aer perfect
worc.
But all the question is, bow a man may get
it.  As there are two sorts of afflictions in a
man's life, so patience hath two offices.
One affliction is, those present evils that a
man undergoeth and suffereth.  Patience is to
support him  in the miseries and calamities of
this present life.
Another sort of trial is, when the good that a
man expects is delayed and  is not presently
granted. Patience is necessary in this case also.
I will show you how a man may set patience
a-work in both these cases, and so conclude.
First, for the present calamities of a man's
life, whether it be sickness of body, or sorrow
and distress of mind; whether it arise from the
loss of friends, leaving a man destitute of all joys
and helps, like a pelican in the wilderness; or
from  inward dejection, spiritual desertion, when




204    APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE:
he seemeth to be as in a cloud, under the frowns
of God; —the way to get patience under all such
afflictions is this: to consider that there is no
change in thy life, no condition whatsoever that
thou art called unto, but it is ordered by God.
Set thy soul a-work now, to give God his glory
in that particular change of thy life.
Give God the glory of his absolute sovereignty.  Acknowledge him  an absolute, independent Lord, that doth what he will among his
creatures.  His will is the rule of all his actions
upon the creatures here below, and uncontrolled,
unquestionable. It is high arrogancy and presumption and pride of spirit, for the creature to
contest with his Creator concerning his actions
on earth.  I must give God the glory of his
sovereignty, and acknowledge that he hath power
and right to rule all the families of the earth:
and why not mnine as well as another?  Why not
my person as well as another's?  Why not to
order all the change of ny life as well as another
man's?  That which Benhadad spake proudly
to Ahab,'Thy silver and thy gold, thy wives and
thy children, and thy house and thy city, are mine:
that may God say truly, and by right, to thee.
All that thou hast and all that thou art is his;
therefore give him that glory that Job did, in the
change of his life: The Lord gave, and the Lord
hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
The Lord that gave hath a right to take what
he will.  There is nothing that will keep the
creature in his due nlace but the consideration of




FOR EXHORTATION.            205a
God's absolute sovereignty.  It was this that
meekened the spirit of Eli, when that heavy rmessage was brought to him that there should come
such misery upon his house that whosoever heard
it boft his ears should tinyle.  Well, said he, ft
is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good.
It is the Lord; and it becometh not servants to
stand and contend with their lord.  So David,
when the priests offered him their service to go
along with him to the field from Absalom, saith
he, If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord
he will bring me ayain, and show me both it and
his habitation: but if he thuts say, I have no
delight in thee, behold, here I am; let him do to
me as seemeth good unto Aim.  David considered
that he was under the hands of an absolute Lord,
and this it was that humbled him and armed him
beforehand with patience and submission.  Let
him do to me as seemeth good unto Aim.
And as thou must give God the glory of his
sovereignty, so also'of his wisdom.  Know that
God ordereth all his ways with wisdom  and
counsel: he knoweth what is good for his children.  Ye are content, when ye are sick, that the
physician should diet you, because ye account
him wise, and one that hath skill in that course.
If God diet thee for the purging out of some corruption and for the curing of some spiritual
disease in thy soul, submit to God in this case;
be willing to resign thyself up to be ordered by
him.  A man that hath a gangrene or such
other dangerous disease in his body, submitteth




206    APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE:
to the surgeon in his course: though it be the
cutting and sawing off of a limb, though it be never
so painful and the loss never so great, yet he is,
for the saving of his life, willing to have that
taken awav.  God is a wise God, that knoweth
what estate is best for thee, not only when trials
are better than comforts, but when one kind of
trial is better than another.  It may be it is
better to exercise one with poverty, another with
disgrace, another with spiritual trouble, another
with restraint of liberty.  God knoweth which
particular trial is necessary to cure that disease,
and which this, that is in thy soul. The Heavenly
Physician will bring that upon thee as a spiritual
prescription, and a heavenly course that he takes,
in infinite wisdom, to cure thee.
And in all this give him, moreover, the glory
of his mercy.  Believe that mercy is still the
motive and intention of God, even in those
changes of thy life that seem most grievous to
thee.  What hast thou lost but thou mightest
have lost a great deal more?  What dost thou
suffer but thou mightest suffer a great deal
more?  As Alcibiades, when he was told that
one had stolen half his plate; I have cause, saith
he, rather to be thankful that he took no more,
than troubled that he took so much.  I am sure it
is true of God in this case.  What hath God
taken from thee?  Some part of thy estate, some
friend, some comfort of thy life, some one or
other particular comfort.  Could he not have
done more?  Hath he afflicted thee in thy body?




FOR EXHORTATION.           207
He might have afflicted thee in thy soul; and
a wounded spirit whio can bear! Hath he afflicted
thee in some one member of thy body? He
might have cast both body and soul into hell.
There is not a trial upon thee but God could
have made it heavier: let that make thee submit,
therefore, with a more meek heart and willing
spirit to God, as a merciful God.
The Church appears as an example of this, in
the second chapter of Lamentations: It is of the
Lord's mercy that we are not consumed.  The
Jews were in great affliction when the Babylonians came upon them, and they were driven
from  the house of God, and from  their own
houses: but yet, it was of God's mercy that they
were not destroyed wholly.  So the prophet
Jeremiah telleth Baruch, in the Captivity: Seekest thou great things for thyself?  Thy life will I
give unto thee for a prey. Baruch was wondrously
disquieted.  He complained that the Lord had
added grief to his sorrow. What grief was that?
that he must go to Egypt, and after to Babylon.
Well, saith the prophet, thy case is not so heavy
as thou seemest to make it.  Thou shalt have
thy life for a prey in all places wheresoever thou
goest.  God might have taken away life and all,
but thy life shalt thou have; therefore be content
with so much.  So I say to thee, When great
afflictions come upon thee,-they might have
been greater; therefore give God the glory of his
mercy in all things.
Remember, moreover, that the cause of all




208    APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE:
thy sorrows is in  thyself.  It is sin that deservedly draweth on all the afflictions of this life.
Consider, thou hast fallen by thine own sin under
God's displeasure; therefore, whatsoever affliction
befalleth thee, thy sin hath deserved that at the
hands of God.  The Lord now dealeth with thee
as a just God, and though not in the extremity
of rigour, yet doubtless there is a righteous proceeding in it; as the Church confesseth, Righlteousness belonyetl to thee, 0 Lord.  Though the
Church was then in great affliction, yet she confessed there was righteousness in her visitation.
It is profitable to consider this, and not only
to say, with the thief on the cross, We receive the
cde reward of our deeds, but to  confess that
we suffer not so much as our sins deserve.  Our
sins deserve far greater punishment at the hands
of God than he, in this life, inflicteth on us.
We see that a change of punishment, a less for a
greater, is ever esteemed a mercy.  When a
malefactor deserveth to be put to death, he is not
only content to be burnt in the hand, but esteemeth it a mercy to be so dismissed.  So it is with
us: whatsoever affliction God layeth upon thee
thou mayest conclude, I have deserved greater.
Saith the Church, TYherefore doth a liviny man
complain; a man for the punishmnent of his sins?
Let us search and try our ways and turn again to
the Lord.  So let this be the main business of
thy life in this case.  Rather bethink thyself how
to get the favour of God, than to be eased of




FOR CONSOLATION.             209
such a trouble.  Let a man look to sin in all
this.
Lastly, consider the gracious and comfortable
fruit of affliction that is borne with patience.
Patience lesseneth the judgment which impatience
would but increase.  A struggling child is the
more punished.  A man in a fever, the more he
struggleth and striveth, the more he increaseth
his pain; and the more patiently a man yieldeth
himself in the hands of God, the more, by God's
mercy, he findeth ease and  mitigation of the
affliction.  God will take off the affliction when
once he hath perfected patience by it; for this is
God's aim, in all the trials he layeth on men, to
perfect patience in them: therefore the issue
will be good: there will be, for the present, the
more ease to the heart, and  afterwards a gracious issue and deliverance from trouble when
thou art exercised by patience.
But beside those afflictions of our life, in
which there seemeth to be something of positive
evil, grievous to nature and sense, there is a suffering which ariseth from mercies delayed, and from
that hope deferred which maketh the heart sick.
It is an affliction to a man to be kept and delayed
in the expectation of that good he hath not, and
which, if he seem  to catch at it, is drawn from
him further and further.  Many men have sent
up their prayers earnestly to God, yet the thing
they ask is not granted to this day.  Many a
man hath waited long and sought the Lord, yet
he hath not obtained that which his soul desired.
p




210     APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE:
How shall a man come to exercise patience in
such a case as this?
In such cases, when God delayeth, know that
God's delays are not denials. Though God defer
the thing, he may and will certainly grant it at
length, if it be for thy good.  What doth he
expect of thee? To wait with patience. This is
an act of faith.  He that believeth shall not make
haste.  Whatsoever God has promised in the
word, and thou hast a warrant to believe,- wait
for it.
And God's delays are not only not denials,
but they are a mean which he useth for improving his favours.  God increaseth and commendeth the excellencies of his mercies by delay: he
recompenseth our expectation and waiting for his
favours, by putting greater sweetness into them
when they come.  God increaseth the comfort
according to the delay, as in Isaiah lxi., where,
comforting the distressed church in the time of
calamity, he promniseth, for your shame ye shall
have double.  Double what?   Double comfort
after their trials.  Our light afliction (saith the
Apostle), which is but for a moment, worketh for us
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
This is the issue: a weight of glory, for light
afflictions; an eternal weight of glory, for momentary, passing troubles. As the sufferings of
Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ. This is the course of God,
if we will only yield ourselves with patience to
his will.




FOR CONSOLATION.            2.11
Remember also that God's delays are never
long.  At the longest they are but for a short
time.  What if he delay a year! what if twenty,
thirty, forty years! What if the whole life of a
man!  This is no great delay.  Compare this
time of thy waiting for mercy (I mean for any
special mercy, as relief from poverty, or pain of
body, or distress of mind,-for, even at the worst,
we are still surrounded  in  this world with
mercies innumerable)-compare this time of thy
waiting for mercy with the time to come, in
which thou shalt enjoy the perfection of this and
every other bounty.  Compare the time of thy
suffering with eternity. What proportion is there
between them?  A moment to eternity! If the
life of a man should extend to an hundred, a
thousand years, yet that is but a moment, yea
even as a point that hatM no parts, compared with
eternity: a thousand years past, a thousand years
to come, they are but as yesterday with God.
Take the eternity past and the eternity to come,
and put the life of a man between these two, and
it will be but as a point too small to be accounted of.
Stretch out the duty of patience, then. Hast
thou waited a week? wait a month, a year, seven
years, seventy years, nay, seventy ages, all the
ages of the world, if that were possible. All these
are but a moment to eternity.
And where is the man that hath waited so
long, but God, that his servants may not faint in
their expectation, either supports them with other




212     APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
comforts, or else giveth them that which they desire
before their hearts faint?  Know therefore, that
it is no such great matter for a man to wait upon
God, for it is but for a short time; and reflect, in
the time of thy waiting upon this, that when thou
art fittest for mercy it shall come; and when
it cometh it shall come with an abundant weight
and sweetness, such as shall countervail all thy
expectation and longing.
Patience must be exercised by faith, it must
be strengthened by hope, and at length perfected
by self-denial.  We have need of patience; we
cannot be perfect or acceptable to God without
it; we cannot wait for his promises, nor receive
them  at the last without it: it is the offspring of
faith and hope, which are but barren trees except
they bear this fruit. Then, brethren, in all conditions and circumstances of your life, get patience, exercise patience, perfect patience.  Let
patience have her perfect work, that ye may be
perfect and entire, wanting nothing.




SERMON IX.
SIN'S  STIPEND
AND
GOD'S  MUNIFICENCE.
ROM. VI. 23.'THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH; BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS
ETERNAL LIFE, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD."
THE latter part of this chapter, from  the 12th
verse to the end, is spent in a grave and powerful
dehortation of the faithful from security in sin,
against which the Apostle useth sundry arguments.  That which he presseth most is drawn
from the several ends to which sin and righteousness do lead men.  The end of sin is death;
therefore that is not to be served: the end of
righteousness is life everlasting; therefore that is
to be embraced.  And because there is a great
difference in the manner of these two consequences -  death coming from sin as the meritorious cause, but life from righteousness as a free
gift, therefore the Apostle adds this epilogue and
conclusion in the last verse,-T/ie wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through
Jesus Christ our Lord.




214           DEATH DUE TO SIN:
In which words we have a description of a
twofold service;-of sin in the former clause;
and of God, or righteousness, in the latter; and
how both these are rewarded; — the one with
death; it pays us justly: and the other with life,
which is bestowed by the free gift of God, through
Christ. These are the two parts, the two general
points that we are to consider.
7The wages of sin is death, saith the Apostle.
By death is here signified both temporal and
eternal death, but especially eternal death; for
in the next clause of the sentence it is opposed to
eternal life: therefore it is eternal death that is
intended. And by sin is meant-the corruption
and depravation of our nature, which is the mother of all sin; and so it includeth every evil
word  or thought or deed that we commit,
touching which it is said in another place, Sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death.  This for
-the exposition of the terms.
The point to be observed from this first part
of the text is this, that death is due to sin, as
wages to one that earns them.
To him that sinneth, wages are due in strict
justice. If a man have a hired servant he may
bestow a free gift on him, if he will; if he will
not, he may please himself; but his stipend, or
his wages, he must pay him, unless he will be
unjust: for it is the price of his work, and so is
fairly due to him. After such a manner is death
due to sin: the very demerit of the work of sin
requires it, as being earned.  God is as just in




TEMPORAL DEATH.            215
inflicting death upon sinners for their sins, as any
man in paying his labourer or hired servant his
wages.
God appointed it so in the beginning, when
he told Adam concerning the forbidden fruit, In
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die: and the same is repeated by Ezekiel, The
soul that sinneth, it shall die: plainly declaring
that death is the recompense of sin, and that if
sin have its due, then death must follow.  So
the Apostle Paul had showed before in his epistle, that by one man sin entered into thie world,
and deats by sin  and so death passed?pzon all
men, for that all have sinned.  All had sinned,
therefore all were paid with death.  These places
are evidences that death, by God's ordinance and
appointment, is the due recompense of sin; as
due to it as wages to a hired servant, or to one
who hath diligently earned them.
What death is it that is due to sin?  Both
temporal and eternal death: I say both deaths,
concerning both which the truth is to be' cleared
from some doubts.  It was the Pelagians' error
to think that man should have died a natural
death though he had never sinned: so they
thought that the natural, temporal, bodily death,
was not the wages of sin; contrary to the Apostle,
who makes that death that passed upon all men,
and which must needs be natural death, to enter
by sin: death entered by sin-no sin, no death
at all.
But it may be objected, when God told Adam




216           DEATH DUE TO SIN:
that in the day when he should eat the forbidden
fruit he should surely die, he meant not temporal
death, as the event showed; for no such death
was inflicted upon Adam  in the day that he
sinned, since he continued living naturally in the
world many years.
I answer, notwithstanding all this, Adam may
be said to have died a natural death as soon as
he sinned, because by the guilt of his sin he then
presently became subject to it, and God straightway denounced upon him the sentence of death:
therefore it may be said, he straightway died: as
a condemned person is called a dead man, though
he be respited for a time.  Besides, the messengers and sergeants of Death presently took hold
of him  and arrested him for sin, as hunger and
thirst and cold and diseases, daily wasting of
the natural moisture, to the quenching of life.
Indeed God spared him for a little time that he
might give him the means of salvation, the promise of Christ being after made, and he called to
repentance, and by that means to attain a better
life by Christ than he had lost by sin.
If it is objected, again, Christ redeemed us
from all sin and from all the punishment of sin,
but he did not redeem us from temporal, bodily
death; for the faithful, we see, die still, even as
others do: therefore temporal death is not the
wages of sin, for then, when we are free from sin
by Christ, we should be free also from  that;our answer to this is, that Christ hath freed all
his.. elect, not only from eternal but even from




TEMPORAL DEATH.              217
temporal death, though not from  both in the
same manner.
FIRST, from temporal death; in hope of which
deliverance the Apostle saith, The last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death; and this mortal
shall put on immortality: and in the mean time,
it is destroyed in hope, though it remain indeed
and must be undergone, even of the faithful, in
this life.
Howbeit to  them  God hath  changed the
nature of it, and now they no longer undergo it
as the wages of sin, but for other causes.
First, for the exercise of their graces, their
faith and hope and patience, and the rest: all
these are exercised, as in other afflictions, so also
in the death of God's children.
Secondly, for the total removal and riddance
of the reliques of sin, from  which they are not
freed in this life: but when they die, then all sin
is taken away; for as, at the first, sin brought
death into the world, so to the faithful now,
death carries it out again.
Thirdly, for their entrance into heaven and
to be at home with the Lord, from  whom  they
are absent as long as they are at home in these
bodies.  Death is but the passage from this life
to life eternal.
Fourthly, to prepare their bodies for renewing
at the last day.  As a decayed image or statue
must first be broken that it may be new cast, so
these bodies of ours must be broken by death
that they may be cast into a new mould of im



218           DEATH DUE TO SIN:
mortality at the general resurrection; and this is
the work of Christ.
Thus even temporal death is left to the children of God to be undergone before they come to
heaven; for as sin remains here, so death remains: and though they be in Christ, yet they
are still in that estate wherein it is appointed
unto all men once to die. It is left to them, I say,
and that justly, in respect to the remnants of sin;
yet they undergo it in no other way than for
their own good and benefit. Nevertheless, to an
unbeliever, temporal death is in its own nature
the wages of sin.
And as temporal, so, in the SECOND place,
eternal.  For when God told man that in the
day he sinned he should die the death, he meant
not only temporal but eternal death; and the
latter more particularly (as I showed before, in
that the Apostle opposeth it to eternal life, in the
next clause of the sentence). Now Christ hath
freed all believers actually from eternal death.
But how eternal death should be the wages
of sin may be doubted, because, between the
work and the wages there must be some proportion, that seems not to be between sin and
eternal death: for sin is a finite and temporal
thing, committed in a short time, and that death
is eternal, and to visit a temporal fault with an
eternal punishment would seem  to be against
justice.
But for an answer to this doubt, we must
know that, however sin considered in the act and




ETERN AL DEATH.               219
as a transient action may be finite, yet in other
respects it is infinite, and that in a threefold consideration.
First, in respect of the object against whom
it is committed: for, being an offence against
infinite Majesty it deserves an infinite punishment; for we know that offences are reckoned of
for their greatness, according as the greatness of
the person offended.  If he that clips the king's
coin, or defaces the king's arms, or counterfeits
the broad seal of England or the prince's privy
seal, ought to die as a traitor, because this offence
is against the person of the prince, much more
ought he that violates the law  of God to die
both the first and the second death too, because
this tends to the defacing of the image and the
disgracing of the person of God himself, who is
thereby contemned and dishonoured.
Secondly, sin is infinite in respect of the subject wherein it is-the soul of man.  Seeing the
soul is immortal and of an everlasting substance,
and that the guilt of sin doth stain the soul as
a crimson and scarlet die upon wool, and can no
more be severed from  the soul than the spots
from the leopard, it remains, as the soul is eternal
and everlasting, so sin must be infinite in durance,
and deserve an infinite wages and punishment,
which is eternal death.
ThLirdly, it is infinite also, in respect of the
desire and endeavour of an impenitent sinner;
for his desire is to walk on still in sin, and, except
God cut off the line of life, never to give over




220              APPLICATION.
sinning; but he would run on infinitely, committing all manner of sin with greediness. And
it is reason that, as God accepts the will for the
deed in godliness, so he should punish the will
for the deed in wickedness.  If we sin according
to our eternity, in our will and purpose, God will
punish us according to his eternity: it is just
that they that would never be without sin, if
they might have their own will, should never be
without punishment.
Thus we see eternal death is the wages of sin,
and though  sin be committed in a moment,
though it be a transient action in itself, yet it is
just with God to give it the wages of eternal
death.
Therefore death, both temporal and eternal,
is the wages of sin.
The point being thus declared, we come to
make some use of it by application.
First, it teacheth us, contrary to the doctrine
of the Church of Rome, that original lust and
concupiscence, in the regenerate, is a sin: for how
else could  God be just in inflicting temporal
death upon infants that are regenerate? Actual
sins they have none; and if they have no original
sin neither, then the wages of sin were inflicted
where it had never been deserved, which cannot
be, because there is no unrighteousness with God.
Therefore certain it is that, after regeneration, this
original lust, though the guilt of it be taken
away, yet, as sin, it remains; that is, the substance of it still remains, and will remain as long




NO SIN IS VENIAL.            221
as we live in this world.  For it is in us as the
ivy is in the wall, which having taken root, so
twines and incorporates itself that, though it die,
yet it can never be quite rooted out till the wall
be taken down.  So, till body and soul be taken
asunder by death, there will be no total riddance
of the original corruption  and depravation of
our nature; it is still in us, as appears by the
temporal death even of the best saints, of those
who are most sanctified in this life: for if there
were no remainders of corruption in them, they
would not receive the wages of sin: there would
be no death for them  if there were no sin in
them.
Another use of this point is to' take away a
fond popish distinction of mortal and venial sin.
The Church of Rome teacheth some sins to be
venial, that is, not in their own nature deserving
of death; whereas the Apostle here, speaking of
all sin in general, saith, the wayes of sin is death.
And how can it be otherwise when all sin is the
transgression of the law, and all transgression of
the law  deserves and is worthy of the curse,
which is both the first and second death? for
Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things
that are written in the book of the law to do them.
There is no sin, therefore, but it is worthy of
death; and therefore there is no such venial
sin as they dream of.
We deny not that some sins are venial and
some mortal, in another sense; not in respect of
the nature of the sin, but of the estate of the




g222             APPLICATION.
person in whom the sins are.  So we say, all the
sins of the elect are venial, because though they
be greater in themselves, being committed against
light and knowledge, yet, through God's mercy,
they shall be pardoned: and all the sins of reprobate persons are mortal, because they shall never
be pardoned.  It is the mercy of God, and not
the nature of the sins, that makes them venial;
for, otherwise, every sin in itself considered, be it
never so small, is mortal: for if it work according
to its own nature, it works death both of body
and soul.
It is a foolish exception that they bring
against it, that thus we make all sins equal; and
that we bring in, with the Stoics, a parity of sin,
because we say all are mortal: for it is as if one
should argue, because the mouse and the elephant
are both mortal creatures that therefore they are
of equal bigness.  Though all sins be mortal,
they are not all equal; some are greater and
some are lesser, according as they are extended
and aggravated by time, and place, and person,
and sundry other circumstances.
Suppose one should be drowned in the midst
of the sea, and another in a shallow pond: in
respect of death all were one-both are drowned;
but yet there is great difference in respect of the
place, for depth and danger.  So there is great
difference in sin; yet the least sin is in its own
nature mortal, and as the Apostle here saith, the
wages of it is death.
Again, seeing the wages of sin is death, this




THE FATAL WAGES OF SIN.         223
should teach us what use to make of death whenever it is presented to our minds or before our
eyes: we should then call to mind the grievous
nature of sin, that brought death into the world:
by the woful wages, we should be reminded of
the unhappy service.  Had there not been sin,
there would have been no death: upon the death
of the soul came in the death of the body: first
the soul died in forsaking God, and then the
body died, being forsaken of the soul: the soul
forsook God willingly; therefore it was compelled,
unwillingly, to forsake the body. This is the way
that death came into the world by sin, therefore
let the remembrance of death help us to put out
sin.
That householder in the parable, when he saw
tares grow  among his wheat, he said to his
servants, An enemyy hath done this. So, whensoever thou seest death seize upon any, say to
thyself, —Sin hath done this; this is the wages of
sin: for if man had never sinned we should have
seen no such thing.
Once more, this text ought to deter us from
sin, since it earns such wages. Indeed the manner of sin is for the most part, if not always, to
promise a better satisfaction; but it is deceitful,
and this is the wages it pays.  The wages of sin
is deathl: wages are paid in the evening; and
though the morning of sin may be fair, yet the
evening will be foul when the wages come.  At
the first, sin may be pleasing; but remember the
end,-the end of it is death.  Like to a fresh




224              APPLICATION.
river that runs into the salt sea, the stream  is
sweet, but it ends in brackishness and bitterness:
or like to the feast that Absalom  made for
Amrnon, where there was great cheer and jollity
and mirth for a while, but all closed in death
and bloodshed and murder.  Sin deals with men
as Laban dealt with Jacob: it entertaineth them
at the first with great compliments, but useth
them hardly at the last. As the governor of the
feast said: —- very man at Ite begiininin  cloth set
fortlh good wine, and then that whic1 is worse;
so sin gives the best at first, but the worst it
reserves for the last.
This should keep us from  every sin, though
it seem never so pleasing and never so sweet to
us, rememnbering that the worst is still to come.
We read that when the people saw that Saul
forbade h    them to eat, though they were exceeding
hungry, yet not one of them  durst touch the
honey for fear of the curse: so the pleasures of
sin may drop as honey before our eyes, but we
must not adventure to taste of them, because they
are cursed fruit, and because of the wages that
will follow.  Never take sin by the head, by the
beginnings, as most men do; but take it by the
heel; look to the extreme part of it; consider
the end, and thou shalt be careful to avoid it.
Jezebel might have allured a man when,
having painted her face, she looked out of the
window; but to look upon her after she was cast
out, eaten of dogs, and nothing remaining but
her extreme parts, her skull and the palms of her




BE HUMBLE AND THANKFUL.         225
hands, and her feet, it could not be but with
horror.  So sin may allure a man, looking only
on the painted face in the beginning; but if he
cast his eye upon the extreme parts, it would
then affright and deter him: for the wages, the
end of it, is death.  What a world of people run
blindly and desperately on! they turn to the race
of sin as the horse to the battle, without fear; as
if the Psalmist's-Stand in awe and sin not were
rather-Sinz and fear not. Whereas we have great
cause, every one, to tremble at the least motion
of sin in ourselves, to which so dreadful and
woful wages is due.
Lastly, from this point those who have repented and have already left the service of sin,
may learn to be humbled in themselves, considering what danger and misery they have escaped;
and to be more thankful to Christ, who, by taking
the whole punishment upon himself, hath freed
them from  so wretched wages due to their sins.
For we must know, beloved, that the best of us
are by nature children of wrath, even as others:
the stipend we have earned is eternal death; and
surely it had been paid to us, and nothing could
have kept it from us, but for the satisfaction of
Christ, coming between God's justice and us. Let
us view then, if we can, the misery that we have
escaped (as many of us, I mean, as be in a state
of grace): we have escaped temporal death, that
is, the hurt of death natural; and we have escaped eternal death too.
What is eternal death?  It is a separation
Q




226           THE GIFT OF GOD:
from the blessed presence and glory of Goddestruction of body and soul for ever-unutterable torments-company with the devil and his
angels, and  the  rout of reprobates - darkness, blacker and thicker than that of Egyptweepiyn and wailing and gnashing of teeth in the
infernal lake-the worm that never dies and the
fire that is not quenched.  This is the wages of
all sin; and the cause wherefore it is not duly
rendered to all sin and to all sinners is only
this, that the payment hath been already exacted
of Christ, in the behalf of those who believe, so
that in their own persons they are discharged.
How infinitely then are we bound in thankfulness to him for this great mercy, and how
careful should we be to walk worthy of it - resolving never to return to the service of sin, but
studying to please and honour a Redeemer who
hath delivered us from such misery as this!
The SECOND thing to be considered is the
reward that God giveth of free grace to them
that serve him.  The gift of God is eternal life
throughk Jesus Christ our Lord.  There is a twofold life to men: the one is natural, and is common
to all, good and bad, in this world; the other is
spiritual, and is proper to the faithful, being
begun by the union of God and the soul, and
maintained by the bond of the Spirit.
And this spiritual life hath three degrees:the first degree is in this life; and it begins when
we are first brought to repentance, and to a saving
knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ:




ETERNAL LIFE.              227
as it is said, This is life eternal to know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
The second degree is-from the time of death
to the resurrection: for in that time the soul
being freed from the body, it is withal free from
all sin, original and actual.
And the third degree is after the resurrection,
when body and soul shall be reunited and we
shall have immediate communion and fellowship
with God, and so enjoy a more perfect and
blessed life than ever we could here.
And this spiritual life, with all the three degrees of it, is the life here spoken of, especially
the last degree, the perfection of it in heaven.
This is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, to all that believe.
It is called the gift of God, because we cannot
deserve it; but it is given and bestowed on us
freely for Christ.  The Apostle, when he hath
said, The wages of sin is death, doth not add and
say, the wages of righteousness is life eternal;
but he calls that the gift of God, to make us
understand that God brings us to eternal life
merely for his own mercy, and not for our merits;
or else surely he would have made the latter
part of the sentence answerable to the former.
But here perhaps some may ask-why eternal life should not be the wages of righteousness,
as well as death the wages of sin?
I answer, because there is no reason  or
comparison between sin and righteousness; and
therefore there can be no like consequences.




228             THE GIFT OF GOD.
For first, sin is our own - it merits punishment; but righteousness is none of our own: it
is given and imputed to us, and is due to God.
Then again, sin is perfectly evil, and so it
deserves death; but our righteousness is not perfectly good; it is imperfect in this life, and
nothing that is imperfectly good can merit, as
wages, eternal life. Yet eternal life is sometimes,
yea, many times in Scripture, called a reward;
and God is said to reward his children.  How is
that?  Though the reward come originally from
mercy, yet God hath tied himself by a promise to
bestow this upon his people, and therefore the
Lord may be accounted a debtor.  How? saith
St. Austin.  As a promiser; for if he had not
promised us this blessing, he would owe us nothing at all-much less eternal life, which is so
great a thing.
Yet it may be doubted how eternal life is the
free gift of God, seeing it is given for the merits
of Christ, as it is here expressed,-The gift of God
is eternal life, throughe Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, he that gives a thing upon merit, gives it
not freely.
I answer, It is free in respect to us; whatsoever Christ hath done, we did not merit it.
If it be replied, Christ's merits are made
ours, and we merit in and by him, and so it
cannot be free; I answer, This reason were of
force if we ourselves could procure the merits of
Christ for us: but that we cannot do, therefore
that also is of free gift. God so loved the world




APPLICATION.'             229
that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever
believetlh in him should not perish: he gave him
freely, a free gift; so that, though eternal life be
due to us by the merits of Christ, yet it is the
free gift of God. I will stand no longer in proving the truth of this doctrine, but come at once
to the application and use of it.
First, it serves to confute our adversaries of
the Church of Rome in the point of merit. They
look for heaven and eternal life as wages: we see
the Apostle teacheth us otherwise; that eternal
life is not given in that manner, but it is tAe free
git of God.  And this was the constant doctrine
of the primitive church-a good life when we
are justified, and an eternal life when we are
glorified; all that is good in us is the gift of
God, and eternal life is not a retribution to our
works but an additional benefaction from him.
When God crowns our merits, he crowns nothing
else but his own free gift: these and many other
sentences we find among the ancient fathers,
plainly convincing our adversaries that in this
point they swerve, not only from Scripture, but
from all sound antiquity.
Secondly, to come to ourselves, this should
humble us in respect of our own deservings. Do
all the good thou canst, but take heed it do not
puff thee up: think not to merit heaven; alas,
thou canst not do it.  Is it any pleasure to the
Almiighty thatI thou  art righteous?  Thy welldoing extends not to him; thou canst do him no
good, therefore thou canst look for nothing at his




230             APPLICATION.
hands.  All thou dost in his service is not for his
good but for thine own, and the utmost thou
canst do is no more than thou art bound to do:
therefore, when thou hast done all that thou canst,
thou must acknowledge thyself to be an unprofitable servant.  If thou hast many good works,
yet thou hast more sin; and the least sin of thine,
in the rigour of justice, will deprive thee of the
favour of God. Therefore thy appeal must be to
the throne of grace, and thy only plea must be
that of the publican, God be nercifil to me a
sinner.  When we have done all we can, it must
still be mercy, and not any merit of ours, that
must bring us to heaven.
Thirdly, here is comfort for the children of
God, in that this inestimable treasure of eternal
life is not committed to our keeping, but God
hath it in his own charge. It is his gift; it is
not committed to the rotten box of our merits:
if it were we could have no certainty of it, the
devil would easily pick the lock; yea, without
picking it, he would shake in pieces the crazy
joints of the best work we do; he would steal it
from us and take it away, and deprive us of this
excellent benefit. But the Lord hath dealt better
for us: he hath kept it in his own hands: he
hath laid it up in the cabinet of his own mercy
and love, that never fails, for with everlasting kindness he will have mercy on us; he loveth us with
an everlasting love; his compassions fail not; and
whom he loves, he loves them to the end. Therefore in temptations, when we are driven to doubt




APPLICATION.              231
of our attaining eternal life, let us cast our eye
upon the keeper of it; it is the Lord, and he is
wary to discern and faithful to bestow it: therefore let us comfort ourselves and say, every one
of us, as Saint Paul, I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him aycainst that
day.
Lastly, seeing eternal life is the free gift of
God, we must be thankful to him for it.  Pride
is a great enemy to thankfulness; and if we did
think eternal life were the due reward of our
merits  we  should  never be thankful for it.
Therefore we ought to humble ourselves, and to
consider that we deserve no good thing at God's
hands, and to take this great benefit most thankfully. And this is all that God requires of us;
for, saith he, Call upon me in the day of trouble,
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Glorifying God and  being thankful to him  is
all the tribute we are to pay to this our God and
King; and shall we deny him  this?  It is a
small benefit that is not worth thanks. We set
eternal life at too low a rate if we forget to be
thankful.  There was never a precious jewel
offered at so cheap a price, as-eternal life for our
thankfulness.
If we did but know  what it were to want
it, we should give ten thousand worlds rather
than be without it.  Therefore, as Naaman's
servants said to him concerning his washing in
Jordan, If the Prophet had bid thee do some great




232              APPLICATION.
thing, wouldest thou not have done it?  So, if
God had commanded us a great matter for eternal life, we should have been ready to do it;
how much more then, when he saith-take it
and be thankful: be but thankful.
Thus have I described to you this twofold
service; the service of sin and its wages, that is
-death temporal and eternal: and the service of
righteousness and its reward-eternal life, which
is not wages, but is the gift of God. So that I
may now say to you as Moses did to Israel, I
have set before you life and decat, cursiny and
blessing.  Therefore choose not cursing, choose
not sin, nor the wages thereof; but choose life,
that both thou and thy seed may live.  If we follow sin the wages will be death, but if we apply
ourselves to righteousness in the service of God
our reward shall be eternal life; not that we deserve it, but that it is the pleasure of our heavenly
Father to bestow it upon us-For the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
tlrozuh Jesus Christ our Lord.




SERMON X.
THE STEWARD'S SUMMONS.
LUKE, XVI. 2.
5 GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF THY STEWARDSHIP; FOR THOU MAYEST
BE NO LONGER STEWARD."
IN the chapter going before, our blessed Lord
and Saviour had preached the doctrine of the
free grace of God, in the remission of sin and
receiving of repentant and returning sinners, in
the parable of the prodigal son. The Pharisees
were a people that hardened their hearts, and
scoffed  at everything  that Christ delivered:
therefore he cometh now in this chapter to warn
them that they must soon appear before God,
the great master of the world, to give an account
of their stewardship; that, by the consideration of
God's proceeding in the day of judgment, they
might the better know how to prize the remission
of sins in the day of grace. This he doth by
presenting to them a parable of a certain rich
man that had a steward, who was accused unto
him that he had wasted his goods, and whom he
thereupon calleth to account.  And to the end




234         DIVISTON OF THE TEXT.
that the Pharisees might not think that it was a
matter to be jested withal, and that such considerations as these were to be slighted, he
telleth them  how  the unjust steward, having
received this summons and warning from  his
master, forthwith, for his temporal good, casteth
about him, that he may the better be prepared
for the loss of his office; thereby teaching them,
and in them the whole world, that if this steward,
for his own temporal benefit, was thus careful to
prepare himself, much more should they be careful to prepare themselves for that great day of
account, wherein God will come to judge the
world, and will bring to light all things that are
hid in darkness.
In  these words ye have two things considerable:-A  narration or parable; and an
application of it.
The narration is twofold:-Of the persons;
and of the proceedings.
Of the persons, in the first verse:-A rich
man and his steward.
Of the proceedings, in the second verse:The rich man, on the information made against
his steward that he had wasted his goods, calleth
him  to an account.  Give an account of thy
stewardship, for thou mayest be no lonyer steward.
The steward thereupon falleth first to consult,
and after to resolve, as we shall see presently.
In this verse then that I have read you see
here is, FIRST, the summons or warning,-Give
an account.




EVERY MAN IS GOD'S STEWARD.    235
SECONDLY, The reason of that summons,For toou mayest be no longer steward.
In the FIRST, the summons and calling of
this steward to account, ye have clearly offered
to ye these two propositions, considerations, or
conclusions:
First, That every man in the world is God's
steward.
Secondly, That every one of God's stewards.
must be brought to a reckoning.
First, I say, every man in the world is God's
steward.
If ye ask me who it is that is called a steward,
the text tells ye: it is he that must give an
account to his master.
If ye ask me who is the master, it is God.
If then God be the master, and if every one
must give an account and reckoning to God,
then every man is the steward intended in this
text.  That every man must give a reckoning to
God it appeareth by St. Paul:- We must all
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that
every one may receive the thinys done in his body,
whether it be good or bad.  All men,-that
which is here expressed by the Apostle in plain
terms is more obscurely signified by Christ in his
word steward-Give an account of thy stewardship; so that the conclusion remaineth clear, and
is gathered directly from the text, that every man
in the world is God's steward. There is no man
or woman in the world, but in some respect or




236     EVERY MAN IS GOD S STEWARD.
other is the steward that must be called to an
account.
For consider these two things:-What every
man receives from God, and what God expects
from every man.  Man receiveth from God that
which a steward doth from  his lord, and God
expects from every man that which a lord expects
from his steward.
I say a man receiveth from God that which a
steward doth from  his master: that is, such
goods and such abilities as may enable him to be
of use in that place in which his master hath set
him in the family. All the world is but God's
great family, and all the fittings and endowments of men are the talents, the gifts, wherewith
God hath entrusted them.  Some have the gifts
of the world-riches and places of authority:
others have the gifts of the body, as health and
strength, and the like: others have the gifts of the
mind, understanding and wisdom  and policy:
and to all these, some have spiritual graces.
According as men are furnished with these gifts,
and according to their several qualifications and
endowments, they all receive them from God, as
stewards.
And God expects, in return, those things
which a lord requires from his steward.
He requires that they acknowledge him to be
the chief, and that they hold all from him; that
they have it not from themselves, nor for themselves: this is what every master expects from
him to whom he committeth his treasure; and




DUTIES OF A STEWARD.          237
this would God have all men do.  God speaks
that truly which Benhadad spake proudly and
falsely to the king of Israel, --   y silver and thy
gold is miene; tly wives also and thiy children,
even the goodliest, are mine.  All are his; the
earth is the hord's, and the fulness thereof.  He
is the possessor of all things, and he letteth out
parcels of his possession to the sons of men. To
some he committeth a larger portion than to
others, yet they are but tenants at will; and
tenants upon certain conditions and reservations,
wherein this great Lord bindeth those that hold
anything of him.
And one condition or reservation unto which
he ties all his stewards is this-that they waste
not his goods, that they scatter them  not abroad
vainly or unprofitably.  Now a man that hath
riches, if he relieve not the poor,-a man that
hath authority, and helpeth not the oppressed,-a
man that hath wisdom, and instructeth not the
ignorant,-in a word, a man that hath any abilities and turneth them not to good account-this
man scattereth his master's goods, and is like
that unprofitable servant that hid his talent in a
napkin, and therefore was bound hand and foot
and cast into outer darkness.  This was the
accusation that was brought against this steward
here: he had wasted his Lord's goods, that is, he
had spent them vainly, he was no honour to his
master, there came no profit to the household by
him.
Another thing that this great Lord expects of




238     EVERY MAN IS GOD'S STEWARD.
all his stewards is, that they do not scatter his
goods, nor vainly waste them, nor abuse them
to evil ends. There is in the world a generation
of men that fight against God with his own
weapons, and use all their strength and wisdom
and power to maintain a faction of rebellion
against him,-that side with the wicked of the
world against his laws and ordinances; and this
is the greatest ingratitude and presumption that
can be.  If a king should raise a servant to
honour, and bestow offices and dignity upon him,
and yet if he should raise an army against him,
and set himself against all his laws, what great
unthankfulness would this be! Therefore Christ,
the King of the Church, shall say of all who thus
rebel against him,-Those mine enemies which
would not that I should reign over them, briny
hither and slay them before me.  This is the case
of all those men that have wealth and abuse it,
consuming it upon their lusts and their pride;
that have wit, and spend it, like Tertullus, to cry
down the ways of God and to harden themselves
and others in the course of sin; that have greatness and authority, and misemploy it to the
crushing of good persons and fair causes: these
and the like are stewards that abuse their master's
goods, and misemploy them  to his dishonour:
these Christ counteth his enemies, and he will
not spare them.
Again, God expects this of all his stewards,
that they should do him homage, and especially
that they should present themselves before him




DUTIES OF A STEWARD.          239
at his court -days.  God's Sabbaths are God's
court-days, wherein he calleth and assembleth
his servants together.  He will have every one
wait upon him, that they may know his will. As
Cornelius bringeth his family together, and saith
to Peter,- We are all here present to hear all
things that are commanded thee of God,-so God,
I say, will have his servants present at his courtdays; and not only so, not only to be present
there to hear his will and to understand his mind,
but to submit to his orders, to yield obedience to
his laws, to be governed by his rules. God hath
certain rules to which he will have every man
subject: there  be rules for magistrates, for
ministers, for masters, for parents, for servants,
for children, for all; and he is a rebel, and carrieth himself not as God's steward, that doth not
keep the rules that God hath set up in his own
house.
Once more: God expects from all his stewards,
that whensoever he sendeth his bailiffs for rent,
they will return him the fruit of his own ground.
Every soul is God's ground, from  which  God
expects some fruit or other; and he sends his
servants, his bailiffs, continually, to gather these
fruits from men.  When he sendeth a poor man
to a rich, there is a bailiff sent to him to gather
some fruit of his wealth.  When he sendeth an
oppressed man to one that is in authority, there
is a bailiff sent to him to gather the fruit of
his power and greatness.  When he sendeth an
ignorant man to one that hath wisdom  and




240     EVERY MAN IS GOD S STEWARD.
knowledge, there is a bailiff sent to him  to
gather the fruit of his knowledge.  And so we
may say of all things. Whatsoever endowments
of body or mind or estate any man hath, if
another need it, that other is God's bailiff, sent
to him to call for his rent, to call for the fruit of
his ground; and to such an one thou must return
it, for thou art but a steward, and thou knowest
how fearful the proceedings of the great king are:
Ile will miserably destroy those wicked men who
will not render the fruits in their season. So,
when God shall send the poor to thee for relief,
and thou helpest him not; shall send the ignorant
to thee for instruction, and thou informest him
not; shall send any one to thee that he may have
use of thy gifts and abilities, and thou dost not
employ them  that way,-thou deniest the great
Lord the fruit of his own ground, and art of the
number of those husbandmen that must expect
this at his hand, to be miserably destroyed in his
wrath.
Ye see the point opened, that all men are
God's stewards, both in respect of what God
hath bestowed on them  and what God doth
expect from them.  I come now briefly to make
some use of this.
Are all men  God's stewards?  Then certainly there is some work required of every man
in the world, by virtue of this title and office put
upon him.  It concerns therefore every one to
look to his place.
There are two  things required of every




A STEWARD MUST DISPENSE.          241
steward:-a dispensation; and a right ordering
of his dispensation.
A steward, ye know, is appointed to dispense
for others, not for himself; for the good of the
family in which he is set, not for his own benefit.
God hath made every creature to be for the use
of others, and not for itself.  Those heavenly
bodies, the sun and moon and stars, their motion
and influences, are for us, for the service of the
world. The earth with the fruits of it, the beasts
and all, are for the service of man.  So every
man in his several place hath some work to do
for others, some abilities  given  him  for the
service of others. Hence it is that the magistrate is said to be the minister of God for the
people's good.  Hence the ministers are said to
be servants of the church; —I am debtor, saith
Paul, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians;
both to the wise and to the unwise.  Hence it is
that the master of a family is said to be worse
than an infidel if he provide not for those of his
own house.  And every other Christian, though
he stand not in any of these relations, yet he hath
some particular gifts that are to be laid out for
the use and advantage of others; and every person
in the world may be of some use or other in the
place in which he is set. This is the cause that
the name of brother is common to all Christians,
and ye know that Joseph acknowledged that he
was called to those honours and to that authority
and place that he had, for the good of his brethren
and of his father's house.  So should all God's
R




242     EVERY MAN IS GOD'S STEWARD.
people acknowledge other Christians their brethren, and that whatsoever parts they have, they have
them for the good of the family. Christians are
rightly called members one of another; and as every
member is of use to the whole body, so must
every Christian be profitable-some by the riches
of the body —some by the riches of the mindsome by the abilities of their estates-every one
according to the treasure he is entrusted with
and the talent that is committed to him.
This is one thing that men must make conscience to do, to be dispensers of their goodness,
of whatever they possess; to be communicative,
to diffuse and extend themselves to others, as
occasion shall be offered.  And indeed where
there is any goodness in a man, he will express it
this way, by doing all the good he can to others.
It is likewise required of a steward that he
consider of the manner and right ordering of his
dispensations.  He must dispense both faithfully
and wisely: Who, saith the Lord, is that faithful
and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler
over his household? &c.
If we would be faithful in our places, God's
glory must be our end, and his word our rule.
Let a man consider what God commands himin such a place, in such a qualification, having
such endowments, such parts, such abilities; and
let him dispense these-by that rule, according
to that command-to the glory of God that gave
him  those talents.  Thus was Moses a faithful
steward, faithful in all the house of God as a




HE MUST DISPENSE RIGHTLY.      243
servant.  His Master's glory was his end; and
therefore, when he saw his Master dishonoured by
idolatry, he could not then contain himself, but
his anger waxed hot, though he was the meekest
man upon earth.  And his Master's will was his
rule; therefore he came down from the mountain
with the tables in his hand, that it might appear
what was his guide and direction in all his carriage amongst the people; and we shall find that
in all the doubts of the people, either in matter
of command or punishment, he always sought
direction from God.  He is no faithful servant
that doth not do this.
And as he must be a faithful steward in dispensing, so he must be wise in his dispensing too.
What is the wisdom  of God's stewards?
Not the wisdom  drawn from  the writings of
Macchiavelli, nor the wisdom of the world, nor of
the flesh, for that is enmnity ayainst God-not
drawn from the rules that politicians walk by;
but that wisdom that is drawn out of the Scriptures, the word of God, which is able to make us
wise unto salvation.  This is the wisdom that
God's servants must express and manifest, in dispensing their gifts; they must be made wise by
the word; they must seek wisdom from the word,
the rule of wisdom, and from the example of
those who were guided by the Spirit of wisdom.
They must compare the precepts of the word
and the practice of the saints together; see what
God commandeth in such a place, in such a condition; see what God's servants that have gone




244   STEWARDS MUST GIVE AN ACCOUNT
before have done in such an office. Mark how
Abraham  and Job and others of God's saints
have employed their wealth and authority for the
relieving of the poor, for the furtherance of God's
glory, for the help of those that were oppressed.
Mark how Nehemiah bestirred himself for the
sanctifying of the Sabbath, for the furtherance of
God's worship.  Mark again how St. Paul, as a
minister, watched against the wolves, and how he
would spend himself to the uttermost for the
church of God. Mark how Abraham, as a master
of a family, governed his household, teaching and
commanding his children to walk in the way of
the Lord.  Mark how other of God's servants
have employed their gifts, as Samson his strength,
for the church, and as Solomon his wisdom; and
whatsoever gift any of them had, they acknowledged that the talents that were committed to
them were for God and for the service of his
church, for the furtherance of his glory in the
particular places in which he set them. I say,
if men would be wise stewards they must do
thus.  But I cannot stand upon this, lest I be
prevented in that which I most intend, which
followeth.
Ye have heard who is the steward.  It is
every one that hath received any ability from
God to do him  service; God expects that he
should employ that ability in his service.
We come now, secondly, to consider the reckoning which every man must make, the account
that every man must render of his stewardship.




IN THIS LIFE.            245
In the opening of this I will show ye two
things. I will show ye, first, what time of reckoning God hath with his stewards; and after, why
God proceedeth judicially in this manner, called
a reckoning or account.
For the first: there are two times of reckoning that God will have with his stewards: the
first time is in this life; the second after death.
Also he hath two ways, while in this life, of
calling them  to account; by his word and by
his rod.
By his word he hasteneth every man to an
account, by the Gospel and by the doctrine of
repentance. This course God himself took with
Adam, when he called him to account for his
carriage in the garden.  Adam, saith he, where
art thou?  Who told thee that thou wast naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldest not eat?   Afterwards,
when God sent his prophets into the world, they
took the same course; as Elijah, when he came
to Ahab:-Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?  So John Baptist, when he cometh to
the Pharisees and those other hard-hearted sinners, he calleth them to a reckoning:-0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you toflee from
the wrath to come?  So Peter calleth those three
thousand souls to a reckoning for crucifying of
Christ, whom, saith he, ye have taken, and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain.
And because there are many that, like the
deaf adder, stop their ears, and if God speak to




246   STEWARDS MUST GIVE AN ACCOUNT
them they pass it by (as Elihu, in Job, saith,God speaketh once, yea twice, but man perceiveth
it not), therefore, when the word doth not prevail,
God calleth them to a reckoning by his rod:Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it: that
is, God hath appointed scourges and afflictions
for men, to awaken them to hearken to the voice
hat calls them to a reckoning.
Now afflictions are outward or inward, corporal or spiritual. God sometimes calleth man
to account by corporal afflictions. He chasteneth
him with pain upon his bed, and the multitude
of his bones with strong pain.  What is the
reason of this, but that man may come to this
conclusion with himself-that he must bring his
own heart to a reckoning for his former carriage?
This is that the Apostle saith: —For this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many
sleep.  Some were taken with sickness, upon
others there was a consuming weakness, and
others were stricken with death.  What is the
end that God propounds in all this? It is this,
-that we should judge ourselves, for if we would
judde ourselves we should not be judgsed; bdu when
we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord,
that we should not be condemned with the world.
As if he should say, God now calleth you to
a reckoning in this life, to the end you may
prevent that heavy and grievous one that cometh
after this life.
Again, when outward afflictions prevail not,
God hath spiritual afflictions to awaken men. Thus




AFTER THIS LIFE.           247
David, when he was in a deep sleep of security,
God awakened him  with a spiritual judgment.
See his speech in the 32d Psalm: — lten I ept
silence, my bones waxed old, through, my roariny
all the day long.  What followed?  God by this
means brought him  to confession: —I said, I
will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and
thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.
Thus God, in this life, calleth men to a reckoning, sometimes by the preaching of the word,
sometimes by judgments upon the outward man,
and sometimes by terrors upon the soul. But if
all this prevail not to make a man reckon with
himself in this life, then God hath another reckoning after this life, where every man must give an
account, and cannot avoid it; and there he that
would not prevent the sentence of the judge,
must submit to it and abide by it for ever.
That there is such a judgment to come is
evident both from the equity of it, and from the
necessity; and that in respect of God, of the
saints, and of the wicked.
In respect of God, there is a necessity of it,
that his decree may be fulfilled and executed.
He hathi appointed a day in the which he will
judge the world in righteousness: and he hath
said, Miy counsel shall stand, and I will do all my
pleasure.
Also, it is necessary that God's honour may
be vindicated.  Now things seem to go in some
confusion and disorder in the world. Good men,
the children of God, are often oppressed by the




248   STEWARDS MUST GIVE AN ACCOUNT
wicked; they are in adversity, they suffer wrong,
while the wicked flourish as a green bay-tree;
justice is perverted, wickedness is in the place of
judgment, and in the place of righteousness
there is iniquity. Therefore Solomon makes this.
observation:-I said in mine heart, God shall
judge the riyhteous and the wicked; for there is a
time there for every purpose and for every work.
God hath a time to do that great work that he
hath now purposed.  What is that work?  To
bring every thing to judgment, whether it be
good or evil: to set all to right again that is uneven and unjust in the world.
In respect of the saints also, a day of judgment is necessary, both that their innocency, that
is here traduced, may be made manifest, and also
that their works may be rewarded. For the first:
-they undergo many disgraces and hard censures
amongst men; the world accounts them  proud,
hypocrites, singular, foolish, vain-glorious, and I
know not what. Now, saith Job, my witness is in
heaven, and my record is on hig h: and, saith St.
Paul, I care not to be judged of you, nor of man's
judgment; but he that judgeth me is the Lord. The
word in the Greek is man's day; as if he should
say, men have their day here, but God hath a
greater day after: the Lord will judge in another
manner and upon other grounds than men do.
And for the second, the reward of their works:
When we speak of reward, we mean not the reward of merit; we mean the reward of grace,
called a reward because God is tied to it by his




AFTER THIS LIFE.           249
promise. The servants of God, though they serve
him with all care, they have not the fat of the land,
as sometimes the Ishmaels of the world have; they
do not abound with outward things as many others
do: nay, sometimes they are in the worst condition.
God therefore hath a time in view when his servants shall have full measure, heaped up, pressed
down, shaken together, and running over. When
God shall make up his jewels, then shallye discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him
that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.
Mark, ye shall discern; God will make it appear
to the whole world that, notwithstanding his
servants are despised and lie here under divers
pressures, yet they are a people in whom he delights, whom  he accounteth as his jewels, his
precious treasures.
It is necessary in respect of the wicked, too:
both that God's righteousness may be fully manifested, and that their unrighteousness may be
fully punished.
The day of judgment is called the day of
wrath and revelation of the righteous jmdyment of
God. for then  God will manifest his wrath
against the vessels of wrath, and so make it
appear to the world that he proceedeth in a
right manner and by a right rule in judging.
For we must know, that though God cannot
be unjust, and though the ungodly men of this
world are ever convicted by their own consciences, yet such is their corruption and the
hardness of their hearts, that they would fain




250   STEWARDS MUST GIVE AN ACCOUNT
justify themselves among men.   And again,
though  it be true that the soul when it is
departed out of the body is under God's particular judgment, and hath  such a spiritual
illumination and understanding of God's actions
as that it may know itself to be accursed or
acquitted, and  accordingly is entered already
into the possession either of happiness or misery;
yet all this is secret in the world till the day
of God's tribunal come, wherein secret things
shall be revealed, and things that have been done
in darkness shall appear before men and angels.
Then shall God's justice be cleared and fully
manifested.
And then, also, shall the wicked and unrighteous receive their full punishment. They
are not fully punished while under the sense of
God's wrath in this life; nor yet when the soul
is judged at their death: there must be yet a
further degree for all this.   For the wicked
sin, not only in soul but in body too.   The
body hath been the instrument of the soul in
sinning, and therefore it cannot serve the turn
that the soul be punished while the body lie in
the grave: no, those that have joined in the sin
must be joined together also in punishment.
Again, though the sinful actions of the wicked
are transient, and seem to die with them, yet,
in respect of the contagion and evil effects, these
actions work upon others and upon posterity;
and thus the actions of those wicked men continue to the day of judgment.  See how the




AFTER THIS LIFE.           251
Jews revived the sins of their fathers: We will
burn incense to the queen of heaven, say they, as
our fathers have done.  See how the kings of
Israel, that succeeded Jeroboam, went on in the
steps of Jeroboam  the son of Nebat, who made
Israel to sin.  As long as men go on in the sins
of their forefathers, the sins of their forefathers
live.  So that some men's sins, by a continued
imitation, are perpetuated long after they are
dead, even to the day of judgment. Wherefore
there must be a day of judgment, that may fill
up a measure proportionable to their sin.
This it was that Dives feared in hell, and
that made him cry out as he did, that one might
go and tell his brethren upon earth, that they
might not follow him into that place of torment.
Why would he have them  tell his brethren?
Was there in hell such love to the kingdom of
Christ, that Dives would have his brethren converted?  No such matter.  Was it love to the
souls of his brethren?  No such matter, neither.
What then?  Certainly it was nothing else but
a sense of his own guilt: he knew  what evil
example he had given, and what a counsellor he
had been to his brethren; and if they should go
on in his steps, and their children after them, all
this would but add to his punishment in the
great day when soul and body shall be joined
together to make up the full measure of their
torment.  For this reason, also, I say, it is
necessary there should be a day of judgment,
after this life, at the end of the world.




252     WHY GOD RECKONS WITH MEN.
The SECOND thing remaineth; and that is,
why the Holy Ghost expresseth God's proceedings by way of reckoning, or calling to account?
What need the Lord reckon with men?   He
might proceed to pass sentence and to execute
judgment; but he saith,-Come, give an account
of thy stewardship.   I answer, there are four
things implied in this, all showing the manner
of God's proceedings at the day of judgment
with his stewards, that it shall be like the
proceedings of a master with his servants, in an
account and reckoning.
The first is this: that it shall be a proceeding in particulars.   God shall then proceed,
not by gross sums and in the total;-ye have
done evil in the general: none will deal thus
with an accountant, but he will run over the
particulars, and require an account for pounds,
for shillings, for pence, for everything.  So will
God deal with all his stewards when he bringeth
them to a reckoning.  He will reckon on particulars: he will require an account of all things
that he hath enabled them with for his service.
Those that are rich men he will ask, first,
how they have gotten their estates; whether they
have built their houses as a moth, that is, to the
hurt of others, as men do that raise themselves
by usury and oppression and fraud and bribery,
and such-like courses.
And then again, how  they have kept their
wealth; whether to the injury of others, withholding good from them  to whom it is due, from




HE WILL HAVE A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT. 253
the poor, who in case of want are the owners of
their goods, because God hath entrusted them to
his stewards for their sakes.
And again, how they have spent what they
had, whether on their lusts or no.   Ye asc and
receive not, saith St. James, because ye ask amiss,
that ye may consume it upon your lusts.  So ye
lay out amiss; ye spend it on your lusts. When
men, for pride in apparel, for excess at their
tables, for vain buildings, for sinful upholding of
wickedness, for unnecessary and injurious proceedings in law-suits, or in whatsoever indirect
course lay out their estates, it is a mis-spending
of their master's goods.  And as he that hath
got his wealth unjustly and he that keepeth it
unjustly shall  give  an  account, so he that
layeth it out in a confused, sinful, profuse way,
shall be called to give a reckoning for that.
And not only for matter of estate, but besides,
for matter of place and authority.  Moses knew
this well enough; and therefore, when he was to
go out of the world, he first clears all reckonings
with the people of Israel:-I have been a ruler
thus long; let any man come and  stand up
and say, I have done him wrong: let every man
come and clear me this day, before the Lord.
This was the account that Moses made with the
people of Israel before he died, that he might
lift up his head with comfort in the day of the
Lord.   Thus it must be with you: ye must
give an account of your places.
And so for the state of your bodies. The




254     WHY GOD RECKONS WITH MEN.
health thou hast had, how hast thou spent it?
Mark the speech of Solomon to the young man.
Rejoice, 0 young man, in the days of thy youth;
but know thou, that for all these things God will
bring thee unto judgment. Now thou hast a great
deal of health, a great deal of strength; but hast
thou been the better for God's service? hast
thou employed it for God's glory or no?
And so for the members of thy body; thou
must give an account for thy employment of
those instruments.  Thou must give an account
for thy tongue, for every idle word that thou
speakest.  And if for every idle word, what then
for thy swearing and cursing and lying? What
for the abundance of filthy, obscene, and rotten
communication that cometh out of thy mouth?
Thou must give an account for thy tongue, and
so for every other member and for every sense
that thou hast.
Thou must give an account likewise for the
gifts of thy mind, how thou hast employed thy
wisdom and learning and experience.
For all thy passions; Whosoever is angry with
his brother without a cause shall be in danger of
the judgment.
For all the dispositions and inclinations of
thy heart; for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, and many other things which
defile a man.
In a word, whatsoever ability thou hast,
whereby thou mightest have been beneficial and
serviceable to the church and commonwealth,




HE WILL PROCEED BY METHOD.    255
thou must give an account of it in particular unto
God.  He will call thee to a reckoning of every
parcel of it by itself.  The master in the Gospel
that gave the talents to his servants, he called
them to an account for every talent he gave them.
So there must be a particular enumeration to
God of all those several abilities wherewith he
hath fitted thee for his service: how thou hast
behaved thyself in matter of health, strength,
and time; in thy senses; in the members of thy
body; how with thy mind; how with the dispositions of thy soul; how in all the gifts and endowments he hath entrusted thee with, for the
service of the church and commonwealth.
Secondly, it is called a reckoning, because in
this reckoning, God will go by a method, keeping
an order, such an order as men do in reckoning
with their accountants-everything being taken
in its due place.  God will proceed to give every
one in the day of judgment his due place, and ye
shall find that many sins that ye have accounted
the lightest of all will be the heaviest and grievous
at that day.  I will reprove thee, saith God, and
set them in order before thine eyes. God will
observe such an order, that everything shall have
its due place, its due head.
In the first place shall be that apostasy
whereof all Adam's posterity are guilty.  This
David saw; and therefore when he judged himself, he judged himself as one born in sin. I was
shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.




2256    WHY GOD RECKONS WITH MEN.
In the next place shall be that concupiscence,
that depravity of nature from whence all actual
sins proceed. This St. Paul knew, and therefore,
in the 7th of Romans, he bewaileth it, as the
original and root of all other actual sins.  God
will begin first with the sins of the heart, because
thence come all the outward actions of the whole
man.
Then he will judge the outward works themselves.  He will begin with those against the
first table, atheism, infidelity, profaneness, contempt of God and his service, neglect of his glory
and of the opportunities he hath given us.
And when the Law and the Gospel come together, he will proceed more severely for the sins
against the Gospel than the Law.  Therefore our
Saviour telleth us it shall be easier in the day of
judgment for Sodon and Gomorrah, that had the
Law  only, than for Capernaum  that had the
Gospel too.  And, saith the Apostle, If he that
despised Moses' law died without mercy, of how
much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy
who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God! how
much worse shall it be for him who hath disobeyed
the Gospel of Christ-the law of faith! Thus
God will proceed.
And therefore, when ye would exercise repentance, follow God's order. Mourn more for impenitency and infidelity than for other things. Be more
humbled for sins against the first table, for profaneness, for atheism  and neglect of God, than
for sins against the second; though these, too,




HE WILL PROCEED BY HIS BOOKS.   257
must be repented of.  Again, be more constant
in lamenting the inward sinful disposition of thy
heart than thy outward sinful actions, and forget not the original root of all, which we brought
with us into the world.  I say, mark God's
method and his order: that which he takes most
notice of in the day of judgment, lay that to thy
thoughts, and take greatest notice of it now.
It is a grievous thing for a man to be born
in sin, but to add actual sin to that is still more
grievous.  For a man to sin in thought and in
heart, this is very grievous.
It is a grievous thing for a man to sin against
righteousness and to deal unjustly with men; but
to deal unrighteously with God, in point of his
worship, is more grievous.  It is a grievous sin
for a man to disobey the law of God; but to
disobey the law of faith, to delay repentance, to
despise the mercy and forgiveness of God, this is
far more grievous. Thus, we should mark God's
order that he will observe in calling us to a
reckoning.
Thirdly, it is called a reckoning, because God
will proceed with men at that day as a master
with his servants, by writings, by books. In
Daniel-the book was opened, and in Revelation
there is mention made of the books that were
opened.  There are two books: the book of the
law, that shows what we should have done —he
word that I have spoken, saith Christ, the same
shall judye you in the last day;-and the book of
conscience, that shows what we have done, God




258     WHY GOD RECKONS WITH MEN.
will put the memories of men to the task, as
Abraham  did Dives.  Son, remember that thou
in thy lifetime receivedst thy good thinys.  So remember that thou in thy lifetime hadst riches:
how didst thou employ them?  Remember that
thou hadst authority and office and place in the
commonwealth; and whiat service didst thou do
to God?  Remember that thou hadst wisdom
and learning and knowledge; what good had the
Church thereby?  God, I say, will put every
man's memory to the task; what opportunities
he lost carelessly; what occasions he avoided
wilfully; how, when he might have done God
better service, yet, lest he should be disadvantaged in his bye-respects in the world, he baulked
them.  Remember this: The sinr of Jucdah, saith
God, is written with a pen of iron and with the
point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of
their heart.  God hath the sins of men graven
upon the table of their hearts.  Little dost thou,
that art an old man, think of a thousand things
that God will bring against thee that were done
in thy youth. Job little thought, till the day of
his affliction, when God made him possess the
sins of his youth, that there was such abundance
of guilt against him as there was. God will remember all that thou hast forgotten.
God will proceed by books, and this will
clear God's justice in his proceedings, and make
everything appear righteous in the sight of men
and angels; because every man's conscience shall
testify against himself, and therefore the mouth




HE WILL PROCEED BY HIS BOOKS.   259
of all ungodly men shall be stopped at the day
of the Lord: they shall have nothing to say for
themselves why justice should not proceed against
them.  Here, will God say, I find so much given
to usury, so much gotten unfairly, so much spent
in vain, so much kept injuriously from the furtherance of God's worship and from planting the
Gospel where it was wanted, so much kept from
benefiting the Church and  commonwealth in
public and private, so much from helping the
poor: here I find it; how comes it here? was it
not written with thine own hand? was it not
thyself that made this impression upon thy conscience by thine own guilt? W-hat wilt thou
say for thyself?  Hath any one accused thee
wrongfully? hath any one written it by mistake?
No, all is done with thine own hand, and thou
canst not deny thine own handwriting when it is
brought to thy face. Hath any one else had the
keeping of this book of thy conscience? Hast
thou not always had it in thine own possession?
What canst thou allege for thyself?
I know, beloved, that there are many other
ways whereby ungodly men shall be accused at
the last day.  God himself shall accuse them,
and be a swift witness against them: the saints
shall accuse them: wicked men shall accuse
them: the devil shall accuse them.  But the
main proceeding, and that that shall clear God's
justice and stop the mouths of all ungodly men,
is this, that the accusation by their own handwriting, their own book, shall accuse them, that




260     wHY GOD RECKONS WITH MEN.
they have wasted their Lord's goods and misspent them.
The fourtA and last thing wherein this proceeding at the last day shall be like a reckoning,
is this: that there shall be an account made in
measure and in proportion to the trust committed
to men.  The master, when he reckoneth with
his servant, he calleth him to account, not for
some lesser sums, or for some one or two things,
but for all that he hath entrusted him with;
and if one servant have more than  another,
his account shall be greater than another's: according to the greatness of that that is committed
to him, so shall the largeness of his reckoning be.
Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be
much required.  When the master, in the Gospel,
called his servants to an account for the talents,
he that had ten talents made account for ten';
and he that had five, for five; and he that had
one, but for one; every one for so much as he
had received.  He that hath received bodily
abilities of health and strength shall account for
that.  He that hath had wealth and an estate
in the world shall make account further for that.
He that hath had all these, and authority and
place wherein he had power to do right and to
glorify God amongst men, he must make account
for so much the more.
Alas, beloved, if men considered that the
more wealth they heap up and the more places
of authority and preferments they have in the
world, their accounts shall be greater at the day




THE DOCTRINE APPLIED: FOR CONFUTATION. 261
of the Lord, certainly it would make them more
sober and to walk more humbly and watchfully;
it would make them  so much the more industrious to improve their talents to the best advantage of their Lord that entrusted them with
them.
So much for the opening of the point. I will
conclude, briefly, with a few uses of it.
Ye see, beloved, not only that all are God's
stewards, but that all God's stewards shall be
brought to a reckoning-brought to it in this
life and in another. The first use then shall be,
for confutation of those atheists that put far from
them the fear of the day of judgment.
Is it possible that there should be a generation of men in the world that should doubt of the
judgment to come? Nay, shall we go further and
say that there should be, not only in the world,
but even in the Church, such as doubt of the
time and day?  Do but try men's courses.
What sins do they most fear and most avoid?
They fear only such sins as, in the course of justice, men and their laws take hold of: such as
are only a breach of the second table. Men will
not be injurious to men, lest man's justice be
brought against them: but how comes it to pass
that there is so little regard of God, so little
reverence of his name, so little of his worship in
their houses and in their hearts? Certainly men
do not think that God will be as exact in his
judgment, as men are in cases that are brought
before them.  Again, do not men fear those out



262        THE DOCTRINE APPLIED:
ward actions that expose them to the censure of
their neighbours? Yet, at the same time, they
fear not evil affections and the motions of sin in
their own hearts.  A man would not be taken
with open theft; yet, nevertheless, he useth fraud
when men cannot discern it.  A man would not
be charged with murder; yet, nevertheless, he is
full of malice and envy and repining. Why is this,
but because men acknowledge not a judgment to
come?  They fear not the judgment of God
wherein he will bring the breaches of the first
table to an account as well as those of the second,
and the secret thoughts and sins of the heart to
a reckoning as well as outward actions.
Yet God will assuredly call all men to judgment; and let no man think that he will fail in
this because he now deferreth the promise of his
coming.  The time may be long with us, but it
is not long with God; and in that he deferreth, it
is that some men may be brought to salvation
and others made inexcusable.
Secondly: it serveth for instruction. If there
shall be such a judgment to come -if God will
have such a time of reckoning with all his stewards in the world- then it teacheth us not to
busy ourselves in judging one another, since God
shall judge us all; but to turn judgment on our
own hearts; to be more in judging ourselves,
that we may the less be judged of the Lord.
Will God call thee to a reckoning?  Then begin
to call thyself to a reckoning first.
Reckon with thine own heart. Doth God




FOR INSTRUCTION.           263
awaken thy conscience by the preaching of his
word: descend into thine own heart and ask thyself, What have I done? How have I followed this
teaching and these commandments of God?  If
God smite thee with afflictions and losses, reckon
with thyself how thou hast gained and how thou
hast employed thy wealth.  If with disgraces,
reckon with thyself about thy pride and ambition
and vanity of heart. If God smite thy body with
sickness, consider how thou hast employed thy
health and strength, and for what object. Every
evening, call thyself to an account: What have I
done this day; where have I been; in what
company; how have I carried myself there; what
good have I done; what good have I received?
In the matters of thy calling, reckon with thyself,
with what heart thou hast followed it, with what
care to conform thyself to God's word, the rule
of righteousness: if thou hast been in pleasures,
whether they were lawful; and if so, whether
they were lawfully used. Thus must every man
reckon with his own heart, as the Church in
Lamentations, Wh-erefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?  Let
us search and try our ways, and turn again unto
the Lord.  There are many that think to outface
God and man in their sins; but know this, whoever thou art, that if thou forbear to reckon with
thine own heart, God will assuredly reckon with
thee: thou must reckon here with self, or hereafter with God. Therefore, saith David, Commune
with your own heart upon your bed: that is, be




264        THE DOCTRINE APPLIED:
sure to take time from your sleep, rather than
neglect this business of reckoning with your own
hearts.
Reckon also with others.
Let masters reckon with their families, their
servants and children, whether they have done
their duty towards them faithfully, in furthering
them by instruction and by example to all good.
Let those who are in a way of traffic reckon
with those that they deal withal. If thou hast
wronged any by unjust gain, thou must reckon
with him by restitution: there is nothing thou
hast gotten unjustly, but if thou dost not reckon
for it now, at that day, saith St. James, it shall
eat your lesh, as it were fire.  Therefore, Zaccheus, when salvation was brought to his house,
restored fourfold all that he had gained by unjust
dealing.  Doubtless there are many that now
clothe themselves in satin and velvet, and abound
in all variety and bravery, that would be houseless, and moneyless, and apparel-less, it may
be, if they should  make restitution  of their
unjust gain.  Well, but let them do it as they
love their souls. They must reckon with God, as
stewards, how they have come by every penny
they have in the world, and therefore let them go
about it now.
Reckon with others, also, for works of mercy;
in what thou hast been wanting to thy brethren.
Thou hast lived thus long in a plentiful estate:
what good hast thou done with it? Josephus
reckons up three several tenths that were ex



FOR INSTRUCTION.           265
pected and exacted from the Jew. Wouldst thou
be less liberal now, in the time of the Gospel,
than they were under the law?
Is God less merciful, or hath he less interest
in thy estate?  You cannot, if you look about
you, want objects of mercy, and means to further
your reckoning at the day of the Lord; and if
you would be faithful stewards to God, say thus:
I have been thus much behind-hand in paying
the due I owe to the poor, to the church, &c.;
but I will now pay it while I live, and while
I have the means and opportunity to do so. Let
every man reckon thus with his own heart.
Again, if you would stand at that great day
of judgment, when there shall be such an exact
reckoning, interest yourselves now in Christ.
There is no way to escape the judgment to come
but by making peace with the Judge now. There
is no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus.
Once more: seeing that ye must thus account to God for all that ye do, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
yodliness? Alas! brethren, little do ye know whether this be the last sermon that many of you
may hear, whether this be the last day wherein
God will ever call upon you to repent and amend
your lives. There shall be a fearful dissolution
and destruction of all things that you see. There
shall be a naked appearance made before the
Judge at that day of reckoning; let every man,
therefore, say within himself, How shall I stand




266        THE DOCTRINE APPLIED:
at that time, at that judgment?  All our care
should be that of the Apostle Paul; because, saith
he, there shall be a resurrection from  the dead,
both of the ijust and unjust, therefore, herein do I
ecvercise myself to have always a conscience void
of offence toward God and toward men.  Look to
it in your places and in your hearts, that you
may have a good conscience, for the time shall
come that nothing in the world shall stand you
in stead but this; and if then, when the books
are opened, it be found that your reckonings are
even, and the accounts clear between you and
your Maker, by repentance, by faith, and by
obedience, happy shall that servant be whom his
Master shall find so doing.
The last use is a use of comfort to all the
servants of God.  Let them  quietly and cheerfully suffer that portion of misery and affliction
that the Lord dealeth out unto them.  Let them
not grudge at the prosperity of ungodly men, nor
at the variety of changes that themselves are
exposed to; because there is a day of reckoning
and account, when all things shall be made even.
The Apostle, St. James, exhorteth Christians to
patience upon this very ground, because the coming
of t1le lord draweth nigh.  If, therefore, you see
wicked men prosper, and bring their enterprises
to pass, be not troubled at the matter.  Yet a
little while, and they and we shall all be called to
account for the things committed to us: then all
shall be righted; the wicked shall be cast out and
condemned, and the good and faithful steward,




FOR COMFORT.              267
he who has held his account right before God,
who has got repentance  and  obedience  and
hearty faith in the merits of Jesus Christ, as a
set-off against his debts and deficiencies, shall
be called to enter for ever into the joy of his
Lord.




SERMON XI.
SPIRITUAL HEART'S-EASE;
OR,
THE WAY TO  TRANQUILLITY.
JOHN, xiv. 1, 2, 3.
" LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED: YE BELIEVE IN GOD,
BELIEVE ALSO IN ME. IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE ARE MANY
MANSIONS: IF IT WERE NOT SO, I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU.
I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU. AND IF I GO AND
PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU, I WILL COME AGAIN, AND
RECEIVE YOU UNTO MYSELF; THAT WHERE I AM, THERE
YE MAY BE ALSO."
IN  the 33d verse of the former chapter, our
Saviour Christ told his disciples that he must
now  go away from  them: Little children, yet a
little while lam with you.  Ye shall seek me, and
as I said unto the Jews, Whither I yo ye cannot
come; so now I say to you.
This message of the departure of Christ from
the earth, of his being taken from them, did exceedingly sadden their hearts and very much perplex and disquiet their spirits. They knew what
a comfort they had in the presence of Christ;
they knew what a faithful Teacher he was, what
a mighty Protector he had been, how  gracious




EXPLICATION.             269
and full of heavenly comfort he had manifested
himself to them at all times; and they could not
now think of parting with him  without much
anxiety and trouble of spirit.  Therefore the
words that I have now read are the speech of
our blessed Saviour to comfort them, strengthening their hearts against those disquiets under
which they were exercised.
In which words you may observe, mainly,
these three things:FIRST, a duty whereunto they are exhorted,
Let not your heart be troubled.
SECONDLY. The means whereby it may be
performed,-Ye believe in God; believe also in me.
THIRDLY.  Some instruction and encouragement in the use of these means.
FIRST, the duty that is to be performed is
this, to stablish and comfort the heart: to confirm it against fear and trouble.
The word that is here translated trouble, signifieth such a trouble as is in water when the
mud is stirred up, or when the waves and surges
are raised by some tempest or storm.  It signifieth such a trouble as is in an army when the
soldiers are disranked and routed; and it shows
us that those distempers that are in the hearts
and affections of men do exceedingly hinder their
judgments, so that they can see and discern no
better than a man can do in muddy water.  All
the affections are as so many soldiers in an army




270        THE DUTY TO BE OBSERVED.
that is disordered, that keep not their due subordination to their leader and guide, by reason that
the understanding, that should govern the will
and affections, is led captive by them.
And this distemper of spirit, arising from the
inordinacy of the affections, doth so affect the
soul, that no faculty can perform its own work,
but it is deceived and misled, and disabled from
judging of things according to truth.  It is with
the mind in sorrow, as with the eye in tears; it
can see nothing clearly, it can judge nothing
correctly.
But that which our Saviour aims at here hath
a particular respect to the affections of fear and
grief.  When these are in excess, when a man
overfeareth  anything, or yieldeth  to overmuch
grief, then is the soul troubled and (as it were) disjointed: it suffereth pain and disquiet, as a bone
that is out of joint: therefore, by all means,
keep your hearts in a right state, in that order
that God hath set them.  Let not your heart be
troubled.
Men are wondrous prone-  even the very
best men    to be troubled when sorrows and
afflictions come upon them.  You may see the
malady in the medicine.  Every prohibition in
the word supposeth a corruption, and an aptness in the natural heart and spirit of man, to
transgress in that particular against which it is
directed: therefore, when Christ speaks to his
disciples and tells them not to be troubled, it




TROUBLE COMETH FROM GOD.         271
shows that even the best men are subject to excess of passion and affection, and to be disturbed
through immoderate fear and grief.
And this trouble that is sometimes upon the
spirits of even the best men, it ariseth partly
from  God's providence and hand upon them,
partly from Satan, and partly from themselves.
First, It ariseth many times from the hand
of God.  The Lord is to his people a sun and
shield; but, as with the earth, when the sun
withdraweth his light, it is all dark and cold and
dead, so with the soul of man; when God
withdraws the light of his countenance from the
soul, it is as the earth at midnight. And as it
is with soldiers in the battle, if their shields be
taken from them they are exposed to every dart
and danger; everything may annoy and wound
them; so it is with the soul: if God withdraw
himself from it, and do not support it as before,
and do not fence and strengthen it as at other
times, the fiery darts of Satan will pierce deep
into the soul, and the spirit will not be able to
uphold itself against these assaults.
Now God withdraws himself sometimes from
his servants in special wisdom, and that either
in respect of the time past, of the present, or of
the time to come.
In respect of the past, he doth it by way of
correction. In their former wantonness they have
abused the expressions of his love, and now, as a
father takes away the light from his child when
he sees that he makes no better use of it than to




272       THE DUTY TO BE OBSERVED.
play with it, so God withdraws the light of his
countenance: that is, he casts clouds before himself; he doth not manifest himself in his wonted
loving favour, when his servants neglect the reverence and fear that he expects from them in the
midst of his mercies.  He doth it also, sometimes, as a correction of their negligence; when
God hath called on them from time to time, and
they have not waited upon God. He hath called
upon them for duty and for the leaving of such
particular evils, and they have neglected it; and
now, because they will not hear his voice when
he calls, he will make them feel it, by not hearing their voice when they pray. Sometimes he
calls to them, as he did to the Church in the
Canticles; Open to me, my sister, my love.  The
Church is negligent and careless; I have put of
my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed
my feet; how shall I defile them?  Now he withdraws himself from the soul; and what is the
end of it? Isought him, but I could not find him:
I called him, but he gave me no answer.  The
watchmen that went about the city found me, they
smote me, they wounded me: the keepers of the
walls took away my veil from me. So the soul is
left to trouble and perplexity when Christ absenteth himself, whom she would not entertain
when he was present.
And farther, God doth it sometimes to correct
that carnal confidence and security whereunto
men are wondrous prone when they go on in a
clear way, with much comfort, with wind and




TROUBLE COMETH FROM GOD.          273
tide.  In my prosperity, saith David, I said, I
shall never be moved: thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. But what followeth? Thou
didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.  Trouble
came upon him, trouble of spirit, because he
rested too much on that outward mountain to
which God had exalted him: he placed his hope
too much on this, and thought it should be
always thus; therefore God now turns his face
from  him, and David is troubled.
And in respect of the time present, God hath
this further aim, —to inform  all his servants
where their strength lies, that it is not in themselves nor in any creature. God will have them
seek it only in him, and that they may do this, he
draws them  to it by sense, depriving them  of
comfort, in respect sometimes of outward conveniences, and sometimes of the light of his countenance shining upon their souls.
How do we know that the moon shines but
with a borrowed light?  Because we see it is
not always alike in its light; sometimes it hath a
full light, sometimes it is enlightened but by
half, and sometimes only by a very little part.
We know by these changes and variations that
the light of the moon is not its own, but is borrowed from somewhat else, from the sun.   And
how do we know that the heart of man is fed,
and relieved, and supported with comfort from
without itself, with comfort borrowed from a
foreign source? By this-that the state of God's
servants, in respect of their spiritual quiet and
T




274       THE DUTY TO BE OBSERVED.
satisfaction and contentment of heart, is not
always alike.  Sometimes they have abundance
of joy, and seem to be in heaven: sometimes
they are perplexed with many disquiets and
griefs, and are cast down to the deep: what
is the reason of this, but that no flesh should
glory in itself, that every man may know that,
whatsoever he hath to make his life comfortable and pleasing to him, he hath it only from
God, who dispenseth it to men in such proportion as seemeth good to his wisdom?  God
will have us know that all the happiness of our
spirits is in their union with himself-the chief
of spirits; and that when  they are  but a
little separated from  him, when he doth but
withdraw himself from them, they are as if dead.
How shall we know that the branches have sap
from the root, that it is the root that makes them
to flourish and grow?  By this-that if you do
but cut them off from the root, they wither presently.  So with the soul of man.  Let sin
make a separation between God and the soul,
and man becomes as a withered branch: he
hath nothing now to revive him, because he is
separated from the root.   At the least it is
with him  as with a tree in winter, when the
sap remains in the root; so that, though he
be still in union with the root, yet he getteth
no moisture from it: for the servant of God
that is once united to Christ shall indeed never
be separated; the union is now, and always
shall be; but the sap and comfort of the Spirit




TROUBLE COMETH FROM GOD.         275
may for a time be cut off; our life may be
hid in Christ and not appear in us; and we
are then in that estate as if we were branches
cut off: whereby it may appear that, whatsoever
life and comfort and strength of heart we had,
we had it only from  Christ, and by the influence and work of his Spirit.
And then, for the time to come,-God doth
it to prevent some distempers that might grow in
the hearts of his servants if they should always
be in a state of spiritual joy.  God doth it to
prevent pride.  A  man would begin to ascribe
somewhat to himself, to his present condition, if
it were always well with him.  Paul was apt to
be lifted up with those revelations that were
made to him; therefore a messenger of Satan
was sent to buffet him: and he himself saith,
WJe had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God which
raiseth the dead.  To the same end God's faithful servants sometimes receive the very sense of
death, and the sense of the destitution and want
of all spiritual comforts for a time, that they may
not trust in themselves, nor in those comforts
and habits of grace that they have, nor in any
creature whatsoever.  The comfortable work of
Qod's Spirit in the regenerate soul, it is but a
creature, a work of God; and God will not have
men trust in any such thing, but in himself; not
in the effect, but in the cause.  God will bring
them to such a state that they shall seem as dead
men, that they may trust in him that is able to




276       THE DUTY TO BE OBSERVED.
give life even to the dead body, and to raise them
from the very gate and shadow of death.
Secondly, this trouble of which we speak
proceedeth many times from Satan.  Satan wonderfully sets himself against the seed of the
woman, especially against the promised seed,
Christ; he will always be at his heel; and in
his opposition against Christ he sets himself
against the very glory of Christ, and that is his
kingdom  among men.   Now the kingdom  of
Christ consists, as the Apostle speaks, not in
meat and drink, but is risgheousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost.  Therefore if Satan
cannot keep a Christian from righteousness, he
will labour to interrupt his peace; and if he cannot keep him from the condition of peace, yet he
will keep him  from  the exercise and effects of
peace, from joy, that he may not have the sense
of his blessedness. He knows that spiritual joy
strengthens a man to all spiritual duties, and
his endeavour is to weaken all the servants of
Christ in all their services; and therefore he
labours with all his might, that if they will
needs go on, he may at least propound and
occasion as many things to trouble and disquiet
them as he can.
And there are two principal ways whereby
Satan wondrously prevails in this particular.
The one is by stealing out of our hearts
those precious promises, those comforts, whereby
the word of God revives the soul.   And the
devil meets in man two advantages to help in




TROUBLE COMETH FROM OURSELVES.  277
effecting this.  One, is that aptness of the mind
to turn towards new objects and to entertain
a constant variety of thoughts, which God hath
given for the ease and relief of the spirit of
man; this very disposition, intended  for his
good, Satan turns against him.  He leadeth a
man on into a world of business and temptations and distractions, that shall draw him from
the thought of those things that he hath heard
for the relieving of his spirit and wherein God
spake comfort to his heart, and so he fasteneth on
him  more easily those discouragements that he
desires.
The other advantage he hath for this end isthe careless neglect that is in man.   Every man
loves ease; there is such a spirit in man that he
ordinarily avoids the things that require much
labour; so, when a man hath come from hearing
the word and reading the Scriptures, whereas he
should now be exercised to fasten those things
on his heart by meditation, he passeth by this
easily.  Now the seed that falleth upon the
highway, the fowls of the air come and take it
away, and it is gone presently; and when there is
no labour bestowed upon the heart, as there is
none upon the highway, every motion, every direction, every spiritual instruction lies lightly there,
and is soon carried off. This is the advantage
that Satan makes of a man's love of ease.
Tliirdly, trouble cometh from ourselves, from
that general corruption that is in our natures.
Sometimes we see the soul subdued with




278       THE DUTY TO BE OBSERVED.
lusts and corruptions: some strong lust, some
grievous sin or other prevails; and then, as it is
with the fowl that now flieth in the air, when
there is birdlime cast upon the wings of it, it
presently falleth down and can fly no farther, so
it is with the soul when it is pressed down and
entangled by sin, and encompassed about with
evil thoughts and desires.  Therefore saith the
Apostle, Let us lay aside every weigyt, and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us.
And sometimes the soul is disturbed by inordinate passions, arising from that general distemper that is diffused through every faculty, so that
the understanding looks upon things as through
a mist, and sees nothing clearly, but in most
things is blind, and is led by blind affections
too; and when the blind leads the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch: and so the memory
that should retain the precious treasures, the
promises of the gospel, to relieve the soul in all
cases, it is like a leaking vessel that lets these
things run out; it lets them  slip, as the Apostle
saith, alluding to that metaphor.  And the very
conscience itself, that should be conclusive, it
now rests in generals and uncertainties.   Conscience should determine what my case is, whether I be  a child of God or no, whether I
be in  a state of grace  or no: but for the
most part, by a man's own neglect, all this
remains in doubt; and because he cometh not to
that resolute conclusion that may determine of




APPLICATION.              279
his own particular case, therefore every thing
troubles and disquiets him.
Thus, beloved, you see the causes which
bring trouble to men's hearts.  We will briefly
pass it over with a word of application.
And first, it should teach us compassion
towards those whose spirits are troubled. Our
Saviour saith here to his disciples, Let not your
hearts be troubled.  He considereth of them  in
their weakness, and doth not much upbraid them
for it, but helpeth them, in much mercy and love,
to bring them out of it; and so should we.  There
is such a disposition among men, arising from the
pride and cruelty and uncharitableness of their
hearts, that they are apt to add to the burden of
the afflicted, and to make their troubles greater,
by contempt and reproach.  You know the speech
of old Eli (a good man, and yet he failed in
this) when he saw Hannah in great trouble of
spirit, pouring out her heart before the Lord:
How long wilt thou be drunken? said he; put
away thy wine from  thee: he thought she was
drunken, and reproved her; and in that manner
he rather added to her grief than eased her. So
Job's friends, you see what they said; they
judged that God had cast him off for pride, for
hypocrisy, for covetousness, or for some other
thing, and they cast this in his teeth.  And Christ
himself, the censure of all men was upon him:
TFe did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted.  So you see the inclination of the heart
of man, so uncharitably judging of those that




280       THE DUTY TO BE OBSERVED.
God hath cast down, and suffereth to be exercised
under many afflictions and troubles.  Let us
learn then spiritual wisdom, let us learn love and
spiritual mercy, and judge more favourably of
the state of those whom  we see troubled in
spirit.
Many times God enfeebleth and distresseth
the spirits of his best servants, to abate the pride
of men, that they may not exalt themselves
before God; nay, in that very thing wherein
they have excelled, he sometimes abaseth them.
Abraham was called the Father of the Faithful;
his excellency was in  his faith: yet faithful
Abraham  so doubted of God's providence, that
he could expose Sarah to danger, to save himself.
Yoz hLave heard, saith the Apostle, of the patience
of Job; yet who would think that Job, whose
very excellency was in his patience, should utter
such complaints as he did, cursing the very day
of his birth!  David was a man of a cheerful
spirit, a man full of the praises of God, a man
wondrous large when he comes to speak of the
glory of God: one would think that his fortitude
and courage should be invincible; yet you shall
have David so cast down as that he thinks God
hath forgotten him, that the Lord will show no
mercy upon him, that he hath hidden himself
from him, and will never regard him  more: who
would think that David, who abounded so in the
comforts of the Spirit sometimes, should ever be
so dejected or in such a conflict?
Why doth God do this?  To show that the




FAITH QUIETS THE SOUL.          281
very best of his servants, in the chief of their
excellencies, are dependent still on him; that
they have nothing in themselves nor from themselves: therefore they sometimes seem to want
that they have, that the very having and using of
it may be ascribed to his glory.  Then let us
reason thus, when we see the servants of God in
trouble, exercised under disquiet. Let us conclude,-Now God is glorifying himself. This the
Apostle infers in that passage-I will ratier
glory in my infirmities, that the power of Cirist
macy rest upon me.  And for ourselves, let us
learn therefrom to labour, above all things, that
our hearts may be kept in that blessed plight of
spiritual joy, that we may be strengthened with
freeness of heart, to serve God in our inward
man.
The SECOND thing that we have to notice is,
the means whereby we may observe the former
precept.  Ye believe in God, believe also in me.
As the words are read in the translation, they
seem  to be uttered by way of concession,-ye
believe in God; as if Christ had said, You already
believe in God, therefore believe now also in me.
The Syriac expresses it otherwise, and renders it
by way of command, Believe in  God; believe
also in me; propounding a twofold object whereabout faith should be exercised, that the heart
may be quieted in the time of any trouble.
The first is God, considered in the trinity of
persons, in the unity of essence. Believe in God,
saith he; rest upon God.




282        FAITH QUIETS THE SOUL.
The second is Christ the mediator, God and
man: believe in me also.  So the second part
seems to be the prevention of an objection: for
when he saith, Let not your hearts be troubled;
believe in God; they might say, Alas, shall we
that are sinful men believe in God!  Our God
is a consuting fire: who shall dwell with the
devouring fire? Therefore saith Christ, believe
also in me: that is, know  that God will be
your God; for my sake he is reconciled and
well pleased with you: therefore, in all your
approaches to God, take me with you; look up
to God; pray to him; depend upon God through
me; keep  me  as a mediator between  God
and you, and this will preserve your hearts in
peace.   Faith  in Christ, a humble, constant
dependence upon God's providence and mercy
through the Saviour, is a special means to quiet
the soul under all troubles, and this we shall
see throughout the Scriptures.  David found it
thus,- Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul, and
why art 1thou disquieted within me? hope thou in
God.  Jehoshaphat too, in that excellent speech to
his soldiers that were troubled for the multitude
of their enemies,-Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall ye be established; believe his prophets,
so s/hall ye prosper.  It is written of Moses that
he endured, as seeiny him that is invisible.   And
those three companions of Daniel, that were in
such an extremity that they must either worship
the image or be cast into the burning fiery furnace, this eased them of all trouble and disquiet:




EXERCISE FAITH.            283
Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us;
therefore, we are not careful to answer thee in this
matter.  They knew in whom they had believed,
and were persuaded that he was able to keep
both their bodies and souls which they had committed to him.
On the other hand, the want of this faith
hath been the cause of all that trouble and perplexity that hath at any time been upon the
hearts of God's servants.  Moses was wondrously
troubled when the Lord bade him go to Pharaoh
and deliver Israel out of Egypt.  0 my Lord,
saith he, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him
whom thou will send. I am slow of speech, and of
a slow tongue.  Saith the Lord, I will be with thy
mouth: he bids him quiet his heart in that perplexity, and rest on him that made man's mouth,
and that would revive his heart, so that he should
not fear to speak.  So in other servants of God,
this was always the reason of any indirect course
they took.  Why did Rebecca use that device in
getting the blessing for Jacob?  Because she
failed in her trust in God; and so, through her
own foolishness and unbelief, she got many sorrows.  And you know what a hard service it
cost.Jacob, and how  many evils he endured,
because, through fear and disquiet of heart, he
cast not himself upon God in His way, but would
find out ways of his own for the gaining of those
things which were promised him.
This should teach us, in all disquiet of spirit,
to look principally to the strengthening of our




284         FAITH QUIETS THE SOUL.
faith. This is called a shield, to preserve a man
when all the darts of temptation, that fire the
soul and perplex it many ways, are cast upon
him: faith is a shield to keep him  safe; therefore let us have this for our use, whole and
sound.  You shall find that all the servants of
God have so far been in a comfortable estate as
they have been in the exercise of their faith.
Take David for an example, when Ziklag was
burnt, and his wives and servants and goods and
cattle were all carried away, and the soldiers in
their rage and disappointment began to think of
stoning him: saith the text, David encouraged
himself in the Lord his God.  When there was no
comfort in his soldiers, nor in any that were near
him, still David comforted himself in God.  So
Job; see how quiet his heart was, and well satisfied,
when he rested on God in his great afflictions:
when his goods were carried away, his sons slain,
and himself utterly destitute, he cometh only to
this,-The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away; blessed be the name of the Lord.  He is
able to look above the creature to God, and
settling his heart upon that rock he finds comfort
in it.
On the other side, the servants of God are
never out of trouble and disquiet when they neglect this. The disciples, in the tempest on the
sea, they cry out that they are utterly undone:
Save, master / we perish!  Saith Christ, 0 ye of
little faith!  It was only the not exercising of
their faith that did so perplex and disquiet them.




EXERCISE FAITH IN CHRIST.      285
And if you look upon all the complaints of menfor the loss of such friends, for the decay of their
trade, for the ill-dealing of their customers, and
for whatever else-you will surely find this to be
the cause of their uneasiness: they place too
much hope and confidence in the creature; they
look not above these things with the eye of faith;
and if the outward means be taken from them,
they have no confidence in God that hath all the
means and opportunities in his own hand.
They that would have their hearts quiet by
believing in God should especially exercise faith
in resting on Christ: Believe in me, saith Christ;
for the heart of man fears and flies off from God.
Alas, the Lord is righteous, and I am a sinful
man: the Lord is holy, and I am vile; what am I
that I should stand before God? But when faith
can look upon Christ and set him between God
and me, and look on God through him; when
the soul looks on Christ as my husband, my
head, my Lord, that hath taken me under his
protection, then it beholds God in all his attributes of love and mercy, wondrous comfortable
to the soul. There is no ground of reposing the
soul upon God but by believing in Christ.  He
is the mediator. Therefore, saith Christ, If ye
believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
The Jews, they did believe God; they were the
children of Abraham, and worshipped the God
of their fathers: but saith the Saviour, Except
ye believe in me,-that I am he whom the Father
hath sent as mediator,-ye shall die in your sins.




286         FAITH QUIETS THE SOUL.
And so in this chapter,-I am the way, th/e truth,
and the life; no man cometh unto the father but
by me.  As the high-priest, under the law, was
between God and the people in all things pertaining to God, so Christ our great High Priest
is, in all things that concern the glory of God,
the salvation of man, and the acceptance of the
sinner, between God and us.
And yet Christ, when he uttered that precept,
was despised and abased, and about to die a
cursed, shameful, cruel death upon the cross: he
was then made subject to man that we might
have acceptance with God. This showeth us that
they who believe in Christ must believe in Christ
abased and crucified, as well as in Christ in
glory. This is a thing that flesh and blood despise. All the world speaks well of the profession
of the faith and dependance upon Christ, when
Christ is in triumph-conzquering and to conquer;
but when Christianity is cried down in the world,
when Christ is crucified, those who followed him
before are apt to forsake him and flee. But faith
must be exercised no less when Christ is abased
than in the time of his glory; and to obey a
crucified, scorned, despised Christ in the sight of
the world, to rest on him  in the midst of his
adversity, this will comfort the heart of man in
the times of his greatest trouble.
For Christ is the same Almighty, glorious
God, in the midst of his abasement; his divinity
was not a whit abated, nor his divine excellencies
diminished, by all his sufferings. You see Christ,




APPLICATION.              287
in the days of his flesh, was able to cast out
devils and to heal all manner of diseases; nay,
on the cross he saved the thief that confessed
him in the sight of his enemies: he triumphed
at that instant, and saved a sinner who believed
on him, to show that he was as mighty on the
cross as he is now at the right hand of the Father.
Therefore I say, if Christ's power and glory were
not a whit diminished in his abasement, why
should our belief be abated for all the scorn and
spite of the world that is cast upon the profession
of the faith of Christ?
Now, briefly, some application of this, and so
to conclude without more amplification.
It should teach us, in all disquiet, what course
is to be taken. Some one will say, I rest upon
God; there is sufficient to make me happy. But
how shall I come to have interest il God?  The
well is deep, where is the bucket? What means
are there to relieve my soul and to supply my
wants?  Believe in me, saith Christ; let the soul
look immediately on Christ as the mediator between God and man.
You will say, What is it to believe in Christ?
The first thing that is done in this is-receiving Christ upon God's offer of him. God offers
Christ in all his offices: as king, priest, and
prophet, and he would have men take whole
Christ, or no part of him.  Now if the soul answer to this offer of God, He shall be my Lord
to rule me, my prophet to instruct me, my Saviour




288              APPLICATION.
upon whom my soul shall rest for salvation; that
is a true receiving of Christ by faith.
We must receive him  as a prophet; as one
that will instruct us in the truths that are contrary to natural principles in the corrupt understanding of man.  He will not lead us through
the broad road, but in the way of the wilderness,
in bypaths, in crooked, rough ways.  He will
teach us to deny ourselves: he died to pull down
the old frame and to set it up again: for what is
the understanding of man, but a frame of false
principles, whereby every man perisheth in his
own delusions?  The first work of Christ is to
dissolve this frame, and to blot out those rules
whereby men walk, when they are led by sense
and natural reason, and observation of the world:
these must all be taken away, and a man must
resolve all into the authority of Christ speaking.
A word of Christ is enough against a thousand
examples in the world, and against a thousand
corrupt reasons of a man's own heart.  This is
to receive Christ as a prophet,-when I will not
walk by the rules of my deluded reason and corrupt mind, but the word of Christ shall carry me
in all things: this is the obedience of faith in
matter of doctrine.
And, for receiving Christ as a king, would
you know  what a king he is?  He is a holy
king, whose laws are all right and just. The
law of faith is a righteous law, and the obedience
of faith must be obedience to righteousness; that




HOW TO BELIEVE IN CHRIST.         289
is righteous obedience, wherein a man labours
more and more to perfect holiness in the fear of
God.
Hence comes all that care to mortify corruptions and to frame the inward man to conform to
those rules that are taught by Christ as a prophet: the soul, receiving Christ as a king, gives
itself to obey all the rules and directions that
Christ, in his word as a prophet, hath left: and
this it doth in faith, looking upon the authority
of him that hath commanded it; believing it to
be his will, and acknowledging it as a duty for
that reason.  Thus the soul resolves all to Christ
as a prophet and a king.
And then it rests on him  also as a priest.
If a man want comfort he must not separate the
offices of Christ, and say, I will rest on Christ in
this character or that: shall a man be saved by
a half faith-by a piece of faith? As Christ is
entire in all his offices, so the faith of a believer
must.be entire: we must receive him  as king,
priest, and prophet, that he may be to us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that
he may be all in all, for present and for future
happiness, to the believing soul.  For, if Christ be
not all, he will be nothing: men must not please
themselves to regard one office of Christ and neglect the rest; they must give him the glory of all
his attributes, or they can have no part with him.
But a man will say  (I speak of a weak
Christian, or of a Christian that is weakened by
temptations), Alas, what hope have I in Christ?
U




290             APPLICATION.
though I be never so careful to receive him, yet
Christ is in heaven, and I am upon earth! I
answer-Did Christ, when he was upon earth, so
tender the hearts of his servants, that though hilmself about to suffer, yet he took care to comfort
them,-Be not you troubled, but believe in me;
as if he should say, Though I be exposed to a world
of trouble, and at this time my soul is troubled
even unto death, yet be not ye troubled —and
will he not care for them  now that he is in
heaven?  Certainly the soul that hath recourse
to Christ shall not return empty: for though he
be in heaven, yet in respect of his Church he is
below: he hath not put off the bowels of love to
his people, and he will be the same to thee, if
thou receive him as a Lord and Saviour, as ever
he was to the disciples.
But it may be objected, We are exposed to
many uncertainties, and though we believe in
Christ yet we find not the comfort of it here.
Therefore Christ saith, Rest not upon things
present: here you are in tents; but you shall
come by and bye to your father's house: I go to
prepare a place for you, between which and this
there is as much difference as between a house
and a tent, between a man's own mansion and
an inn; and though you have sorry entertainment
in the world, yet there you shall have an abiding
place for ever.
But you will say: Indeed there are mansions,
but there are abundance of good men to receive
them: what shall we do?




HOW TO BELIEVE IN CHRIST.       291
There are many mansions, saith Christ.  As
there are many children to be brought to glory,
so there are many places to receive them  into
glory, and to settle them there.  We see what vast
bodies the sun and the stars are, yet they seem
but little specks in comparison of the heavens
above us; but what is the heaven of heavens
that contains all these? There are many mansions.
But how shall we reach them?  How shall
we ascend up into heaven?
Christ hath promised, I will come again, and
receive yoz unto myself: I will come in glory at
the day of judgment, and you shall be caught up
to meet mre, that where Iam thereye may be also.
As if he should say, All that I have done is for
your sakes; I die and ascend and sit at the right
hand of God for your sakes; I yo to prepare a
place for you, and though ye cannot follow me
now, yet ye shallfollow me afterwards; and I will
lead you  to those heavenly mansions in my
Father's house in which ye shall dwell with me
for ever.
All that Christ did when he was on earth,
and all that he doth now as God-man in heaven,
as mediator between God and us, is for our sake.
Therefore saith he, whatsoever affliction or adversity may befall you, care not for it; look beyond these things; remember all that I have done
and suffered for you: be settled and comforted
in this, and Let not your hearts be troubled; ye
believe in God, believe also in me.




SERMON XII.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DESTROYER;
OR, THE
OVERTHROW OF THE LAST ENEMY.
1 CoR. xv. 26.
"THE LAST ENEMY THAT SHALL BE DESTROYED IS DEATH.
DEATH is a subject that a Christian should have in
his thoughts often, and neither the hearing nor
thinking nor speaking of it can be unseasonable
for any place or person.  We have heard that
the life of philosophers is nothing but a meditation of death; and certainly the life of a Christian should much more abound in such meditations.  No man can live well till he can die
well.  He that is prepared for death is certainly
freed from the danger of death, neither is there
any so fit a way to be made ready for it as to be
often reminded of it.  Therefore I have made
choice at this time to speak of this verse.
Wherein ye see the Apostle leadeth us to
treat of four things.
FIRST,-That there is a death;
SECONDLY,-That this death is an enemy;




THERE IS A DEATH.           293
THIRDLY,-That this  enemy  is the  last
enemy;
FOURTHLY,-That this last enemy shall be
destroyed.
A word or two of each of these parts; and
then to make some use and application of the
whole.
FIRST, Death is: Ye know that well enough,
your eyes show it you every day; your senses
declare it so plainly that no man that hath any
sense at all can be ignorant of it: it is agreed
upon by all men.  Only, to make use of this
point for your better furtherance, let us acquaint
you first with that which nature will teach you
concerning death, and secondly with that which
Scripture will teach you, above and better than
nature.
First, NATURE showeth us concerning death,
both what it is and what properties it hath.
It teacheth us this, that death is an absence
from life, a ceasing from being, a being thrust
out as it were from this present world, and cast
somewhere.  This is all that nature informeth
us concerning the essence and being of death.
Death is a dividing of us from this life and from
the things of this life, and a sending of us abroad,
we know not whither.
But concerning the properties of death, nature
telleth us of these three:-it is universal, it is
inevitable, and it is uncertain.
It is universal; it hath tied all to it-high
and low, rich and poor.  Death knocks at the




294           THERE IS A DEATH.
prince's palace as well as at the poor habitation
of the meanest man.  It is a thing that respects
no man's greatness; it regardeth no wealth, nor
wit-nothing.  Death takes all before it.
It is inevitable: if a man would give all the
world he cannot thrust it out of doors.  It takes
whole armies as well as one man.  It scorneth
to be resisted by the Philistines; there is no
word, no persuasion, no might that can prevent
it.  It is such an enemy as we must grapple
with, and it will conquer.
It is uncertain:-A man knoweth not when
death will come to him, nor when it will lay hold
on him, nor by what means it will fetch him out
of the world.  It may carry him  away at any
time or in any place, and by such an occasion as
no wit can possibly think of or foresee. This is
in substance all that nature teacheth, and the
knowledge of this is good for use, as well to
remember and consider it as to know and understand it.
But now I go on to tell you, secondly, what
the SCRIPTURE teacheth concerning death; for
that giveth a larger and more perfect information
of the thing than the dim  light of nature.  It
showeth better what it is; it showeth whence it
comneth and what are its causes; it declareth the
consequences that follow upon it; and it telleth
us what is the remedy against the ill of death.
In all which nature stumbleth, and can do little
or nothing.
Scripture telleth us of the nature or being of




THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.    295
death; how that it is the dissolution of mankind
and not the annihilation: it doth not make him
cease to be, but takes asunder for awhile the soul
from the body: it carrieth the one to the earth,
and the other to a different world; so that both
continue to exist though they be not united as
before.
The word of God teacheth us that he hath
created man as it were in a house of three stories.
The middle is this present life wherein we be;
there is a lower place, the dungeon, a place of
unhappiness and destruction; and there is a
higher place, a palace of glory.  According as
men behave themselves in this middle room, so
death either leadeth them  down to the place of
unhappiness, or conveyeth them up to the palace
of glory and blessedness. This, nature is ignorant
of, but the Scripture is plain in.  The rich man
dieth, and his soul is carried to hell; the poor
man, when he dieth, his soul is advanced to
heaven.  So that death is nothing but the messenger of God to take the soul out of the body,
and to convey it to a place of more happiness or
more misery than can be conceived.
The Scripture acquaints us further with the
cause of death.  Philosophers wondered (since
nature desireth a perpetuity and continuance of
itself) that man should be so short a time in the
world: the Scripture endeth this wonderment,
and tells us that man was made immortal and
should have continued for ever; but sin came
into the world, and by sin death.  Sin is the




296           THERE IS A DEATH.
mother of death, and of all misery that by little
and little draweth to death.
I say sin-the first sin of our first parents,
whereby they transgressed that most easy and
equal mandate about eating the forbidden fruit
that transgression that was the treading underfoot the covenant of works and the disannulling
of it, that sin let in death at a great gap; and
now it triumpheth and beareth rule over all the
world.
Nature cannot tell which way in the world
a man should die so soon, and that he that is the
lord of all creatures should be inferior to a great
number of them  in length  of life.  But the
word of God unriddleth this riddle, and telleth
us that God made man that he might live for
ever: but sin coming, and coming in the person
of the first man, it brought death and made all
men mortal; and when sin entered, God's curse
came, and that, working upon  us poor and
miserable creatures, is the cause that we cannot
continue long here.  It was just that death
should follow sin, for since God made man to
obey his will, when man had unfitted himself
for God's service, it was reason that he should
have a short continuance of life; for the longer
he endured the more he would abuse himself.
Ye see, then, two things that the Scripture
teacheth concerning death:  there is a third,
and that is-what followeth after death.  It is
appointed unto all men once to die, and after
that the juddgynent.  Judgment, what is that?



THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE.       297
Judgment ye know, among men, is the calling of
a man before an authority, a looking into his
ways, a considering of his actions, a finding out
whether he be a sinner, an evil-doer, and if he
be found so, a passing of sentence according to
his evil deeds.  When God hath taken the soul
from the body, he presents them both before his
own tribunal, and there searcheth into every
man's life, ransacks his conscience, looks deep
into his conversation, inquireth into his secrets,
openeth his actions and his whole carriage from
his infancy to his last breath, and passeth sentence upon him according to that he hath done.
This judgment hath two degrees.  First, as ucc.c
as a man dieth:-No sooner is the soul separated
from  the body, than instantly it is presented
before the Lord Jesus Christ; and there he
passeth sentence-either that it is a true believer,
a godly liver, a person united to Christ, that hath
walked according to the Gospel of Christ,-and
then it receiveth glory and joy more than tongue
can express; or else it findeth against him that
he was a sinful man, a hypocrite, a dissembler,
one that named Christ with his tongue but did
not depart from iniquity nor live according to
the Gospel of Christ,-and then he is delivered
up to Satan to be hurried down to hell, and
there to suffer the wrath of God according to the
desert of so great wickedness.  This particular
judgment passeth upon every soul as soon as it
leaveth the body.
Then followeth the great universal judgment,




298           THERE IS A DEATH.
when soul and body shall be re-united and stand
before God.  Every particular man that ever
hath been, is, or shall be, shall appear in his
own person, his whole life shall be laid open, and
all secret things shall be made known; for God,
saith the Apostle, shall judye the secrets of men
by Jesms Christ, accordiny to my yospel.  This is
the third thing that Scripture informeth us concerning death.
The last and best is, it giveth it us a remedy
against the ill of death.  It is a pitiful thing to
hear of mortality and sickness, when there is no
good potion or physic prescribed to destroy the
ill of it: to hear tell of death, (and so tell as the
Scripture doth,) that it is a going to another
world of weal or woe, and not to hear of a
remedy, these are woful tidings and would wring
tears from  a hard heart.  But the Scripture
report maketh death not only tolerable and easy,
but comfortable and gladsome to a Christian
heart; for it showeth by whom  and by what
means we may infallibly and certainly escape all
the hurtl that death can do; nay, by what means
we may so order ourselves that death may become beneficial to us.
What is that?  In  one short word, it is
Christ:-I am the resurrection and the e  e: whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Again,-This is the record; that God hath yiven to
us eternal life, and this life is in his Son: and He
thaat ath the Son hath life.  Our Saviour Jesus
Christ came into the world, as the Apostle telleth,




DEATH AN ENEMY.             299
us, ttat he might destroy him thtat ad the power
of death, and deliver them who through fear of
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
And St. John saith, The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil
-which works are sin and death.  So that now
death hath lost his sting, because Christ hath
overcome it: in dying he slew death, and was the
death of death: the man Christ Jesus offered
himself to his Father as a sacrifice for the sins of
the world, and dying a cursed death upon the
cross, so satisfied the justice of God on the behalf
of all those that are in him, that death can now
do them no harm: it is nothing else but a passage
to eternal blessedness.
Oh, blessed be the name of God, that hath
been pleased to provide so perfect a remedy
against so mortal an enemy, and to lay it open
so plainly in the Gospel!
I have done with the first point.
The SECOND is- that death is an enemy.  It
is an armed enemy, for the Apostle Paul telleth
us of a certain sting it hath-0 death, where is
thy sting?  It cometh as a serpent, with a sting
that entereth into a man's soul and putteth it to
extreme danger if he be not armed against it.
An enemy, ye know, is a person that setteth
himself wilfully to hurt and injure another. A
man may hurt his neighbour, either (through
indiscretion or unadvisedness) against his will;
or he may lay wait to do him  hurt, intending
mischief, and  seeking  to  perform  somewhat




300           DEATH AN ENEMY.
that shall be injurious to him.  We call not him
an enemy that doth us a little hurt by accident,
against his will, but he that studieth and desireth
beforehand to be an enemy.  Now death (as we
may say) studieth our hurt in all extremity, beforehand.
There are but two sorts of hurt that can
come to a man.  The first is to deprive him of
that which is beneficial and comfortable, to rob
him of all that is contentful to him in this life;
as when a company of foes break into a nation,
they burn their goods and spoil their houses, and
rob and take away all that is comfortable to them
so much as they can.  Death is such an enemy:
it seeketh to bereave a man of that necessary
contentment he hath.  When it meeteth with a
learned man, it takes away all his learning at one
blow; as soon as he is dead, he ceaseth to be a
scholar-the dead know not anything.  It cometh
to a rich man, and robs him of all his goods in a
moment: though he have millions, death taketh
them  all away and  giveth them  to another.
When it cometh to a king, it pulleth him down
from his throne, taketh off his crown from  his
head, and casteth both him and it into the dust:
he is a king no longer when he is dead.  And
so in all the contentments of a man: it takes
away the husband from  the wife and the wife
from  the husband: it divideth children from
parents and parents from children: all the benefits that this life affords, death strippeth a man of
them all and turns him naked out of the world:




DEATH THE LAST ENEMY.          301
just as he came he must go, and carry nothing
in his hand; death will not permit him to take
one farthing nor anything else with him; he is a
formidable enemy, for he spoileth us of whatsoever is desirable in this life.
But death is an enemy also in inflicting a
great deal of ill upon men. It bringeth torment
for the present; it is a terrible thing to wrestle
with; it maketh a man bleed and sweat as it
were: no man can encounter with death but he
feeleth anxiety and distress of mind and body,
and unless he hath comfort from above to enable
him to wrestle with it, it will not cease till it
hath dragged his soul into the presence of God,
and after into the torment of eternal fire in hell.
Death proceedeth from sin and is a fruit of sin;
and therefore of its own nature it tendeth to the
destruction of man and to the perdition and
overthrow  of the soul.  For sin makes God
angry with us and separateth from him and, by
consequence, from all manner of comfort; and in
regard it separateth from him, it bringeth all
manner of ill upon us.  Death, properly and of
itself, seeks to draw all those that it lays hold on
to a state of everlasting unhappiness: therefore
it is an enemy.  So you see the second point
opened.
The THIRD is, that death is the last enemy,
after which there shall be no more. But I must
tell you to whom it is the last; for it is not so to
all. There is a generation of men that shall find
death to be in a manner the first of enemies,




302      DEATH SHALL BE DESTROYED.
the enemy that openeth the way and exposeth him
to the injuries and attacks of many others: but
to the saints, and to those that are prepared for
death, and those that will use the remedy, to
these and these alone death is the last enemy:
after they have once grappled and fought and
encountered with this enemy, they shall be at
peace and rest for ever — Blessed are the dead
that die in tie Lord, for they rest from  their
labours.  There is no more toil and labour for a
good man after death; and why? because death
separateth sin from the soul as well as the soul
from the body, and so, taking away the cause of
unrest, it must needs take away misery and unhappiness itself.
Indeed, properly, it is not death that doth this,
but the Lord Jesus Christ by death; for it is
by his mercy that those who serve him are made
fit, when they leave this world, to enter into a
place of happiness in his own kingdom, which
they could never be, except they were freed from
sin.  Death is the daughter of sin, and with a
happy patricide, as it were, it at once destroyeth
itself and sin; and therefore it takes away all
misery, because it takes away all sin. Therefore
it is the last enemy, because it killeth the worst
of our enemies; for when we are dead there
shall be no more enmity between God and us,
and so no more enemy than we need care for.
This is the third point.
The LAST is that this enemy shall be destroyed.  A  thing is destroyed and abolished




DEATH SHALL BE DESTROYED.          303
when itself ceaseth to be, and when all the ill
effects that it did or would produce are removed.
So the Lord Jesus Christ abolisheth death; he
destroyeth it, that it shall never again be known
in the world nor felt by his servants; and he
preventeth all those evils that it would work in
the soul for eternity, and removeth all the ill
effects of it that it hath wrought on their bodies
for the present time.  Death takes away a man's
goods for the present- Christ taketh away death
and  giveth  everlasting  substance  in heaven.
Death takes away  friends-Christ abolisheth
death and sendeth us to heaven, where we have
more friends and better.  Death brings the body
to rottenness and corruption, it layeth it in the
dust and turneth  it to putrefaction,  Christ
restoreth it to a better condition; at the resurrection it shall rise again in glory.  How that is
done the Apostle telleth us in the end of this
chapter: the body shall be laid in the grave, a
weak and feeble, a mortal and natural body, but
it shall be raised in strength and clothed with
immortality: this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal.must put on immortality;
and then shall be brought to pass the sayiny that
is written, Death is swallowed up  in victory.
Thus death shall be destroyed: but to whom? to
all men equally? No; but to those that use the
remedy, that partake of Christ, that have put on
him who is the Resurrection and the Life.
Thus have I laid before your eyes briefly
these four things that the Apostle leadeth us to




304         THE DOCTRINE APPLIED.
treat of concerning death: —That it is; that it
is an enemy; that it is the last enemy; and that
it shall be destroyed. Now I desire to apply this
and to make use of it.
First, I shall be bold to play the examiner,
and to search each of your consciences as you will
allow me.  Brethren, let the word of God enter
into your souls. Ye hear that there is a death,
and that this death is a sore and bitter enemy;
and ye hear that to some sort of men it is the
last enemy that ever they shall encounter with;
and that then it shall be utterly destroyed and
they freed from  all the hurt of it.  Now do so
much as descend, every one into himself, and inquire what care there hath been to prepare for
death and to make use of the remedy against
death,-what time and pains hath been bestowed in getting that that is the only means to
escape the dart of this enemy, and that is the
only cause to procure the enfranchisement of the
soul from the evil that will else destroy it.
A man hath not fitted himself to encounter
with his enemy when he looks after wealth, and
followeth the pleasures and contentments of this
life. These things will do no good, they will be
rather a burthen to the heart, and vex the soul,
and increase the mischief, laying more sin upon
the soul, and giving death darts to pierce the
soul with.
But when is a man fit for death? and who
may encounter with this enemy with safety?
I will tell ye.  The man that takes the




FOR EXAMINATION.           305
greatest care to disarm death of his weapon and
to arm himself with defensive weapons against
death.  If an enemy with good weapons in his
hand come upon a man and find him altogether
unweaponed, it is hard for a naked, unarmed
man to deal with him; it is hard for a man that
never thought of it before, to fight with one that
is skilful at his weapons. Death, I have told ye,
is an enemy, and one that is skilful in his weapons, and the worst weapon he hath it is our
own sin.  Death bringeth nothing of his own
wherewith to do us hurt,-it findeth in us and
with us that whereby to hurt us.  As many corruptions as are in the heart, so many weapons in
the hand of death: as many idle words and bad
deeds, so many swords to pierce the heart.
Death makes use of those weapons it findeth in
ourselves, and with them he destroyeth and killeth
us and bringeth us to perdition.
Now what have ye done, beloved, to disarm
death?  What care have ye taken to break sin
to pieces, that it may not be as a sword ready
drawn for the hand of death when it cometh, as
arrows in a bow to shoot at you when death
maketh his assault?
That man that hath taken no care to overcome sin in the power of it, and to get himself
free from the guilt and punishment of it, is unfit
for death.  If death come upon him and find his
offences unrepented of, unpardoned, unsubdued,
he will so order those offences that he will thrust
them into his soul as so many poisoned darts,
x




306         THE DOCTRINE APPLIED
that will bring sorrow and anguish and vexation
and destruction, to all eternity.
Ye may see then whether ye have any fitness
to meet with this enemy, whether ye be in case
to fight that battle, that of necessity ye must; for
death, as I told you before, is inevitable. If ye
have not, get alone between God and thyself,
and there call to mind the corruption of thy nature, the sins of thy childhood, of thy body and
of thy mind; bring thy soul into his presence,
confess thy sins with an endeavour to break thy
heart for them, mightily crying to him through the
mediation of that blessed advocate Jesus Christ,
that died on the cross to pardon thee and to wash
thy soul in his blood, and to deliver thee from
the pollution of thy sins. Beg for the Spirit of
sanctification to bear down those sins and to
subdue thy corruptions; bestow time to perform
these exercises daily; carefully present thyself
before God, thus to renew thy repentance and
faith in Christ and to make thy peace with God.
Labour to purge away the filthiness of thy sin,
and then, whensoever death cometh thou shalt
find in thyself sufficient power to resist it, for
thou hast altogether disarmed it.
But if ye spend your time in pursuing profits
and pleasures, and follow the vanities of this life,
and either do not think of death, or think of it
no otherwise than as an heathen man would do,
to no purpose; if ye think of it only to enjoy
the world while ye live, because ye know not
how soon death will end the world and you; if




FOR EXAMINATION.            307
ye play the epicure in the thought of death,
using it only to animate you to enjoy the outward benefits of this life; if ye think of it only
in wantonness, idly to talk and discourse of its
doings now and then as occasion serveth-then
death will find your souls laden with innumerable
sins that repentance hath not discharged, and
undoubtedly it will bring you to eternal perdition.  Have ye thus disarmed death?
But again, a man's self must be armed, or
he cannot encounter with his enemy: what is
your armour then against death to ward off his
blow?
The Apostle in one word showeth us these
armours when he saith, Stand, therefore, having on
the breastplate of rigihteousness; above all, takiny
the shielc of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all thefiery darts of the wicked; and take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God. If a man have got
faith to rest on Christ alone for eternal happiness
-and his soul filled with the hope of glory and
salvation through him-and then with love to
him, and to his servants for his sake-these three
virtues will secure him  against all the hurt
that death can do. Faith, hope, and charity, the
cardinal virtues that Christian religion requires
and commands us to seek, these are armour of
proof against all the blows of death,-he that
hath them shall never be hurt of death, because
he shall never taste of the second death; he hath
only to wrestle with the first death-and there is




308         THE DOCTRINE APPLIED
no terror nor terribleness in that, if a man's
heart be secure by these graces.
Faith, whereby we depend on Christ, and on
him alone, for grace and salvation,-bringing hope
whereby we expect and look for salvation of our
souls by his blood, according to his promise,and working charity, whereby we love him for
his goodness, and his servants for his sake-this
makes us that death cannot separate us from
Christ, but the farther we are from life, the
nearer we are to him: for we know, that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, an house not mnade with
hands, eternal in the heavens; and therefore death
is but the opening of the door to let us out of the
middle room, the earthly tabernacle, and to place
us happily in the palace of eternal bliss.
I pray enter into consideration how ye have
behaved yourselves in the course of your lives,
whether as heathens or as Christians.  A man
that takes no care to prepare for death, though
he come to the church Sunday after Sunday
and partake of all God's ordinances, yet if the
consideration of death be not so imprinted in
him that it become a motive to him to labour
for faith and hope and charity, and to endeavour
to edify himself in these graces, he liveth as an
heathen or an infidel; and when death cometh to
him it will do him more hurt than it will an infidel,
because, by how much God hath given him
means to escape, by so much is sin greater, and
so shall his punishment be.




FOR REPREHENSION.           309
Secondly, I will speak somewhat by way of
reprehension. Now be ashamed of it, and sorrow
for it; let your hearts now smite you and ache
within you-Say to thyself, O foolish man that
I am, I have lived twenty, thirty, forty, fifty
years; I have laboured against other enemies; if
men had anything against me I would be sure
to make ready my defence; I have laboured for
the things of this life, for riches and friends, and
have given myself leave to enjoy pleasures, and
taken pains to do good to my body; but all this
while it never came into my heart seriously to
think I must die, and after that comes judgment; that I must stand before God's tribunal
and give account of my ways: I have not laboured to beware of death and sin, nor to kill
my corruptions; I have not laboured to increase
in faith and hope and charity; I have left myself
unarmed against the last and worst enemy. Oh
what folly is this, to live in the world many a
long day, and never to consider that there will be
an end of all these days, and that the end of them
will be the beginning of another life —a life that
will be eternal and infinite in misery, unless I be
armed against death!
If this, beloved, have been any of your faults,
to be carelessly forgetful of your latter end, not
to consider of your departure hence,-if the world
have so tempted you, and pleasures have so enamoured you that you have forgotten your latter
end, blame yourselves and spare not, it is the
greatest of all follies.




310         THE DOCTRINE APPLIED
And that I may disgrace this folly and make
you ashamed of it, consider a little, that this is to
be like children: the Apostle biddeth us not to be
children in understanding, but to be men; but he
that forgetteth death and is careless to prepare for
it is a very child.  A little one never thinketh he
shall some day be a man himself, and maintain
himself and live in the world by his own labour;
he careth for nothing but meat and drink and
sport and pastime, and would never prepare himself for more serious matters: we blame this folly
and laugh at it as ridiculous, and therefore by
our diligence we restrain them and prevent that
ill that might else come upon them.  Is it not
thus with many of you? Ye live and build houses,
and raise your names to be glorious and to make
a fair show in the world; but to get grace, and
to get repentance and faith and hope and love,
your thoughts run but little in that way, scarce
any of your care is so bestowed.  Is not this
to be children in understanding?
Again, he is a foolish man that knoweth he
shall meet an enemy and will not prepare for an
encounter.  If a man should hear of twenty or
thirty thousand soldiers gathered together against
his city to besiege and destroy it, he would not
be so foolish and so simple as to bestow himself then in his trade, and to follow his business, and to give himself to merriment; but he
would look about him, and get his weapons and
help to arm  the city and to make it strong.
Why do ye not consider that your soul is as a




FOR EXHORTATION.           311
city?  Death will come against it and batter your
outer walls with sickness and pains, and at the last
will certainly seize upon your soul if it be not
prepared, and carry it prisoner to hell fire. Why
will you be so reckless and senseless as to eat and
drink and to bury yourselves in earthly labours,
and toil still after riches, and never think how to
escape the enemy - how that death may be kept
out, that will else destroy both soul and body
for ever?
I presume you are ashamed of this folly by
this time, and I hope you will go away with remorse and sorrow for so carelessly neglecting a
thing of so great importance.
In the third place, therefore, I entreat you,
begin this great work without delay. Consider,
O man or woman, if thou hast not begun, the
enemy lieth in wait for thee; be thou never so
young, thou mayest meet with him before night;
and if thou be old thou must encounter him ere
long: prepare for him betime; think what an
enemy may suddenly stand out and oppose thee
in the way.  If a man be to travel, though he
be not assured to meet with an enemy, yet he
will strive to get good company, and will weapon
himself and carry his sword, that if a thief come
to attack and rob him, he may be able to prevent
the danger. Beloved, think-there is an enemy
that waylays us as we go along in the world,
and one time or other he will be sure to come
upon us; therefore stir up yourselves-begin
this very day and prepare for your enemy.




312        THE DOCTRINE APPLIED
How shall I prepare for death?
I told you before, but it is not amiss to
repeat it; in a word,-Get faith in Christ, and
repentance and charity and hope: these will
be a means to prepare and help thee against
death.  Therefore lament and bewail more and
more the sinfulness of thy nature and life. As
soon as thou art out of this place, get thee into
a solitary room, fall upon thy knees, lament thy
sins, weep for the evil of thy nature and carriage,
rehearse thy ways as much as thou canst, condemn thyself before God, mightily cry for pardon
through the mediation of his Son, and never
leave sobbing and mourning till he hath given
thee some answer that he is reconciled.  And
then strive to get faith in Christ; call to mind
the perfection of his redemption, the excellency
of his person and merits, that'thou mayest repose on him, that thou mayest say-Though my
sins be as the stars for number, and as the sand
upon the sea-shore for multitude, yet the merit
of my Saviour and his satisfaction to the justice
of God, it is full: in him God is well pleased,
and for his sake reconciled to me; I will stay on
him.  Lord Christ, thou hast done and suffered
enough to redeem me and all mankind; thou hast
suffered for the propitiation of the whole world;
and though my sins deserve a thousand damnations yet I trust upon thy mercy, according to the
covenant made in thy word.  Thus when a man
laboureth to cast himself on Christ-to lay the
burden of his salvation and to venture his soul




FOR EXHORTATION.           313
upon him -then  he hath a mighty shield
before him that death shall be unable to thrust
through.
And then labour that this faith may work so
strongly that it may breed hope-a constant and
firm expectation, grounded on the promises of
the word, that thou shalt be saved and go to
heaven and be admitted into the presence of
God, when thou shalt be separated from this
lower world.  He that is armed with this hope
hath a helmet; death shall never hurt his head;
it shall never be able to take away his comfort'
and peace; he shall smile at the approach of
death, because it can do nothing else but help
him to his kingdom.
And labour further for charity, to inflame
thee to him again that hath showed himself so
truly loving to men as to seek them when they
were lost, to redeem them when they were captives, and to restore them from that unhappiness
that they had cast themselves into.  Oh that I
could love thee and thy people for thy sake!
Thou didst die for me and for them; shall not I
be at a little pains and cost to help them out of
misery?
If ye thus labour to be furnished with these
graces, you will be armed  against death;
these will do you more good than if you had
gotten millions of gold and silver. As you have
understanding for the outward man, as you have
care to provide for that, to preserve and comfort
life while you are here, so have a care for the




314         THE DOCTRINE APPLIED
future world and that boundless continuance of
eternity. If a man live miserably here, death
will end it; and if he be prepared for death, he
shall live happily for ever: but if a man live
happily (as we account it) and die miserably, that
misery is endless.  Ye mistake, beloved; ye
account men happy that abound in wealth and
honour, that have great estates, that enjoy the
good things -of this life, that can live in prosperity to the last time of their age, possessing
what they have gotten.  I say, ye mistake in
this; for if such a man be not prepared for
death, death makes way for a terrible and neverending woe: for the more sin he hath committed,
the more misery shall betide him; and the
natural life of man is nothing but a. continued
chain of wickedness and rebellion, one link upon
another, till he settle upon a preparation for
death.
And, in the last place, here is a deal of comfort for those who have laboured to prepare for
death: though death is still an enemy to them,
it is one that is utterly destroyed. The philosopher "said that death was "the most terrible
of all terrible things:" and it is so to nature,
because it doth that that no other evil can do; it
separateth from  all comfort and carrieth us we
know not whither.
Death is terrible to a man that is unarmed
and unprepared to meet it; but to the poor
* Aristotle.




FOR COMFORT.              315
saints that have bestowed their time in humiliation
and supplication and confession, that have daily
endeavoured to renew their repentance and faith
and hope, death hath no manner of terribleness in the world; and if it be terrible to a
Christian at first sight, it is only because he hath
forgot himself a little,-he doth not bethink
himself how he is armed and protected.
If God hath fitted his servants for death, he
hath done for them all they can need: if they
have not riches, yet they are ready for a great
store of blessings; if they have not an estate
among men, it mattereth not a whit, so they be
fit for death; if they be miserable here, in torment and in sickness, while others have health,
it is no matter: all these may increase their
repentance and make them labour more steadily
for faith and hope and charity, whereby they may
be armed against death.
Nothing can save us from the hurt of death
but the Lord Jesus Christ put on by faith, and
that accompanied by hope and charity. If God
give a man other things and not these graces,
death is not destroyed to him; but if he deny
him  other things, and bestow these graces, he
doth enough for him.  His body indeed falleth
under the stroke of death as other men's; but
his soul is not hurt. Death layeth him a-rotting
as the common sort, but the soul goeth to the
possession of glory and rernaineth with Christ:
it departeth  and is absent from  the body,
that it may be present with  Christ.   Nay,




316          THE DOCTRINE APPLIED.
when  the  last day  shall come, death  shall
be utterly  swallowed up; and the poor, frail,
weak body, that sleepeth in corruption and mortality, shall be raised in honour and in immortal
beauty and glory-a spiritual body, free from all
those corporal weaknesses that now vex and corrupt it: it shall be made most glorious and
blessed, even as if it were a spirit; and it shall
enjoy as much perfection  as a body can in a
spiritual nature: —it is sown a natural bocly, it is
raised a spiritual body: therefore I beseech you,
for your present joy and comfort, if your souls tell
you that you are armed against death, rejoice
and give thanks to God evermore for so great
and admirable a benefit.
THE END.
olndon:-Printed by G. BARCLAY, Castle St. Leicester Sq.