Page images
PDF
EPUB

conversation; and remember the business of your lives is, to prove by practical arguments what ye profess.

1. You know the character of a wife: "She that is married, careth how she may please her husband:" Go you and do likewise: Walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing," Col. i. 10. This is the great business of life; you must please him, though it should displease all the world. What he hates must he hateful to you, because he hates it. Whatever lusts come in suit of your hearts, deny them, seeing the grace of God has appeared, teaching se to do, and you are joined to the Lord. Let him be a covering to your eyes; for you have not your choice to make, it is made already; and you must not dishonour your Head. A man takes care of his feet, for that, if he catch cold there, it flies up to his head: "Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid," says the Apostle, 2 Cor. vi. 15. Wilt thou take that heart of thine, which is Christ's dwelling place, and lodge his enemies there? Wilt thou take that body, which is his temple, and defile it, by using the members thereof, as the instruments of sin?

2. Be careful to bring forth fruit, and much fruit. The branch well laden with fruit is the glory of the Vine, and of the Husbandman too, John xv. 8. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." A barren tree stands safer in a wood than in an orchard: And branches in Christ, that bring not forth fruit, will be taken away and cast into the fire.

3 Be heavenly minded, and maintain a holy contempt of the world. Ye are united to Christ; he is your Head and Husband, and is in heaven: Wherefore, your hearts should be there also, Col. iii. 1. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." Let the serpent's seed go on their belly, and eat the dust of this earth; but let the members of Christ be ashamed to bow down and feed with them.

4: Live and act dependently, depending by faith on Jesus Christ. That which grows on its own root is a tree, not a branch. It is of the nature of a branch to depend on the stock for all, and to derive all its sap from thence. Depend on him for life, light, strength, and all spiritual

benefits, Gal. ii. 20. "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." For this cause, in the mystical union, strength is united to weakness, life to death, and heaven to earth; that weakness, death, and earth, may mount up on borrowed wings. Depend on him for temporal benefits also, Mat. vi. 2. "Give us this day our daily bread." If we have trusted him with our eternal concerns, let us be ashamed to distrust him in the matter of our provision in the world.

Lastly, Be of a meek disposition, and an uniting temper with the fellow-members of Christ's body, as being united to the meek Jesus, the blessed centre of union. There is a prophecy to this purpose, concerning the kingdom of Christ, Isa. ii. 6. "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.” It is an allusion to the beasts in Noah's ark. The beasts of prey, that were wont to kill and devour others, when once they came into the ark, lay down in peace with them: The lamb was in no hazard by the wolf there; nor the kid by the leopard. There was a beautiful accomplishment of it in the primitive church, Acts iv. 32. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart, and of one soul." And this prevails in all members of Christ, according to the measure of the grace of God in them. Man is born naked; he comes naked into this world, as if God designed him for the picture of peace; and surely when he is born again, he comes not into the new world of grace with claws to tear, a sword to wound, and a fire in his hand, to burn up his fellow-members in Christ because they cannot see with his light. Oh! it is sad to see Christ's lilies as thorns in one another's sides; Christ's lambs devouring one another like lions; and God's diamonds cutting one another. Yet it must be remembered, that sin is no proper cement for the members of Christ, though Herod and Pontius Pilate may be made friends that way. The Apostle's rule is plain, Heb. xii. 14. "Follow

peace with all men, and holiness." To follow peace no further than our honour, credit, and such like things, will allow us, is too short; to pursue it further than holiness (that is, conformity to the divine will) allows us, is too far Peace is precious, yet it may be bought too dear ;

A a

wherefore, we must rather want it, than purchase it, at the expence of truth or holiness: But otherwise it cannot be over-dear bought; and it will always be precious in the eyes of the sons of peace.

II. And now, sinners, what shall I say to you? I have given you some view of the privileges of those in the state of grace; ye have seen them afar off. But, alas! they are not yours, because ye are not Christ's. The sinfulness of an unregenerate state is yours; and the misery of it is yours also; but, ye have neither part nor lot in this matter. The guilt of all your sins lies upon you; ye have no part in the righteousness of Christ. There is no peace to you; no peace with God, no true peace of conscience; for ye have no saving interest in the great Peace-maker. Ye are none of God's family; the adoption we spoke of belongs not to you. Ye have no part in the Spirit of sanctification; and, in one word, ye have no inheritance among them that are sanctified. All I can say to you in this matter is, that the case is not desperate, they may yet be yours, Rev. iii. 20. "Behold! I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Heaven is proposing an union with earth still; the potter is making suit to his own clay, and the gates of the city of refuge are not yet closed. O! that we could ,compel you to come in.

Thus far of the State of Grace..

STATE IV.

NAMELY,

THE ETERNAL STATE; OR, STATE OF CONSUMMATE HAPPINESS OR MISERY.

HEAD I.

OF DEATH.

JOB XXX. 23.

For I know, that thou wilt bring me to Death, and to the House appointed for all Living.

COME now to discourse of man's Eternal State, into which he enters by death. Of this entrance Job takes a solemn serious view, in the words of the text, which contain a general truth, and a particular application of it. The general truth is supposed; namely, that all men must, by death, remove out of this world; they must die. But whither must they go? They must go to the house appointed for all living; to the grave, that darksome, gloomy, solitary house, in the land of forgetfulness. Wheresoever the body is laid up till the resurrection, thither, as to a dwelling-house, death brings us home. While we are in the body, we are but in a lodging-house; in an inn, on our way homeward. When we come to our grave, we come to our home, our long horne, Eccl. xii. 5. All living must be inhabitants of this house, good and bad, old and young. Man's life is a stream running into death's

devouring deeps. They, who now live in palaces, must quit them, and go home to this house; and they, who have not where to lay their heads, shall thus have a house at length. It is appointed for all, by him, whose counsel shall stand. This appointment cannot be shifted; it is a law which mortals cannot transgress. Job's application of this general truth to himself is expressed in these words; I know that thou wilt bring me to death, &c. He knew, that he behoved to meet with death; that his soul and body behoved to part; that God, who had set the tryst, would certainly see it kept. Sometimes Job was inviting. death to come to him, and carry him home to its house. yea, he was in hazard of running to it before the time, Job vii. 15. "My soul chooseth strangling and death, rather than my life." But here he considers God would bring him to it; yea, bring him back to it, as the word imports. Whereby he seems to intimate, that we have no life in this world, but as runaways from death, which stretcheth out its cold arms, to receive us from the womb; but though we do then narrowly escape its clutches, we cannot escape long; we will be brought back again to it. Job knew this, he had laid his account with it, and was. looking for it.

DOCTRINE, All must die.

Although this doctrine be confirmed by the experience of all former generations, ever since Abel entered into the house appointed for all living; and though the living know that they shall die, yet it is needful to discourse of the certainty of death, that it may be impressed on the mind, and duly considered.

Wherefore, consider first, There is an unalterable statute of death, under which men are concluded. It is appointed unto men once to die, Heb. ix. 27. It is laid up for them, as parents lay up for their children: They may look for it, and cannot miss it, seeing God has designed and reserved it for them. There is no peradventure in it; we must needs die, 2 Sam. xiv. 14. Though some men will not hear of death, yet every man must see death, Psal. Ixxxix. 48. Death is a champion all must grapple with; we must enter the lists with it, and it will have

« PreviousContinue »