PREFATORY NOTE.

IT can scarce be needed, for most of the readers into whose hands this volume may come, to commend a writer so well known as the Nonconformist worthy, Matthew Mead, or to bespeak respectful and devout perusal for a book, so long and widely circulated, and so greatly useful, as has been his treatise, “The Almost Christian.”

He was of the times of Owen, Bunyan, and Baxter. How high a place the man and his writings occupied, in the esteem of the eminent author of the “Call to the Unconverted,” and of the “Saint’s Rest,” a single reference may sufficiently prove. In the great work of Richard Baxter, on the morals and casuistry of the gospel, his “Christian Directory,” he furnishes lists of volumes suitable to form the library of a Christian. Classifying his catalogues according to the probable extent of the means, that various classes of his readers would possess for the purchase of books, he begins with those purchasers of most limited resources. “I will name you, first,” (says Baxter) “the poorest or smallest library that is tolerable.” Enumerating as its basis, a Bible, Concordance, and Catechisms, he proceeds to name some scores of writers on practical religion. In some cases he commends but a single treatise of an author, and in others, his entire writings this latter and higher honor, he accords to his contemporary and fellow-confessor, Matthew Mead. Among the “affectionate practical English writers,” as he describes them, and of which he advises the poor man to secure “as many of them as you can get,”

Baxter’s Practical Works, Orme’s Ed. vol. v. pp. 585, 586.

But Mead had other and not less eminent friends, among the great and good men of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. By the appointment of Oliver Cromwell himself, he held the New Chapel at Shadwell, in Middlesex. On the fatal St. Bartholomew’s day, he was ejected thence, among those illustrious nonconformist confessors, whose praises even the poet Wordsworth, attached as he is to the English Established Church, could not forbear to sing. In one of his ministerial charges, he had been associated with Greenhill, the author of a commentary on Ezekiel, of high repute. After some liberty granted to the Dissenters, he was a preacher at Stepney, where a large congregation gathered around him; and where, in 1674, a spacious house of worship was erected for their use. Accused, with the excellent Dr. Owen and others, of some participation in that Rye House Plot, for which Lord William Russel suffered death, Mead retired for a time to Holland, though conscious of entire innocence; but returned to Britain, and continued his labors until his death, October 16, 1699, at the age of seventy. His funeral sermon was delivered by the great John Howe, with whom his friendship stretched over more than half a life-time, having, as Howe declared, continued through some forty-three years. When asked, in his last sickness, how he was, his reply had the quaint, but earnest simplicity of one to whom the New Jerusalem had long been the theme of familiar and habitual aspirations: “Going home, as every honest man ought, when his work is done.” One of his sons was Dr. Richard Mead, the contemporary of Addison and Pope, eminent in the medical annals of England, and author, amongst other works, of a book on the diseases named in Scripture, “De Morbis Biblicis;” a topic, to the selection of which the memory of his excellent parent, and of the pursuits of that father, may have first directed him. One of the sermons, in the collection often reprinted of Farewell Discourses by the Ejected Ministers of 1662, is by Matthew Mead.

Calmay’s Nonconf. Memorial, Ed. by S. Palmer. 2d. Ed. vol. ii. pp. 461-467.

The age to which our author belonged, was one in which, for a time, religion made wide and. rapid progress. That in the days of its secular prosperity, many might be won but to a formal and even hypocritical assumption of its rites and profession, was to be expected. But neither in Scotland nor in England, nor in our own New England, was there any lack of fidelity in applying to the churches tests of fearless thoroughness. The work of Guthrie, “The Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ,” produced north of the Tweed; Mead’s “Almost Christian,” issued to the south of that boundary and the book by Shephard, of Cambridge, in Massachusetts, “The Parable of the Ten Virgins,” are volumes of kindred character and show that the eminent pastors of those times, were direct, and stern, and searching in the tests to which they would submit the hopes of the disciple of Christ.

The art of the husbandman, his field, his seed, his plough, and his flail, furnish, it is evident to the most heedless reader of the New Testament, a favorite class of illustrations to our Lord and Saviour, in explaining and enforcing the effects of true religion on the heart and conduct of men. May we not, from that same art, borrow a simple and kindred illustration of the object which such writers as Guthrie, Shephard, and Mead have sought, and of the uses which such works as the present volume may well subserve, in the hands of every serious reader? It is known, that in the agriculture of our own times, very much of advance is expected beyond the success of our fathers, in the greater depth to which the modern ploughman is expected to drive his ploughshare. Instead of stirring, merely, the upper surface of the earth, the instruments of the tiller are now contrived to force their way below the roots of grasses and weeds; and the laborer is required to rely on faithful SUB-SOIL ploughing. In proportion as the possession of a religious hope becomes common, facile, and lucrative, in that same degree does self-delusion become more easy; and, in that same proportion, should this thorough scrutiny of our own motives and way, this sub-soil ploughing of the heart, be regarded as the more necessary. It has in its favor an authority from which there can be no appeal, when our Lord himself, the judge by whose scrutiny our hopes are to be finally tested, has, in allusion to the need of a religious trust, rightly planted and deeply based, commended the wan who “DIGGED DEEP.” (Luke vi. 48.)

WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS.

New York, January, 1850.

EXTRACTS
FROM PREFACE TO GLASGOW REPRINT.

BY THE REV. D. YOUNG, OF PERTH.

[THE late distinguished Dr. Chalmers commenced, with the aid of some other ministers of his own country and England, a series of re-issues of works of great usefulness, under the title of “Select Christian Authors, with Introductory Essays, Chalmers and Collins, Glasgow.” Chalmers himself furnished several introductions; and it was in this series, that John Foster issued his long and excellent introduction, to “Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion;” and Edward Irving gave a valuable Essay, at the head of a reprint of “Bishop Horne on the Psalms.” Mead’s “Almost Christian,” was one of the treatises thus prefaced and reprinted. The Introductory Essay, was by an excellent minister of Perth, the Rev. David Young. From it we have drawn the following remarks.]

TO THE

CONGREGATION AT ST. SEPULCHRE’S,

THAT WERE THE

AUDITORS OF THESE SERMONS,

GRACE AND PEACE BE MULTIPLIED.

Beloved,

WHAT the meaning of that providence was, that called me to the occupation of my talent amongst you this summer, will be best read and understood by the effects of it upon your own souls. The kindly increase of grace and holiness in heart and life, can only prove it to have been in mercy. Where this is not the fruit of the word, there it becomes a judgment. The word travels with life or death, salvation or damnation, and bringeth forth one or the other in every soul that hears it. I would not for a world (were it in my power to make the choice) that my labors, which were meant and designed for the promotion of your immortal souls to the glory of the other world, in a present pursuance of the things of your peace, should be found to have been a ministration of death and condemnation, in the great day of Jesus Christ. Yet this the Lord knoweth, is the too common effect of the most plain and powerful preaching of the gospel. “The waters of the sanctuary” do not always heal where they come, for there are “miry and marshy places that shall be given to salt.” The same word is elsewhere in Scripture rendered “barrenness;” He “turneth a fruitful land into barrenness;”—so that the judgment denounced upon these miry and marshy places is, that the curse of barrenness shall rest upon them, notwithstanding the “waters of the sanctuary overflow them.”

It is said, with certainty, that the gospel inflicteth a death of its own, as well as the law; or else how are those trees in Jude said to be twice dead, and plucked up by the roots.” Yea, that which in itself is the greatest mercy, through the interposition of men’s lusts, and the efficacy of this cursed sin of unbelief, turns to the greatest judgment, as the richest and most generous wine makes the sharpest vinegar. Our Lord Christ himself, the choicest mercy with which the bowels of God could bless a perishing world; whose coming, himself bearing witness, was on no less an errand than that of eternal life and blessedness to the lost and cursed sons of Adam; yet to how many was he a “stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence;” yea, “a gin, and a snare;” and that to both the houses of Israel, the only professing people of God at that day in the world? And is he not a stone of stumbling in the ministry of the gospel to many professors to this very day, upon which they fall and are broken? When he saith, “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me,” he therein plainly supposes, that both in his person and doctrine the generality of men would be offended in him.

Not that this is the design of Christ and the gospel, but it comes so to pass through the corruptions of the hearts of men, whereby they make light of Christ, and stand out against that life and grace which the Lord Jesus by his blood so dearly purchased, and is by the preaching of the gospel so freely tendered; the wilful refusal whereof will as surely double our damnation, as the acceptance thereof will secure our eternal salvation.

O consider, it is a thing of the most serious concern in the world, how we carry ourselves under the gospel, and with what dispositions and affections of heart soul-seasons of grace are entertained; this being taken into the consideration to give it weight, that we are the nearer to heaven or hell, to salvation or damnation, by every ordinance we sit under. Boast not therefore of privileges enjoyed, with neglect of the important duties thereby required. Remember Capernaum’s case and tremble. As many go to heaven by the very gates of hell, so more go to hell by the gates of heaven; in that the number of those that profess Christ is greater than the number of those that truly close with Christ.

Beloved, I know the preaching of the gospel hath proselyted many of you into a profession; but I fear that but few of you are brought by it to a true close with the Lord Christ for salvation. I beseech you bear with my jealousy, for it is the fruit of a tender love for your precious souls. Most men are good Christians in the verdict of their own opinion; but you know the law alloweth no man to be a witness in his own case, because their affection usually overreacheth conscience, and self-love deceiveth truth for its own interest.

The heart of man is the greatest impostor and cheat in the world; God himself states it—“The heart is deceitful above all things.” Some of the deceits thereof you will find discovered in this Treatise, which shows you, that every grace hath its counterfeit, and that the highest profession may be, where true conversion is not.

The design of it is not to “break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax.” Not to discourage the weakest believer, but to awaken formal professors. I would not sadden the hearts of any “whom God would not have made sad;” though I know it is hard to expose the dangerous state and condition of a professing hypocrite, but that the weak Christian will think himself concerned in the discovery. And therefore, as I preached a sermon on sincerity among you, for the support and encouragement of such, so I purposed to have printed it with this. But who can be master of his own purposes? That is, as I am under such daily variety of providences, your kindly acceptance of this, will make me a debtor for that.

TO THE READER.

READER,

I KNOW how customary it is for men to ascend the public stage with premised apologies for the weakness and unworthiness of their labors, which is an argument that their desires (either for the sake of others’ profit, or their own credit, or both) are stretched beyond the bounds of their abilities; and that they covet to commend themselves to the world’s censure, in a better dress than common infirmity will allow. For my own part, I may truly say with Gideon, “Behold, my thousand is the meanest,” my talent is the smallest, “and I am the least in my Father’s house;” and therefore this appearance in public is not the fruit of my own choice, which would rather have been on some other subject, wherein I stand in some sense indebted to the world, or else somewhat more digested, and possibly better fitted for common acceptation. But this is but to consult the interest of a man’s own name, which, in matters of this concern, is no better than a “sowing to the flesh,” and the harvest of such a seed-time will be “in corruption.”

Thou hast here one of the saddest considerations imaginable presented to thee, and that is, “How far it is possible a man may go in a profession of religion, and yet, after all, fall short of salvation; how far he may run, and yet not so run as to obtain.” This, I say, is sad, but not so sad as true; for our Lord Christ doth plainly attest it: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”

My design herein is, that the formal, sleepy professor may be awakened, and the close hypocrite discovered; but my fear is, that weak believers may be hereby discouraged; for, as it is hard to show, how low a child of God may fall into sin, and yet have true grace, but that the sinner will be apt thereupon to presume; so it is as bard to show how high a hypocrite may rise in a profession, and yet have no grace, but that the believer will be apt thereupon to despond. The prevention whereof I have carefully endeavored, by showing, that though a man may go thus far, and yet be but almost a Christian, yet a man may fall short of this, and be a true Christian notwithstanding. Judge not, therefore, thy state by any one character thou findest laid down of a false professor; but read the whole, and then make a judgment; for I have cared, as not to “give children’s bread to dogs,” so not to use the dog’s whip to scare the children; yet I could wish that this book might fall into the hands of such only whom it chiefly concerns, who “have a name to live, and yet are dead;” being busy with the “form of godliness,” but strangers to the “power of it.” These are the proper subjects of this treatise: and the Lord follow it with his blessing wherever it comes, that it may be an awakening word to all such, and especially to that generation of profligate professors with which this age abounds; who, if they keep to their church, bow the knee, talk over a few prayers, and at a good time receive the sacra went, think they do enough for heaven, and hereupon judge their condition safe, and their salvation sure; though there be a hell of sin in their hearts, “and the poison of asps is under their lips;” their minds being as yet carnal and unconverted, and their conversations filthy and unsanctified. If eternal life be of so easy attainment, and to be had at so cheap a rate, why did our Lord Christ tell us, “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it?” And why should the apostle perplex us with such a needless injunction, “to give diligence to make our calling and election sure?” Certainly, therefore, it is no such easy thing to be saved, as many make it; and that thou wilt see plainly in the following discourse. I have been somewhat short in the application of it; and therefore let me here be thy remembrancer in five important duties:—

First, “Take heed of resting in a form of godliness; as if duties, ex opere operato, could confer grace. A lifeless formality is advanced to a very high esteem in the world, as a “cab of dove’s dung” was sold in the famine of Samaria at a very dear rate. Alas! the profession of godliness is but a sandy foundation to build the hope of an immortal soul upon for eternity. Remember, the Lord Jesus Christ called him a foolish builder, “that founded his house upon the sand,” and the sad event proved him so, “for it fell, and great was the fall of it.” O therefore lay thy foundation by faith upon the rock Christ Jesus; look to Christ through all, and rest upon Christ in all.

Secondly, “Labor to see an excellency in the power of godliness,” a beauty in the life of Christ, If the means of grace have a loveliness in them, surely grace itself hath much more; for, “the goodness of the means lies in its suitableness and serviceableness to the end.” The form of godliness hath no goodness in it any farther than it steads and becomes useful to the soul in the power and practice of godliness. The life of holiness is the only excellent life; it is the life of saints and angels in heaven; yea, it is the life of God in himself. As it is a great proof of the baseness and filthiness of sin, that sinners seek to cover it; so it is a great proof of the excellency of godliness that so many pretend to it. The very hypocrite’s fair profession pleads the cause of religion, although the hypocrite is then really worst, when he is seemingly best.

Thirdly, “Look upon things to come as the greatest realities;” for things that are not believed work no more upon the affections than if they had no being; and this is the grand reason why the generality of men suffer their affections to go after the world, setting the creature in the place of God in their hearts.

Most men judge of the reality of things by their visibility and proximity to sense; and, therefore, the choice of that wretched cardinal becomes their option, who would not leave his part in Paris for his part in Paradise. Sure, whatever his interest might be in the former, he had little enough in the latter. Well may covetousness be called idolatry, when it thus chooses the world for its god.

O! consider—eternity is no dream; hell and the worm that never dies, is no melancholy conceit. Heaven is no feigned Elysium; there is the greatest reality imaginable in these things; though they are spiritual, and out of the ken of sense, yet they are real, and within the view of faith. “Look not therefore at the things which are seen, but look at the things which are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Fourthly, “Set a high rate upon thy soul.” What we lightly prize, we easily part with. Many men sell their souls at the rate of profane Esau’s birth-right, for a morsel of bread;” nay, “for that which,” in the sense of the Holy Ghost, “is not bread.” O consider thy soul is the most precious and invaluable jewel in the world; it is the most beautiful piece of God’s workmanship in the whole creation; it is that which bears the image of God, and which was bought with the blood of the Son of God; and shall we not set a value upon it, and count it precious?

Introduction

Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Acts xxvi. 28.

IN this chapter you have the apostle Paul’s apology and defensive plea, which he makes for himself against those blind Jews which so maliciously prosecuted him before Agrippa, Festus, Bernice, and the council. In which plea he chiefly insists upon three things.

1. The manner of his life before conversion.

2. The manner of his conversion.

3. The manner of his life after conversion. How he lived before conversion, he tells you, ver. 4-13. How God wrought on him to conversion, he tells you, ver. 13-18. How he lived after conversion, he tells you, ver. 19-23. Before conversion he was very pharisaical. The manner of his conversion was very wonderful. The fruit of his conversion was very remarkable.

Before conversion he persecuted the gospel which others preached after conversion, he preached the gospel which himself had persecuted.

While he was a persecutor of the gospel, the Jews loved him; but now that, by the grace of God, he was become a preacher of the gospel, now the Jews hate him, and sought to kill him.

He was once against Christ, and then many were for him; but now that he was for Christ, all were against him; his being an enemy to Jesus, made others his friends; but when he came to own Jesus, then they became his enemies. And this was the great charge they had against him, that of a great opposer he was become a great professor. Because God had changed him, therefore this enraged them: as if they would be the worse, because God had made him better. God had wrought on him by grace, and they seem to envy him the grace of God. He preached no treason, nor sowed no sedition; only he preached repentance, and faith in Christ, and the resurrection, and for this he was “called in question.”

This is the breviate and sum of Paul’s defence and plea for himself, which, you find in the sequel of the chapter, had a different effect upon his judges.

Festus seems to censure him, ver. 24. Agrippa seems to be convinced by him, ver. 28. The whole bench seem to acquit him, ver. 30, 31. Festus thinks Paul was beside himself. Agrippa is almost persuaded to be such a one as himself.

Festus thinks him mad, because he did not understand the doctrine of Christ and the resurrection: “much learning hath made thee mad.” Agrippa is so affected with his plea, that he is almost wrought into his principle: Paul pleads so effectually for his religion, that Agrippa seems to be upon the turning point to his profession. “Then Agrippa said to Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

“Almost.”——The words make some debate among the learned. I shall not trouble you with the various hints upon them by Valla, Simplisius, Beza, Erasmus, and others. I take the words as we read them, and they show what an efficacy Paul’s doctrine had upon Agrippa’s conscience. Though he would not be converted, yet he could not but be convinced his conscience was touched, though his heart was not renewed.

Observation. There is that in religion, which carries its own evidence along with it even to the consciences of ungodly men.

“Thou persuadest me.”—The word is from the Hebrew, and it signifies both suadere and persuadere; either to use arguments to prevail, or to prevail by the arguments used. Now it is to be taken in the latter sense here, to show the influence of Paul’s argument upon Agrippa, which had almost proselyted him to the profession of Christianity. “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

“A Christian.”—I hope I need not tell you what a Christian is, though I am persuaded many that are called Christians, do not know what a Christian is, or if they do, yet they do not know what it is to be a Christian. A Christian is a disciple of Jesus Christ, one that believes in, and. follows Christ. As one that embraces the doctrine of Arminius, is called an Arminian; and he that owns the doctrine and way of Luther, is called a Lutheran; so he that embraces, and owns, and follows the doctrine of Jesus Christ, he is called a Christian.

The word is taken more largely, and more strictly: more largely, and so all that profess Christ come in the flesh, are called Christians, in opposition to heathens that do not know Christ; and to the poor blind Jews, that will not own Christ; and to the Mahometan, that prefers Mahomet, above Christ. But now in Scripture, the word is of a more strict and narrow acceptation, it is used only to denominate the true disciples and followers of Christ; “the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch; if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed;” that is, as a member and disciple of Christ; and so in the text, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

The word is used but in these three places, as I find, in all the New Testament, and in each of them it is used in the sense afore-mentioned.

The Italians make the name to be a name of reproach among them, and usually abuse the word Christian to signify a fool. But if, as the apostle saith, “the preaching of Christ is to the world foolishness,” then it is no wonder that the disciples of Christ are to the world fools. Yet it is true; in a sound sense, that so they are; for the whole of godliness is a mystery. A man must die, that would live; he must be empty, that would be full; he must be lost, that would be found; he must have nothing, that would have all things; he must be blind, that would have illumination; he must be condemned, that would have redemption; so he must be a fool that would be a Christian. “If any man among you seems to be wise, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” He is the true Christian that is the world’s fool, but wise to salvation.

Thus you have the sense and meaning of the words briefly explained. The text needs no division, and yet it is a pity the almost should not be divided from the Christian. Though it is of little avail to divide them as they are linked in the text, unless I could divide them as they are united in your hearts; this would be a blessed division, if the almost might be taken from the Christian that so you may not be only propemodum, but admodum; not only almost, but altogether Christians. This is God’s work to effect it, but is our duty to persuade to it; and O that God would help me to manage this subject so, that you may say, in the conclusion, “Thou persuadest me, not almost, but altogether to be a Christian!”

The observation that I shall propound to handle is this:

Doctrine. There are very many in the world that are almost, and yet but almost Christians; many that are near heaven, and yet are never the nearer; many that are within a little of salvation, and yet shall never enjoy the least salvation; they are within sight of heaven, and yet shall never have a sight of God.

There are two sad expressions in Scripture, which I cannot but take notice of in this place. The one is concerning the truly righteous. The other is concerning the seemingly righteous.

It is said of the truly righteous, he shall “scarcely be saved;” and it is said of the seemingly righteous, he shall be almost saved: “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”

The righteous shall be saved with a scarcely, that is, through much difficulty; he shall go to heaven through many sad fears of hell. The hypocrite shall be saved with an almost, that is, he shall go to hell through many fair hopes of heaven.

There are two things which arise from hence of very serious meditation. The one is, how often a believer may miscarry, how low he may fall, and yet have true grace. The other is, how far a hypocrite may go in the way to heaven, how high, he may attain, and yet have no grace.

The saint may be cast down very near to hell, and yet shall never come there; and the hypocrite may be lifted up very near to heaven, and yet never come there. The saint may almost perish, and yet be saved eternally; the hypocrite may almost be saved, and vet perish finally. For the saint at worst is really a believer, and the hypocrite at best is really a sinner.

Before I handle the doctrine, I must premise three things, which are of great use for the establishing of weak believers, that they may not be shaken and discouraged by this doctrine.

First, There is nothing in the doctrine that should be matter of stumbling or discouragement to weak Christians. The gospel doth not speak these things to wound believers, but to awaken sinners and formal professors.

As there are none more averse than weak believers, to apply the promises and comforts of the gospel to themselves, for whom they are properly designed; so there are none more ready than they to apply the threats and severest things of the word to themselves, for whom they were never intended. As the disciples, when Christ told them, “One of you shall betray me;” they that were innocent suspected themselves most, and therefore cry out, “Master, is it I?” So weak Christians, when they hear sinners reproved, or the hypocrite laid open, in the ministry of the word, they presently cry out, “Is it I?”

It is the hypocrite’s fault to sit under the trials and discoveries of the word, and yet not to mind them: and it is the weak Christian’s fault to draw sad conclusions of their own state from premises which nothing concern them.

There is indeed great use of such doctrine as this is to all believers:

1. To make them look to their standing, upon what foundation they are, and to see that the foundation of their hope be well laid, that they build not upon the sand, but upon a rock.

2. It helps to raise our admiration of the distinguishing love of God, in bringing us into the way everlasting, when so many perish from the way, and in overpowering our souls into a true conversion, when so many take up with a graceless profession.

3. It incites to that excellent duty of heart-searching, that so we approve ourselves to God in sincerity.

4. It engages the soul in double diligence, that it may be found not only believing, but persevering in faith to the end.

These duties, and such as these, make this doctrine of use to all believers; but they ought not to make use of it as a stumbling-block in the way of their peace and comfort.

My design in preaching on this subject, is not to make sad the souls of those whom Christ will not have made sad; I would bring water not to “quench the flax that is smoking,” but to put out that false fire that is of the sinner’s own kindling, lest walking all his days by the light thereof, he shall at last “lie down in sorrow.” My aim is to level the mountain of the sinner’s confidence, not to weaken the hand of the believer’s faith and dependence; to awaken and bring in secure formal sinners, not to discourage weak believers.

Secondly, I would premise this; though many may go far, very far in the way to heaven, and yet fall short, yet that soul that hath the least true grace shall never fall short; “the righteous shall hold on his way.”

Though some may do very much in a way of duty, as I shall show hereafter, and yet miscarry; yet that soul that doth duty with the least sincerity, shall never miscarry; “for he saveth the upright in heart.”

The least measure of true grace is as saving as the greatest; it saves as surely, though not so comfortably. The least grace gives a full interest in the blood of Christ, whereby we are thoroughly purged; and it gives a full interest in the strength and power of Christ, whereby we shall be certainly preserved.

Christ keeps faith in the soul, and faith keeps the soul in Christ; and so “we are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation.”

Thirdly, I would premise this; they that can hear such truths as this, without serious reflection and self-examination, I must suspect the goodness of their condition.

You will suspect that man to be next door to a bankrupt, that never casts up his accounts nor looks over his book; and I as verily think that man a hypocrite, that never searches nor deals with his own heart. He that goes on in a road of duties without any uneasiness or doubting of his state, I doubt no man’s state more than his.

When we see a man sick, and yet not sensible, we conclude the tokens of death are upon him. So when sinners have no sense of their spiritual condition, it is plain that they are dead in sin; the tokens of eternal death are upon them. These things being premised, which I desire you would carry along in your mind while we travel through this subject, I come to speak to the proposition more distinctly and closely.

Doctrine. That there are very many in the world that are almost, and yet but almost Christians.

I shall demonstrate the truth of the proposition, and then proceed to a more distinct prosecution.

I. I shall demonstrate the truth of the proposition; and I shall do it by scripture-evidence, which speaks plainly and fully to the case.

First, The young man in the gospel is an eminent proof of this truth; there you read of one that came to Christ to learn of him the way to heaven: “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Our Lord Christ tells him, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments:” and when Christ tells him which, he answers, “Lord, all these I have kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?”

Now do but see how far this man went.

1. He obeyed—he did not only hear the commands of God, but he kept them; now the Scripture saith, “Blessed is he that hears the word of God, and keeps it.”

2. He obeyed universally—not this or that command, but both this and that; he did not halve it with God, or pick and choose which were easiest to be done, and leave the rest; no, but he obeys all: “All these things have I kept.”

3. He obeyed constantly—not in a fit of zeal only, but in a continual series of duty; his goodness was not, as Ephraim’s, “like the morning dew that passes away;” no, All these things have I kept from my youth up.”

4. He professeth desire to know and do more—to perfect that which was lacking of his obedience: and therefore he goes to Christ to instruct him in his duty; “master, what lack I yet?” Now would you not think this a good man? Alas! how few go this far? And yet as far as he went, he went not far enough; “he was almost, and yet but almost a Christian;” for he was an unsound hypocrite; he forsakes Christ at last, and cleaves to his lust. This then is a full proof of the truth of the doctrine.

Second, A second proof of it is that of the parable of the virgins in St. Matthew: see what a progress they make, how far they go in a profession of Christ.

1. They are called “virgins.”—Now this is a name given in the Scripture, both in the Old Testament and the New, to the saints of Christ: “The virgins love thee:” so in the revelation, the “one hundred forty and four thousand” that stood with the Lamb on Mount Zion, are called “virgins.” They are called virgins, because they are not defiled with the “corruptions that are in the world through lust.” Now these here seem to be of that sort, for they are called virgins.

QUESTION I.

How far may a man go in the way to heaven, and yet be but almost a Christian?

Answer. This I will show you in twenty several steps.

I. A man may have much knowledge, much light; he may know much of God and his will, much of Christ and his ways, and yet be but almost a Christian.

For though there can be no grace without knowledge, yet there may be much knowledge where there is no grace; illumination often goes before, when conversion never follows after. The subject of knowledge is the understanding; the subject of holiness is the will. Now a man may have his understanding enlightened, and yet his will not at all sanctified. He may have an understanding to know God, and yet want a will to obey God. The apostle tells us of some, that, “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God.”

To make a man altogether a Christian, there must be light in the head, and beat in the heart; knowledge in the understanding, and zeal in the affections. Some have zeal and no knowledge; that is, blind devotion; some have knowledge and no zeal; that is, fruitless speculation: but where knowledge is joined with zeal, that makes a true Christian.

Objection. But is it not said, This is life eternal—to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent?”

Answer. It is not every knowledge of God and Christ, that interests the soul in life eternal. For why then do the devils perish; they have more knowledge of God than all the men in the world; for though, by their fall, they lost their holiness, yet they lost not their knowledge. They are called δαιμονες, from their knowledge, and yet they are διαβολοι, from their malice, devils still.

Knowledge may fill the head, but it will never better the heart, if there be not somewhat else. The Pharisees had much knowledge: “Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will,” &c., and yet they were a generation of hypocrites. Alas! how many have gone loaded with knowledge to hell!

Though it is true, that it is life eternal to know God and Jesus Christ; yet it is as true, that many do know God and Jesus Christ, that shall never see life eternal. There is, you must know, a twofold knowledge; the one is common, but not saving; the other is not common, but saving: common knowledge is that which floats in the head, but does not influence the heart. This knowledge, reprobates may have; “Balaam saw Christ from the top of the rocks, and from the hills.”

Naturalists say, that there is a pearl in the toad’s head, and yet her belly is full of poison. The French have a berry which they call uve de spine, the grape of a thorn. The common knowledge of Christ is the pearl in the toad’s head—the grape that grows upon thorns; it may be found in men unsanctified.

And then there is a saving knowledge of God and Christ, which includes the assent of the mind, and the consent of the will; this is a knowledge that implies faith; “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” And this is that knowledge which leads to life eternal: now whatever that measure of knowledge is, which a man may have of God, and of Jesus Christ, yet if it be not this saving knowledge—knowledge joined with affection and application—he is but almost a Christian.

He only knows God aright, who knows how to obey him, and obeys according to his knowledge of him: “A good understanding have all they that do his commandments.” All knowledge without this makes a man but like Nebuchadnezzar’s image, with “a head of gold, and feet of clay.”

Some know, but to know.

Some know, to be known.

Some know, to practise what they know.

Now, to know, but to know—that is curiosity.

To know, to be known—that is vain glory.

But to know, to practise what we know—that is gospel duty. This makes a man a complete Christian; the other, without this, makes a man almost, and yet but almost a Christian.

II. A man may have great and eminent gifts, yea, spiritual gifts, and yet be but almost a Christian.

The gift of prayer is a spiritual gift. Now this a man may have, and yet be but almost a Christian: for the gift of prayer is one thing; the grace of prayer is another. The gift of preaching and prophesying is a spiritual gift; now this a man may have, and yet be but almost a Christian. Judas was a great preacher.; so were they that came to Christ, and said, “Lord, Lord, we have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils,” &c.

You must know that it is not gifts, but grace, which makes a Christian: For,

1. Gifts are from a common work of the Spirit. Now a man may partake of all the common gifts of the Spirit, and yet be a reprobate; for therefore they are called common, because they are indifferently dispensed by the Spirit to good and bad; to them that are believers, and to them that are not.

They that have grace have gifts; and they that have no grace, may have the same gifts; for the Spirit works in both; nay, in this sense he that hath no grace, may be under a greater work of the Spirit (quod hoc) as to this thing, than he that hath most grace; a graceless professor may have greater gifts than the most holy believer: he may out-pray, and out-preach, and out-do them; but they in sincerity and integrity out-go him.

2. Gifts are for the use and good of others, they are given in ordinem alium, as the schoolmen speak, for the profiting and edifying of others: so says the apostle, “they are given to profit withal.” Now a man may edify another by his gifts, and yet be unedified. himself; he may be profitable to another, and yet unprofitable to himself.

The raven was an unclean bird: God makes use of her to feed Elijah; though she was not good meat, yet it was good meat she brought. A lame man may with his crutch point to the right way, and yet not be able to walk in it himself. A crooked tailor may make a suit to fit a straight body, though it fit not him that made it, because of his crookedness. The church (Christ’s garden inclosed) may be watered through a wooden gutter; the sun may give light through a dusky window; and the field may be well sowed with a dirty hand.

The efficacy of the word doth not depend upon the authority of him that speaks it, but upon the authority of God that blesses it. So that another may be converted by my preaching, and yet I may be cast away notwithstanding. Balaam makes a clear and rare prophecy of Christ, and yet he hath no benefit by Christ: “There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel;”—-but yet Balaam shall have no benefit by it: “I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh.”

God may use a man’s gifts to bring another to Christ, when he himself, whose gifts God uses, may be a stranger unto Christ; one man may confirm another in the faith, and yet himself may be a stranger to the faith. Pendleton strengthens and confirms Sanders, in Queen Mary’s days, to stand in the truth he had preached, and to seal it with his blood, and yet afterwards plays the apostate himself.

Scultetus tells us of one Johannes Speiserus, a famous preacher of Augsburg in Germany, in the year 1523, who preached the gospel so powerfully that divers common harlots were converted, and became good Christians; and yet himself afterwards turned papist and came to a miserable end. Thus the candle may burn bright to light others in their work, and yet afterwards go out in a stink.

3. It is beyond the power of the greatest gifts to change the heart; a man may preach like an apostle, pray like an angel, and yet may have the heart of a devil. It is grace only that can change the heart; the greatest gifts cannot change it, but the least grace can; gifts may make a man a scholar, but grace makes a man a believer. Now if gifts cannot change the heart, then a man may have the greatest gifts, and yet be but almost a Christian.

4. Many have gone laden with gifts to hell; no doubt Judas had great gifts, for he was a preacher of the gospel; and our Lord Jesus Christ would not set him to work, and not fit him for the work; yet “Judas is gone to his own place:” the Scribes and Pharisees were men of great gifts, and yet, “where is the wise? where is the scribe?”

“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.” Them that perish, who are they? Who I the wise and the learned, both among Jews and Greeks; these are called “them that perish.” A great bishop said, when he saw a poor shepherd weeping over a toad: “The poor illiterate world attain to heaven, while we with all our learning fall into hell.”

There are three things must be done for us, if ever we would avoid perishing.

We must be thoroughly convinced of sin.

We must be really united to Christ.

We must be instated in the covenant of grace.

Now, the greatest gifts cannot stead us in any of these.

They cannot work thorough convictions.

They cannot effect our union.

They cannot bring us into covenant-relation.

And consequently, they cannot preserve us from eternally perishing; and if so, then a man may have the greatest gifts, and yet be but almost a Christian.

QUESTION II.

Why, or whence is it, that many men go so far, as that they come to be almost Christians?

First, It may be to answer the call of conscience. Though few men have grace, yet all men have conscience. Now do but observe, and you shall see how far conscience may go in this work.

1. Conscience owns a God, and that this God must be worshipped and served by the creature Atheists in practice, we have many; such as the apostle speaks of: “They profess to know God, but in works they deny him.” But atheists in judgment none can be. Tully, a heathen, could say, “Nulla gens tam barbara,” &c. Now there being such a light in conscience, as to discover that there is a God, and that he must be worshipped by the help of farther light—the light of the word, a man may be enabled to do much in the ways of God, and yet his heart without a dram of grace.

2. Know this, that natural conscience is capable of great improvements from the means of grace. Sitting under the ordinances may exceedingly heighten the endowments of conscience. It may be much regulated, though it be not at all renewed: it may be enlightened, convinced, and yet never savingly converted and changed. You read in Hebrews vi. 4, of some that were “once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.” What work shall we call this? It could not be a saving work, a true change and conversion of state; for, notwithstanding this enlightening, and tasting, and partaking, yet they are here said to fall away, verse 6. Had it been a true work of grace, they could never have fallen away from that. A believer may fall, but he cannot fall away; he may fall foully, but he cannot fall finally; for, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” His faith is established in the strength of that prayer of Christ that our faith fail not. Nay, he tells us expressly, that it is eternal life which he gives, from which we shall never perish.

This work, then, here spoken of, cannot be any saving work, because it is not an abiding work; for they that are under it, are said to fall away from it. But though it be not a saving grace, yet it is a supernatural work. It is an improvement made by the word upon the consciences of men, through the power of the Spirit; and therefore they are said to “taste the good word of God,” and to be made “partakers of the Holy Ghost.” They have not the Spirit abiding in them savingly, but striving with them, and working upon them convincingly, to the awakening and setting conscience on work. And conscience, thus stirred, may carry a man very far in religion, and in the duties of the gospel, and yet be but a natural conscience.

A common work of the Spirit, may stead a man very much in the duties of religion, though it must be a special work of the Spirit that steads a man to salvation. A man may have the assisting presence of the Spirit, enabling him to preach and pray, and yet he may perish for want of the renewing presence of the Spirit, enabling him to believe. Judas had the former, and yet perished for want of the latter. He had the Spirit assisting him to cast out devils; but yet he had not the Spirit renewing him; for he was cast out himself. Thus a man may have an improved conscience, and yet be a stranger to a renewed conscience; and conscience, thus improved, may put a man very much upon duty. I pray God, none of us mistake a conscience, thus improved by the word, for a conscience renewed by the Spirit. The mistake is very easy, especially when a life of duties is the fruit of it.

3. The conscience of a natural man is subject to distress and trouble. Though a natural conscience is not sanctified with grace, yet it is often troubled at sin. Trouble of conscience is not incident to believers only, but sometimes to unbelievers also. A believer’s conscience is sometimes troubled, when his sin is truly pardoned: and a natural man’s conscience is troubled for sin though it is never freed from sin. God sometimes sets the word home upon the sinner’s conscience, and applies the terrors of the law to it; and this fills the soul with fear and horror of death and hell. Now, in this case, the soul usually betakes itself to a life of duties, merely to fence trouble out of conscience.

When Absalom sets on fire Joab’s cornfields, then he runs to him, though he refused before: so when God lets a spark of hell, as it were, fall upon the sinner’s conscience in applying the terrors of the word, this drives the sinner to a life of duties which he never minded before. The ground of many a man’s engaging in religion, is the trouble of his conscience; and the end of his continuing in religion, is the quieting of conscience. If conscience would never check him, God should never hear from him.

Natural conscience hath a voice, and speaks aloud many times in the sinner’s ears, and telleth him, This ought not to be done: God must not be forgotten: the commands of God ought not to be slighted; living in sin will be the ruin of the soul. And hence it is that a natural man runs to duties, and takes up a lifeless and graceless profession, that he may thereby silence conscience. As a man sick in his stomach, whatever sweet morsel he hath eaten, he brings up all; and although it was sweet in the eating, yet it is bitter in the rising; so it fareth with the sinner, when he is sermon-sick, or conscience-sick. Though his sin was sweet in the practice, yet the thought of it riseth bitter upon the conscience: and then his profession of religion is the pill he rolleth about in his mouth, to take away the bitterness of sin’s taste.

4. Natural conscience, enlightened by the word, may discover to a man much of the misery of a natural state; though not effectually to bring him out of it; yet so as to make him restless and. weary in it. It may show a sinner his nakedness; and hereupon the soul runneth to a life of duties; thinking hereby to stead the misery of his case, and to make a covering for his nakedness. It is said, “that when Adam and Eve saw they were naked, they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves a covering.” So when once the sinner seeth his nakedness and vileness by reason of sin, whereas he should run to Christ, and close with him, and beg his righteousness for a covering, “that the shame of his nakedness doth not appear;” he rather runneth to a life of duties and performances, and thus maketh himself a covering with the fig-leaves of a profession, without Christ truly embraced, and conscience at all renewed. Natural roan would fain be his own Saviour; and supposeth a change of state to be a thing within his own power; and that the true work of grace lieth in leaving off the practice of sin, and taking up a life of duties: and, therefore, upon this principle, doth many a graceless professor outstrip a sound believer; for he resteth on his own performances, and hopeth these will commend him to God.

Question. If a natural conscience may go thus far, then what difference is there between this natural conscience in hypocrites and sinners, and a renewed conscience in believers? or, how may I know whether the working of my conscience be the working of nature only, or else of grace wrought in it?

Answer. I grant that it is difficult to distinguish between the one and the other; and the difficulty hath a twofold rise.

1. It ariseth from that hypocrisy that is in the best saints. The weakest believer is no hypocrite, but yet there is some hypocrisy in the strongest believer. Where there is most grace, there is some sin; and where there is most sincerity, yet there is some hypocrisy.

Now it is very incident to a tender conscience to misgive and mistrust its state, upon the sight of any sin. When he sees hypocrisy break out in any duty or performance, then he complains, “Surely my aims are not sincere! my conscience is not renewed! it is but natural conscience enlightened, not by grace purged and changed.”

Pygmalion made an image so life-like that he deceived himself; and, taking the picture for a person, he fell in love with the picture

2. It ariseth from that resemblance there is between grace and hypocrisy; for hypocrisy is a resemblance of grace, without substance; the likeness of grace, without the life of grace. There is no grace but a hypocrite may have somewhat like it; and there is no duty done by a Christian, but a hypocrite may outstrip him in it. Now, when one that hath not true grace shall go further than one that hath, this may well make the believer question whether his grace be true or not; or whether the workings of his conscience be not the workings of nature only, rather than of grace wrought in it.

But to answer the question—You may make a judgment of this in these seven particulars:—

1. If a natural man’s conscience putteth him upon duty, be doth usually bound himself in the work of God. His duties are limited; his obedience is a limited obedience. He doth one duty, and neglecteth another. He picketh and chooseth among the commands of God; obeyeth one, and slighteth another. Thus much is enough; what need any more? If I do thus and thus, I shall go to heaven at last. But now, where conscience is renewed by grace, there it is otherwise. Though there may be many weaknesses which accompany its duties, yet that soul never bounds itself in working after God: it never loves God. so much, but still it would love him more; nor seeks him so much, but still it would seek him more; nor doth it serve God so well at any time, but it still makes conscience of serving him better. A renewed conscience is a spring of universal obedience: for it seeth an infinite excellency, and goodness, and holiness in God; and. therefore would fain have its service rise up towards some proportionableness to the object. A God of infinite excellency and goodness, should have infinite love, saith conscience: a holy God should have service from a holy heart, saith conscience.

Now then, if I set bounds to my love to God, or to my service to God; if I limit myself in my obedience to the holy God; love one command, and slight another; obey in one point, and yet lie cross in another; then is all I do but the workings of a natural conscience. But on the other hand, if I love the Lord with my whole heart, and whole soul, and serve him with all my might and strength; if “I esteem all God’s precepts concerning all things to be right, and have respect to all his commands,” then is my love and service from a renewed conscience.

2. If a natural man’s conscience check or accuse for sin, then he seeketh to stop the mouth of it, but not to satisfy it. Most of the natural man’s duties are to still and stifle conscience.

QUESTION III.

Whence is it that many are but almost Christians when they have gone thus far? What is the cause of this

Answer. I might multiply answers to this question, but I shall instance in two only, which I judge the most material.

First, It is for want of right and sound conviction. If a man be not thoroughly convinced of sin, and his heart truly broken, whatever his profession of godliness may be, yet he will be sure to miscarry. Every work of conviction is not a thorough work: there are convictions that are not only natural and rational, but not from the powerful work of the Spirit of God.

Rational conviction is “that which proceeds from the working of a natural conscience, charging guilt from the light of nature, by the help of those common principles of reason that are in all men.” This is the conviction you read of, Rom. ii. 14, 15. It is said that the Gentiles who had not the law, yet had their consciences bearing witness, and accusing or excusing one another. Though they had not the light of Scripture, yet they had convictions from the light of nature. Now, by the help of the Gospel light, these convictions may be much improved, and yet the heart not renewed.

But then there is a spiritual conviction and this is that work of the spirit of God upon the sinner’s heart by the word, whereby the guilt and filth of sin is fully discovered, and the tiro and misery of a natural state distinctly set home upon the conscience, to the dread and terror of the sinner whilst he abides in that state and condition. And this is the conviction that is a sound and thorough work. Many have their convictions, but not this spiritual conviction.

Query. Now you will say, “Suppose I am at any time under conviction, how shall I know whether my convictions be only from a natural conscience, or whether they be from the Spirit of God?”

Answer. I should digress too much to draw out the solution of this question to its just length. I shall, therefore, in five things only, lay down the most considerable difference between the one and the other.

1. Natural convictions reach chiefly to open and scandalous sins. Sins against the light of nature; for natural conviction can reach no farther than natural light. But spiritual conviction reaches to secret, inward, and undiscerned sins; such as hypocrisy, formality, lukewarmness, deadness, and hardness of heart, &c.

Observe, then, whether your trouble for sin looks inward as well as outward, and reaches not only to open sins, but to secret lusts, to inward and spiritual sins; and if so, this is a sure sign of the work of the Spirit, because the trouble occasioned by these sins, bears a more immediate relation to the holiness” of God, who only is offended by them; they being such as none else can see or know.

2. Natural convictions deal only with a man’s conversation, not with his state and condition: with sins actual, not original. But spiritual conviction reaches to all sins; to sins of heart, as well as sins of life; to the sin of our nature, as well as the sins of practice; to the sin that is born in us, as well as the sin that is done by us. Where the Spirit of the Lord cometh to work effectually in any soul, he holdeth the glass of the law before the sinner’s eyes, and openeth his eyes to look into the glass, and to see all that deformity and filthiness that is in his heart and nature.

The apostle Paul said, “I had not known sin but by the law.” How can this be true, that he had not known sin but by the law, when the light of nature discovers sin? It is said of the Gentiles, that having not the law, they had a law to themselves. This sin, therefore, that the apostle speaks of, is not to be understood of sin actual, but of sin original: “I had not known the pollution of nature, that fountain of sin that is within; this I had not known but by the law.” And, indeed, this is a discovery that natural light cannot make.

It is true, the philosopher could say, “That lust is the first and chief of all sins.” But I cannot think he meant it of original sin, but of the inordinacy of appetite and desire, at most; for I find that the wisest of the philosophers understood nothing of original sin. Hear Seneca: “Sin is not born with thee, but brought in since.”

Quintilian saith, “It is more marvel that any one man sins, than that all men should live honestly; sin is so against the nature of men.”—How blind were they in this point! And so was Paul, till the Spirit of the Lord discovered it to him by the word, and indeed, this is a discovery proper to the Spirit. It is he that makes the sinner see all the deformity and filthiness that is within; it is he that pulleth off all the sinner’s rags, and makes him see his naked and wretched condition; it is he that shows us the blindness of the mind, the stubbornness of the will, the disorderedness of the affections, the searedness of the conscience, the plague of our hearts, and the sin of our natures, and therein the desperateness of our state.

3. Natural convictions carry the soul out to look more on the evil that comes by sin, than on the evil that is in sin. So that the soul under this conviction is more troubled at the dread of hell, and wrath, and damnation, than at the vileness and heinous nature of sin. But now spiritual convictions work the soul into a greater sensibleness of the evil that is in sin, than of the evil that conies by sin: the dishonor done to God by walking contrary to his will; the wounds that are made in the heart of Christ; the grief that the holy Spirit of God is put to,—this wounds the soul more than a thousand hells.

4. Natural convictions are not durable, they “are quickly worn out:” they are like a slight cut in the skin, that bleeds a little, and is sore for the present, but is soon healed again, and in a few days not so much as a scar to be seen. But spiritual convictions are durable, they cannot be worn out, they abide in the soul till they have reached their end, which is the change of the sinner.

The convictions of the Spirit are like a deep wound in the flesh, that goes to the bone, and seems to endanger the life of the patient, and is not healed but with great skill, and when it is healed leaves a scar behind it, that when the patient is well, yet he can say, “Here is the mark of my wound, which will never wear out.” So a soul that is under spiritual conviction—his wound is deep, and not to be healed, but by the great skill of the heavenly Physician: and when it is healed, there are the tokens of it remaining in the soul, that can never be worn out; so that the soul may say, “Here are the marks and signs of my conviction still in my soul.”

5. Natural convictions make the soul shy of God. Guilt works fear, and fear causes estrangedness. Thus it was with Adam, when he saw his nakedness he ran away and hid himself from God. Now spiritual convictions drive not the soul from God, but unto God. Ephraim’s conviction was spiritual, and he runs to God, “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned.” So that there is, you see, a great difference between conviction and conversion: between that which is natural and that which is spiritual; that which is common, and that which is saving. Yea, such is the difference, that though a man hath never so much of the former, yet if he be without the latter, he is but almost a Christian, and therefore we have great reason to inquire more after this spiritual conviction. For,

1. Spiritual conviction is an essential part of sound conversion. Conversion begins here; true conversion begins in convictions, and true convictions end in conversion. Till the sinner be convinced of sin, he can never be converted from sin; Christ’s coming was as a Saviour to die for sinners; and the Spirit’s coming is to convince us as sinners, that we may close with Christ as a Saviour: till sin be thoroughly discovered to us, interest in the blood of Christ cannot rightly be claimed by us; nay, so long as sin is unseen, Christ will be unsought. “They that be whole need not the physician, but they that are sick.”

2. Slight and common convictions, when they are but skin-deep, are the cause of much hypocrisy: slight convictions may bring the soul to clasp about Christ, but not to close with Christ; and this is the guise of a hypocrite. I know no other rise and spring of hypocrisy, like this of slight convictions: this hath filled the church of Christ with hypocrites. Nay, it is not only the spring of hypocrisy, but it is also the spring of apostasy. What was the cause that the seed was said to wither away? It was because it had no deepness of earth. Where there is thorough conviction, there is a depth of earth in the heart, and there the seed of the word grows; but where convictions are slight and common, there the seed withers for want of depth: so that you see clearly, in this one instance, whence it is that many are but almost Christians, when they have gone so far in religion, to wit, for want of sound convictions.

Secondly, And this hath a near relation to the former: “It is for want of a thorough work of grace first wrought in the heart:” where this is not, all a man’s following profession comes to nothing; that scholar is never like to read well, that will needs be in his Grammar before he is out of his Primer: doth that is not wrought well in the loom, will never wear well, nor wear long, it will do little service; so that Christian that doth not come well off the loom, that hath not a thorough work of grace in his heart, will never wear well; he will shrink in the wetting, and never do much service for God. It is not the pruning of a bad tree that will make it bring forth good fruit; but the tree must be made good, before the fruit can be good.

He that takes up a profession of religion with an unbroken heart, will never serve Christ in that profession with his whole heart. If there be not a true change in that man’s heart, that yet goes far, and does much in the ways of God, to be sure he will either die a hypocrite or an apostate.

Look, as in nature, if a man be not well born, but prove crooked or misshapen in the birth, why, he will be crooked as long as he lives; you may bolster or stuff out his clothes to conceal it, but the crookedness, the deformity remains still; you may hide it, but you cannot help it; it may be covered, but it cannot be cured. So it is in this case. If a man come into a profession of religion, but be not right born; if he be not “begotten of God, and born of the Spirit;” if there be not a thorough work of grace in his heart, all his profession of religion will never mend him; he may be bolstered out by a life of duties, but he will be but a hypocrite at last, for want of a thorough work at first; a form of godliness may cover his crookedness, but will never cure it.

A man can never be a true Christian, nor accepted of God, though in the highest profession of religion, without a work of grace in the heart. For,

1. There must be an answerableness in the frame of that man’s heart that would be accepted of God, to the duties done by him; the spirit and affections within, must carry a proportion to his profession without; prayer without faith, obedience to the law given, without fear and holy reverence of the lawgiver, God abhors: acts of internal worship must answer the duties of external worship. Now where there is no grace wrought in the heart, there can never be any proportion or answerableness in the frame of that man’s heart, to the duties done by him.

2. Those duties that find acceptance with God, must be done in sincerity. God doth not take our duties by tale, nor judge of us according to the frequency of our performances, but according to the sincerity of our hearts in the performance. It is this that commends both the doer and the duty to God; with sincerity, God accepts the least we do; without sincerity, God rejects the most we do, or can do. This is that temper of spirit which God highly delights in: “They that are of a froward heart are an abomination to the Lord, but such as are upright in the way are his delight.” The apostle gives it a great epithet; he calls it, in 2 Cor. i. 12, the sincerity of God; that is, such a sincerity as is his special work upon the soul, setting the heart right and upright before him in all his ways. This is the crown of all our graces, and the condemnation of all our duties. Thousands perish, and go to hell in the midst of all their performances and duties, merely for want of a little sincerity of heart to God.

Now where there is not a change of state, a work of grace in the heart, there can be no sincerity to God-ward; for this is not an herb that grows in nature’s garden: “The heart of man is naturally deceitful and desperately wicked:” more opposite to sincerity than to anything; as things corrupted carry a greater dissimilitude to what they were than to anything else which they never were.

“God made man upright.” Now man voluntarily losing this, is become more unlike himself than anything below himself; he is more like a lion, a wolf, a bear, a serpent, a toad, than to a man in innocency. So that it is impossible to find sincerity in any soul till there be a work of grace wrought there by the Spirit of God; and hence it is that a man is but almost a Christian when he hath done all.

QUESTION IV.

What is the reason that many go no farther in the profession of religion, than to be almost Christians?

Reason 1. It is because they deceive themselves in the truth of their own condition; they mistake their state, and think it good and safe, when it is bad and dangerous. A man may look upon himself as a member of Christ, and yet God may look upon him as a vessel of wrath: as a child of God, by looking more upon his sins than his graces, more upon his failings than his faith, more upon indwelling lusts than renewing grace, may think his case very bad when yet it is very good: “I am black,” saith the spouse; “and. yet,” saith Christ, “O thou fairest among women!” So the sinner, by looking more upon his duties than his sins, may think he sees his name written in the book of life, and yet be in the account of God a very reprobate.

There is nothing more common than for a man to “think himself something when he is nothing;” and so he “deceives himself.” Many a man blesses himself in his interest in Christ, when he is indeed a stranger to him. Many a man thinks his sin pardoned, when alas! “he is still in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity.” Many a man thinks he hath grace, when he hath none: “There is,” saith Solomon, “that makes himself rich, and yet hath nothing.” This was the very temper of Laodicea: “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not,” (pray mind that,) “that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

Thou knowest not; as bad as she was, she thought her state good; as poor as she was in grace, she thought she was rich; “as miserable and naked as she was, yet she thought she had need of nothing.”

Now there are several rises or grounds of this mistake. I will name five to you.

First, The desperate deceitfulness of the heart of every natural man. “The heart is deceitful above all things.” The Hebrew word is the same with Jacob’s name. Now you know he was a supplanter of his brother Esau: “He is rightly called Jacob,” saith he, “for he hath supplanted one these two times.” So the word signifies, to be fraudulent, subtle, deceitful, and supplanting. Thus is the heart of every natural man “deceitful above all things.”

Application

I proceed now to the Application.

Inference 1. That salvation is not so easy a thing as it is imagined to be. This is attested by our Lord Jesus Christ himself: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it.” The gate of conversion is a very strait gate, and yet every man that would be saved eternally, must enter in at this strait gate; for salvation is impossible without it: “Except a man be born again,” born from above, “he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Not that this gate is strait simply, and in respect of itself:—No; for converting grace is free. The gate of mercy stands open all the day long. In the tenders of gospel grace, none are excluded, unless they exclude themselves. Christ doth not say, If such and such will come to me, I will ‘not cast them out;’” but “him that cometh unto me,” be he who or what he will, if he hath a heart to close with me, “I will in nowise cast him out.” He saith not, “If this or that man will, here is water of life for him;” but, “If any man will, let him take the water of life freely.” Christ grudgeth mercy to none; though salvation was dearly purchased for us, yet it is freely proffered us.

So that the gate which leadeth to life is not strait on Christ’s part, or in respect of itself, but it is strait in respect of us, because of our lusts and corruptions, which make the entrance difficult. A needle’s eye is big enough for a thread to pass through, but it is a strait passage for a cable rope: either the needle’s eye must be enlarged, or the cable rope must be untwisted, or the entrance is impossible. So it is in this case—the gate of conversion is a very strait passage for a carnal, corrupt sinner to go in at. The soul can never pass through with any one lust beloved and espoused; and, therefore, the sinner must be untwisted from every lust: he must lay aside the love of every sin, or he can never enter in at this gate, for it is a strait gate. And when he is in at this strait gate, he meeteth with a narrow way to walk in: so our Lord Christ saith, “Narrow is the way that leadeth to life;” and what way is this, but the way of sanctification? “For without holiness no man shall ever see the Lord.”

Now this way of sanctification is a very narrow way, for it lies over the neck of every lust, and in the exercise of every grace, subduing the one, and improving the other; dying daily, and yet living daily; dying to sin and living to God:—this is the way of sanctification! And O, how few are there that walk in this way! The broad way hath many travellers in it, but this narrow way is like the ways of Canaan in the days of Shamgar. It is said, “In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways.” In the Hebrew, it is, “through crooked ways:” the way of holiness is by the most an unoccupied way—so saith the prophet. “A way shall there be, and it shall be called the way of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it; no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beasts shall go up thereon; but the redeemed shall walk there.” The unclean, and the lion, and the ravenous beast, they are in the crooked ways: none but the redeemed of the Lord walk in the way of the Lord.

It is no wonder, then, that our Lord Christ saith of life, that “few there be that find it,” when the gate is strait, and the way narrow, that leadeth to it. Many pretend to walk in the narrow way, but they never entered in at the strait gate; and many pretend to have entered in at the strait gate, but they walk not in the narrow way.

It is a very common thing for a man to perish upon a mistake of his way; to go on in those paths that take hold of hell, and yet hope to find heaven at last. Those twenty parts, fore-mentioned, run into destruction, and yet many choose them, and walk in them as the way of salvation. As many profane and open sinners perish by choosing the way of death, so many formal professors perish by mistaking the way of life. This I gather from what our Lord Christ saith “Few there be that find it;” which doth clearly imply what in Luke xii. 24, he doth plainly express, to wit, that many seek it; many seek to enter in, and yet are not able; many run far, and yet do not “so run as to obtain;” many bid fair for the Pearl of price, and yet go without it. Hell is had with ease, but the “kingdom of heaven suffers violence.”

Inference 2. If many go thus far in the way to heaven, and yet miscarry, O then, what shall be the end of them who fall short of these! If he shall perish who is almost a Christian, what shall he do who is not .at all a Christian! If he that owneth Christ, and professeth Christ, and leaveth many sins for Christ, may be damned notwithstanding; what then shall his doom be that disowneth Christ, and refuseth to part with one sin, one lust, one oath for Christ; nay, that openly blasphemeth the precious name of Christ! If he that is outwardly sanctified shall yet be eternally rejected, what will the case be of such as are openly unsanctified—that have not only the plague of a bad heart within, but also the plague-sore of a profane life without?, If the formal professor must be shut out, surely then the filthy adulterer, swinish drunkard, the deep swearer, the profane Sabbath-breaker, the foul-mouthed scoffer, yea, and every carnal sinner much more. If there be a wo to him that falleth short of heaven, then how sad is the wo to him who falls short of them that fall short of heaven! Ah, that God would make this an awakening word to sinners that are asleep in sin, without the least fear of death, or dread of damnation!

Use of Examination

Use of Examination.

Are there many in the world that are almost and yet but almost Christians? Why, then, “it is time for us to call our condition into question, and to make a more narrow scrutiny into the truth of our spiritual estate;” what it is, whether it be right or not; whether we are sound and sincere in our profession of religion, or not. When our Lord Christ told his disciples, “One of you shall betray me,” every one began presently to reflect upon himself; “Master, is it I? Master, is it I?” So should we do, when the Lord discovers to us from his word, how many there are under the profession of religion that are but almost Christians, we should straightway reflect upon our hearts, “Lord, is it I? Is my heart unsound. Am I but almost a Christian? Am I one of them that shall miscarry at last? Am I a hypocrite under the profession of religion? Have I a form of godliness without the power?”

There are two questions of very great importance, which we should every one of us often put to ourselves:—

What am I?

Where am I?

1. What am 1? Am I a child of God or not? Am I sincere in religion, or am I only a hypocrite under a profession?

2. Where am I? Am I yet in a natural state, or a state of grace? Am I yet in the old root, in old Adam; or am I in the root Christ Jesus? Am I in the covenant of works that Ministers only wrath and death? or am I in the covenant of grace, that ministers life and peace?

Indeed, this is the first thing a man should look at: there must be a change of state, before there can be a change of heart: we must come under a change of covenant, before we can be under a change of condition; for the new heart and the new spirit is promised in the new covenant. There is nothing of that to be heard of in the old: now a man must be under the new covenant, before he can receive the blessing promised in the new covenant; he must be in a new covenant-state, before he can receive a new covenant-heart. No mercy, no pardon, no change, no conversion, no grace dispensed out of covenant; therefore this should be our great inquiry; for if we know not where we are, we cannot know what we are; and if we know not what we are, we cannot be what we should be; namely, altogether Christians. Let me then, I beseech you, press this duty upon you that are professors. Try your own hearts; “examine yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove your own selves.”—I urge this upon most cogent arguments.

1. Because many rest in a notion of godliness and outward shows of religion, and yet remain in their natural condition. Many “are hearers of the word,” but “not doers of it,” “and so deceive their own souls.” Some neither hear nor do; these are profane sinners. Some both hear and do; these are true believers. Some hear, but they do not do; these are hypocritical professors.

He that slights the ordinances cannot be a true Christian; but yet it is possible a man may own them, and profess them, and yet be no true Christian. Who would trust to a profession, that shall see Judas a disciple, an apostle, a preacher of the gospel, one that cast out devils, to be cast out himself? “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly: and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

2. “Because errors in the first foundation are very dangerous.” If we be not right in the main, in the fundamental work; if the foundation be not laid in grace in the heart, all our following profession comes to nothing: the house is built upon a sandy foundation, and though it may stand for awhile, yet “when the floods come, and the winds blow and beat upon it, great will be the fall of it.”

3. “Because many are the deceits that our souls are liable to in this case.” There are many things like grace that are not grace: now it is the likeness and similitude of things that deceives, and makes one thing to be taken for another. Many take gifts for grace, common knowledge for saving knowledge; whereas a man may have great gifts, and yet no grace; great knowledge, and yet not Jesus Christ.

Some take common grace for saving; whereas, a man may believe all the truths of the gospel, all the promises, all the threatenings, all the articles of the creed, to be true, and yet perish for want of saving grace.

Use of Caution

Second Use of Caution.—“O take heed of being almost, and yet but almost a Christian!” It is a great complaint of God against Ephraim, that “he is a cake not turned;” that is, half baked, neither raw nor roasted, neither cold nor hot, as Laodicea: “Because thou art neither hot nor cold, therefore I will spue thee out of my mouth.” This is a condition that of all others is greatly unprofitable, exceedingly uncomfortable, and desperately dangerous.

First, “It is greatly unprofitable to be but almost a Christian;” for failing in any one point, will ruin us as surely as if we had never made any attempts for heaven. It is no advantage to the soul to be almost converted; for the little that we want, spoils the good of all our attainments. We say, as good never a whit as never the near; there is no profit in leaving this or that sin, unless we leave all sin. Herod heard John gladly, and did many things, but he kept his Herodias, and that ruined him. Judas did many things, prayed much, preached much, professed much, but yet his covetousness spoiled all; one sin ruined the young man, that had kept all the commands but one. Thus he “that offends in one point, is guilty of all.” That is, he that lives wilfully and allowedly in any one sin, brings the guilt of the violation of the whole law of God upon his soul, and that upon a twofold account.

1. Because he manifests the same contempt of the authority of God, in the wilful breach of one, as of all.

2. By allowing himself in the breach of any one command, he shows he kept none in obedience and conscience to God; for he that hates sin as sin, hates all sin, and he that obeys the command as the express will of God, obeys every command. And for this cause the least sin, wilfully, and with allowance lived in, spoils the good of all our obedience and lays the soul under the whole wrath of God. One leak in a ship will sink her, though she be tight every way else. “Gideon had seventy sons,” and but one bastard, and yet that one bastard destroyed all his sons; so may one sin spoil all our services; one lust beloved may spoil all our profession, as that one bastard slew all the sons of Gideon.

Secondly, “It is exceedingly uncomfortable as appears in three ways.

1. “In that such a one is hated of God and men.” The world hates him because of his profession, and God abhors him because of his dissimulation; the world hates him because he seems good, and God hates him because he doth but seem so. No person that God hates more than the almost Christian: “I would that thou wert either cold or hot;” either all a Christian, or not at all a Christian. “Because thou art neither cold nor hot, therefore I will spew thee out of my mouth.” What a loathsome expression doth God here use, to show what an utter abhorrency there is in him against lukewarm Christians! How uncomfortable then must that condition needs be wherein a man is abhorred both of God and man?

2. “It is uncomfortable in regard of sufferings.” For being almost a Christian, will bring us into suffering: but being but almost a Christian, will never carry us through suffering. In Matt. xiii. 20, 21, it is said, “He that receiveth the seed into stony ground, the same is he that hears the word, and with joy receives it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by-and-by he is offended.”

There are four things observable in these words.

1. That the stony ground may receive the word with joy.

Use of Exhortation

Need you any motives to quicken you up to this important duty?

Consideration 1. “This is that which is not only commanded by God, but that whereunto all the commands of God tend.” A perfect conformity of heart and life to God, is the sum and substance of all the commands both of the Old and the New Testament. As the harlot was for the dividing of the child, so Satan is for dividing the heart. He would have our love and affections shared between Christ and our lusts; for he knows that Christ reckons we love him not ht all, unless we love him above all. But God will have all or none: “My son, give me thy heart. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Look into the Scripture, and see what that is upon which you only stand, and you shall find that God hath fixed it upon those great duties which alone tend to the perfection of your state as Christians. God hath fixed your only upon believing; only believe. God hath fixed your only upon obedience: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” “Only let your conversation be such as becometh the gospel of Christ.” So that your only is fixed by. God upon these two great duties of believing and obeying; both which tend to the perfection of your state as Christians. Now, shall God command, and shall not we obey? Can there be a higher motive to duty than the authority of the great God, whose will is the eternal rule of righteousness? “O let us fear God, and keep his commandments,” for this is the whole duty of man!

Consideration 2. “The Lord Christ is a Saviour throughout, a perfect and complete Mediator.” He hath not shed his blood by halves, nor satisfied the justice of God, and redeemed sinners by halves. No, but he went through with his undertaking; he bore all our sins, and shed all his blood: he died to the utmost, satisfied the justice of God to the utmost, redeemed sinners to the utmost, and now that he is in heaven he intercedeth to the utmost, and is able to save to the utmost.

It is observed, that our Lord Christ, when he was upon the earth, in the days of his flesh, he wrought no half-cures; but whomsoever they brought to him for healing, he healed them throughout; “They brought unto him all that were diseased, and besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment, and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.”

O what an excellent physician is here! none like him! he cureth infallibly, suddenly, and perfectly!

He cureth infallibly. None ever came to him for healing that went without it; he never practised upon any that miscarried under his hand.

He cureth suddenly. No sooner is his garment touched, but his patient is healed. The leper, Matt. viii. 3, is no sooner touched, but immediately cured; the two blind men, Matt. xx. 34, are no sooner touched, but their eyes were immediately opened.

He cureth perfectly: “As many as were touched, were made perfectly whole.”

Now all this was to show what a perfect and complete Saviour Jesus Christ would be to all sinners that would come to him. They should. find healing in his blood, virtue in his righteousness, and pardon for all their sins, whatever they were. Look! as Christ healed all the diseases of all that came to him, when he was on earth, so he, pardons all the sins, and healeth all the wounds of all those souls that come to him, now he is in heaven. He is a Saviour throughout; and shall not we be saints throughout? Shall he be altogether a Redeemer; and shall not we be altogether believers? O, what a shame is this!

Consideration 3. “There is enough in religion to engage us to be altogether Christians;” and that whether we respect profit or comfort, for grace brings both.

First, “Religion is a gainful thing;” and this is a compelling motive that becomes effectual upon all. Gaia is the god whom the world worships. What will not men, do, what will they not suffer for gain? What journeys do men take by land, what voyages by sea, through hot and cold, through fair and foul, through storm and shine, through day and night, and all for gain! Now there is no calling so gainful as this of religion; it is the most profitable employment we can take up. “Godliness is profitable unto all things.” It is a great revenue. If it be closely followed, it brings in the greatest income. Indeed, some men are religious for the world’s sake; such shall be sure not to gain: but they who are religious for religion’s sake, shall be sure not to lose, if heaven and earth can recompense them; for “godliness hath the promise both of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

Ah, who would not be a Christian, when the gain of godliness is so great! Many gain much in their worldly calling, but the profit which the true believer hath from one hour’s communion with God in Christ, weigheth down all the gain of the world. “Cursed be that man who counts all the gain of the world worth one hour’s communion with Jesus Christ,” saith that noble Marquis, Galeacius Caracciola. It is nowhere said in Scripture, “Happy is the man that findeth silver, and the man that getteth fine gold.” These are of no weight in the balance of the sanctuary; but it is said, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding; for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.” By wisdom and understanding here, we are to understand the grace of Christ; and so the spirit of God interpreteth it. “Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Now of all merchants, he that trades in this wisdom and understanding will prove the richest man: one grain of godliness out weigheth all the gold of Ophir. There is no riches like being rich in grace: for,

1. This is the most necessary riches; other things are not so. Silver and gold are not so: we may be. happy without them. There is but one thing necessary, and that is the grace of Jesus Christ in the heart. Have this, and have all; want this, and want all.

2. It is the most substantial gain. The things of this world are more shadow than substance. Pleasure, honor, and profit comprehend all things in this world, and therefore are the carnal man’s trinity. The apostle John calls them “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;” this, (saith he,) is all that is in the world: and truly, if this be all, all is nothing for what is pleasure but a dream and conceit? what is honor, but fancy and opinion? and what is profit, but a thing of naught? “Why wilt thou set thy eyes upon that which is not?” The things of the world have in them no sound substance, though foolish, carnal men call them substance. But now grace is a substantial good; so our Lord Christ calls it: “That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance,” to inherit that which is. Grace is a reality other things are but show and fancy.

3. Godliness is the safest gain. The gain of worldly things is always with difficulty, but seldom with safety. The soul is often hazarded in the over-eager pursuit of worldly things; nay, thousands do pawn, and lose, and damn their precious souls eternally, for a little silver and gold, which are but the guts and garbage of the earth: “and what is a man profited, to gain the whole world, if he lose his own soul?” But the gain of godliness is ever with safety to the soul; nay, the soul is lost and undone without it, and not saved but by the attainment of it. A soul without grace is in a lost and perishing condition: the hazard of eternity is never over with us until the grace of Christ Jesus be sought by us, and wrought in us.

4. “Godliness is the surest profit:” as it is safe, so it is sure. Men make great ventures for the world, but all runs upon uncertainty. Many venture much, and wait long, and yet find no return but disappointment: they sow much, and yet reap nothing. But the gain of godliness is sure; “to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.”

And as the things of this world are uncertain in the getting, so they are uncertain in the keeping. If men do not undo us, moths may; if robbery doth not, rust may; if rust doth not, fire may; to which all earthly treasures are incident, as our Lord Christ teaches us, Matt. vi. 19. Solomon limneth the world with wings: “Riches make themselves wings, and fly as an eagle towards heaven.” A man may be rich as Dives today, and yet poor as Lazarus to-morrow. O how uncertain are all worldly things! But now the true treasure of grace is in the heart, that can never be lost. It is out of the reach both of rut and robber. “He that gets the world, gets a good he can never keep; but he that gets grace, gets a good he shall never lose.”

5. “The profit of godliness lieth not only in this world, but in the world to come.” All other profit lieth in this world only: riches and honor, &c., are called this world’s goods, but the riches of godliness is chiefly in the other world’s goods; in the enjoyment of God, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, among saints and angels in glory. Lo, this is the gain of godliness; “such honor have all his saints.”

6. “The gain of godliness is a durable and eternal gain.” All this world’s goods are perishing; perishing pleasures, perishing honors, perishing profits, and perishing comforts. “Riches are not forever,” saith Job: “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” Gregory upon these words observes, that earthly treasures are treasures of snow. What pains do children take to scrape and roll the snow together to make a snow-ball, which is no sooner done but the heat of the sun dissolves it, and it comes to nothing. Why, the treasures of worldly men are but treasures of snow. When death and judgment come, they melt away, and come to nothing. “Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”

You see here the great advantage of godliness; so that if we look at profit, we shall find enough in religion to engage us to be altogether Christians. Or,

2. “If we look at comfort,” religion is the most comfortable profession. There are no comforts to be compared to the comforts of grace and godliness.

1. “Worldly comfort is only outward;” it is but skin-deep: “In the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful.” But now the comfort that flows from godliness is an inward comfort, a spiritual joy; therefore it is called gladness of heart. “Thou hast put gladness in my heart:” other joy smooths the brow, but this fills the breast.

2. “Worldly comfort hath a nether spring.” The spring of worldly comfort is in the creature, in some earthly enjoyment; and, therefore, the comfort of worldly men must needs be mixed and muddy: “an unclean fountain cannot send forth pure water.” But spiritual comfort hath an upper spring: the comfort that accompanies godliness, flows from the manifestations of the love of God in Christ, from the workings of the blessed Spirit in the heart, which is first a counsellor, and then a comforter: and therefore the comforts of the saints must needs be pure and unmixed comforts; for they flow from a pure spring.

3. “Worldly comfort is very fading and transitory.” “The triumphing of the wicked is but short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment.” Solomon compares it to the “crackling of thorns under a pot,” which is but a blaze, and soon out: so is the comfort of carnal hearts. But, now the comfort of godliness is a durable and abiding comfort; “your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you.” The comfort of godliness is lasting, and everlasting it abides by us in life, in death, and after death.

First, “It abides by us in life:” grace and peace go together. Godliness naturally brings forth comfort and peace: “The effect of righteousness shall be peace.” It is said of the primitive Christians, “They walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.” Every duty done in uprightness and sincerity, reflects some comfort upon the soul. “In keeping the` commands, there is great reward;” not only for keeping of them, but in keeping of them. As every flower, so every duty carries sweetness and refreshing with it.

Objection. “But who more dejected and disconsolate than saints and believers? whose lives are more uncomfortable? whose mouths are more filled with complaints, than theirs? If a condition of godliness and Christianity be a condition of so much comfort, then why are they thus?”

Solution. That the people of God are oftentimes without comfort, I grant: “They may walk in the dark, and have no light.” But this is none of the products of godliness: grace brings forth no such fruit as this; there is a threefold rise and spring of it:—Sin within, Desertion and Temptation without.

1. Sin within. The saints of God are not all spirit, and no flesh; all grace, and no sin. They are made up of contrary principles: there is light and darkness in the same mind; sin and grace in the same will; carnal and spiritual in the same affections; there is “the flesh lusting against the Spirit.” In all these, and too oft the Lord knows, is the believer led away captive by these warring lusts. So was the holy apostle himself: “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin;” —and this was that which broke his spiritual peace, and filled his soul with trouble and complaints, as you see: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” So that it is sin that interrupts the peace of God’s people. Indwelling lust, stirring and breaking forth, must needs cause trouble and grief in the soul of a believer; for it is as natural for sin to bring forth trouble, as it is for grace to bring forth peace. Every sin contracts a new guilt upon the soul, and guilt provokes God; and where there is a sense of guilt contracted, and God provoked, there can be no peace, no quiet in that soul, till faith procures fresh sprinklings of the blood of Jesus Christ upon the conscience.

2. “Another spring of the believer’s trouble and disconsolateness of spirit, is the desertions of God;” and this follows upon the former. God doth sometimes disappear, and hide himself from his people: “Verily, thou art a God that hideth thyself.” But the cause of God’s hiding, is the believer’s sinning: “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.” In heaven, where there is no sinning, there is no losing the light of God’s countenance for a moment; and if saints here could serve God without corruption, they should enjoy God without desertion; but this cannot be. While we are in this state, remaining lusts will stir and break forth, and then God will hide his face, and this must needs be trouble: “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.”

The light of God’s countenance, shining upon the soul, is the Christian’s heaven on this side heaven; and therefore it is no wonder if the biding of his face be looked upon by the soul, as one of the days of hell. So it was by David: “The sorrows of death compassed me, the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow.”

3. “A third spring of that trouble and complaint that brims the banks of the Christian’s spirit, is the temptations of Satan.” He is the great enemy of saints, and he envieth the quiet and comfort that their hearts are filled with, when his conscience is brimmed with horror and terror: and, therefore, though he knows that he cannot destroy their peace, yet he labors to disturb their peace. As the blessed Spirit of God is first a sanctifier, and then a comforter, working grace in order to peace; so this cursed spirit of hell is first a tempter, and then a troubler; first persuading to act sin, and then accusing for sin; and this is his constant practice upon the spirits of God’s people. He cannot endure that they should live in the light of God’s countenance, when himself is doomed to eternal, intolerable darkness.

And thus you see whence it is that the people of God are often under trouble and complaint. All arises from these three springs of Sin within, Desertions and Temptations without.

If the saints could serve God without sinning, and enjoy God without withdrawing, and resist Satan without yielding, they might enjoy peace and comfort without sorrowing. This must be endeavored constantly here, but it will never be attained fully but in heaven. But yet so far as grace is the prevailing principle in the heart, and so far as the power of godliness is exercised in this life; so far the condition of a child of God is a condition of peace; for it is an undoubted truth, that the fruit of righteousness shall be peace. But suppose the people of God experience little of this comfort in this life, yet,

2. “They find it in the day of death.” Grace and holiness will minister unto us then, and that ministration will be peace. A believer hath a twofold spring of comfort, each one emptying itself into his soul in a dying season; one is from above him, the other is from within him. The spring that runs comfort from above him, is the blood of Christ sprinkled upon the conscience; the spring that runs comfort from within him, is the sincerity of his heart in God’s service. When we lie upon a death-bed, and can reflect upon our principles and performances in the service of God, and there find uprightness and sincerity of heart running through all, this must needs be comfort. It was so to Hezekiah: “Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart; and have done that which is good in thy sight.”

Nothing maketh a death-bed so uneasy and hard, as a life spent in the service of sin and lust; nothing makes a death-bed so soft and sweet, as a life spent in the service of God and Christ. Or put the case, the people of God should not meet with this comfort then; yet,

3. “They shall be sure to find it after death.” If time bring none of this fruit to ripeness, yet eternity shall; grace in time will be glory in eternity; holiness now will be happiness then: “Whatever it is a man soweth in this world, that he shall be sure to reap in the next world: he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.” When sin shall end in sorrow and misery, holiness shall end. in joy and glory: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Whoever shareth in the grace of Christ in this world, shall share in the joys of Christ in the world to come; and that joy “is joy unspeakable, and full of glory.” Lo, here is the fruit of godliness. Say now, if there be not enough in religion, whether we respect profit or comfort, to engage us to be Christians throughout?

Consideration 4. “What an entire resignation wicked men make of themselves to their lusts! and shall not we do so to the Lord Christ?” They give up themselves without reserve to the pleasures of sin; and shall we have our reserves in the service of God? They are altogether sinners; and shall not we be altogether saints? They run, and faint not, in the service of their lusts; and shall we faint, and not run, in the service of Christ? Shall the servants of corruption have their ears bored to the door-posts of sin, in token of an entire and perpetual service, and shall we not give up ourselves to the Lord Christ, to be his forever? Shall others make a “covenant with hell and death,” and shall not we “join ourselves to God in an everlasting covenant that cannot be forgotten?” Shall they take more pains to damn their souls, than we do to save ours? and make more speed to a place of vengeance, than we do to a crown of righteousness? Which do you judge best, to be saved everlastingly, or to perish everlastingly? Which do you count the best master, God or the devil? Christ or your lusts? I know you will determine it on Christ’s side. O then! when others serve their lusts with all their hearts, do you serve Christ with all your hearts. If the hearts of the sons of men be fully set in them to do evil, then much more let the hearts of the sons of God be fully set in them to do good.

Consideration 5. “If ye be not altogether Christians, ye will never be able to appear with comfort before God, nor to stand in the judgment of the last and great day.” For this sad dilemma will silence every hypocrite: if my commands were not holy, just, and good, why didst thou own them? If they were holy, just, and good, why dost thou not obey them? If Jesus Christ was not worth the having, why didst thou profess him? If he was, then why didst thou not cleave to him, and close with him? If my ordinances were not appointed to convert and save souls, why didst thou sit under them, and rest in the performance of them? Or if they were, then why didst thou not submit to the power of them? If religion be not good, why dost thou profess it? If it be good, why dost thou not practise it? “Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having on a wedding-garment?” If it was not a wedding-feast, why didst thou come at the invitation? If it was, then why didst thou come without a wedding-garment?

I would but ask a hypocritical professor of the Gospel, what he will answer in that day? Verily you deprive yourselves of all possibility of apology in “the day of the righteous judgment of God.” It is said of the man that had no wedding-garment on, that when Christ came and examined him, he was speechless. He that is graceless in a day of grace, will be speechless in a day of judgment: professing Christ without a heart to close with Christ, will leave our souls inexcusable, and make our damnation unavoidable and more intolerable.

These are the motives to enforce the duty; and O that God would set them home upon your hearts and consciences, that you might not dare to rest a moment longer in a half-work, or in being Christians within a little, but that you might be altogether Christians!

Question. But you will say possibly, “How shall I do? What means shall I use, that I may attain to a thorough work in my heart; that I may be no longer almost, but altogether a Christian?”

Answer. Now I shall lay down three rules of direction instead of many, to further and help you in this important duty, and so leave this work to God’s blessing.

Direction 1. “Break off all false peace of conscience;” this is the devil’s bond to hold the soul from seeking after Christ. As there is the peace of God so there is the peace of Satan; but they are easily known, for they are as contrary as heaven and hell, as light and darkness. The peace of God, flows from a work of grace in the soul, and is the peace of a regenerate state; but the peace of Satan is the peace of an unregenerate state, it is the peace of death; in the grave Job saith there is peace—“There the wicked cease from troubling;” so a soul dead in sin is full of peace, the wicked one troubleth him not. The peace of God in the soul is a peace flowing from removal of guilt, by justifying grace—“Being justified by faith in his blood, we have peace with God;” but the peace of Satan in the soul arises and is maintained by a stupidity of spirit, and insensibility of guilt upon the conscience. “The peace of God is a peace from sin that fortifies the heart against it: The peace of God that passeth all men’s understanding, shall, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” The more of this peace there is in the soul, the more is the soul fortified against sin; but the peace of Satan is peace in sin: “The strong man armed keeps the house, and there is all at peace.” The saint’s peace is a peace with God, but not with sin; the sinner’s peace is a peace with sin, but not with God: and this is a peace better broken than kept. It is a false, a dangerous, an undoing peace. My brethren, death and judgment will break all peace of conscience, but not that which is wrought by Christ in the soul, and is the fruit of the “blood of sprinkling:” “when he gives quietness, who can make trouble?” Now that peace that death will break, why should you keep? Who would be fond of that quietness which the flames of hell will burn in sunder? and yet how many travel to hell through the fool’s paradise of a false peace? O break off this peace! for we can have no peace with God in Christ, whilst this peace remains in our hearts. The Lord Christ gives no peace to them that will not seek it; and that man will never seek it that does not see his need of it; and he that is at peace in his lusts sees no need of the peace of Christ. The sinner must be wounded for sin, and troubled under it, before Christ will heal his wounds, and give him peace from it.

Direction 2. Labor after a thorough work of conviction; every conviction will not do it. The almost Christian hath his convictions as well as the true Christian, or else he had never gone so far; but they are not sound and right convictions, or else he had gone farther: God will have the soul truly sensible of the bitterness of sin, before it shall taste the sweetness of mercy. The plough of conviction must go deep, and make deep furrows in the heart, before God will sow the precious seed of grace and comfort there, that so it may have depth of earth to grow in. This is the constant method of God: first to show man his sin, then his Saviour; first his danger, then his Redeemer; first his wound, then his cure; first his own vileness, then Christ’s righteousness. We must be brought to cry out, “Unclean, unclean!” to mourn for Him whom we have pierced, and then he sets open for us a fountain to wash in for sin, and for uncleanness. That is a notable place, Job xxxiii. 27, 28. “He looked upon men; and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.” The sinner must see the unprofitableness of his unrighteousness, before he profit by Christ’s righteousness. The Israelites are first stung with the fiery serpents, and then the brazen serpent is set up. Ephraim is first thoroughly convinced, and then God’s bowels of mercy worked toward him. Thus it was with Paul, Manasseh, the jailer, &c. So that this is the unchangeable method of God in working grace, to begin with conviction of sin. O therefore labor for thorough conviction; and there are three things we should especially be convinced of.

First, Be convinced of the evil of sin; the filthy and heinous nature of it. This is the greatest evil in the world; it wrongs God, it wounds Christ, it grieves the Holy Spirit, it ruineth a precious soul; all other evils are not to be named with this. My brethren, though to do sin is the worst work, yet to see sin is the best sight; for sin discovered in its vileness, makes Christ to be desired in his fulness. But above all, labor to be convinced of the mischief of an unsound heart; what an abhorrence it is to God, what certain ruin it brings upon the soul. O think often upon the hypocrite’s hell. “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

Index of Scripture References

Index of Latin Words and Phrases

Index of Pages of the Print Edition