A. 3. We had need pray that the king- dom of grace may come, because till this kingdom come into our hearts, we are loath- some in God's eyes, Zech. xi. 8., " My soul loathed them." Quanta est faditas vitioscB mentis, Tullv. An heart void of grace looks blacker than hell ; sin transforms one into a devil, John vi. 70., " Have not I cho- sen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ?" Envy is the devil's eye, hypocrisy is his clo- ven foot ; thus it is before the kingdom of grace come. So deformed is a graceless person, that when once he sees his own filth and leprosy, the first thing he doth is to loathe himself, Ezek. xx. 43., "Ye shall loathe yourself in your own sight for all your evils." I have read of a woman, who always used flattering glasses ; by chance seeing her face in a true glass, in insa?iiam de/apsa est^ she ran mad : such as now dress themselves by the fluttering glass of pre- sumption, when once God gives them a siglit of their filthiness, they will abhor themselves ; " Ye shall loathe yourselves in your own siyht for all your evils."
/I. I. Before the kinfjdom of irrace comes into us, we are spiritually illegitimate, of the bastard-brood of the old serpent, John viii. 44. To be illegitimate is the greatest infamy : Deut. xxiii., 2., " A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord even to his tenth generation." He was to be kept out of the holy assemblies of Israel as an infamous creature ; a bastard, l)y the law, cannot inherit. Before the kingdom of grace come into the heart, a person is to God as one illegitimate, and so continuing he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
A. 5. Before the kingdom of grace be set up in men's hearts, the kingdom of Sa- tan is set up in them ; they are said to be under the power of Satan, Acts xxvi. 18. Satan commands the will ; though he can- not force the will, he can by his subtle
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temptations, draw it ; the devil is said to " take men ca])tive at liis will," 2 Tim. ii. 26. Tlic Greek word signities to take them alive as the fowler dotli the hird in the snare. The sinner's heart is the devil's mansion- house, Mat. xii. 44., " I will return unto my hotise." It is officinus cliaholcB, Satan's sliop, where he works, Ej)h. ii. 2., " The prince of the power of the air now worketh in the children of disobedience." The mem- bers of the body are the tools which Satan works with ; Satan possesseth men. In Christ's time many had their bodies posses- sed, but it is far worse to have their souls possessed ; one is possessed with an unclean devil, another with a revengeful devil. No wonder the ship goes full sail, when the wind blows; no wonder men go full sail in sin, when the devil, the prince of the air, blows them ; thus it is till the kingdom of grace come, men are under the power of Satan, who, like Draco, writes all his laws in blood.
A. 6. Till the kingdom of grace comes, a man lies exposed to the wrath of God ; " and who knoweth the power of his anger?" Ps. xc. 11. If, when but a spark of God's wrath flies into a man's conscience in this life, it is so terrible, what then will it be, when God stirs up all his anger ? So incon- ceivably torturing is God's wrath, that the wicked call to the rocks and mountains to fall on them, and hide them from it. Rev. vi. 1. The hellish torments are compared to a fiery lake, Rev. xx. 15. Other fire is but painted in comparison of this ; and this lake of fire burns for ever, Mark ix. 44. God's breath kindles this fire, Isa. xxx. 22. And, where shall we find engines or buck- ets to quench it? Time Avill not finish it; tears will not quench it. To this fiery lake are men exjwsed, till the kingdom of grace be set up in them.
A. 7. Till the kingdom of grace come, men cannot die with comfort; only he who takes Christ in the arms of his faith, can look death in the face with joy. But it is sad to have the king^of terrors in the body, and not the kingdom of grace in the soul. It is a wonder every graceless person doth not die distracted. M'hat will a grare-de- spiser do, wlicn death conies to liini with a writ of habeas corpus ? Hell follows death,