shalt tread upon his high places, from which he hath made so many shots at thee. Thou shalt see them all dismantled and demolished, till there he not left standing any one corruption in thy bosom for a devil to hide and hai-bour himself in. Satan, at whose approach thou hast so trembled, shall then be subdued under thy feet. He that hath so oft bid thee bow down, tliat he might go over thy soul, and trample upon all thj' glory, shall now have his neck laid to be trodden on by thee. Were there nothing else to be expected as the fruits of our watching and praying, weeping and mourning, severe duties of mortification and self-denial, with whatever else oiu- Christian warfare puts us upon, but this, our labour would not be in vain in the Lord. Yea, blessed watching and praying, hajjpy tears and woimds, we meet with in this war ; may they but at last end in a full and eternal vjctory over sin and Satan. Bondage is one of the worst of evils. The baser an enemy is, the more abhorred by noble spirits. Saul feared to fall into the hands of the luicircumcised Philistines, and to be abused by their scorn and reproach, more than a bloody death. Who baser than Satan .' What viler tyrant than sin ? Glorious then will the day be, wherein we shall praise God for delivering us out of the hands of all our sins, and from the hand of Satan. But dismal to you, sinners, who at the same time, wherein you shall see the saints stand with crowns of victory on their heads, nnist yourselves, like fettered captives, be dragged to hell's dungeon, there to have your ear bored unto an eternal bondage under your lusts. And what more miserable sentence can God himself pass upon you? Here sin is pleasure, there it will be torment. Here you have suitable provision to entertain your lusts withal ; palaces for pride to dwell and strut herself in ; delicious fare for your wanton palates; houses and lands, with coffers of silver and gold for your covetous hearts, by their self-pleasing thoughts, to sit brooding upon. But 3'ou will find none of these there ; hell is a barren place, nothing grows in that land of darkness to solace and recreate the sinners' minds. You shall have your lusts, but want the food you long for. O what a torment must that needs be, to have a soul sharp set, even to a ravenous hunger after sin, but chained up where it can come at nothing it would have to satisfy its lusts ! For a proud wretch, that could wish he might domineer over all the world, yea, over God himself, if he would let him, to be kept down in such a dungeon as hell ! O how it will cut, for the malicious sinner, whose heart swells with rancour against God and his saints, that he could pluck them out of God's bosom, yea, God out of his throne, if he had power, to find his hands so manacled, that lie can do nothing against them he so hates! O how this will torment! Speak, O you saints, Avhose partial victory over sin at present is so sweet to you, that you would choose a thousand deaths, sooner than return to yoiu' old bondage under yoiu* lusts; how glorious then is that day in your eye, when this shall be completed in a full and eternal conquest, never to have anything to do more with sin or Satan !
Secondly, ' To stand,' is here to stand justified and acquitted at the great day of judgment. The phrase is frequent in Scripture, whicli sets out the solemn discharge they shall have then by standing in judgment: Psa. i. 5, 'The wicked shall not stand in the judgment;' that is, they shall not be justified; Psa. cxxx. 3, ' If thou. Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand ? ' that is, who shall be discharged ? The great God, upon whose errand we come into the world, hath aj)pointed a day wherein he will judge the world by Jesus Christ : a solemn day it will be, when all that ever lived on earth, high and low, good and bad, shall meet in one assembly to make their personal appearance before Christ, and from his mouth to receive their eternal doom, who sliall, in his majestic robes of glory, ascend the awful seat of judicature, attended with his illustrious train and guard of angels about him, as so many officers ready to execute and perform his pleasure, according to the definitive sentence that he shall pronounce, either to conduct those blessed ones whom he shall justify into his glorious kingdom, or bind them hand and foot to be cast into hell's unquenchable flames, whom he shall condemn. I do not wonder that Paul's sermon on this subject did make an eartlupiake in Felix's conscience ; but rather that any should be so far gone in a spiritual lethargy and nmnbness of conscience, that the thought of this day cannot recover them to their sense and feeling. O, sirs, do you not vote them happy men and women that shall speed
194 AND HAVING DONE ALL, TO STAND.