himself upon a piesimiptuous hope oi'tlie mercy of God in Christ. It pleased God to lay him some while after on his bed by sickness, which for a time scared his old companions, brethren with him in iniquity, from visiting him ; but hearing he was cheery and pleasant in his sickness, ventured to see him, whom they found very confident of the mercy of God, whereby their hands were much strengthened in their old ways. But before he died this tune was changed to purpose, his vain hopes vanish, his guilty conscience awakened, and the poor wretch, roasted in the scorching flames of his former ungodly practices, now ready to die, cries out despairingly, " O sirs, I had prepared a plaster, and thought all was well, but now it will stick no longer! ' His guilty conscience rubbed it off as fast as he clapped it on ; and truly, friends, you will find the blood of Christ himself will not cleave to a soul that is in league with any way of sin and unrighteousness : God will pluck such from the horns of this altar that fly to it, but not from their unrighteousness, and slay them in the sight of this sanctuary they boldly trust to. You know the message Solomon sent to Adoni- jah, ' If thou shewest thyself a worthy man, not a hair of thy head shall fall ; but if wickedness shall be found in thee, thou shalt surely die.' In vain do men think to shroud themselves imder Christ's wing from the hue and cry of their ac- cusing conscience, while wickedness finds a sanctuary in them. Christ never was intended by God to secure men in their unrighteousness, but to save them from it. Fifthly, Holiness has a mighty influence upon others. When this appears with power in the lives of the Christians, it works mightily upon the spirits of men ; this stops the mouths of the imgodly, who are ready to reproach religion, and throw the dirt of professors' sins on the face of profession itself. They say frogs will cease croaking when a light is brought near to them : the light of a holy conversation hangs, as it were, a padlock on profane lijjs, yea, it forceth them to acknowledge God in them. ' Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven,' Matt. v. 16 : yea, more, this would not only stop their mouths, but be a means to open their very hearts to the embracing of Christ and his grace. One reason why such shoals of souls came into the net of the gospel in primitive times was, because then the divinity of the gospel doctrhie appeared in the divinity and holiness of Christians' lives. Justin Martyr, when converted, professed, ' that the holiness which shined in Christians' lives, and patience, that triumphed over their enemies' cruelty at their deaths, made him conclude the doctrine of the gospel was truth.' Yea, Julian himself, as vile a wretch as he was, could say, that the Christian religion came to be propagated so much. Propter Christianorum ergct onines benejicia, because Christians were a people that did good to all, and hm-t to none. I am sure we find by woeful experience, that in these de- bauched times, wherein religion is so bespattered with frequent scandals, yea, a connnon looseness of professors, it is hard to get any that are out to come under the net of the gospel. Some beasts there are, that if they have once blown on a pasture, others will hardly eat of that grass for some while after. Truly I have had some such sad thoughts as these concerning our unhappy times, that till the ill savour which the pride, contentions, errors, and looseness of professors now-a-days have left upon the truths and ordinances of Christ be worn off, there is little hopes of any great coming-in of new converts. The minister cannot be always preaching; two or three hours may be in a week he spends among his people in the pulpit, holding the glass of the gospel before their faces ; but the lives of professors, these preach all the week long ; if they were but holy and exemplary, they would be as a repetition of the preacher's sermon to their families and neighbours among whom they converse, and keep the sound of his doctrine continually ringing in their ears. This would give Christians an amiable advantage in doing good to their carnal neighbours by counsel and reproof, which now is seldom done, and when done, it proves to little purpose, because not backed with their own exemplary walking. ' It behoves him,' saith Tertullian, ' that would counsel or reprove another, to guard his speech;' Autoritate proprice conversationis, ne dicta fact is drficientibiis erubescanl ; with the authority of his own conversation, lest, wanting that, what he says puts himself to the blush. We do not love one that liath a stinking breath should come very near us; and truly we count one comes very near us that reproves us ; such, therefore, had need have a sweet-scented life.
304 ^^^ HAVING ON