Secondly, You are professors of holiness. You have given in your names to Christ, to be his disciples ; and by this your engagements to a life of holiness, are yet further strengthened, % Tim. ii. 19- " Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from ini- " quity."" The name of Christ is called upon you, and it is* a worthy name, Jam. ii. 7. It is called upon you, as the name of the husband is called upon his wife, Isa. iv. 1. " Let thy name be " called upon us."" Or, as the name of a Father is called upon his child, Gen. xlviii. 16. " Let my name be called on them, and *' the name of my fathers. Well then, you bear the name of Christ as his spouse or children ; and will you not live suitably to your name ? Every place and relation, every title of honour and dignity hath its decorum and becomingness. O how will that worthy name of Christ be blasphemed through you, if you adorn it not with becoming deportment? Better you had never profes- sed any thing, than to set yourselves by your profession in the eye and observation of the world ; and then to pour contempt on Jesus Christ, by your scandalous conversations, before the eyes of
546 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SEHM. XLIL
the world, who will laugh at it. I remember it was a momento given to one of his name by Alexander, recordare nominis Alexan- dri. Remember (said he) thy name Alexander, and do nothing unworthy of that name. O, that is a heavy charge, Rom. ii. 2A " Through you is the name of God blasphemed among the Hea- " thens." Unhappy man that ever thou shouldst be a reproach to Christ : The herd of wicked men are ignota capita, men of no note or observation. They may sin, and sin again ; drink, swear, and tumble in all uncleanness ; and it passes away silently ; the world takes little notice of it. Their wicked actions make but little noise in the world ; but the miscarriages of professors, are like a blazing comet, or an eclipsed sun, which all men gaze at, and make their observations upon ; oh then, what manner of persons ought you to be, who bear the worthy name of Christ upon you !
Thirdly, But more than this, You have obliged yourselves to this life of holiness by your awn prayers. How many times have you lifted up your hands to heaven, and cried with David, Psal. cxix. 5. " O that mv ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Order my " steps in thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me," ver. 133. Were you in earnest with God, when you thus prayed ? Did you mean as you said ? Or did you only compliment with God ? If your hearts and tongues agreed in this request, doubtless it is as much your duty to endeavour, as to desire those mercies ; and, if not, yet do all these prayers stand on record before the Lord, and will be produced against you as witnesses to condemn you, for your hypocrisy and vanity. How often also have you in your prayers lamented, and bewailed your careless and uneven walkings ? You have said with Ezra, chap. ix. 6. " O my God, I " am ashamed, and even blush to look up unto thee." And do not your confessions oblige you to greater circumspection and care for time to come ? Will you confess, and sin ? And sin, and con- fess ? Go to God and bewail your evils, and when you have be- wailed them, return again to the commission of them ? God forbid you should thus dissemble with God, play with sin, and dye your iniquities with a deeper tincture.
Four tidy, and lastly, to add no more, You have often reproved or censured others for their miscarriages and falls, which adds to your own obligation, to walk accurately, and evenly. Have you not often reproved your erring brethren ? or at least privately censured them, if not duly reproved them, (for to these left-handed blows of se- cret censurings, we are more apt, than to the fair and open strokes of just and due reproofs (and will you practise the same things you criminate and censure others for ? " Thou that teachest ano- " ther, saith the apostle) teachest thou not thyself V* Rom. ii. 21.
5ERM. XLII. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 547
So say I, thou that censurest or rebukest another, condemnest thou not thyself? Will your rebukes ever do good to others, whilst you allow in yourselves what you condemn in them ? And as these reproofs and censures can do them no good, so they do you much evil, by reason of them you are uvrbxaraxpirnt, self-condemned per- sons; and out of your own mouths God will judge you. For you need no other witness than yourselves in this case. Your own tongues will fall upon you. Your censures and reproofs of others will leave you without plea or apology, if you look not to your lives with greater care. And yet will you be careless still ? Fear you not the displeasure of God ? Nor the wounding and disquiet- ing your own consciences ? Surely, these things are of no light value with you, if you be Christians indeed.
Thirdly, You are yet further engaged to practical holiness upon the account of your brethren, who are not a little concerned and interested therein. For if, through the neglect of your hearts, your lives be defiled and polluted, this will be thrown in their faces, and many innocent and upright ones both reproached and grieved upon your account. This mischievous effect holy David earnestly deprecated, Psal. lxix. 5, 6. " O God, thou knowest " my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee ; let not them " that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my " sake. Let not them that seek thee, be confounded for my " sake, O God of Israel," q. d. Lord, thou knowest what a weak and foolish creature I am. And how apt to miscarry, if left to myself, and should I, through my foolishness, act unbecoming a saint ; how would this shame the faces, and sadden the hearts of thy people ! They will be as men confounded at the report of my fall. The fall of one Christian is matter of trouble and shame to all the rest ; and, when they shall hear the sad and unwelcome news of your scandalous miscarriages, (which will certainly be the effect of a neglected heart and life) they will say as David concerning Saul and Jonathan, " Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets " of Askelon," eye. Or as Tamar concerning Amnon, " And " we, whither shall we cause our shame to go ?" And for them, they shall be as fools in Israel. Thy loose and careless life will cause them to estrange themselves from thee, and look shy upon thee, as being ashamed to own thee, and canst thou bear that ; will it not grieve and pierce your very hearts to see a cloud of strangeness and trouble over the countenances of your brethren ? To see yourselves disowned and lightly esteemed by them ? This very consideration struck a great favourite in the Persian court to the very heart. * It was Ustazanes, who had been governor to
* Sozonien. lib. 2. cap. 8.
548 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XLII.