5. Fifthly, I answer, That it is horrid injustice and disingenuity in thee, and in such as thou art, to make the hearts of the righteous sad, ivJiom God would not Imve sadded, hy your pride, profaneness, looseness, wickedness, worldliness, lukeivarmness, pithiness, camalness, dec, and then to cry out against them, that they are the saddest and uncomfortahlest people in the ivorld, Ezek. xiii. 22, 23. What is this but, with Nero, to set the city of Kome on fire, and then to lay it upon the Christians, and punish them for it ? What is this but to deal by the saints as the devil deals by them ? He loads them and follows them with most sad, grievous, blasphemous, horrid, and hellish temptations, on purpose to make them walk heavily, mournfully, and uncomfort- ably, and when he has accomplished his design, then he accuses them sometimes to God, sometimes to themselves, and sometimes to others, for their heavy and uncomfortable walking, Kev. xii. 10. Oh, what inhumanity, cruelty, and vanity was it in the Egyptians to double the Israelites' tale of bricks, and to take away their straw, and then to cry out ' that they were idle, they were idle,' Exod. v. 8, 17 ; so, oh what inhumanity and cruelty is this in unsanctified persons, to sad, grieve, and afflict the people of God with their drunkenness, wanton- ness, and lewdness, and with their cursing, swearing, and lying, and with their scorning and scoffing at godliness, and with their slandering of the Lord, his people and ways, and with their resisting and quench- ing of the blessed motions of the Spirit, and with their shifting off the glorious offers of grace and mercy, and with their treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath, &c.,^ and then to cry out. Oh, how sadly, oh, how mournfully, do these men walk ! oh, what uncomfortable lives do these men live ! oh, what sorrow and pensiveness does still attend them ! But is this just ? is this fair ? Suppose a husband should do a,ll he could to afflict and grieve his wife, and a father his child, and a master his servant, and a friend his friend, &c., and when they had done, then fall a-complaining that there were none so melancholy, nor none so sad and sorrowful as they ; oh, what folly, what madness, and what injustice were this ! and yet this is the common dealing of un- sanctified persons with the people of God, Dan. iv. 27. Ah, sinners, sinners, if you would but break off your sins by repentance, and cease from doing evil, and turn to the Lord with all your hearts, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and fall in with the ways of God, and trample upon this wicked world, and seek after the things of a better life, oh, how soon would the saints' sighing be turned into singing, and their mourning into rejoicing 1 Oh, the music, the mirth, the melody, that your conversion would make, both in their hearts and in their ears ! It is very observable that Abraham made a feast at the weaning of his son Isaac, Gen. xxi. 8. He did not make a feast on the day of his nativity, nor on the day of his circumcision, but on that day when he was taken from his mother's breast. 0 sirs, if you were but once weaned from your lusts, and from the vanities of this world, if you were but once weaned from old corrupt customs, and from fol- lowing after your sinful lovers, oh, how would all God's faithful ' Ps. cxix. 136, 158 ; Jer. ix. 1, 2 j 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8 ; Rom. ii. 4, 5.
254 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII, 14.
Abrahams rejoice ! 1 Pet. i. 18, 19 ; Hosea vi. 7. Oh, what a feast of fat things ! oh, what a heavenly banquet would this make in aU their hearts ! About three hundred years after the apostles' time, Caius Marius Victorius, an old pagan, was converted from his paganism, infidelity, and impiety, and brought over to the Christian faith; which, when the people of God saw, there was wonderful rejoicing, and shouting, and dancing for gladness, and psalms were sung in every church, ' Caius Marius Victorius is become a Christian, Caius Marius Victorius is become a Christian!' This was written as a wonder, and sung as a wonder, that this old pagan, this gray-headed pagan, should become a gracious Christian, that he should in his old age be renewed and sanctified. Ah, friends, if you were but once converted and changed, if you were but once turned from darkness to light, if you were but once brought to Christ, if the people of God could but once see that you had passed the pangs of the new birth, and that Christ and holiness was but formed in your souls, ah, how would their hearts be filled with joy, and their mouths with laughter ! Oh, what songs of salvation would they sing ! Oh, how would the high praises of God be in their mouths ! Thou sayest. Oh there are none so sad and sorrowful, &c., as such and such Christians ; but what is the cause of their sorrow and sadness ? is it not thy wickedness and ungodliness ? is it not thy unconverted and unsanctified estate ? Surely yes. Oh that thou wouldst therefore cease from complaining against them, and fall amending of thine own heart and ways ! and then all tears wUl be quickly wiped away from their eyes. But,
6. Sixthly, I answer. That all the joys, delights, and pleasures that holiness debars men of, are sinful joys, delights, and pleasures.^ Unsanc- tified souls take pleasure in unrighteousness ; they rejoice to do evil, they make a sport of sin, and delight to dishonour their God, and damn their own immortal souls : Prov. ii. 14, ' They rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked/ And this is brought in as an aggravation of Jerusalem's sin : Jer. xi. 15, ' When thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest.' Ah, how madly-merry are they that can take delight and content in that which is their shame and misery ! ah, how is man fallen from his primitive glory, that he can now rejoice in that which is a dishonour to God, a reproach to Christ, a grief to the Spirit, a provocation to divine wrath, a blot upon his name, a curse upon his estate, a wound upon his conscience, and a plague upon his soul ! Now what a mercy must it be to be taken off from that carnal mirth that ends in mourning, and from those vain delights that ends in unspeakable torments, and from that foolish jollity that leads to everlasting misery! Rev. xviii, 17. I have read of king Lysimachus, that when he and his army were besieged in one of his cities, and in great danger of perishing by thirst, for a cup of cold water he delivered up the keys of the city to his enemy, which cold comfort he had no sooner tasted but his tongue bewrayed the grief of his heart, saying, ' Oh that, in lieu of so momentary a pleasure, I should be made of a sovereign a servant, of a king a captive ! ' 2 Ah, what folly and madness is it for men to run the hazard of losing the
1 Rom. i. 32 ; 2 Thes. ii. 12 ; Amos vi. 13 ; Zeph. iii. 11 ; 2 Pet. ii. 13. ^ Plutarch, as before. — G.
HeK XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 255