Alas ! what is a man out of Christ ? As a man in a storm, that hath no clothes to hide his nakedness, to cover him from the violence of the storm : as a man in a tempest, that is out of a house to hide him : as a stone out of the foundation, that is scattered here and there as neglected : as a branch out of the vine, out of the root, what shape is in such a branch ? It will be cast into the fire afterwards. A man out of Christ, that is not clothed with him, that is not built on him, and settled on him, and planted in him, he is a man destitute. We pity such men's cases in the world ; but if we had spiritual eyes to look on these men, on profane civil wretches, that pride themselves in a little morality, and have scarce that perhaps, and neglect grace, and the mystery of Christ, such a man deserves pity. There is but a step between him and hell, if he be out of Christ, and Uve and die so ; and at the day of Christ he will account him so.
Oh ! saith St Paul, Philip, iii. 8, ' I account all dung and dross in compa- rison of Christ, not having my own righteousness, but to be found in him,' having the righteousness of God in Christ. 0 happy man in death, and at the day of judgment, that is found in Christ, and not in himself, not in his own righteousness ; though that there must be, not to give us title to heaven. The best thing is to be found in Christ, to have his righteousness and obedience. That is so excellent that St Paul accounted all ' dung and dross' in comparison of that, to be found in that. Get into Christ by all means ; for in him all the promises are ' yea and amen ; ' not out of him.
Use. If so be all the promises be ' yea and amen' in Christ, then here again see the stability of a Chi-istian's estate, that hath promises to uphold him. Compare it with a man that hath present things only, with an Esau that hath the things of this life, Heb. xii. 16. The men of this world, as the psalmist calls them, they have present things, they have performance ; he gives them their portion here, as he saith to Dives, ' Thou hadst thy good,' Luke xvi. 25 ; that which thou caredst for, thou hadst it here ; and Lazarus had pain, and miseiy, and poverty here. Now the case is altered : he is advanced, and thou art tormented.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 20. 897
A Christian, as a Christian, he hath a great many promises. Some of them are performed ; for God is delivering him, and comforting him, and protecting him, and speaking peace to his conscience ; but the greatest part are yet to be performed, the perfection of grace and glory to come. He is a child of the promise, a son of the promise, here is his estate. Another man hath present payment, and that is all he cares for ; he hath some- thing, and he swells in the conceit of that, that he is somebody. What is the difference ? what hath the one but a great deal of nothing ? what saith Solomon, that had tried all the world ? ' All is vanity and vexation of spirit,' Eccles. i. 2. All is uncertain, and we are uncertain in the use of them, if we have no better life than the life of nature. But the promises they are ' yea,' they are certain, they contain undoubted certain good things, that wall stick by us when all else will leave us.
A Christian, take him, and strip him in your thoughts from all the good things in the world, he is a happier man than the greatest monarch in the world out of Christ. Why ? He hath nothing but present things, with a great deal of addition of misery : and his greatness makes him more sen- sible of his miseiy. It makes him more tender and apprehensive than other men. The other he wants many comforts of this life, he wants the performance ; he is rich in bills and bonds. God is bound to him, he hath promised he ' will not forsake him,' Deut. iv. 81 ; but he will be his God in life, to death, and for everlasting. He hath title to all the promises, ' Godliness hath the promises of this life, and of that which is to come,' 1 Tim. iv. 8. Happy man ! he hath so much performance for the present, as is useful for his safe conduct to bring him to heaven ! He shall have daily bread : he that will give him a kingdom, will not deny him bread ; he that will give him a country, will give him safe conduct. And besides that he hath here by performance, he hath rich and precious promises, and they are all ' yea and amen,' they are certain.
His hfe is uncertain, his estate in the world is changeable here, his life is as a vapour ; and the comforts of life are less than life. "When life itself, the foundation of these comforts, is but a vapour, so uncertain, what are all the comforts of life ? jet a Christian hath comfort here, the promises are invested into him, and lodged in his heart, and made his own by fiiith. : Faith hath a wondrous peculiarising \drtue. It makes a man own that which is generally propounded in the gospel. Now faith making the promises his own, and they are certain. A Christian, take him at all un- certainties, he hath somewhat to build on, that is ' yea and amen,' that is undoubtedly constant and certain, that will stick by him when all thino-s fail him.