' .Tolm xiv. 6.
5 .\>.\\i\ i. S-ri; Eph. iv. 18; John xv. r>; Matt. vii. 2G, 27; IMatt. xvi. IS.
^ Vs. iv. G.
UNCHANGEABLE, FEEE MERCY. 37
(3.) They want all the ordinances of God, — the joy of our hearts^ and comfort of our souls. Oh! the sweetness of a Sabbath! the heavenly raptures of prayer! — oh! the glorious communion of saints, which such men are deprived of! If they knew the value of the hidden pearl, and these things were to be purchased, what would such poor souls not part with for them ?
(4.) They will at last want heaven and salvation. They shall never come to the presence of God in glory, never inhabit a glorious man- sion;— they shall never behold Jesus Christ, but when they shall call for^ rocks and mountains to fall upon them, to hide them from his presence ; — they shall want light in utter darkness, want life under the second death, want^ refreshment in the midst of flames, want healing under gnawing of conscience, want grace continuing to blaspheme, want glory in full misery ; — and, which is the sum of all this, they shall want an end of all this ; for " their worm dieth not, neither is their fire quenched."
3. Because being in all this want, they know not that they want any thing, and so never make out for any supply. Laodicea knew much ; but yet because she knew not her wants,"* she had almost as good have known nothing. Gospelless men know not that they are blind, and seek not for eye-salve; they know not that they are dead, and seek not for life. Whatever they call for, not knowing their wants, is but like a man's crying for more weight to press him to death ; and therefore, when the Lord comes to any with the gospel, he is " found of them that sought him not, and made manifest to them that asked not after him," Rom. x. 20. This is a seal upon their misery, without God's free mercy, like the stone laid upon the mouth of the cave by Joshua, to keep in the five kings, until they might be brouo-ht out to be hansred.^ All that men do in the world is but seeking to supply their wants; — either their natural wants, that nature may be supplied; or their sinful wants, that their lusts may- be satisfied ; or their spiritual wants, that their souls may be saved. For the two first, men without the gospel lay out all their strength ; but of the last there is amongst them a deep" silence. Now this is all one as for men to cry out that their finger bleeds, whilst a sword is run through their hearts, and they perceive it not; — to desire a wart to be cured, whilst they have a plague-sore upon them. And hence perhaps it is that they are said to go to^ hell " like sheep," Ps. xlix. 14, — very quietly, without dread, as a bird hasting to the
• Ps. xlii. 1, 2, xxxiv. 1-4, &c. " Rev. vi. 16.
^ Matt. xxii. 13; Liike xvi. 24; Mark ix. 43, 44; Isa. Ixvi. 24. «Rev. iii. 17. sjosh. X. 18.
^ " Egopropero ad inferos, nee estut aliquid pro me agas." — Advocatus quidam moriens, apud Bel. de arte nior., lib. ii. cap. 10.
7 VlSO'5.
S8 A VISION OF
snare, and not knowing that it is for his life, Prov. vii. 23, — and there lie down in utter disappointment and sorrow for evennore.
4. Because all mercies are bitter judgments to men that want the gospel; — all fuel for hell, — aggravations of condemnation; — all cold drink to a man in a fever, pleasant at the entrance, but increasing its torments in the close ; — like the book in the Revelation, sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the belly. When God shall come to require his bread and wine, his flax and oil, peace and prosperity, liberty and victories of gospelless men, they will curse the day that ever they enjoyed them. So unspiritual are many men's minds, and so unsa- voury their judgments, that they reckon men's happiness by their possessions, and suppose the catalogue of their titles to be a roll of their felicities, calling the proud happy, and advancing in our conceits " them that work wickedness," Mai. iii. 15; but God will one day come in with another reckoning, and make them know that all things without Christ arc but as ciphers without a figaire, — of no value. In all their banquets, where Christ is not a guest, " their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the field of Gomorrah ; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter," Deut. xxxii. 32, 33 ; — their palaces, where Christ is not, are but habitations of ziim and ochim, dragons and unclean beasts ; — their prosperity is putting them into full pas- ture, tliat they may be fatted for the day of slaughter, the day of consumption decreed for all the bulls of Bashan. The gospel bi'ing- mg Christ, is the salt that makes all other things savour}".
Use 1. To show us the great privilege and pre-eminence which, by the free grace of God, many parts of this island do enjoy. To us that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death a great light is risen, to guide us into the ways of peace. Let others recount the glories, benefits, profits, outward blessings of this nation ; let us look only upon that which alone is valuable in itself, and makes other things so to be,— the gospel of Christ. It is reported of the heralds of our neighbour raonarchs, that when one of them had repeated the numerous titles of his master of Spain, the other often repeated, France, France, France ! intimating that the dominion which came under that one denomination would counterpoise the long catalogue of kingdoms and dukedoms wherewith the other flourished. Were we to contend with the grand seignior of the east about our enjoy- ments, we might easily bear down his windy, pompous train of titles with this one, — which " millies ropetitum placebit," — The gospel, the gospel ! U})on all the other things you may put the inscription in l)aniel, "Mcne, mene, tekel," — they are "weighed in the balances, and found wanting ;" but proclaim before those that enjoy the gospel, as Haman before Mordecai, " Lo, thus shall it be done to them whom the Lord will honour ■" The fox in the foble had a thousand wiles