(2.) We shall also find comfort. Mephi-bosheth cried, " Let all go, seeing the king is come in peace; which was all that I desired/' When a man shall see, in the worst state and condition, that his great concernment is safe; that though all is lost, God, who is all, is not lost ; that this can never be taken from him ;— it fills his heart with delight. Is he in prosperity? he fears not the loss of that which he most values. Is he in adversity? yet he can walk with God still ; which is his all. He can therefore glory in tribulations, rejoice in afflictions ; — his treasure, his concernment is secure.
(3.) This alone will make us useful in our generation, and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. On this de- ponds all the glory we bring to God, and all the good we do to men.
Let us, then, make this our business, — aim at it; and, in the strength of Christ, we shall have peace in it.
Use 2. To humble us all, that we have spent so much of our time and days in and about things wherein we are indeed so little con- cerned, let us a little bring our ways and affairs to the balance of the sanctuary. One hath risen early, gone to bed late, and worn out
TOL. IX. 9
] 30 OF WALKING HUMBLY WITH GOD.
himself to increase knowledge and learning. What is it, when we have done ? — an engine in the hand of Satan to puff us up with pride and folly; a diversion from the knowledge of Christ, full of vexation of spirit. How many other things have entangled us ! What weight have we laid upon them ! How have we put a value upon that pro- fession, which hath been a shame rather than an honour to the gos- pel ! The Lord forgive us our folly, in spending ourselves in and about things wherein we are so little concerned ; and help us, that our mistake be not at last found out to be fatal ! Could we seriously take a view of our ways and time, and see how much of it we have spent in and about things that indeed will, in the issue, do us no good; it would certainly fill our souls with a great deal of shame and confusion.
Use 3. As to them who seem not at all to be concerned in this business, who never made it their design in their lives to walk with God in the way that hath been spoken to; let me tell such, —
(1.) It is more than probable that they may be apt to take advan- tage at what hath been spoken against empty professors and profes- sion ; to triumph in their thoughts against them all, and say, " Such, indeed, they are, and no better." If so, it is possible that this dis- course, through the just judgment of God, may tend to their farther hardening in their sin, — pride and folly. What is the Lord's intend- ment towards you, I know not. It is my duty to warn you of it. Some that are professors may fail of the mark of our high calling ; but you that are none, can never attain it: but take heed that this be not the issue of this dispensation of the word towards you. I had rather never speak more in this place, than speak any one word with an intention to give you an advantage against professors. If you take it, it will be your ruin.
(2.) Consider this, — if the righteous be scarcely saved, where will you, and such as you, bitter scoffers, neglecters of ordinances, haters of the power of godliness and the purity of religion, appear? You whose pride and folly, or whose formality, lukewarmness, and superstition, whose company and societ}'', whose ways and daily walking, proclaim you to be wholly strangers to this concernment of believers, — I say, what will be your lot and portion?
(3.) Consider how useless you are in this world. You bring no glory to God, but dishonour; and whereas by any outward acts you may suppose you do good sometimes to men, know that you do more hurt every day than you do good all your lives. How many are by you ensnared into hell! how many hardened! how many destroyed, by living in formality or profanenessl
PROVIDENTIAL CHANGES, ETC. 181
SERMON X.
PROVIDENTIAL CHANGES, AN ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSAL HOLINESS.
'• Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? " — 2 Pet. iii. 11.
That this second epistle was written unto the same persons to whom the former was directed, the apostle himself informs us, chap, iii. 1. Who they were to whom the first was directed, he declares fully, 1 Epist. i. 1, 2, " Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the stran- gers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia," &c.
" Strangers" are taken two ways: First, In a large, general, and spiritual sense. So all believers are said to be strangers and pilgrims in this world, because they are not of the world, but they look for another country, another city, another house, whose framer and builder is God. Secondly, In a proper, natural sense, for those who abide or dwell in a land that is not their own, wherein they have not right of inheritance with the natives and citizens of it. In this sense the patriarchs were strangers in the land of Canaan before it came to be the possession of their posterity; and the children of Israel were strangers four hundred years in the land of Egypt.