Thus far, then, may suffice to shew clearly with what dangerous views the worldly-minded men, whom _Solomon_ personates in the text before us, lay siege to your souls in fair speeches. What I have said, is enough to convince you, that their character is that of the beast, whom St. _John_, in the Revelations, “saw coming up from the sea (that is, the flagitious world) with seven heads.” And what shall we say of a man, a clergyman, who teaches, and is an advocate for their perverse doctrines? May we not, nay, must we not, for the glory of GOD, and your good, inform you, that he is a “Teacher and approver of worldly maxims.” May I not, nay, must I not, give you this caution with the royal preacher: “When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart?” But how different is the character I have given you, from the character of the persons to whom the text under consideration is spoken: that is, the character of all such, as, like you, are resolved never to rest, ’till they rest in CHRIST JESUS. To shew this, I shall now pass to my third point.
III. To what sort of persons does _Solomon_ in the character of a worldling address himself, when he says, “Be not righteous over-much, neither make thyself over-wise: why shouldst thou destroy thyself?” Not to the wicked, ’tis plain; for besides that it would have been an unnecessary precaution, he turns to these in the next verse with another kind of warning, which however has some analogy with this. “Be not over-much wicked, neither be thou foolish, why shouldst thou die before thy time?” Was it then to the righteous, in a common way; that is, to such as content themselves with the observance of the absolute essentials of GOD’s laws? Surely our adversaries will not allow this, unless they be of opinion, that to be righteous at all, is to be righteous over-much. And yet it cannot possibly be supposed that the persons spoken to, are men perfectly righteous; since, as I proved to you, in the introduction of this discourse, till we come up to the perfection of our heavenly father, we can never be righteous _enough_, much less _perfectly_ righteous: wherefore, as in this life, men cannot attain to the perfection of their heavenly father, it follows in course that the persons here spoken to, cannot be men perfectly righteous, there being no such men existing; for as St. _John_ saith, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Alas, O LORD, when shall we be delivered from the body of this death?
It remains, that the persons spoken to, in the text, are such only, as persisting stedfastly in a firm adherence to all the essential laws of GOD, content not themselves with the practice of common virtues in a common degree, but live in a perpetual habitude of desires, struggles, and yearnings towards an intimate union with CHRIST, the perfection of righteousness. They are not of the number of those righteous with indifference, who would fain blend the service of GOD and mammon, would fain have CHRIST and the world for their masters, and halting between two, like the children of _Israel_ of old, with their faces to heaven, and their hearts to the earth, are neither hot nor cold. Alas, would they were cold or hot! But “because they are luke-warm, and neither cold nor hot, the LORD shall spew them out of his mouth.”
Not so the persons spoken to in my text; not so you, O beloved in GOD, who having shaken off the world and worldly affections, to run the more swiftly after righteousness, hate your own lives for the sake of CHRIST. Happy, happy are all you, who put on our LORD JESUS, and with him the new man! “You are the true circumcision which worship GOD in spirit, and rejoice in CHRIST JESUS, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
What wonder then, christians? To you I speak, all ye lovers and strugglers after the perfect righteousness of your divine Master CHRIST; what wonder is it, that you should be charged with enthusiasm, with folly, with fanaticism and madness? Were not the apostles so before you, when they preached CHRIST JESUS? Nay were they not reputed drunk with wine? Can you be amazed at it in an age, “when all manner of vice abounds to a degree almost unheard of,” when the land is full of adulterers, and because of swearing the land mourneth. O how is the faithful city become an harlot! my heart within me is broken, because of the clergy, all my bones shake? I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome; because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness, perverted by this deluded clergyman.