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. Gos- pelless 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 brought out to be hanged."" 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 per-
s Rev. vi. 16. ^ Matt. xxii. 13. Luke xvi. 24. Mark ix. 43, 44. Isa. Ixvi. 24. ' Rev. iii. 17. ^ Josh. x. 18.
' Kgo propero ad inferos, ncc est ut aliquid pro me agas. Advocatus quidam moriens, apud. Bel. de arte luor. lib. 5. cap. 10.
UNCHAXGEABLE, FREE MERCY. 45
haps it is, that they are said to go to"" hell * like sheep ;' Psal. xlix. 14. very quietly, without dread, as a bird hasting to the snare, and not knowing that it is for his life; Prov. vii. 23. and there lie down in utter disappointment and sorrow for evermore.
4. Because all mercies are bitter judgments to men that want the gospel ; all fuel for hell ; aggravations of con- demnation ; 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 unsavoury 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 wick- edness,' Mai. iii. 15. but God will one day come in with an- other reckoning, and make them know, that all things with- out Christ, are but as cyphers without a figure, 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 Zim, and Ochim, dragons, and unclean beasts ; their prosperity is putting them into full pasture, that they may be fatted for the day of slaughter, the day of consumption decreed for all the bulls of Bashan ; the gospel bringing Christ, is the salt that makes all other things savoury.
Use 1. To shew 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, out- ward 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 monarchs, that when one of them had re-
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4G A VISIO.V OF
peated 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 enjoyments, we might easily bear down his windy, pompous train of titles with this one, which 'millies repetitumplacebit,' the gospel, the gospel. Upon all the other things you may put the in- scription in Daniel, ' mene, mene, tekel,' they are ' weighed in the balance, 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 fable had a thousand wiles to save himself from the hunters ; but the cat knew ' unum magnum,' ' one great thing' that would surely do it. Earthly supports and con- tentments are but a thousand failing wiles, which will all vanish in the time of need ; the gospel, and Christ in the gospel, is that ' unum magnum,' that ' unum necessarium,' which alone will stand us in any stead. In this, this island is as the mountain of the Lord, exalted above the mountains of the earth ; it is true, many other nations partake with us in the same blessing : not to advance our own enjoyments in some particulars wherein perhaps we might justly do it; but take all these nations with us, and what a molehill are we to the whole earth, overspread with Paganism, Mahomet- anism, Antichristianism, with innumerable foolish heresies? And what is England, that it should be amongst the choice branches of the vineyard, the top-boughs of the cedars of God?