*_Soaring professor!_ See to thy waxen wings betimes; they will melt with the heat of temptations. What a misery is it, to trade much, and break at length; and to have no stock, no foundation laid for eternity!
*_Gifted professor!_ Look there be not a worm at the root that will spoil all thy fine gourd, and make it die about thee, in a day of scorching: look over thy soul daily, and ask, Where is the blood of Christ to be seen upon it? Many eminent professors have come at length to cry out, _Undone, undone to all eternity_!
2. Consider the greatest sins may be hid under the greatest duties. See the wound that sin hath made in thy soul be perfectly cured by the _blood of Christ_; not skinned over with duties, humblings, enlargements. Apply what thou wilt besides the _blood of Christ_, it will poison the sore. Thou wilt find that sin was never mortified truly; nothing can kill it but the beholding _Christ’s righteousness_.
Nature can afford no balsam fit for the cure of a soul. Healing from _duty_, and not from Christ, is the most desperate disease. Poor ragged nature, with all its highest improvements, can never spin a garment fine enough to cover the soul’s nakedness. Nothing is fit for that use, but _Christ’s perfect righteousness_.
Whatsoever is of nature’s putting on, Satan will come and plunder it, and leave the soul naked and open to the wrath of God. All that nature can do will never make up the least dram of grace that can mortify sin, or look Christ in the face one day.
3. Thou goest on hearing, praying, and receiving, yet miserable mayst thou be. Look about thee; didst thou ever see Christ to this day in distinction from all other excellencies and righteousness in the world, and all of them falling before the majesty of his love and grace!
*If thou hast seen Christ truly, thou hast seen pure grace, pure righteousness, far exceeding all sin and misery. If thou hast seen Christ, thou wouldst not do a duty without him for ten thousand worlds. If ever thou sawest Christ, thou sawest him a _rock_, higher than Satan or sin; and this _rock_ doth follow thee, and there will be a continual dropping of honey and grace out of it to satisfy thee. Examine, if ever thou hast beheld Christ as _the only begotten of the Father_, full of grace and truth. Be _sure_ thou art come to Christ, that thou standest upon _the rock of ages_, hast answered to his call to _thy_ soul, hast closed with him for justification.
*4. Men _talk_ bravely of believing; but few _know_ it. Christ is the mystery of the scripture. Grace the mystery of Christ. Believing is the most wonderful thing in the world. Put any thing of thine own to it, and thou spoilest it; Christ will not so much as look at it for believing. When thou comest to Christ, thou must leave behind thee thy _own_ righteousness, and bring nothing but thy _sin_. (Oh that is hard!) Leave behind all thy holiness, and bring nothing but thy _wants_ and _miseries_, else Christ is not fit for thee, nor thou for Christ. Christ will be a pure Redeemer, and thou must be an _undone_ sinner, or Christ and thou will never agree. It’s the hardest thing in the world to take Christ _alone_ for righteousness: that’s to acknowledge him Christ. Join any thing to him of _thy own_, and thou _un-Christ’s_ him.
Whatever comes in when thou goest to God for acceptance, (besides Christ) call it _anti-christ_; bid it be gone; make only Christ’s righteousness triumphant; all besides that, is _Babylon_, which must fall if Christ stand; and thou shalt rejoice in the day of the fall thereof. Christ _alone_ did tread the wine-press, and there was none with him. If thou join any thing to Christ, Christ will trample upon it in fury and anger, and stain his raiment with the blood thereof. Thou thinkest it easy to _believe_: was ever thy faith tried with a thorough sight of sin? Was it ever put to grapple with Satan, and the wrath of God lying upon the conscience? When thou wast in the mouth of hell, then did God shew thee Christ a ransom? If then thou couldst say, _Oh I see grace enough in Christ_! Thou mayst say that which is the biggest word in the world, _thou believest_; but untried faith is uncertain faith.