THE TRUE SPRING OF Gospel Sight and Sense of SIN: JESUS CHRIST, AND Him Crucified.  
Evidenced by his Spirit in his Word.  
WITH TWO Funeral SERMONS, On the Death of Mr. JOHN bog, AND A Narrative of his Conversion.  
By Richard Davis of Rothwell.  
The Third Edition, Corrected and Enlarged, by the Author.  John vi. 40. 
Every one that Seeth the Son and Believeth on him, &c.  
LONDON: Printed for JOHN MARSHALL, at the Bible in Grace-church-Street.   

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.  
THis following Discourse I Avouch to be according to the true evangelic Spirit in the Point, whereof it treats, and so according to the Analogy of Faith; I am assured therefore according to that Rule of Charity, that hopeth all Things; All other the Author's Discourses must needs carry the same Analogy and Proportion with itself: I do not say, but in the pathoes and vehemency of pressing Truth upon a popular Auditory, There may be what they call 〈◇〉; an over weight on that side, whither the Torrent of Discourse runs: And hereunto the Speaker's Propension and bias of Thoughts most inclines. For what Serious and Intent persuader does not suffer the same Inequality of Propension? That excellent Writer 
* Mr. Daille.  of the Right use of the Fathers observes not only, but apologises the same thing for them; that in their warmths of Exhortation, they bent often the Stick to the contrary extreme. Now, God forbid, every Expression so straying, should be either interpnted unto Heresy, or uncharitably turned into an Accusation. Let this therefore more weighed Treaty of Things and Declaration of the Writer's judgement stand a Rule for Interpretation of all Popular Preachings. For herein, as more exactly weighed, and solemnly published; There is an Appeal to God, to his Churches, the Pastors, Teachers, and People, and even to the Rational World; and so as a kind so Oath; It ought to be an end of Strife; except some other Solemn and Avowed, Discourse either Preached or Published, Counter-balanc'd it.  
In this I observe nothing but what is manifested, as before God; so I cannot but hope to the Consciences of all who are Spiritual. And if any others will be ignorant, let them so be.  
It is my judgement, that in the stating the Order of Nature between Conviction of Sin, leading the Saints to the Sight of the need of Christ, as to the Order of it, and the Application to Christ. This Discourse grants too much to Conviction, of Sin, rather than too little, viz. That sight of Sin, need of Christ, must in Order of Nature needs be first. For why may not the need of Christ, and from thence a sight of Sin, rise as properly from those Grand Propositions of the Gospel, Christ died for all, viz.( Who Live and have their Lives given them.) Seeing from thence, it must needs be concluded, They were all Dead, as well as Sight of Sin, by and upon sense of our need of Christ, be from legal Convictions of Sin: For the Apostle so reasons, And why not as well argued, if Christ died, Righteousness cannot be by the Law; for then Christ must have Died in vain, on which plainly follows in the sense of Sin in just Order; As seeing Righteousness cannot be by a Condemning Law, therefore we must Run to a Dying Jesus, from the sight of that condemning Law first. These therefore are Co equal, Co ordinate; and sure if any have the pference, or Dignity, it is due to the Death of Christ, to be the Original, and to be in all these as the Pre eminent Source of Truth for the Divine Grace to produce in his Elect, sense of Sin, and deep Humiliation under it; we are all lost and undone in ourselves by a Holy Law Condemning for Sin; And God so loved the World, that whoever Believes shall not Perish, Christ died for the Chief of Sinners. necessary inserring. We are all in a perishing condition by reason of Sin. And God in the Varieties of his own Wisdom, makes use of the One, even as of the other, according to the Varieties of Subjects he hath to work upon and the various Dispensations of Truth, he Concredits to his Ministers, whom he makes the Instruments of Conversion; and to think to bind all to one Method, is to think to make weights, ourselves, for the Wind, to hold it in our Fist, to cause it to blow when, and whence we list.  
There is in Relation to the Author of this Discourse, great Thoughts of Heart, as well as Noises, concerning some unusual Impressions on his Hearers, called fits.  
But that which I think all Persons concerned about them should first inquire and satisfy themselves concerning it. What the success of his Ministry is in Turning Men from darkness to Light, from Satan to God Manifested in their Change, from a vain Debauched mere earthly, to a holy serious heavenly Conversation. For if this he really found in Conjunction with a preaching the Truth that is in Jesus, mat. xii. 24. Two Things from our Lord's Vindication of himself, and his Ministry, will follow to alloy this Doubt.  
1. That there can be no Argument taken from these Symptoms, As if God were displeased with a Ministry, to which he gives Testimony by that great and mighty Effect of Conversion and bringing home to himself. For this is the Work of God, giving Witness to the Ministry of his Servants; and such Ministry needs not Letters of Commendation to or from; for Converts are their Epistle, being the Epistle of Christ ministered by such his Servants; and then such Permissions of Satan are to be looked upon either as trials on his Servants, of their Faith, Patience, and Sincerity, or for their Humiliation and Self-Abasement, like the apostles Thorn in the Flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet him. And they are in judgement, and as a Snare upon them, who love not the Lord Jesus, nor his Gospel in Sincerity, while his own are more careful to Purify themselves, Watching and Praying, They may not fall into Temptation.  
2. There can be no Confederacy in such a Ministry with Satan's Kingdom; for then as our Lord argued, Satan must be divided against himself. And therefore a Caution lies here against imputing to Satan what is of God. For whatever holds out Christ high, and in his due Fxaltation, and is attended with bringing home Sinners to God, I look upon it as a very dangerous Approach to that Sin, to Impute it to Satan.  
There are other Things that are made Matters of scruple, and prejudice against the Ministry of the Author, of which I will not particularly speak, but give some general Intimations of Satisfaction, by laying down several Positions relating both to them and the approaching Kingdom of Christ, of general Truth, and seasonable to the Time and present Hour.  
1. That whereas we are now so Jealous of the Highest Preaching the Highest Largest Grace of the Redemption of Christ; least it should bring in Carnal Liberty, in this time of the apostasy, wherein that New Song of the Redemption of Christ, Rev. v. is so much lost; That very Redemption in its making us Kings and Priests to God, will be found to have all the Springs of Holiness in it; when that, as it were new Song, because so much lost, shall be Sung, learned by the 144000, and by them taught to the World itself; if that Doctrine of it be now truly preached and received, it can produce nothing but Holiness and Spirituality, in that Kingdom beginning to appear. So that there is no reason to be Offended at the aspiring to it now, by any of the Servants of Christ.  
2. That whereas it is thought, Miracles and Gifts of Healing among others, are quiter ceased, because of the Canon of Scripture settled; there is indeed only an Interruption by the coming of the apostasy, but that Power shall return with much greater Efficacy; we need neither therefore wonder so much if any such be vouchsafed, or on the other side, that it is not more High and Perfect, because the Time of the apostasy, is not expired.  
3. Although Churches congregated by agreement, if but of Two or Three, to ask any Thing in Christ's Name, be the best Constitution at this time of any, and founded on that Charter, mat. xviii. 19, 20. Yet such Churches are to take heed, they do not stand in the way of Christ's Kingdom, but give freedom to all Emotions of it by way of Redundance. For in his Kingdom all shall be moving to that Panegyris, that General Assembly and Church of the First Born. If any Flow therefore from any one of the Churches of Christ, Stream into another; seeing all should Work the Work of Christ, one even as the other; they should not be looked upon as breaking Churches, but as a gladsome Union and incorporation of the same Streams, and the same pure River, making glad the City of God.  
These Things I thought fit to Preface, for the removing Prejudice, and that a way might be prepared for the fullness of the Blessing of the Gospel, so far as ministered in this following Discourse. To which End are my humble and earnest Prayers.  
T. Beverley.   

BOOKS Written by the same AUTHOR.  
FAITH, the Grand Evidence of our Interest in Christ, or the Nature of Faith and Salvation, opened; from John vi. 40. And this is the Will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him, may have everlasting Life. The Third Edition Corrected, price bound 1 s.  
Select Hymns, Composed on several Subjects and on divers Occasions, in five Parts. The sixth Edition corrected and amended from former Errors: To which is added, a few by other Hands; Approved, Accepted and Sung in several Congregations in London and elsewhere, price bound 1 s.   

Where also may be had,  
The Gospel-Mystery of Sanctification, opened in sundry practical Directions, suited especially to the Case of those who Labour under the Grief and Power of Indwelling Sin. To which is added, a Sermon on Justification. by Walter Marshall, the fourth Edition Corrected.  
Christ a Christian's Life, or a Believer's Life derived from Christ, and Resolved into Christ, being the Substance of several Sermons. By JOHN GAMMON, price 1 s. 6 d.  
A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ, by Thomas Wilcocks.   

JESUS CHRIST, AND Him CRUCIFIED.  ZACHARY xii. 10. 
And I will pour upon the House of David, and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and Supplication; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born.  
THE Words I have principally in my Eye, are these. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, &c.  
Expositors say, In the first Clause, Christ is brought in speaking of himself, viz. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. In the second Clause, God is brought in by the Prophet, as speaking of his Son, viz. And they shall mourn for him. However, all agree, that Christ is intended by these little Pronouns( me and him.)  
In this Chapter there are many Prophetical Descriptions of the Glory to be revealed in Gospel-Days; especially of the fullness of that Glory towards the latter End of those Days.  
Among manifold Prophesies which have an Aspect on that Glory, this in Ver. 10, is one, viz. That there will be then, a Great and Plentiful Effusion of the Holy Ghost: This was partly accomplished at the Day of Pentecost: But it is yet to have a Greater Acomplishment towards the End of Times; which Glory the Souls of some of us earnestly long after.  
There are abundance of Promises in the Old and New Testament,( which I shall not now stand to mention) which contain this Great, and Glorious privilege the Saints shall have at last, viz. A Wonderful pouring down of the Holy Spirit upon them; even such,( if not greater) than was at the Day of Pentecost; and there are in my Text, three Great Effects mentioned thereof.  
1. The Spirit will be as a Spirit of Grace; whence it will follow, that all the Graces of the Spirit, shall be made vigorously to flourish in the Souls of the Godly then.  
2. He will be a Spirit of Supplication: A mighty Spirit of Prayer will come down upon the Godly then. The Godly will pray after such a rate and manner, that they themselves will be ashamed of their former Prayers. It will not then be a could, dry repeating over of some Petitions, and a dead Form of Confession, and acknowledgement, with a withered Formality of Praising; 
* Rom. ii. 11. 2 Cor. iii. 12. John xvi. 23, 24. 1 Tim. ii. 8. Jam. i. 6. Mark xi. 24.  but a lively vigorous asking, with great Freedom of Speech, in the Name of Jesus, without doubting or wavering; being so confident of receiving, in God's time and way, the things asked for to his Glory, as if already obtained; as also a sensible mourning for, loathing of, and acknowledgement of Sin, consistent with Joy and Peace in Believing, in exercise at the same Time; 
† Phil. iv. 6. Rev. v. 9, 11, 12, 13.  together with a lively, hearty, zealous sounding forth the Praises of the Glory of his Free Grace. I know such manner of Praying, or that that looks like it, stumbles the present Generation. But when the Spirit is poured down from on high, it will be otherwise then.  
This Observation I have made; that we may judge of a Man's Spirit, very much by his Prayer, and discern therein, whether he be then under the Teachings of the Spirit or no, whether he decays, or grows in his Soul; For a Man's Praying is very much the Pulse of his Soul. If a Man preys Spiritually, Evangelically, with holy and heavenly Boldness, through the Blood of Sprinkling, with great nearness to God, in Christ; you may conclude, that Soul is in a good Frame, and growing in Grace. But, if one preys coldly, formally, and legally, with a Multitude of well-ordered Sentences, or a number of vain Repetitions, forced out with a mere natural Vehemency: you may conclude, that Soul is in a poor, and withering Condition, has nothing of the Spirit of Prayer; and such a Praying will, one way or other, be to the spiritual Disadvantage of all the Godly that hear it. I have sometimes been so cast down when I have heard some Pray, that I could not be lively in my Spirit some time after: But this is certain, where there is a Spirit of Prayer, or Praising poured upon any, all the Godly that are present will more or less feel it. But then also upon the pouring down of the Spirit, there will be a greater frequency in Praying. Now a Man thinks himself a very strict Christian, if he preys but twice a day; keeping to his set-times of Morning and Evening. But then the Godly shall Pray many times a day. If People stint themselves to so many times, and not above it, it will be very prove to degenerate into Formality.  
Oh! that you that live in the midst of the Hurries and Vanities of London, would be often on your knees in your closerts, and they that have Families, in their Families too! and that whatever Concernment you meet about, you would begin with Prayer. Oh! that such a Spirit was poured down upon you! though it be far otherways now; I am persuaded e're long it will be thus with the Godly; when the Spirit is poured down from on high, they will be then for improving all Opportunities to go to the Throne of Grace; And when they have not Set-times for Prayer, yet their Hearts will be continually addressing themselves to the Father of Mercies in Christ Jesus.  
The third effect mentioned in my Text of such an Effusion of the Spirit is this; The Godly shall then see, more clearly, the Lord Jesus pierced by their Sins; They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and mourn over him, says the Text.  
Tho' Believers have at times now a sight of their Sin, wounding the Lord of Glory; yet then, they shall have a fuller, and a clearer view of their Iniquities, in their odious and loathsome nature, through the Glass of a Crucified Jesus. Oh then their Hearts will melt, and their loins will break with sighing for Sin, as beholded in this Glass! Oh! How will they mourn, and weep for, loathe, confess, and forsake every Transgression, when they behold them all meeting on the dying Jesus of Nazareth!  
The Doctrine I intend to handle, I found on this Third Effect, and those Words in the Verse that express it; and it is as followeth:  
Doct. The sight of our Sins, through the Glass of a Crucified Jesus, is the only through sight of Sin.  
This I shall prove from the Holy Scriptures of Truth; and I begin with that place; Acts ii. 37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their Heart, &c. The prophecy in the Words of my Text then began eminently to be accomplished. The Apostle and Disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost on that day of Pentecost; and the Apostle Peter( after his recovery from so great a Fall) being endowed with a mighty Power from on high, preached unto thee a mazed Multitude, a Sermon concerning a Crucified Jesus; which he sums up Ver. 36. in these Words, Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have Crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when 3000 of them heard this, they were pricked in the Heart. When they heard this: Heard what? That the Lord they had Crucified, was the Redeemer and Saviour. When they heard this, and were convinced of this; then did the Murder of the Lord Jesus appear in its dismal Colours; when they heard and were persuaded of this; that the same Jesus whom they had Crucified, died for their Sins, and was bruised for their Iniquities; oh then! they saw their Sin to be such a Monster, that it cut them to the Heart. One glosses thus upon the Place. They were pricked to their Heart, and Sin was pricked to the Heart too. The Heart's blood of their Sin was let out.  
It is evident from the Place, that their first Conviction was, that that Jesus they had Crucified was the Saviour; and that wounded them to the Heart; and then presently they were made to believe, he was their Saviour, and that made their Heart Wounds yet the deeper.  
Turn again to Esay vi. 5. Then said I, woe is me, I am undone, because I am a Man of unclean Lips, &c. But what is the matter? What made him of a sudden have such a fight of his own Vileness and Misery? red the following Words, and you shall know the Reason. For( says he) mine Eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. Whence it follows, that a view of the Lord Jesus in his Glory, gives the Soul to see it's own Pollution and Misery; Then said I( i.e. he beholded the King in his Glory, he cried out) woe is me! But this place of Scripture will still appear to be more pregnant to the purpose, if we weigh well, what it was to see the King in his Glory; and that also we shall find out by the Assistance of the Spirit, in the understanding of these following Things. 1. That this Chapter Prophetically treats of a Crucified Jesus, compare Ver. 1. with John xii. 41. and other Places. 2. From Ver. 1. it is plain; that his Glory was not only, that he was upon a Throne high and lifted up; but that also, his Train filled the Temple. 3. That his Train in the Original, and Margin of some of your Bibles signifies his Skirts, i.e. e. of his Garments: His Garments, and the Skirts of his Garments, in Scripture Phrase, set forth his Righteousness. This did the Garments of the High-Priest of old Testify: To this that Parable alludes of the Woman that had the Bloody-Issue; says she, If I may but touch the Hem of his Garment, &c. Which, no doubt, Spiritually unsterstood, signifies his Righteousness. So that this I infer from the Words; To have a sight, through Faith, of the Lord Jesus, in his Godlike Undertakings, is to have a sight of the King in his Glory; and such a sight by Faith, lets the poor Soul see its own Filthiness and Pollution.  
The third Place I bring for a Proof, is Job xlii. 5, 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear, but now mine Eye seeth thee; Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in Dust and Ashes. There is many a Soul that hears of Christ in the sound of the Gospel, with the hearing of the Ear, and that gives them not a true sight of themselves; but, when they come by a sight of him wounded, and bruised for them, to see Sin and themselves, then they are made to abhor their Sins, that lay so heavy upon their dying Lord.  
Having thus proved the Truth, I shall proceed to confirm, and illustrate it; and herein I shall follow this Method.  
First, I shall prove to you, that no Glass can render Sin so odious, and so exceeding sinful, as the Glass of a dying Jesus.  
Secondly, Make it plain to you, how Sin comes through a powerful discovery of the Redemption of Christ Jesus, to appear so loathsome and detestable.  
As to the first, there are but two Glasses besides this, through which Sin may be discovered. The first is the Glass of the Law, through which Sinners are made by the Light of Nature, to see Sin upon themselves. Secondly, The Glass of Divine Vengeance in Hell, through which the Damned can do nothing but see Sin upon themselves.  
I shall examine the first, viz. Sin seen in a state of Nature, by the Light of Nature, through the Glass of the Law. And here I grant, as the Apostle saith, 
* Rom. iii. 20.  That by the Law is the Knowledge of Sin; yet there is a vast difference between the Discovery of Sin by the same Law, in a state of Nature, and in a state of Grace; However, in a state of Nature, the Righteous Law of God, let in by the Light of Nature into the Conscience, will convince of Sin, as the Men of Nineveh were convinced, or Cain, or Judas, or Felix, by some stroke of the Spirit of Bondage. 
† Rom. ii. 14.  There are the Written Remains of the Law in every Man's Conscience, and their Conscience, by turns, accuses them, or excuses them, according as they do well or ill; and the outward Letter of the Law does improve those Written Remains, as God pleases; And when improved by common enlightening Gospel Notions, it oftentimes strikes deep into the Conscience, yet cannot then discover the root of Mischief within. This cannot be denied; that the Law gives to poor Souls, in a state of Nature, a sight of Sin; but yet thereby they do not see it in it's inward Malignancy, and what they do see of Sin, they only see it charged upon themselves, and not upon another. Now therefore Judge, O Sinner! what a dreadful sight of Sin this will be, to see it charged on thyself! What Condemnation must this needs bring thy poor Soul under? What horrors, and terrors must thou be filled with? And when no Spirit of Life and Grace comes in, How canst thou forsake that Sin, that still dogs thee, lays fast hold on thee, and drags thee away Captive? But there being no Renewing Grace and Power given; for a Sinner to see his Sin, there can be no changing, renewing sight by the Glass of the Law; again, except the Spirit of Bondage and Conviction come in also with the Light of Natural Conscience, it will be a short and dim sight of Sin, it cannot be but a trivial skin deep sight of Sin, even in a natural Man. What this Law of Nature may do, in subordination, and in subserviency to the Gospel, at the first coming of Grace, is not the Question at present; But I am now speaking of Convictions Natural, or General even by the Word of God, afore Grace comes, when the Soul is wholly under only the Law of natural Conscience; and this I shall prove, that mere Legal Convictions antecedent to Grace, do not give the Soul a through sight of Sin.  
1. The Light of Nature, or common Light is too weak and imperfect to take in the Law in its full extent, and Spirituality, Rom. vii. 9. How can they that are Deaf and Blind, in being dead in Trespasses and Sins, see or hear the full Demands of the Law they are under, or consider the Greatness of its Condemnation?  
2. This is plain from Experience; That every Soul that has no more than such mere Legal Convictions, satisfies Conscience under the greatest Convictions and horrors with its own doings, and seeks for Justification by the Works of the Law. Acts xvi. 29, 30. Now were the Soul thoroughly convinced of Sin, how greatly sin affronts Infinite Justice, asperses Infinite Holiness, defies Infinite Truth, and despises Infinite Sovereignty; it would never presume to think to make the least Reparation to Affronted Justice, and Injured Holiness, by any Repentings, Tears, or doings of its own. Could the Soul make a true estimate of Sin and Self, it would never offer its own Obedience and Sorrows at the Bar of God for Satisfaction. Rom. vii. 9. But when the Commandments came, Sin revived and I died. Compare with Phil. iii. 7, 8, 9.  
This is a most certain Rule; That whatever a Soul satisfies Conscience with; that's the Answer, that the Conscience gives to the Demands of the Righteous Law, and 'tis the Satisfaction it offers to injured Justice. If a Man satisfies his Conscience with the Death and Obedience of the Lord Jesus, by Faith received and applied: Then 'tis evident it offers the Righteousness of Christ to the Demands of Justice, and the Law. But if the Man quiets his raging Conscience with his Sorrows and Obedience, it is undeniably evident, that that Man attempts to satisfy Justice, and the Demands of the Law, with his own Sorrows,( though filled with Enmity against God,) and his imperfect and impure Obedience. And this is a common Experience found in all, awakened in a natural State; that then their greatest legal Convictions end in a Conscience-peace, merely acquired by the Deeds of the Law: And it is commonly discerned, a Soul convinced by the Law of Nature, or some general Light of Scripture, presently sets about doing; reforms, humbles himself, weeps, mourns, hears, preys; and if he can but still Conscience thereby, he sits down in great Hopes and Security, though not upon a good Bottom. Ah! poor Soul, didst thou but clearly know the Spirituality of the Law, and the odious Nature of Sin, thou wouldst not offer to bring thy Rags to an holy God, nor stand before him in thy Filth, and glory therein: And thy best Doings are no other in a polluted State. God has a Bar in the Sinner's Conscience; and the Justice of God there, by his righteous Law, does impeach. Thou hast sinned, O Sinner, saith the Law in the Conscience; whereupon the Conscience is pained: Whatever now removes this Pain of Conscience, is the Answer given to this Demand of the Law; and the Answer of Sinners is according to their Degrees of Nature's Light. Some grossly ignorant pled this: God is Merciful; not knowing this, that there is not a Drop of Mercy to be had out of Christ. Others add to their Plea, these Things; They are Christians, Protestants, were Baptized, are good Church-folks, devout at their Prayers, &c. whereas all Things without Christ are but empty Names. Others pled; They are not Drunkards, Extortioners, Swearers, Sabbath-breakers, as some of their Neighbours are; but that they have a good Heart, have a good Meaning, and Sober, Just, and pay every Man his own; and live peaceably among their Neighbours. 'Tis well done to do so. Morality is lovely in its Place; but not well done to Trust to these Doings, and set up Morality in the Room of the Blood of Christ. Others can pled their privileges, Profession, and Forms, and will be ready to flatter Conscience with such grounds of Hope as these. I am a Professor, hear the best Preaching and Preachers; nay, what's more, a Church-member also; I have eat and drunk in his Presence, and Prophesied in his Name, Mat. vii. 22. All this may be, and yet being ignorant of Christ's Righteousness, and refusing to submit thereunto; Christ may profess he knows you not.  
Whilst you satisfy Conscience with such Pleasure, you plainly seek to be justified by the Deeds of the Law; and so build upon a Quicksand, that unless you be moved to another Foundation, will swallow you down to the bottonles Pit.  
Suppose the Judge of Quick and Dead was present here, in his terrible Majesty, and put this aweful Question to each of you, as you sat upon your Benches. You have broken my Law, and offended my Justice; and my Justice must be vindicated, and my Law satisfied with a complete Satisfaction. Consider seriously what answer could your Consciences make to him; Suppose he said to one of you; Thou hast sinned, and thou must die; pled, Sinner, pled: Wherefore should not judgement be executed upon thee speedily? May be you would say, Truth Lord, I have offended; but spare me a little, and I will do somewhat to satisfy; I will pray, weep, mourn, reform, and endeavour to get a better and softer Heart. Truly 'tis thus, poor Souls, under mere general Convictions, are apt to deal with God.  
But suppose the aweful Judge should put the Question to another of you, that has been under Convictions of Sin, but now are secure again; Thou hast broken my Law, and art a Sinner, thou deservest eternal Damnation: Conscience, what Answer dost thou give? Ah Soul! perhaps this is all thy Conscience can pled; I have prayed, mourned, and repented; I am better than I was, and have a better Heart than before; nay, I have done this, and I have done that. But let me tell thee, this Plea will not do at God's Bar, when thou comest to stand naked there. This is not the Answer of a good Conscience. 
* 1 Pet. iii. 21.  The Answer of a good Conscience,( saith the Apostle Peter) is not pleading, That it has put away the Filth of the Flesh: But the Answer of a good Conscience is, from the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ah Soul! if thou hast nothing to pled but thine own Doings, thou wilt never stand in judgement, but will be condemned for ever; thou and thy Rags must be cast into Hell. I do not dehort you from good Works done from a right Principle, but warn you of the Danger of pleading them for your Justification. I tell thee, Sinner, the Judge would soon over-throw such Pleadings; and thus Answer: Ah, but Conscience, my Law demands perfect, complete, and universal Obedience. Have you given in such an Obedience; Here thou must stand mute, for none living can have the Impudence to pled that; and no Plea short of such an Obedience, either performed by ourselves, or by another for us, will do for Justification. But if you would reply, Lord, though not perfectly, yet I have sincerely obeied, and is not that sufficient to my Justification, and to obtain the Blessing for me. It would soon be answered: First, how do you know your Obedience is sincere? That Obedience has not a Dram of Sincerity in it, that puts in for Justification, and does usurp the Throne of the Righteousness of my Son. But suppose your Obedience were sincere; By what Law of mine can you pled for Degrees of Obedience to Justify? If you pled by any, it must be by some new Law of Mens setting up, and not by my good old Law. Have a care of being lead to an Idol Justification: If you lean on so sandy a Foundation, you shall fall into the Ditch.  
Yet again, what if you could perfectly obey for the time to come, what Satisfaction would you give for past Violations? Whereas the least Breach deserves whatever my infinite Justice can Inflict: If you will satisfy Justice yourself, you must go to Hell to satisfy; that's the Place of Payment, for them that will pay in their own Persons, and the Time of paying for them is no less than ETERNITY.  
But suppose again, O Sinner, the Judge should put the Question to the Believer that sits by thee. He would answer, Truly, Lord, I am by Nature involved in the Guilt of Adam's first Sin; I have broken thy Law; I am filthy and polluted: I have been Guilty of innumerable Evils in Thought, Word, and dead; Yet the Lord Jesus Christ has fully satisfied, and obeied the Law for Sinners, yea, for the chiefest of Sinners; and such am I; and why not then for me? Nay, says another Soul that is stronger in Faith; he has done it for me. However, the meanest Believer can pled thus in his Conscience; Truth, Lord, I am a Dog; yet the Dogs eat of the Crumbs that fall from their Master's Table; Mat. xv. 27. I am as vile, as vile can be, yet this is my Encouragement, That infinite Grace is infinitely freely offered to, and bestowed upon the vilest of Sinners; And why may not I take it, in the Strength of Christ? But I can say, I am strip'd of all Pleas from my own Repentance and Doings, yea, of all Pleas but this, viz. The Death and Obedience of the Son of God. I will stand and fall by what Christ hath done and suffered; and if the Satisfaction of Christ is not sufficient, I am satisfied to go to Hell.  
Pardon this Digression. But this was the Intent of it, to fortify the Truth I intended to advance: That a Sinner in a State of Nature, merely under legal Convictions, satisfies his Conscience with his own Doings, and seeks for Satisfaction by the Works of the Law. mere natural Conscience is wholly a Stranger to this Plea of the Believer, from the Death and Resurrection of Christ, and knows nothing of it: If he can attain to a little legal Humility and Reformation, he thinks it satisfaction enough. And the Reason is this, He has not a through sight of Sin by the Law: If he had, he would not dare bring his own dirty Doings, to pled for him for Deliverance and Acceptance.  
But e're I part with this Head, I shall leave the Remark behind. Would you know, whether your Convictions are saving? Take this Mark to know them by; if nothing will satisfy your convinced Conscience but an Interest in the Blood of Christ, and you say in your Hearts with the poor Woman, Mat. ix. 21. If I may but touch the Hem of his Garment, even his Righteousness, I shall be made whole; but not before; for all other Physicians are Physicians of no value: Then 'tis apparent your Convictions are very hopeful.  
Here is the great Difference between a mere natural Conviction, and those that are saving. The one awakened Person, takes up with any thing to satisfy his Conscience; appeases the Storm thereof by Prayer, a few Tears and Duties: 
* Isaiah lv. 1, 2. comp. Matth. v. 6.  But the other continues hungering and thirsting for the Righteousness the Lord Jesus has wrought out, and nothing short of that will quench his Thirst. Says the poor Soul, I will follow on after a bleeding Jesus; I will continue to lean by his Spirit, on his Death and Satisfaction, till I come to some wellgrounded Hopes and Assurance that I am washed in his Blood, and clothed with his Righteousness. What is the Reason that this Soul will be satisfied in no peace of Conscience, short of what accrues thereunto from the apprehended Righteousness of Christ? Answ. Because it has been so thoroughly convinced of its Sin and Misery, that it apprehends nothing will purge it, and cover it, nothing will deliver it from Wrath, and recommend it to the Father, but the God-like Righteousness of Christ Jesus our blessed Lord.  
Hence it follows, and from all that hath been spoken under this Head, That the Sinner in a State of Nature, merely thro' the Glass of the Law, has not a full and through Sight of Sin: So far, I mean, as either natural Light or common Grace hath the Management of the Law.  
Secondly, A Sight of Sin, merely thro' the Glass of the Law, is but a killing Sight of Sin, bringing in Condemnation. The Word of God calls it, a Killing Letter, 2 Cor. iii. 6. Who also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament, not of the Letter.( By which he means the Moral Law) but of the Spirit; for the Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth Life.  
Here the Apostle opposes the Dispensation of the Law, and that of the Gospel, and calls that of the Law, The killing Letter; so also he calls the Ministration of the Law, Ver. 7. The Ministration of Death; and, The Ministration of Condemnation, Ver. 9. opposing to it the Ministration of Righteousness, vid. which he calls, The Ministration of the Spirit, ver. 8. 'Tis farther evinced from Rom. vii. 9, 10. So that you may see a sight of Sin merely through the Glass of the Law, is a killing Sight of Sin, bringing the Soul under guilt, and condemnation.  
I might add, The Law makes no true, real, spiritual Change to Holiness and Obedience; that is wholly wrought by the Spirit, changing the Soul into that Image of Holiness; the Gospel, together with the Law, and by the Law, as written upon the Heart spiritually represents, and thereby changes into the same Image, from Glory to Glory, by the Lord, that Spirit.  
Before I proceed, suffer me to make a little Application of this.  
First, An Use of Examination to poor Sinners. Examine what sort of Peace of Conscience you have, and how you came by it. I do not know how any of you here in London, can be under any ignorant Security, where there is so much Preaching; enough, at least, to rouse up the Law in your Consciences: I scarce think, that any of you have lived, so long without Convictions in your Consciences. How camest thou, O Sinner! to be at Peace within now? And yet thou art, at this Moment, as much hanging over Hell, as if Hell Fire were roaring in thy Conscience. Hast thou not worn off Convictions of Sin, by some obedience of thine own? Hast thou not choked, and bribed thy Conscience by a few Sorrows, Tears, Prayers, and a little Reformation? And may be now thou art Two-fold more a Child of the Devil than before. He that still attempts to heal his Conscience these Ways, comes, at last, to have an hardened Conscience, and then he sins without control. This I affirm to thee, poor Sinner, thou never canst attain to true Peace in thy Bosom, till thou comest to the Glass of a Crucified Jesus, and beholdest thy Sin laid upon him. See, Oh! see by Faith, the Lamb of God groaning under the burden of thy Sin. Behold him charged with thy Sorrows, bearing thy Grief, smitten for thy Transgressions, and wounded for thine Iniquity. 
* Isaiah liii. 4, 5, 6.  Then thou wilt fee indeed, what a poisonous Hellish Thing Sin is, worse than the Devil himself. Wouldst thou see the damning Nature of Sin, and mourn aright over it? Let thy Faith take a Prospect what Sin did to the Son of God, i.e. e. because of the Sins of the Elect he was thus served. Sin brought him down from Heaven, into the Form of a Servant, and likewise of sinful Flesh, Sin stripped him of all; Sin wounded, smote, and bruised him; Sin made him cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Mat. xxvii 46. Sin brought him to death, and the Grave. And now tell me is not Sin an odious, horrid Thing, yea, exceeding sinful? and a worse Name cannot be given it than sinful Sin.  
Secondly, The Second Use is to poor Believers; and 'tis an Use of Caution, viz. That they diligently attend to the Voice of the Spirit, that Preaches up the Blood of Jesus in the Conscience, and not to the Voice of the Law, that thunders out there Death and Condemnation.  
There are Two Covenants in every Believer's Conscience, Mount Sinai, and Mount Zion; the one gendereth to Bondage, the other to Liberty, Gal. iv. 21. to the End. There are two Roots and Principles whence all their Actions spring, viz. Law and Gospel: And these two Principles are as two Preachers in the Soul; the one, the Law, the other, the Blessed Spirit the Comforter. The Law preaches up, Do for Life, Rom. x. 5. do in your own Strength, or in the Strength of what you have received. The Spirit preaches, Believe for Life, Rom. x. 9. Gal. iii. 11. Be strong in the Lord, and in the Power of his might, Ephes. vi. 10. Be strong within in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 Tim. ii. 1. Says the Law still in the Conscience; Do this, and do that for deliverance from Wrath, acceptance with God, and Peace of Conscience: Says the Spirit, Believe on the Lord Jesus for Eternal Life, and Acceptance; and Grace restend on will give Strength for all holy Performances. Now, O Believer! hear thou what the Spirit of God says; Believe continually on the Lord Jesus for Justification, and thereby derive Strength every Moment for the carrying on the Work of Sanctification.  
Again, under the Guilt of Sin; the Law, or the Old Covenant, thunders out in the Conscience Death, and Condemnation; and, as merely Law, drives away the Soul from the true Grace in Christ; and, by consequence, toward the Confines of Despair; and, as Men legally understand it, charges the Soul not to presume to look towards Pardoning Grace; but first smart deeply under the Anguish of its inward Wounds, make strong Vows, Resolutions, and reform, before it once offer to think of a Pardon. But the Spirit that ministers Righteousness, and Peace, softly, whispers: Look, O Guilty Soul! to a bleeding Jesus; make fresh Applications to the Blood of Sprinkling: First get a renewed Sight of thy Pardon, then thou wilt indeed weep, mourn, and detest Sin, and Self; and confess it, and forsake it over the Head of the Sacrifice. Though thou hast done very evil, yet return to a Crucified Jesus. Oh Soul! harken to what the Spirit says in thy Conscience, then shall thy Peace be as a River, with broad Streams, and thy Holiness shall flow like thy Peace too.  
Thirdly, There's a third Glass to see Sin in, and that's the Glass of Divine Vengeance in Hell, Rom. ix. 22. There is a Sight of Sin to be had, but a very dreadful one. The Damned in Hell have a great Sight of Sin indeed; but it is a damning, despairing, infuriating Sight of Sin; it's that that pains and torments, and stirs them up to all manner of Enmity and Blasphemies: Conviction of Sin there is their Torment and Despair; the more they see it, the more they are tormented and enraged. I would advice none of you to go there to obtain Convictions of Sin; whereas you may be convinced of Sin fully, and to purpose, in the Glass of a crucified Jesus. Yet I deny not, under Christ, it is good to understand Sin by the Wrath of Hell, according to Scripture.  
Having therefore dispatched the examination of the two former Glasses; I shall now proceed to examine the Nature of the Conviction of Sin through the Glass of a dying satisfying Jesus. And,  
First. There the Soul has a full Conviction of Sin. When a Soul comes to see its own Sin by Faith laid on a crucified Jesus, it is then made to see Sin indeed in it's odious and proper Colours; to be, as it is, exceeding sinful. This is the scope of the prophecy in my Text. When they shall see him whom their Sins have pierced, they shall not only mourn, but be in great bitterness. So the Three Thousand in the Acts, when they heard this, that it was Jesus they had Crucified, they were cut to the Heart. We are apt to have slight, and overly Thoughts of Sin; excepting when we are persuaded in our Conscience, how much the least sinful Thought of ours cost our dearest Jesus: Oh could we but see how greatly our least of Sins wounded him, and brought down the Floods of Divine Wrath on him! Now nothing could deliver us from that Hell, which the least vain Thought of ours deserves; but those heavy, and unspeakable Sufferings of the Son of God, to whom was wrung the Dregs of the Cup of Vengeance; it would not only make us watch over every thought with holy Jealousy; but abhor, and dread every evil Imagination of our Hearts. We can let Thousands of Thoughts pass through our Hearts without Examination, and Thousands of evil Thoughts, without the least regret of Conscience. But did we always look to a bleeding Jesus, sweeting out clodders of Blood, under the heavy burden of every Sin of ours; did we bring this and that, and a third vain and idle Thought to the Bloody Sacrifice; and see by Faith, at what an expensive Rate the Lord of Glory blotted them out, even by his own Blood and Death, it would give us a true estimate of Sin indeed. Thus you see, that in the Glass of a Crucified Jesus, the Soul, through Faith, may have a full Sight of Sin.  
Secondly, In this Glass, a Soul, by believing, has a saving Sight of Sin: You have heard, that in Hell they have a great Sight of Sin, but it is a damning Sight. The Law, in a state of Nature, does also give a Sight of Sin; but it is a condemning and tormenting Sight of Sin. 'Tis only a Sight of Sin in this Glass drives a Soul from Sin and Self, to lean upon and embrace the Lord Jesus and his Righteousness. This Sight of Sin does always attend saving Grace, and is inseparable from true Faith, as hath been already proved. In short, it is such a Sight of Sin, as the saved ones that are effectually called, only have.  
Thirdly, In this Glass, A Man has a Soul purifying Sight of Sin. Sin reigns most when it reigns in the Dark. Sin discovered to a Soul, in a right Way, is Sin dethroned; and nothing makes such a discovery of Sin to the Soul,( as hath been already proved) like the Blood of Jesus  shed in the Conscience. Sin also rightly mourned over, is Sin in mortifying; and nothing makes the Soul so kindly to mourn for Sin, as the Sight of him bleeding to death for Sin, whom Sin has pierced; as is evident from the Words of my Text. Again, Sin loathed and detested by the Soul, is Sin a dying in the Soul; and 'tis our Sin, as we see it on a Crucified Jesus,( and that in an Evangelical Manner,) we only rightly loathe and detest. This is the Manner and Nature of discovered Grace, powerfully manifested in the Conscience, as it is written, Ezek. xvi. 62, 63. And I will establish my Covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; that thou mayst remember, and be confounded, and never open thy Mouth any more, because of thy shane when I am pacified towards thee, for all that thou hast done saith the Lord. From which Words observe to the Point in hand;  
First, That God begins first to give his Grace to the Soul; I will establish my Covenant, &c.  
Secondly, That Grace seizing the Soul, spreads before it the Filth and rancour of its Rebellions, that thou mayst remember, &c.  
Thirdly, That a saving Sight of the Guilt thereof done away by the Blood of the Lamb, and God reconciled to us in his dying Son, is that that stirs up in the Soul a genuine shane for, and loathing of all its Iniquities. And never open thy Mouth any more because of thy shane, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done,( not only thy Unrighteousness, but thy best Righteousness in a natural State) saith the Lord.  
Thus it is made evident to you, that a Sight of our Sins, like pharaoh and his Host, drowned in the Red-Sea of the Blood of Jesus, will create in us an exceeding abhorrence of them all; and not only Sin, but Self too, the Vessel that contains Sin. A surfeited Person oftentimes not only loathes the Food that caused the Surfeit, but the Dish whereon the surfeiting Dainties were laid. Thus Sin and Self, notwithstanding Man's Self-righteousness being the Daggers that pierced the Lord of Glory; Will not you, O Sinners! hate the Daggers that killed the Glorious Saviour? Will not you, O Believers! loathe the Poison and the Dish wherein that was contained, that murdered your best of Friends, your Well beloved, who's altogether lovely? 'Twas your Sins put him to death, and will you not loathe and abhor Sin then?  
But in the next Place; The hearty acknowledgement, and Evangelical Confession of Sin, is the stabbing of Sin to the Heart. Thus saith the Lord, only aclowledge thine Iniquities, wherein thou hast transgressed, &c. And nothing will draw forth such real Confession of Sin, as the Sight of Sin pardonned, and done away in the Blood of Atonement. Thus the Prodigal, Luke xv. when he was convinced there was Bread enough in his Father's House, and to spare,( to wit) pardoning Grace enough in Christ; he was resolved to arise and make his Confession to his Father, Ver. 17, 18. But when his Father saw him a far off, with compassion ran, and fell on his Neck and kissed him, i.e. made him believe Pardon and Reconciliation in the Blood of his Son; he then breaks forth into an ingenious and filial Confession of Sin indeed; crying out, Father, I have sinned again Heaven, and in thy Sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son, &c. Ver. 20, 21. Hence it's plain, nothing will so melt down a proud and stubborn Heart, into a sweet Evangelical and humble acknowledgement of Sin; as the Discovery Faith makes of Jesus wounded for our Sins, and bruised for our Iniquities.  
Lastly, Nothing makes us so really forsake Sin, as to lay Sin upon and confess it over the Sacrifice, and the fiducial Reliance on Pardon and Mercy obtained thereby: 
* Prov. xxviii. 13. comp. with Lev. xvi. 21.  And God in causing Souls to believe, that their Sins and Iniquities he'll remember no more: 
† Heb. viii. 10. comp. with 12.  Writes the New Law of Grace and Holiness on the Hearts, which opposes and contradicts the Law of Sin which is in the Members.  
From what has been said under this Head, it undeniably follows, That a Sight of Sin in the Glass of a crucified Jesus, is a Soulpurifying Sight of Sin: And by the Thread of the Discourse hitherto, we are lead to this, viz.  
That there is no such Sight of Sin, as the Glass of a dying satisfying Saviour gives.  
The Reasons to confirm the Truth which I shall at present insist on, flow from the two general Heads.  
1. This Appears by Comparison.  
2. From the Law, inserting its Spirituality in the Conscience, through the Light of self-discovering Grace.  
I. From Comparison: Comparison is an excellent Way whereby to arrive at any Knowledge, especially the Knowledge of ourselves. Mr. Calvin in his Institutions, contends, That there can be no right Knowledge of Self, but by the Light of the Knowledge of God, And to be sure he means, God in Christ. His Reasons are, That the Perfections of God, are the righteous Rules to discover our Imperfections: Such is our Innate Pride, that we seem naturally Upright and Righteous to ourselves; unless we be convinced by manifest Arguments of our Injustice, Filthiness, Foily, and Impurity; whereof we cannot be convinced, if we look only to ourselves, and not to God: And because Hypocrisy and Self-flattery are so natural to Sinners; Therefore a vain show of Uprightness pleases them instead of Uprightness itself: And because there is nothing within them, nor about them, but what's horribly defiled; therefore they are taken with every Thing which seems to be removed but a little Degree of Pollution, even so long as they limit their Minds within the Bounds of human Corruption.  
He explains his Meaning by these apt Similitudes: If an Eye used only to black Colours, should fix upon Grey, it would judge it the whitest Colour in the World; but if it should see fine white Holland, and that set by the Grey, the Grey would appear to have little or no Whiteness.  
Thus on the contrary, Persons discovering Sin by the Law, through the Light of Nature, has some dim Sight of Sin's Filthiness: But when Sin appears compared with the Person and Righteousness of Christ, and the Love and Grace of God in him, it appears exceeding filthy indeed.  
Again, he uses this Comparison: When the Eye sees the Shining of the Sun on the Ground, and dwells upon it, then the Man concludes his Eye-sight very strong; but when he looks up to the Body of the Sun, with the same Eye, he then experiences the Weakness of his Sight.  
Thus when we go forth to the Performance of Duties, directed thereunto only by the Light of Nature; we are apt to conclude we have Strength enough to perform them: But when we come to see into the Spirituality of Duties in the Light of Reigning Grace, and the Righteousness of Christ, we then find our greatest Strength to obey, to be but mere Weakness. Most certain it is, that this Way of Comparison convinces a Soul most effectually of its Sinfulness and Misery. A Black-a-moor, compared with Black-a-moors, seems beautiful to itself; but set in the Company of Fair and beautiful Whites, he then may appear to himself and others to be swarthy and deformed. Thus Sin appearing in the Light of the Perfect and God-like Righteousness of Christ, standing nigh to discover it, does appear exceeding sinful indeed. Suppose a Country where People of all Degrees, Qualities, and Sexes, went clothed with nothing but tattered Rags, and saw no other; they would conclude the Rags the best Garments in the World, and none should persuade them to the contrary: But if they were brought into the Company of Princes, clothed with Gold and Purple, and rich Apparel; they would then see their Rags to be vile and loathsome; they would soon be ashamed of them, and ready to exchange them for those splendid Robes. Thus as long as poor Sinners are in a natural State, whilst their Eyes are with-held, that they can see no better than their own Righteousness; they think their own Righteousness to be very Glorious, and that it must needs be well-pleasing to God. But when the Spirit of Grace opens their Eyes to see the Excellency and Beauty of the Righteousness of Christ; they then cry out, 
* Isa. lxiv. 6.  That their own Righteousness is but as filthy Rags, and menstruous clothes: 
† Phil. iii. 7, 8.  And, what was gain to them before, they now count loss and dross, and Dogs Meat, in comparison of the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ and his Righteousness. In the like manner also, the Greatness of Man's Misery is discovered from the Greatness, Excellency, and Dignity of their Deliverer and Redeemer. Great must that Man's Captivity be, that a Potent-King with a Puissant Army must needs come to his Rescue? How deeply into Misery must the Elect by the Fall be sunk, when the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, must come down from Heaven to be their Redeemer! See Isa. lix. 16. to this Purpose. The Inexpressible Greatness of Fallen Man's Sinfulness and Misery, will be very manifest, if we consider these following Things, in Relation to the Redeemer and Works of Redemption.  
1. The Excellency and Dignity of his Person.  
2. His Endearedness and Nearness to those he undertook for.  
3. What was Done and suffered by Him in order to their Rescue.  
4. The Vileness and Meanness of them he has Redeemed.  
And that we might more fully discover the Nature of Sin and Misery; We shall consider the Dignity and Person of the Redeemer: He that suffered for, and redeemed from Sin, was the Great THEANTHROPOS, God and Man in One Person. The Glorious EMANUEL. God with us, Matth. i. 21. The Eternal Word that was with God; and was God made Flesh, and Tabernacled amongst us, John i. 1, 14. Who was of the Seed of David according to the Flesh, yet God over all, blessed for ever, Rom. ix. 5. Though the second Man, yet the Lord from Heaven, 1 Cor. xv. 47. And this Glorious Person was he in whom dwelled all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Coloss. ii. 9. And it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell, Coloss. i. 19. In Whom all the Treasures of Infinite Wisdom and Knowledge, Grace, Love, Mercy, and all other Eternal and Infinite Perfections are hide, and laid up, as in a certain Treasury, Col. ii. 3. He like Joseph is made Grand Lord-Treasurer of all his Father's Grace: Whose Person was the unfathomable Mystery of Godliness, even God manifested in the Flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. Through whom the Perfections of the blessed Godhead shine, Isa. vi. 1. The Glorious Temple, in which appears all the Train of Eternal Glory: Therefore the Image of the Invisible God, Col. i. 15. The Brightness or Illustration of his Father's Glory, Heb. i. 3. And the express Character of his Person, 2 Cor. iii 18. The Essential Glass through which the Glory of the Godhead shines: The great Foundation of the Father's Everlasting Counsels, and the Glorious Angel, or Messenger of the Eternal Covenant, Mal. iii. 1. and the Transaction thereof: The great Revealer of the Father's Heart and Bosom, Joh. i. 18. It was this excellent Man as subsisting in the second Person of the Trinity, that does exemplify all the Perfections of the Deity, 1 John v. 1. Hebrews i. 12. by whom all Worlds were made, and all Things created that are in Heaven, and in Earth, visible and invisible; whether they be Thrones or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers; all Things were created by him, and for him, Col. i. 16. Heb. i. 3. And 'tis he that upholdeth all Things by the Word of his Power, Col. xvii. By whom all Things consist, To whom all Power, and Authority, and judgement in Heaven and Earth is given, Matth. xxviii. 18. And all Things put into his Hands by the Father, John. xiii. 3. Who is head over all Principalities and Powers, Colos. ii. 10. The Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, Revel. xix. 16. The Prince of Life, the Lord of Glory, Acts iii. 15. 1 Cor. ii. 8. It was, I say, this Person of excellent Majesty and Dignity, That was made Sin for Sinners, before they could be made Righteous, 2 Cor. v. 21. That bare their Sins, 1 Pet. ii. 24. And the Curse due to Sin, before they could be delivered from the Curse of the Law, and saved from Wrath, Gal. iii. 12. How great then must the Malignity and Guilt of Sin be! when so Glorious, Excellent, so Holy an One, must be made Sin, or be a Sinner by Imputation; that we that are Sinners, might be accounted Righteous in him.  
2dly, And that you might, O Believers! enhance the more this Consideration, add thereunto the Thoughts of his Endearedness to you. It was not only this Glorious Person; but this lovely One, Psalm xlv. 2. Who is fairer than the Sons of Men. Who is altogether lovely, Cant. v. 16. Who is made up of nothing else but Love, Isa. lii. 14. That had his Visage more marred than any Man's. This He put away your Sins by, the Sacrifice of himself, Heb. i. 3. 'Tis he who has an Infinite Ocean of Love and Pity in his Heart towards poor Sinners; and an Infinite fullness of Grace in his Hand to bestow; and an Infinity of Grace poured on his Lips, Psalm xlv. 3. Whose Mouth is most sweet, Cant. v. 16. Whose Lips drop Honey and Wine,— 4, 11. Who hath purchased Gifts for the Rebellious, Psalm xlviii. 17. Whose Mercies are renewed every Morning, who waits to be gracious, Isa. xxx. 18. to rebellious Sinners, and rebellious Revolters: Who follows runagate Enemies and Deserters, with everlasting Arms to embrace them, and tenderest Bowels of pity to relieve them, and reduce them; as he followed Adam in the Garden flying away from him; Or as the streaming Rock in the Wilderness pursued close the Footsteps of the Israelites, when they turned back to Mount Horeb, or towards Egypt. It was this Person, I say, that was the rich Store-house of Grace, and Pity, that became a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Griefs, for thee, O Believer! who was wounded for thy Transgressions, and bruised for thine Iniquities, Isa. liii. 3. Then what a malignant, monstrous, and hellish a Thing Sin is? that cost the Fountain of Love, this Store-house of Grace, so many bitter Wounds, and painful Bruises.  
Again consider, his nearness to you in Relation, who was the great Sufferer for you; And what an astonishing Royal Favour is this, that the King and Judge should suffer Punishment for the Criminal at the Bar?  
He also styleth himself your Friend. Thus he saith, John xv. 15. Henceforth I call you not Servants, for the Servant knoweth not what his Lord doth; but I have called you Friends, &c. And what Love of Friendship was there, that so great, so inestimable a Friend, should lay down his Life for those that were Enemies to him?  
In the next Place consider, he was your Brother, that endured those bitter Things for you; so it is written of him, Heb. ii. 13. For which Cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren. Thus again, Math. ii. 10. Jesus bad the two Maryes go tell his Brethren, and Peter, that they should go into Galilee, and there they should see him. Observe this wonder of Mercies, that the first Term he should give to those that deserted him, in his greatest Extremity, should be that of Brethren. And Oh! be amazed at this Love, that your eldest Brother should die, to deliver you from Hell and Death! Ah! How much did your Sins cost your dear eldest Brother?  
Lastly, He was your Husband, that redeemed you to be his Bride, at such a dear Rate. And Oh! will it not melt thy Heart, that thy Beloved should bear such stripes, and blows from Divine Justice for thee! How must it needs make thee loathe thy Sins, that acted such a dismal Tragedy, upon so great and dear a Relation?  
And, Thirdly, That you might see Sin more odious, and the inexpressible greatness of your Misery by Nature; consider the greatness of your Deliverance. The Ransom he paid to redeem, was exceeding great. The Power he is armed with to rescue, is infinitely great. His Intercession that crowns all, is all-sufficient, and all prevailing. His Sufferings that went into his Ransom were inestimably great in themselves. Consider but the Sufferings of his Body, and they were the greatest could be thought on. He was a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Grief. His Visage was marred more than any Man's, Isa. liii. 3. He gave his Back to the Smiters, and his Cheeks to them that plucked off the Hair; he hide not his Face from shane and spitting, Isa. l. 6. He was betrayed by his Follower with a treacherous Kiss; seized on, as a murderer, by Men armed with Swords and Staves. He was most inhumanly scoffed at, and insulted over with bitter Taunts and scissors. He was most cruelly, and most bloodily scourged, taken to Prison, from Prison to judgement, and from thence to Execution; wherein he endured the most vile, cursed and painful Death of the across. And he that thought it no Robbery to be equal with God, became obedient to the Death, even to the Death of the across, 1 Phil. ii. 6. Lay this to heart, O Believer! that thy Face being impudent in sinning, made his Face be so marred and bruised. Thine Eyes being so satiated with beholding Vanity, made his Eyes so glutted with beholding cruelty acted on himself. Thine Ears being so accustomend to sinful Speeches, made his Ears be dug so deep. Thy Throat being an open Sepulchre of all Wickedness, made his Throat so dry with crying out, Psal. xl. 6. Thy Back being so loaded with the Burden of Sin, made his Back be all over torn with dismal Stripes. Thy Flesh being the Servant of Sin, made his Flesh be so nailed and pierced; tell me, whilst thou considerest this in Faith, whether thou canst, in the least, relish Sin? Add unto this, the Consideration of the Sufferings of his Soul. His Soul being exceeding heavy, and fore amazed with dreadful Consternation; proclaimeth Sin to be a dreadful Weight indeed! Mark xiv. 43. His Soul being surrounded with most dismal Sorrows, even unto Death, shows what a heavy Burden thy Sins are, Math. xxvi. 38. His Praying, That if it were possible the Cup of Vengeance might pass from him, Mark xiv. 35. and his conflicting Agonies with Cataracts of Divine Wrath poured forth plentifully upon his Soul; till it made him Sweat Clodders of Blood; sufficiently testify how hot the Wrath of God burned against Sin, when thus it flamed so vehemently against his Beloved Son, that never offended him; only for imputed Sin. His crying out, under a great desertion, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? doth abundantly witness how much the holy Nature of God loatheth Sin, and what an infinite separation it createth between God and the Soul. Over and above all this; these Sufferings being the Sufferings of God-man; and therefore of an infinite, eternal and unchangeable Value, Virtue, and Dignity, do plainly evince this, that Sin hath highly offended God. If we join to this that the Person suffering being endued with an omnipotency of Power, backing all with a never-failing Intercession; does declare Man's Misery as well as Sinfulness, to be exceeding great and deplorable. Thus I have dispatched that Head, viz. The Greatness of that Ransom he laid down: And pass to the last Consideration, viz. To aggravate Man's Sin and Misery; From  
4. The meanness and Vileness of the Persons he redeemed. Therefore,  
Lastly consider; that this glorious Person endured all this for the foolish, base, vile, and contemptible Things of the World, whom the World terms and esteems the off scouring of all Things; and not for the high, wise, rich, and noble Men of the World; that so no Flesh might glory in his Presence, 1 Cor. v. 26, 27, 28, 29. Besides this, It was for Sinners, and the greatest of Sinners too, and considered as such, that he endured the across, despised the shane: It was for a persecuting, blaspheming Paul; for a Mary Magdalene; for notorious Sinners, that he bore all the Weight of Vengeance: He accepted of, and undertook for, rejoiced over, and satisfied for the whole Elect, considered in the corrupt Mass, and sunk into the deepest and vilest apostasy, Rom. v 6. For when we were without Strength, in due time Christ died for the Ungodly. Verse 8. But God commended his Love to us, in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us. Our Lord Jesus viewed us, and considered us in the Height of our Wickedness and Rebellion, when his Love over-swelled all Banks, to cause him to make his Soul an Offering for our Sin.  
Now lay all these Considerations together, and through the Prospective-Glass of Faith, take a View how much they heighten and greaten the Sinfulness and Misery of Fallen Man, and that by Comparison. If a King's only Son should disrobe himself of all Glory, and forsake the Delights and Honours of his Father's Presence and Palace, and further, dress himself in Rags to accompany a tattered perishing Beggar in a nasty Cottage; and not only so, but voluntarily give his Flesh to be torn off by hot Pincers, that he might not only save a Wretch from Exquisite Torments, but that also she might be washed, made clean, and richly appareled and brought to his Bed and Throne. One might easily conclude the Greatness of the Love of this Royal Prince to her. So also infer the Greatness of the Offence and Misery; when no less would serve to rescue her from deserved Punishment, than the cruel Tortures inflicted upon so innocent and glorious a Prince. After the same manner we may argue, how greatly did Jesus love indeed! And how unspeakably Great was our Rebellion and Misery, that nothing else could Redeem us but the Blood and Death of the Son of God; that left his Father's Bosom and Glory; was made in the Form of a Servant, and of no Reputation; who humbled himself to the Death of the across, Phil. ii. 7, 1. For such filthy Rebels as we, that lay upon the Dunghill of polluted Nature, cast out there in our Blood in the open Field, to our shane, and the loathing of our Persons! Ezek. xvi. 5. Let me tell thee, Poor Soul, if thou wouldst see what a wretched, vile, polluted Creature thou art; Go, and see by Faith, the Son of God bleeding to Death for thee. Consider, Poor Soul, that the Lord of Heaven must leave his Father's Bosom to dwell in Flesh, and make his Soul an Offering for Sin, to snatch thee from Misery. How inexpressibly great must thy Misery then be, That the Son of God in our Nature,( who was equal with his Father, in Power and Glory) should conquer Death for us! This doth plainly show, what a Death we in the Fall of Adam had incurred! Sinners, would you see the Greatness of your Misery? Behold the Greatness of your Redemption! Would you search out the horrid Nature of Sin? Oh search narrowly how much your Sins cost the dearest Jesus! Would you understand how an Infinite God Resenteth Sin? Behold him wounding his innocent Son( that never offended him;) only for Imputed Sin!  
If you would understand how much Sin affronted his Justice, Government, and Authority. See, Oh see! the Flaming Sword of Justice sheathed in the Bowels of his Shepherd, even the Man that was God's Fellow! Zech. xiii. 7.  
And if you would know how much his Infinite Holiness is set against Sin, Take a View by Faith, how much he vindicated his own wronged Holiness from the Aspersions of our Iniquities upon his Dearest Son: He would not bait him any thing, but lest him to contest with his fiercest Vengeance, that he might be honoured, Sin atoned for, and the Sinner saved. Perhaps you may make nothing of many Thousands of sinful Thoughts, but no less Blood than the Blood of the Son of God can wash away the least Sin of a Thought. 4. Come and sit down with Astonishment in viewing this unfathomable Love and Mercy, that the Son of God should so stand under the Weight of his Father's Justice, to purchase to himself a filthy, vile, deformed Bride, to take her into his Arms, and set her upon his Throne! This sheweth, that the Sin of Unbelief that Affronts so much Love, is worse than Hell; because it makes all this Love to be nothing. Oh, the Sorrows that drank up his Spirits! And he bore them all for our Sins, and yet can we have slighty Thoughts of Sin? Can you pass over Sin without loathing and detesting it; Can you give covetous and ambitious Thoughts, and Thoughts of Pleasure, a quiet lodging in your Breasts? Can you roll sinful Words with delight under your Tongues, and rush without Regret upon ungodly Actions, when you thus behold them meeting upon a suffering Saviour, acting the greatest cruelty upon his wounded and tormented Soul and Body? O Believers! Can you be pleased with those heavy clogs and Weights that prest your Beloved to Death? And can you have favourable Thoughts of that Dagger that stabs him now to the Heart, the cursed Sin of Unbelief? I mean, that Sin of Sins, that spits in the Face of all his Love, that despiseth and nullifies all his Sufferings; and with scorn and contempt treads under foot a bleeding Jesus. Yea, to sum up all, that is the great Floodgate that lets in all other Iniquities; and though Believers are guilty of Thousands of Acts of Unbelief every Day, yet it is strange to observe how little sensible they are thereof: Many have not the least aching of Heart about it all the Day long; nor do they think it worth their Notice and Observation. You may hear many of their Prayers filled with plausible Confessions, and yet scarce ever hear this Sin confessed and acknowledged at all; though this Sin cost the Lord Jesus more dear than any; because they believe not on him, which is Crucifying him afresh.  
2dly, Sinners arrive at a through Sight of Sin, through the Glass of a crucified Jesus; because Faith apprehending him, renders the Law more spiritual in the Conscience, i.e. e. makes the Conscience apprehended it more spiritually than ever it did before. I do not say, that the Law doth not at all convince of vile Affections in a natural State; for it is evident to the contrary: Yet this I can venture to Affirm, that the Law brings it upon the Conscience in a far more full Extent and Spirituality after Grace comes, than before; so that through Faith the Law is not only established, but appears more spiritual in the Soul.  
In clearing of this weighty Point, I shall first show, That the Law doth not afore Faith, let in a Light sufficient for a through Conviction. And,  
2dly, That at the first regenerating work of the Spirit, the Law lets in a sufficient Light for a through Conviction of Sin. And,  
3dly, Demonstrate, That this through Conviction of Sin and Misery, by the Law exerting greater Spirituality through the Sight of Reigning Grace, intervenes in order of Nature, between the infused Principle of Faith, and the Act of Faith flowing from thence, or between Faith eyeing Christ, or Faith coming to Christ.  
I shall begin with the First, viz. The Law doth not let in a through Conviction of Sin before Faith. This hath been handled particularly already; I shall now discover it more Argumentatively from Scripture and Experience, yet with brevity.  
Arg. 1. It is impossible for a Man Spiritually blind to see himself as he ought. The Scripture calls Men in a state of Nature, Spiritually blind, Matth. xxiii. Luke xiv. 21. Therefore until the Moment their State is changed by Grace,( notwithstanding the Remainders of natural Light, and Law in the Conscience) a Sinner must needs continue very blind, as to the Things of God, and his own miserable Condition.  
Arg. 2. As a dead Corps cannot see nor feel, what case it is in, though in the midst of raging Flames; or under the Weight of a House oppressing it with its Ruins. So one that is Dead in Sin, cannot see nor feel the Weight of its Sinfulness and Misery, until that Moment it is made alive in Christ. And the Scriptures Affirm, that Men in a natural State, are dead in Trespasses and Sins, Ephes. ii. 1. &c. till reigning Grace in their actual Union to Christ, makes them to live: Therefore there can be no through Sight of Sin and Self in the Soul, till reigning Grace first takes hold of the Soul.  
Arg. 3. Sinners in a State of Nature are represented as spiritually Deaf, Luke xiv. so that they cannot hear the full Voice of the Law, no more than the Gospel. 'Tis but little that the Ears of the Soul perceive in a natural State, of the Thunder, Tempest, and Lightning of Mount Sinai. Could a Soul in an unregenerate State, take in the full Voice of the Law, it would immediately be sunk into Despair. Unregenerate Souls( while so) are kept under the prevailing Power of natural Unbelief, as well as filled with a total Enmity to supernatural Faith. They do not fully and constantly believe the Commands and Threats of the Law that they are under and in bondage unto; which if they did do, they durst as well meddle with burning Coals, as with immoral Evil against the Ten Commands. And also without a Discovery of the Remedy,( which the Law doth not) they would soon sink into the bottonles Pit of Despair, not being able to bear the Weight of the Law's condemnation: So that there is in corrupt Nature, a prevalent Disbelieving of, and not hearkening to the Exaction and Condemnation of the Law in the Conscience that they are married unto, Rom. vii. 1, 2. Hence it is, that it is impossible for the Soul in the State of Corruption, to arrive to the Conviction of Sin, as shall make it totally despair of its Self.  
Arg. 4. The Light of Nature is dim and faint, without being assisted and enlarged by a supernatural Light, to let in the Perfection of the Law upon the Conscience. The Cranny is too small to let in the full brightness of that Sun. There is no proportion at all between the Object, and the visive Power and Faculty; and where that is wanting, the object cannot be received and converted within the fullness thereof: Besides, this Light is diminished by Custom and continuance in Sinning. Through their vain Imaginations, their foolish Hearts are full of Darkness, when they professed themselves to become Wise, they became Fools, Rom. xxi. 22. And it is withal in a natural State, as the Apostle Paul declares it was with the unconverted Gentiles. They walk in the Vanity of their Minds, having their Thoughts darkened, and being strangers to the Life of God, through the Ignorance that is in them, because of the Hardness of their Heart, Ephes. iv. 17, 18. The Apostle Paul had but a dim Sight of the Law before Conversion, when he then concluded, That touching the Righteousness of the Law, he was blameless: And at the same time he was not better than his Brethren the Pharisees, who were like whited Sepulcres, within full of Rottenness and dead Men's Bones. So that it's plain, that the Light of Nature, yea though assisted too by that that's called common Grace, is too dim a Candle to give Light unto the Extent of the Spirituality of the Law of God. Hence it undeniably follows, That the greatest Conviction of Sin by the Law, will not in the least necessitate or drive a Soul from Self to Christ and his Righteousness, one Moment afore there is a saving Discovery made of a Crucified Christ to the Soul.  
Arg. 5. To this the Experiences of Saints give in their joint concurrent Suffrages. This they can experience concerning all Sinners that they are acquainted with: That the strongest Convictions in them have ended either in a little Reformation; or else( if the Conscience could be mastered) in a worse Debauchery; so far have they been from necessitating of them to fly to Christ. This also they experienced in themselves before Conversion; for though many of them have had great and strong Convictions for Sin; yet they never sought out after Christ and his Righteousness, till Christ sought them first, that sought him not: But they only sought to pacify their Consciences by their Reformation and better Obedience, and went no further than Self for Healing, Hos. v. 13. When Ephraim saw his Sickness and Judah his wound; then went Ephraim unto Ashur and sent to King Jareb; yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your Wound. Thus poor Sinners, when they see their Sickness in a natural State, go to their own Works,( which are Physicians of no Value) for Cure; though their own Righteousness cannot possibly heal them. From all this 'tis abundantly manifest, that the greatest Convictions of the Law in a State of Nature, cannot in the least move or incline a Soul towards Christ, nor in the least prepare or fit a Soul for the Reception of Christ. But,  
2dly, I shall demonstrate, That at the first coming of Supernatural Grace, the Law itself in the Conscience discovers Sin to the Soul after another Manner than afore. I shall make it good from Scripture, Reason, and Experience.  
First, From positive Places of Scripture, Rom. vii. the Apostle describes the Effects of the Law upon the Conscience, both before and after Conversion. How the Law operates in the Conscience before Conversion, is declared in the Beginning of the Chapter, and how after Conversion, in the latter Part of the Chapter. And it appears, that before Conversion it comes not in with the Spirituality. The Apostle himself is an Instance: He understood the Law, lived upon it as well as any Man; and yet in his natural state, he did conclude, That as touching the Righteousness of the Law, he was blameless, Philip. iii. 6. But when his Eyes were opened by Grace, he judged now otherwise concerning the Law, and himself as coming up to it, so that he cried out, Rom. vii. 24. O wretched Man that I am! who shall deliver me from this Body of Death? Likewise, Verse 24. he declares That he and other Believers saw now more into the Law, than they did before Believing. Thus he says; For we know that the Law is Spiritual, &c. To me there appears an Emphasis to be in the Word We; For( we) know, i.e. We that believe know, that the Law is spiritual. To be sure none does so discern the Spirituality of the Law, as Believers do. Thus again, our blessed Master Jesus expounds the Law above what the great Lawyers of that Day did, Mat. 5, 6, and 7th Chapters: It appears, that they with all their Studying and Improving of their natural Light, went but little further than the Letter thereof: But Christ expounded it Spiritually, and always makes a Contradiction between their Expositions and his. He spake thus concerning their Expositors and Preachers, both modern and ancient, Matth. v. 21. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, you shall not kill; and whosoever kills, shall be in danger of the judgement. This he more Spiritually and more fully explains in his Exposition, Verse 22. But I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his Brother, without cause, shall be in danger of the judgement; and whosoever shall say to his Brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, thou Fool, shall be in danger of Hell Fire. Thus 27, 28 Verses; compare also 31, 32. again 33, and 34, with 43, 44. He Prefaces his Spiritual Exposition of the Law, with these Words; But, I say unto you: Which is very remarkable, and to me clearly intimates thus much; That it is the Gospel discovers the Law to Fallen Man, in its full Extent and Spirituality, when the Grace of the Gospel seizes the Soul; then the Law itself appears more Spiritual, and in a larger Extent to the Conscience. I shall add thereto some Arguments to confirm the Truth.  
There is a two-fold increase of Light in reference to the Law, at the coming of Grace to the Soul.  

1. An increase of an Objective Light.  
2.— Of a Subjective Light.   
1. The Gospel which declares and reveals the Righteousness of Christ,( which was the answering the Demands of the Law in his active and passive Obedience) to be so perfect, so full and complete; does thereby declare and reveal, how high, great, and perfect the Demands of the Law are. The Length and Breadth of Christ's Righteousness, do sufficiently evince the Perfections of the Commandment: None but he by his complete Obedience thereto, and suffering the Penalty thereof, could magnify the Law, and make it honourable, Isa. xlii. 21. His suffering so great a Death to satisfy its Penalty, and his paying so complete an Obedience to honour its Exaction, did more glorify the Purity and Perfection of God's Law, than if Adam and all his Race had stood and obeied it always. And when the Spirit of Grace through the Righteousness of Christ comes to make out this to the Conscience in working saving Faith; that Conscience is made to see more clearly into the Spirituality and Extent of it than afore. And thus as the Apostle says, Rom. iii. ult. We through Faith do not make voided the Law, but establish it; So that when Grace comes to reign through the Righteousness of Christ upon the Conscience, there is an increase made of Objective Light in reference to the Law.  
2. There's an Improvement of our Subjective Light.  
1. There is the Light of Nature improved highly.  
2. There shines also in the Soul a supernatural Light, and both these give Light to the Law as well as to Grace, and discover the Disease as well as the Remedy. There's an improvement of natural Light, in the Illumination of the Spirit, though common: This is intimated in Heb. vi. 4. But this supernatural Light is described to be the Eyes of the Understanding, being enlightened by the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of him, Ephes. xvii. 18. So that every one that does Evil, and is in a natural State hateth the Light, neither cometh to the Light,( as appears by the Context) that is as it flashes into natural Conscience, for Christ giveth the supernatural Light objectively. And he is the Giver of it subjectively. And if he gives it but by awakening natural Conscience by his Gospel, Men fly from it, least their Deeds should be reproved, or discovered, John iii. 20. Whence observe, there is no true Discovery of Sin, till we come under Christ's Illumination; for he is the True Light: For in him we have Life, if we have it, and even he is the Light of Men in natural Conscience, Lightning every Man that comes into the World.  
Secondly, This will yet be more manifest by Experience: And Believers if they carefully attend to the Motions of their Souls, may observe these Things.  
1. They that are Conversant with themselves, can tell you, That there was a Time, when the greatest Conviction of Sin set them upon the Satisfying the Law by their own Obedience; but they were afterward on a sudden made to see, that their own Obedience would not do, but that they must look out to the Righteousness of another; and whence it arose, Men saw not this? It was from a slight Esteem they had of the Demands of the Law: But since the coming of Grace, they were made to have such an honourable Esteem of the Law, and its Demands; that they are looking for a better Obedience than their own to pay to it by way of Satisfaction. Again,  
They can experience this also: That there was a Time when they healed their Conscience with a little Reformation: But now the Sense of their Sin and Misery is so abounding, that unless they have a great Faith wrought in them at first, and great Sealings from the Holy Spirit; their Wounds are kept continually bleeding, though not without Hopes. Ask them what they all; they will tell you, That they hunger and thirst after the Righteousness of Christ, Matth. v. 6. and nothing short of the sensible Application thereof to their Conscience will satisfy them; though they are somewhat relieved with the Hopes they have of looking to, and leaning on it; yet nothing can so fully satisfy them, till this Righteousness is so fully applied to them, that they can say, it is theirs. This also proceeds from those strong and immediate Convictions of the Law in the Conscience, of their Sinfulness and Misery; resulting from the saving Discoveries of the Remedy. Hence it is, that those that are savingly convinced, cry out more and more constantly of their undone and lost Condition, than others in a natural State do under the strongest Convictions, though their Consciences are not so wracked and tortured as theirs; nor do their Spirits boil up with Rage and Enmity against God as theirs do: And this springs from the same Cause. But again.  
Saints do Experience this also: That when they walk closest with Christ, and look to, and lean most on his Righteousness; their Consciences are then most tender about Sin, and are soonest brought under Guilt for the least Sin. But when Believers themselves cease to converse with Christ and his Righteousness; Convictions of Sin, are not so frequent in the Conscience: Then many Sins are past by without Observation, or if observed, little regarded. The Cause of this to me, seems to be, That the good old righteous Law of God, being by God's Ordination set up in the Believer's Conscience a perfect Rule of Life; The more the Believer deals with Christ and his Grace, as he receives thereby the more Power to comform to this Rule, so a greater Light into the Rule. Every Act of Faith in Christ reflects within, and irradiates on the Rule also. This Rule as a streight Line by the Light of Grace, discovers itself, and every crookedness. Therefore it must needs be, that a Conscience enlightened powerfully by Grace, must be convinced by it, wherein it comes short of it. And take this Law abstractedly, there is no difference between convincing and condemning, for where it convinces, it condemns. Hence it is, that the choicest Believers are soonest convinced, and soonest brought under Guilt. I cannot see with some, how the Law exerts in Believers, only an exacting Power, and not a condemning Power. There is no separating Convictions from it as a Rule, nor Condemnation from Conviction, if you take it in its own Nature; but it is the Blood and Righteousness of Christ removes the Condemnation, and ought to step in, if I may so say, between Conviction and actual Condemnation or Sentence. This perfect Law in the more holy Walkers, does more renew its Convictions than in others; and they see a need to be continually making fresh Application to the Blood of Sprinkling, and the Righteousness of Jesus. So you see, that to believe for Justification, is the Work of our whole Lives, and a Believer never ought to cease putting forth Justifying Acts of Faith. Hence also it follows, the more the Conscience of a Believer pleads by Faith the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus, the more cause he sees to continue his Pleas, which is called, the being found and clothed in and with the Righteousness of Christ. The Cause of this is, the more the Soul believes on Christ, the more Light is in the Soul; and the more Light there is, the more the perfect Rule appears there; the more the perfect Rule appears there in its own Perfection, the sooner the Soul is brought under Convictions for the least Deviations from it. If it be so, then in the Experiences of the liveliest Believers, that the more they walk in the Name of Christ, and glory in his Righteousness, the more they are convinced of their own Imperfections: And the soonest they are brought under Guilt in their Consciences for the least Sin, and their Consciences really are most tender. Then it follows, That the greater the Light of Faith in the Exercise is, the more does the Law in the Conscience discover itself as a perfect Rule; and the more it discovers itself as a perfect Rule, it sooner convinces of Sin, and in this Conviction enters Condemnation, which is the Guilt of the Conscience. Those Believers that have the Skill of Faith instantly to apply the Blood of Jesus to remove this Guilt, rightly improve Faith to step in between Conviction and Condemnation. But they that have not this Skill of Faith, suffer Guilt to rest in the Bosom, till it's very bitter to them; and perhaps they grow dark and legal. And hence it is, that some Believers from high Degrees of Faith, and great Communion with Christ fall suddenly under great Guilt and Darkness. The Law appearing very Spiritual in that shining Light they have, convinces of Imperfections, and with Conviction brings in Condemnation, they not continuing to walk in Christ, and after the Spirit that leads to Pardon, but turning aside to walk after the Flesh, sink in their Souls into Deadness, Darkness, and Distance from God.  
The Sum of what has been said, amounts to this; That from the Experiences of the Saints, we may safely argue; That the Law in the Light of Grace reigning through the Righteousness of Christ exerts a greater Spirituality in the Conscience, and therefore does more fully convince of Sin. And from all this the grand Truth is confirmed, viz. That after Grace comes to the Soul, Convictions of Sin by the Law itself are fuller and greater than afore.  
A third Things that remains to be cleared, is; whether these saving Convictions of Sin and Misery antecede an Act of Faith, whereby we lay hold on Christ. As to order of Time, they are somewhat Simultaneous: As to order of Nature and our Conceptions, they precede; forasmuch as the Soul must see its need of Christ e're it can fly to Christ; and there can be no through Sight of the Need of Christ, without a through Sight of its Misery and lost Condition: Therefore the Case being thus, that a Soul has no through Sight of itself and Miserableness, till the Grace of Christ first apprehends the Soul,( as hath been already proved:) And the Soul cannot apprehended Christ without a Conviction of the absolute Necessity of Christ; and the Soul cannot see such a Need of Christ, without a through Conviction of its Pollution and Misery. Therefore the first saving Conviction must of necessity intervene in order of Nature at least, between Grace coming to the Soul, and so making of it alive, and the living Soul going forth in Acts of Faith to lay hold on Christ. Therefore for the conceiving of Things aright, we must thus apprehended them.  
1. That Christ unites himself to the Soul.  
2. That Moment he sends his Spirit to indwell in that Soul. This is the Fruit of Christ's Ascension and Intercession, and the first Application of Christ to the Soul, when he gives himself, it being the immediate Effect of his Unition. So he says himself, John xiv. 16, 17. that he would pray the Father, and( says our Lord) he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, Ver. 17. even the Spirit of Truth,— for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.  
3. That then a living Light is communicated to the 
* Rom. viii. 3. How shall he not with him give us all Things. First, Christ; and then all Things with him; says Dr. own on that Place.  Soul discovering the Remedy, and at the same time the Disease; manifesting the Excellency of Christ's Righteousness, and the Filthiness of Sin. 2 Cor. iv. 6. compared with Esa. v. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.  
3. By which Light the Soul being made alive, accepts of this Righteousness, and leans upon it, consenting to the Grace offered. This last is called the Act of Faith; the other the Principle, or Habit of Faith. So that with the Principle of Faith, comes in this saving Conviction antecedent in the Order of Nature to the Act of Faith, wherein we fly to Christ. And hence it is, That the Soul seeing the Remedy, and the Disease at one time; by the Excellency of the Remedy discovered is drawn, and by the Sight of the noisomeness of Sin, and its Danger, is compelled and necessitated to fly to Christ. The persuasions of the Security of the City of Refuge, and the Sound of the Avenger of Blood at the Heels, did cause the Soul to fly thereto with all speed. The Angels taking Lot by the Hand out of Sodom, and the Report of the dismal Fire to come down, made him linger no longer; tho' afore the Angels took him by the Hand, the terrible Report could not make him stir a Foot. Hence it is, that it's true what's alleged, That a Soul must see its need of Christ, before it can fly to Christ; and must be convinced of its Sinfulness and Misery, before it can see its need of Christ; and this by the Law too. The Soul must be drawn by the Father, and drawn with the Cords of Grace; and in a sense driven by the Law too; but yet the State is changed by Christ's actual uniting himself to the Soul in Order of Nature, before any of this can be done; though all these Things be at the same Time in the Soul.  
Thus I have discovered my judgement in this Matter, according to the present Light I have in a Controversy, which has made so much Noise in the World. If any be otherwise minded, I should be glad( if in the Spirit of Meekness) they would give me better Information. I confess I am very jealous of giving way to such Principles, as may suppose any Spiritual Life in the Soul, before reigning Grace comes; whilst the Soul is in a State of Nature, and dead in Trespasses and Sins. And for the further clearing of my Mind in this Matter, I shall propose some Objections.  
Obj. 1. Does not God always lay hold on a Soul by his Grace, when the Soul is then in a natural State, under the Terrors and Convictions of the Law.  
Res. I do think in the Dispensation of his Grace, since the Recovery from the Romish apostasy, he has often Times followed that Method,( tho' not always;) suitable to the Preaching of his Servants, that had not, nor have yet rubbed off all Darkness of Antichristianism. But 'tis clear from his Word, a Day will come, wherein he will very much vary from that Method; and seize ignorant and secure Sinners, by his Grace, in a Moment, in the height of their Ignorance and Security, for to honour the Excellency of the Power of his Sovereign Grace, as he did Zacheus, Paul, and others, Isa. lxvi. 8. The sudden Conversion of so many Jews under Peter's Sermon, and their being added to the Church the self same Day, was but a transfigured Glory of that which shall be upon Conversion, when this prophecy comes to be fully accomplished.  
Obj. 2. What Reasons can be assigned for that Method of his, to take up Sinners by his Grace, when sunk almost to the Pit of Despair, by the Terrors of the Law?  
Res. He gives no Account of his Matters: But no doubt, his Reasons were, some way or other, for the advancing and endearing of his glorious Grace. A Ship that has escaped the Storm, prizes the Harbour the more. One that has escaped the Chains of Captivity sets a higher esteem on the Princely Palace. Besides, under despair, the Enmity of the corrupt Part will fight most against Grace; and the greater the Enmity is, that then is stirring in the Soul, in the Moment of the Conquest of Grace, renders the Victory of Grace the more illustrious; beside many other Reasons.  
Obj. 3. But is not the Soul, with such Convictions, prepared to fly to Christ?  
Res. I do not know what is meant by this Word( prepare) if it be meant, that the Soul, by such Convictions, is made more able and willing to receive Grace, when it comes, I utterly deny it. But I shall not much contend, if there be meant some other Preparation, as when the Remedy hath taken hold, that antecedent Sight of Sickness may contribute then to the Soul, seeing its absolute need of the Remedy. But here I must also add, That the Conviction of Sin and Misery, that comes in with the saving Manifestation of the Remedy, sheeps the Former, as the Light of the Sun the Light of the Stars; and as the Stars disappear when the Sun arises; so these antecedent legal Convictions probably may be swallowed up in the latter saving Convictions. Yet I shall not much dispute this Matter, provided a Distinction be made between those saving Convictions which belong only to the Elect, and that when savingly called; and those Convictions that the Reprobates may have, and yet go to Hell. And also provided this sort of Repentance or any other, be not made the Conditions of Justification. To sum up all; I think this is sufficient to prove, that in a believing Look to a Crucified Jesus, there comes in a far greater Light from the Law itself, to discover Man's Sinfulness and Misery. And thus from the Arguments that have been drawn from Comparison, and from the Spirituality of the Law exerted in the Conscience, in and by the Light of reigning Grace, this great Truth hath been confirmed. That the only Glass to have a full and through Sight of Sin in, is the Glass of a Crucified Jesus. I shall now make some improvement thereof.  
I. Let it be for a Use of Exhortation to Saints.  
1. To value the Death and Satisfaction of Christ.  
2. To converse with it, and improve it.  
1. Set a high Esteem on the Death of Christ. Give it its due Honour and Value; for in honouring the Undertakings of Christ, you honour him; and in honouring him, you honour the Father also, Joh. v. 23. The contrary is to despise, and tread under Foot the Blood of the everlasting Covenant: Have a care therefore of those Things that shall make you have slighting Thoughts of the Righteousness of Christ.  
That, that makes us slight the Righteousness of Christ in our Consciences, is the want of a due Conviction of Sin; and that arises, as has been shown, from the not abiding in the constant Views of this Righteousness. The more we look by Faith to the Blood of Christ, the more tender conscienced we are in point of Sinning, and the more Notice we take of the least Sin, the sooner are we convinced and brought under guilt; and the more we are convinced of Sin, the more cause we see to fly to, and value this Righteousness; when we come to see that our best Thoughts are mixed with Sin and Imperfections, and are under the guilt and sense thereof; we then see a necessity of making constant use of it, and therefore constantly to admire and esteem this Righteousness. We always practically dis-esteem the Righteousness of Christ, when we entertain favourable thoughts of Sin. These following bad Principles have a strong tendency to lessen Sin, and depreciate the Blood of Christ in the Conscience.  
First, When we judge that the perfect law of God is not a rule for the walk of Believers. That will make Sin to appear no Sin; for we may be soon tempted to conclude, if we be under no Law, we may live as we list, and our Transgressions be no Evils: For, where there is no Law, there is no Transgression.  
Secondly, This is a bad Principle, and an Enemy to the Righteousness of Christ; that we are to expect the greatest Blessings upon our degrees of Obedience, tho' they be Sinful and Imperfect; for thereby the Soul will be tempted to value its own Obedience above the obedience of Christ, and to esteem its own Performances beyond the Death and Satisfaction of the Lord Jesus. For when the Soul is persuaded that it must be beholden to its own sincere Obedience for all the Blessings of the Covenant; it sees no such need to be beholden to the active and passive Obedience of Christ, and consequently not so much to value it. A proud Heart will take the least occasion to overlook his God-like Righteousness, that it might glory in its own;( I appeal to your Experiences, O Believers, if you don't find much of this in your Hearts:) Sin and Imperfection also must needs be slighted, when the Conscience is possessed of this; that sinful and imperfect Obedience may be the Condition of these invaluable spiritual Blessings.  
A third Principle like to this is: That God accepts the Will for the dead; whereas we and our Performances are accepted only in the beloved, Ephes. i. 6. It was a prophecy of Gospel-days, That Believers and their Duties should find acceptance on God's Altar, Isa. lx. 7. It was by Faith that looked to another for Acceptance, that Abel offered to God a more acceptable Sacrifice than Cain, Heb. xi. 4. God is so far from accepting the Will for the dead, that he accepts neither Will nor dead, but in Christ Jesus. 'Tis mistakenly founded on Rom. vii. 15, 18, 19, 21. Those places only tell you, what inherent Holiness is, as opposed by inherent Pollution, and not how or where this inherent Holiness is accepted: If Preachers had spiritually and truly understood the two first Verses of the 8th Chapter, they would have been taught, that the acceptance of their Holiness is only in another, and the Law of their Spirit of life in him, which as opposed to the law of Sin and Death in us, is the alone Ground, with its relation to the Person and Priesthood of Jesus Christ, that our imperfect Holiness is accepted by a most pure and holy God. Therefore I take it to be a horrible Principle, and adapted to make People trust in themselves, that God accepts of their willingness to Obey, instead of Obedience. When once a Soul is persuaded that acceptance with God depends on his own Will, it swells up that poor Soul to glory in itself, and to despise the Righteousness of Christ, in which alone we and our deeds are accepted, and has a tendency to overthrow our living unto Righteousness; if so be some good wishes of ours may not only pass instead of Obedience, but purchase the favour of God for us.  
A fourth Principle that makes Believers think Sin harmless, and slight the Righteousness of Christ, is this; that Believers being completely Justified in the first Act of Saving Faith, need not put forth after acts for Justification; but that they may pacify Conscience with this; that they find, by certain marks and signs, that they are God's Children; and, as such, may conclude, their Sins are the spots of God's Children: and therefore they need be no further concerned about them. This undeniably is true, that Justification is completed at first; but then, the sense of it in our Consciences, is not so completed; and 'tis required of us, that we pled this Discharge, or Justification at God's Bar alway; and that we oppose this justifying Righteousness to all the Accusations of Law and Satan in the Conscience. Hence it is, that it is our Business every moment to believe Justification, that we may keep the Conscience clean, and purged from dead Works, Heb. ix. 13. whereby we see an absolute necessity of having constant recourse continually to the Righteousness of Jesus; and so be obliged to set an high esteem and value upon it.  
The Fifth Reason why our Spiritual Affections are cooled to the Righteousness of Christ, is; because we do not see its brightness and excellency. We are not convinced, and persuaded in our Consciences, that it is a complete and perfect Righteousness, of an Infinite, Eternal, and Unchangeable Value, Virtue and Dignity: Because we do not believe and see the inestimable excellency of this God like Righteousness, Man's Teaching, besides corrupt fleshly Wisdom has been persuading us, that our Act of Application, is the same with God's Act of Imputation, or at least that our Act is greater for our Advantage than God's, as being casually influential into God's Act of Imputation? hence it is, that we have such a practical dis-esteem of it. Men cannot bear we should exalt this Righteousness in Expressions becoming his Excellency and Glory, though they be Spiritual ones. They, as Satan's Instruments, would darken this Grace of God; and Satan well knows, if he can keep us off from a Heavenly Communion with this Righteousness which is at God's Right Hand, where Christ is; he then shall not only rob us of our Comforts, but hinder us in our Holy Walk. He knows this well enough, that nothing carries on the Work of Sanctification, as Justifying Faith in continual exercise.  
The Sixth Reason why we do so practically slight the Righteousness of Christ, is this; That we have very mean thoughts of God's Act of Imputation. We do not steadfastly believe that his Righteousness is so made ours, as the Word of God expresses it. We think it is the Righteousness of another wholly without us; and, through Pride of Heart, we must have something sensibly of our own to commend us. If our own Grace be the Hand that holds this Shield, we glory more in the Hand, than the Shield that covers us. We are apt to think this Righteousness is gone to Heaven; and it is too great a self emptying to have recourse thither to it continually. And we are apt to think in our Consciences, that we must substitute our own Righteousness as Viceroy, in its Room on Earth, to procure all sense of Favour, and Peace of Conscience. We deal with our own Righteousness, as Pharaoh dealt with Joseph, who set him over all the Land, though under himself; and when the People cried to Pharaoh, he sent them to Joseph. So we are apt to sand our Consciences to our own Righteousness for every thing, as the Vice-gerent of the Righteousness of God which is by Faith. All this while we allow the Righteousness of Christ to possess the Throne, only there it shall sit neglected. Ah! but this is a Complementing way to dethrone imputed Righteousness; and, as of old, cry, Hail Master; kiss, and betray it.  
And, Seventhly. This also has a Tendency to create a light esteem of imputed Righteousness; even our slowness of heart to believe the great and glorious privileges of the Saints as vested with it. The Scripture says, They are all fair, glorious, without spot or wrinkle, Cant. iv. 7. or Blemish, or any such Thing, Ephes. v. 27. And without Fault before the Throne, Rev. xiv. 5.— i. 6.( as wrapped round with this infinite Righteousness) so they are said to be made Kings and Priests; Called Heirs of God, and Joint Heirs with Jesus Christ, &c. Rom. viii. 17. With unspeakable other Privileges, as they are made perfect thro' the comeliness of the Righteousness of Jesus. When Souls have some glimpse of this by Faith, How do they value and admire this Righteousness? How do they renounce all Self, yea the best of Self, that they may be found clothed with it? Phil. iii. 8. and they count every thing but dross, and Dogs-meat in comparison of it: But when through the darkness of Unbelief, they cannot see into these Glorious Privileges, then they have not that value for the Blood of Christ as afore. A View by Faith of these transcendent Privileges is so far from tempting the Soul to looseness, that nothing does more constrain the Soul to a Holy Walk. Satan is not ignorant of this, when he stirs up the Tongues and Pens of Men, that are Drunk with their own carnal Wisdom, to vilify and ridicule those Privileges belonging to Believers, that result from the Imputation of this God-like Righteousness; yet they cannot out-do Satan by his private Suggestions to the Soul; and when he can thereby prevail with the Conscience to be shy of those Blessings that the Word of God declares belong to them, whose Sins are covered; he soon prevails with them to despise the precious Blood of the Lamb of God. Because of the aforementioned things and others, the Soul, under the clearest notions of imputed righteousness, comes to loathe this Spiritual Manna, to cry out, What must we have nothing but this light Bread? And so value the Onions and garlic, and the Fleshpots of Egypt beyond it: But oh Believers! Suffer me to renew my Exhortations to you.  
Have a care of a practical undervaluing of the Death and Blood of Christ, That you may do so, take heed of entertaining in your Consciences those dark and destructive Maxims as have been mentioned, whether they come in from the Pulpit, Press, or private Discourses, or Satan's private Suggestions.  
Exh. II. Always look, and always lean upon that Righteousness, which is above at God's right Hand, where Christ is, Colos. iii. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those Things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right Hand of God. Vers. 2. Set your Affections on Things above, and not on Things on the Earth. Be like the Merchants-ship, that brings her Food from far, Prov. xxxi. 14. Thus let your Conversation be in Heaven, beholding and putting on this Righteousness every Moment of the Day: Dwell in the light of this shining Righteousness, that you may see yourself and Sin more thoroughly; and stand upon your Watch against every Sin of a Thought, and the least act of Unbelief; that you may still rise higher and higher in your esteem of, and application to that Righteousness of the Son of God. Look unto a Crucified Jesus, that you might hate, and loathe, and be sick of Sin, and so love the Blood of Jesus.— And now a word of Exhortation to poor Sinners.  
Oh you poor miserable Wretches! suffer you also a Word of Exhortation. I exhort you, the vilest of you, to look unto a Crucified Jesus, lifted upon the Bloody across, as the Serpent was lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness. I say look unto him, by serious Consideration, that you may be convinced of your odious Pollution, and desperate Misery. Behold your own foul Face in that Glass, and red the Hell your Sins deserve in that Book. Look to a bleeding Jesus, O blind! that ye may see, Isa. xlii. 18. Hear the Story of Eternal Love in his wounded sides, that ye may hear. A Jesus lifted upon the across is given for a light to the Gentiles, Isa. xlii. 18.— xlix. 6. Even to the worst of Sinners, to open their blind Eyes. And 'tis he thus lifted up, that draws all Men unto him, John xii. 32. Sinners, I bespeak you, under four ranks, to look to him whom Iniquities have pierced and wounded.  
First, You Sinners, that are horribly debauched, and yet secure; consider, 1. Whether the Story of Jesus, as recorded in the Bible, and as preached in the World, be true or not? 2. Whether this doth not concern the vilest of Sinners? 3. Whether it doth not concern you as such? And let this awaken your Attentions to consider what's spoken concerning this Lamb of God being made an Offering for Sin: Thus let me summon your Attention; and whilst you attend, who knows but a supernatural Light may break in upon your dark Consciences, to discover to you your Disease and Remedy together; Or, at least, it may awaken the Law of God in your Consciences. For this is found to be experimentally true in Preaching; that the Exaltation of a Crucified Jesus puts a Soul under more legal awakenings, than the Thunderings of the Law does.  
II. You vile debauched Sinners, that have frequent gripes of Conscience; let me Exhort you also to look out for a through Conviction of your State, Peace of Conscience, and Power against your Corruptions, from a believing view of a Crucified Jesus. The reason why you return, as Dogs to your Vomit of Filthiness, after so many Convictions, is, because your Convictions have not not been through. That they may be so, behold your odious Sins in the Glass of this great Sacrifice of Atonement. Look unto him that Sin has bruised; and then you'll mourn for, loathe, and forsake your Iniquities, and never rightly before. Your Corruptions will be still too mighty for you, unless you subdue them in that Blood that cleanses from all Sin. Sin is rightly to be slain on the slain Lamb of God.  
III. And you Self-justitiaries; who have quiter choked your Consciences with your own doings; hear you also the Voice of the Son of God. harken you stout-hearted that are far from Righteousness, and behold a crucified Jesus, bringing his Righteousness near, Isa. xlvi. 12. Compare your Righteousness, and your Works with the Righteousness of Jesus, and by the Spirit of Jesus; and you'll quickly see they will not profit you, Isa. lvii. 12. and apprehended your own to be but Dross and Dung. Weigh them together in the balance of the Sanctuary, and you'll find your own altogether lighter than Vanity. If you take a view of the excellency of his Righteousness, you'll soon see yourself, as well as your Sin, to be Odious and Abominable. Were ever your Works and Deeds in Heaven, in the Bosom of the Father? but Jesus has been there. Did they ever come down from Heaven? But Jesus came from thence. Are they Innocent and Perfect? But Jesus was Holy, Harmless, and Undefiled, and so was his Death and Obedience. Are they Infinite, Eternal, Unchangeable? but the Redeemer is so in his Obedience and Sufferings. Did your good Heart, your Goodworks, your Good-deeds( as you call them) ever bear the weight of Divine Vengeance? Did they Suffer? Did they Bleed? Did they Die? Or were they nailed to the across? Did they make full atonement and Satisfaction? But Jesus has done and suffered all these. And yet will you offer to put up your own good Meanings, and good Deeds, in the room of Christ, and his Righteousness, to obtain for you eternal Glory, Acceptance, Peace of Conscience, and Evangelical Holiness. If you look unto a Crucified Jesus, and if God help you to look aright, you will see your best of Doings to be but filthy Rags, your own Covering too narrow for you; your State, though white-wash'd, yet still polluted; and you have inward Rottenness, for all your outward Paint.  
IV. Hear me also, you Sinners, that are still working for Life, yet cannot quiet your Consciences; yet place still your Hopes upon your own Works and Inventions; who, as fast as Convictions grieve your Consciences, stifle all, by finding your Life by your own Doings, Isa. lvii. 10. Ah! let me tell you, 'tis in vain to quiet Conscience with any Thing short of the Righteousness of Christ. No other salue can heal the Burning Wounds thereof, but the Blood of God; and if you mix any Thing of your own with that salue, it will not stick to the Wound; if you should make a shift to stick it here, it will certainly drop off, as soon as you enter Eternity. I know this is the Stumbling-Block in your Way; you would have a full Conviction before you look to Christ. But the Way of the Gospel is to look to Christ, for a full, saving, and through Conviction of Sin, as has been already proved. If you are resolved never to eye Christ till you are fully convinced of Sin first; you may stick there and perish, and never see Sin as you would, till you see Sin in Hell on yourselves, through the Glass of Divine Vengeance, as your eternal Wrack and Torture. But if you would have a right Sight of Sin, see Sin appearing on a dying satisfying Jesus. I speak to you all in the Language of the Gospel; Come as you are, poor, vile, perishing Sinners to Christ, to behold him dying for Sinners as such. 'Tis certain, when he died for Sinners, he considered them only in the height of their Rebellion, to encourage Sinners, as Sinners, to come unto him. Whil●… he bore our Sorrows, did he consider our Obedience or Honour, we should bring him here? No; Did he consider Sinners as glorifying him in Heaven? No; in the height of his Sufferings for them, he considered them in the height of their Rebellion, Rom. v. 8. But God commendeth his Love towards us, that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us. There is an eminent Instance of it in the 2d of the Acts: 'Tis conceived most of them converted then, were some way or other concerned in his Murder. Many of them( as it's thought) were amongst them, which cried, Crucify him, Crucify him, and stirred up the Romish Magistrates to the greatest Rage. Some of them spat on him, some blasphemed him and mocked him. And yet all this while he was Suffering for them, while he saw their Fury, heard their Blasphemy, felt their Cruelty: He was then atoning for their Cruelty and Blasphemy; He cried out, Father forgive them, they know not what they do, Luke xxiii. 34. And as an Effect of that Prayer, Those were afterwards converted. Suppose, you, O Sinners, had been among them when they had been pricked in their Consciences; You might perhaps have heard them cry out; Ah, wretch as I am! Did he suffer for mine Iniquities in smiting him? And another; Did he satisfy for my Blasphemy that moment I was Blaspheming him? What a filthy Wretch was I? And a third; Did he make Atonement for my Persecutions then, when I was actually Persecuting of him, crying Crucify him, Crucify him, &c.  
But suppose again, Poor Sinners, if you had all lived in that Day, and stood about the across, and shook your Heads and reviled him, and had cried out with the incensed Rabble: There hangs a Blasphemer, a licentious Antinomian; and then would have insulted over him with their blasphemous Language; You with your great Faith there, where is your Faith now? come down from the across, if your Faith be so great. And whilst you had been acting thus; suppose one that you would have credited, had come and discoursed you thus, Do you know who it is that suffers here? whom it is that you thus revile and taunt over? 'Tis the beloved Son of the Father; the great Emanuel; the Saviour of Sinners; the Prince of Life that there suffers, and that you thus deride? Would nothing( think you) have made you hold your Tongues with Confusion, and draw back with shane. But suppose he should have gone on, and said: 'Tis for the Sins of the Enemies and Rebels, yea, for the very Blasphemy of this blasphemous Rabble, that he now suffers all these Things. Imagine you how this would have astonished you, and made you loathe Sin and Blasphemy, as much as you was taken with it before. But suppose he should have added to every one of you in particular, It is for thee; yea, it is thy Sorrows that he bare; 'Tis for thy Transgressions he is thus wounded; 'tis for thine Iniquities he is thus bruised: He is now bearing the Vengeance due to thy Cruelty, whilst thou art acting it: His Love and Pity to thee are such, that he is now satisfying his Father's Justice for thy wicked Speeches, whilst thou art pouring them out before him. You may suppose how this, laid home by the Spirit, would have melted each of you down, and made you have abhorred yourselves and Sin in Dust and Ashes; even in Tears and confusion of Face. It would have made each of you cry out, What, for me! What, suffer for me! What for such a Rebel as I! What, suffer for me, who have such a Hand in his Sufferings! Here is Love indeed! Here's sounding of Bowels to Purpose! Oh, my Sin! That detested Thing! What a Monster art thou! O Sins, how do I loathe you! How do I abhor myself in Dust in Ashes! Though you did not live then, yet you may still take a turn by Faith about the bloody across, and present by Faith to your Soul the same cruel Tragedy acted over again. Call back by Faith his Sufferings of almost seventeen hundred Years ago, to the time present. Meditate on the Lord of Glory hanged upon the three, bearing all the Weight of that Vengeance as has been afore-mentioned. Then let thy Conscience ask the Question, What was it for? And let it receive this Answer, It was for Sin, but not for his own, but for the Sin of others. Then let thy Conscience, O Sinner inquire, Who was it for? And be thus Answered again; It was for the worst and vilest of Sinners. And then reflect upon thyself, and say in thine Heart, If for the worst and vilest of Sinners; I can be but the worst and vilest; then why not for me? I must accept of his Death and Satisfaction, as freely offered, or else be damned for ever. Then why may not I in the strength of Christ venture my Soul on his Death and Obedience? If there be no other way of Salvation; where then shall I go but to a Crucified Jesus? Is this the Effect of boundless love to the vilest of Enemies? I am not worse than the vilest, and why not to me? Was this great Satisfaction so completely paid for the worst of Sinners? And is it now so freely offered to the worst of Sinners? And as such are they commanded to accept of it in the All sufficiency of the Power coming down from Christ? I can be no more than the worst and most impotent of Sinners; then why may not I in his Strength lay hold on this offered Grace, if offered so infinitely free to Sinners, as Sinners, that have not the least Farthing to pay to entitle them to it; then I that am so miserable, poor and naked; why may not I accept of it? I must Accept, or Reject; and shall I Reject the only Remedy so freely offered? And farther, Poor Sinner, if the Spirit shall give thee to see thy Sin in particular laid on this Crucified Jesus: How will it make thee loathe and forsake thy particular Sins? It is a great Mistake to think or assert, that the vilest of Sinners being made to believe with the Faith of God's Elect, that their Sins are laid on Christ, it will encourage them to go on in Sin. That notorious Sinner, mentioned in the 7th of Luke, is an undeniable Instance to the contrary: She was a notorious Sinner, a most filthy Wretch; and as such, made to receive Free Grace. The Scripture says, She wept, and did much, because she loved much: And, she loved much, because much was forgiven her. Thou shalt be helped in thy Conscience really to say, Is this! O, is this the havoc my Sins have made on the Innocent Lord of Glory? Was it for Sins he was thus Wounded; For my Blasphemy? For my Drunkenness? For my Swearing? For my Sabbath breaking? Were these Sins of mine that lay so heavy on a Dying Jesus? O, then farewell loathed and detested Sin! farewell Drunkenness; farewell Sabbath-breaking; farewell Vanity, and all the rest of my bitter Morsels that I used to roll with Pleasure under my Tongue. Poor Sinners! Ah, poor miserable Sinners! Let me invite you in my Master's Name; in the Woeing Language of my Dying Lord; in the rhetoric of his Precious and Godlike Blood. Go by Faith to the across; behold the Lord of Heaven slain for Sin; and look on the boundless Bowels of Pity sounding through his wounded Sides! Behold Eternal and Distinguishing Love and Grace, begging thee, thou vilest of Sinners to accept of it! Electing Love in the Language of Blood and Death, and dying Groans, entreating of Rebels to believe that in those pierced Hands and Feet, God is Reconciled to them; and so to believe on, until they feel their Enmity melt away, and so to submit to Free, Rich, Glorious Grace Reigning thro' that Righteousness, tinctured with his own Blood, flowing through those bleeding Sides; till they feel they are overcome by Grace; and that because of its Infinite fullness and Freeness. Is there any Swearer, Curser, or Sabbath-breaker here? Come and behold a Dying Jesus. Come stand under the across, and see the Dimensions of Love to Sinners in his Death. View what fullness of Pardoning Grace by him is purchased. And behold the cruel and cursed Nature of Sin, in what it did unto him when it met upon him on the three.  
Now I leave what has been said to the Blessing of the Lord, though I never see your Faces more: A Testimony has been born for the Lord Jesus. Whether you look on him, or whether you forbear, A Crucified Jesus has been evidently set forth among you, Gal. iii. 1. And if you despise Jesus the Crucified Son of God, and trample his precious Blood of the Covenant under Foot: It must be said to you, as it was to them of old: Behold, ye despisers and Wonder and Perish, Acts xiii. 41.   

A SERMON PREACHED at the FUNERAL OF Mr. JOHN bog.  
To which is added, Another SERMON upon the same Subject.  
ALSO, A NARRATIVE of Mr. BIGG's Conversion, &c.   

TO THE READER.  
INstead of an Epistle Dedicatory, I shall only briefly acquaint thee with the Reasons that induced me to Print these Sermons: And why they came forth so long after they were Preached. I have sometimes ceased to be a Friend to the Press and never intended to Print them at all, though often put upon to do it: But the Lord, the Redeemer, whose Blessing and Power made day and Spittle to open the Eyes of the Blind, was pleased to own these so, as to make them of great Use to several. Their Entreaty, with divers others, prevailed with the widow of the Deceased, to importune me further, so that her Importunity joined with theirs, obtained upon me, at least to redeem( when I could) now and then a little time from the great Work of Christ, that is upon my Hands, to set them in order, and so venture them into the World. There fell in also another cogent Motive, viz. The Consideration of the false and lying Stories scattered through City and Country concerning me and the Doctrines I Preach, made me willing to let all know( if they please to red) what those Doctrines are, and so they may make a better judgement afterwards. And I do assure thee these Sermons contain the chief Substance of what I preached here in the Country: Therefore I have made some Additions hereunto, and Alterations suitable to my main Scope in Preaching this Year past. Had the Men of the World only cast Dirt, it would have been more tolerable. Better could not have been expected from them, but to act according to their Nature. But this has been piercing, that the Truths of Jesus have been wounded in the House of Friends. Here a sufficient Occasion is given for a pathetic Lamentation; But tell it not in Gath, and publish it not in Askelon, &c. Whatever Blows some aim at one another, they all fall upon their holy Profession, whilst a too eager Vindication is pursued of our good Names and Reputation from undue and unjust Calumnies, The Name of Jesus and his Gospel may be exposed to a greater Reproach. This made me choose to lye still with a Gag in my Mouth, whilst I was, and am still clothed with Sambanettoes, than use the Methods I might to assert my wronged Innocency, leaving it to God, the Judge of all, to vindicate his Name and Gospel in his due time, and in his own way( which I am certain he will.) And as for me, let my Name lye in the Dust, provided it may make for the Honour of Christ, and the Furtherance of his Gospel. I am endeavouring to learn this Lesson, to rejoice in Reproaches from whatever Tongues they come) as well as in Infirmities for Christ's Sake; and I would press after that meek Spirit of the Gospel; that being defamed to entreat, viz. To entreat Christ on the Behalf of my Defamers, and entreat them in the Bowels of Mercy to lay aside their Enmity against the Lord Jesus his Truth and Ways.  
Reader, I shall add no more, but commend thee to God and the Word of his Grace, which is not only able to translate thee out of Darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son; but also build thee up therein, and give thee an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified. And now the God of Peace, that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant, make thee perfect in every good Work to do his Will, working in thee that, that is well pleasing in his Sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be be Glory for ever and ever. Amen.   

A SERMON, &c.  1 Cor. xv. 55, 56, 57. 
55. O Death, where is thy Sting? O Grave where is thy Victory? 56. The Sting of Death is Sin; and the Strength of Sin is the Law, 57. But Thanks be to God, which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  
OUR Great Apostle in this Epistle of his, having answered several Cases of Conscience to the Church at Corinth, in this Chapter, refutes that dangerous Error, that denied the Resurrection of the Dead.  
He founds his Argument for the overthrow of the Error, and the Establishing the contrary Truth, chiefly upon the Resurrection of a butted Jesus. Having prosecuted this from v. 12. with the Intermixture of other Mediums; and also exhortatory Inferences to v. 35. he there states the Adversary's Objection in these Words, With what Body do they come again?  
This Objection he answers( having rebuked the Objector with the Title of a Fool, v. 36.) from the Nature of Grain thrown by the sour into the Ground, rising into a Crop of beautiful Corn, pleasant to the Eye and useful for Food: Further, showing and explaining the difference between human Bodies and the Flesh of Beasts, Birds and Fish, and the difference of their Glory from the Terrestrial and celestial Bodies, even the difference between celestial. Bodies themselves in Glory.  
Having managed this, from v. 36, to 42. he there applies it to the case in hand, showing in v 42, 43, 44. That the Bodies of the Saints are sown in Corruption but raised in Incorruption. Sown in Dishonour, but raised in Glory, &c. This he repeats, varying his Phrase, v. 53.54. And draws in this Inferencē in the Close of the 54th ver. Death is swallowed up in Victory; which Inference he confirms in a way of Triumph, in the Words of my Text.  
O Death where is thy Sting? &c.  
In which words you have the Apostle triumphing in the Person of every dying Believer, wherein are contained these Parts.  
1. The Apostles Triumph, in v. 55.  
2. The Cause of it. 1st. Laid down negatively, v. 56. The Sting of the Believer's Death being pulled out by the abolishing of Sin, which is Death's Sting; and the Reign of the Law over him, which is the Strength of Sin.  
Positively laid down in ver. 57. viz. A Victory being obtained over Death, thro' our Lord Jesus Christ; which the Apostle mentions with Thanksgiving to the Almighty.  
In handling these Words, I shall only insist on the Triumph or Ovation in ver. 55. and the rather, because the Prosecution of the Truth that shall arise from that Verse, will reach, and take in, the chief Matter contained in the following Verses.  
In these words you have, as was aforementioned, the Believer's Triumph over Death, and that in a twofold Respect. 1. In respect of his Soul; O Death, where is thy Sting? 2. In respect of his Body; O Grave, where is thy Victory? Without spending further time in opening the Words; they afford us this Doctrinal Observation.  
Doct. That every true Believer, in the Moment of his Death, can Triumph over Death and the Grave, both in reference to his Soul and Body.  
I shall divide this general Doctrine into two Branches, and speak to each part. The First is this,  
That a Believer, in the Moment of his Death, can Triumph over Death, in reference to his Soul.  
First( as the Lord shall enable me) I will prove this Truth, and then explain and illustrate it.  
For Proof, I shall only give at present you two places of Scripture.  
Rev. xiv. 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven, saying unto me, writ; Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their Labours; and their Works do follow them. Where first you have the Truth plainly asserted,— Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord, or in dying in the Lord. 2dly, The Reasons of it. 1. They rest from their Labours. 2. Their Works follow them, i.e. e. They will meet with their Prayers and Duties entered on the File, for their review, as an addition to their eternal Delights. 3. You have here insinuated the Certainty and Importance of this Truth. 1. The Commandment to writ, they are weighty things usually committed to Ink and Paper, and that for duration also.— Littera Scripta manet. 2. The Commander, the Spirit. I heard a Voice from Heaven, saying writ, &c.  
The second place is, Heb. iv. 9. There remaineth therefore Rest to the People of God. Their rest is not in this World, but in another; and they enter upon it in the moment of Death; therefore they have then ground of triumphing.  
I shall add to these the Experiences of Three Worthies. The first was David's, 2 Sam. 23.5. Altho' my House be not be so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure: For this is all my Salvation and all my Desire; altho' he make it not to grow. David was now on the brink of Eternity, taking a view of the past and present Disorders of his House and Heart, yet rejoices and triumphs in the view of the Covenant of Grace, and his Interest in it, and the influence it had on the Eternity he was entering into. The second was that of faithful Stephen, that glorious Proto Martyr; who when the Stones that dashed out his Brains and Life, flew about his Ears, cried out triumphantly, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit. Acts vii. 59.  
The last I shall mention, is the Experience of the blessed Apostle Paul, Phil. i. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better. But very pat and pertinent to the purpose, 2 Cor. v. 1. &c. He being harassed with Labours, Perils and Sufferings, at the apprehension of the time of his departure being at hand, triumphs thus, ver. 1. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a Building of God, an House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens.  
Having thus, from the Holy Scriptures of Truth, proved the Doctrine, I shall proceed to the Explication of it.  
'Tis undeniable, That Contraries do the better illustrate one another, as black Spots make a whire Skin shine the brighter, and a Black-a-Moor is a Foil to set off an European: Therefore I shall illustrate this Truth, by another Contrary, that I might the more empharically explain it; which is this: The triumph of Death over an Unbeliever, and thus lay down the Doctrine to be explained.  
Death in Death triumphs over the Unbeliever, and the Believer triumphs over Death in dying.  
I shall begin with the first Branch, viz. Death in Death triumphs over the Unbeliever; and( as the Spirit of the Lord shall ●ssist me) show you in what respects.  
1. Death triumphs over the Unbeliever's sensual Pleasures. Where are now( says Death) your vain Pleasures that you wantonly rolled yourself in, in your life time? What are become of those jolly, merry, frolicksome hours, that you lavished away with your frothy Companions? Where are now your drunken Cups and Glasses, and your riotous Feasts, with which you so often drowned and glutted your sensual Appetite? What do they profit you now? What pleasure do you find now from your former repeated acts of Lust and Beastliness? What relish now from those brutish tickling of swinish Delights? What does all your vain Merriment avail you now? What Fruit have you from those Things, that formerly you reckoned your Heaven and Happiness? Instead of Pleasures, you now shall have your bellyful of everlasting Torments. Now your merry Moments are turned into an eternity of Sorrows. Now, instead of swimming in Wine, and luxuriously feeding on Dainties, you shall Swim, World without End, in fiery Streams of burning Brimstone. You shall drink your Tears, and feed on your own tortured Flesh in endless and never-ceasing Misery. Now, the flamme of your Lust is succeeded by a hotter flamme, even the flamme of Divine Vengeance. Now, instead of your frothy Spirit and vain Laughter, you shall have enough of howling, weeping and gnashing of Teeth. Nay, you shall carry with you all your Lusts and Corruptions to Hell, not to please you, but to pain you. The same Water that the Fish swims in with delight, if heated over the Fire, will be the Fish's torment.  
The Sins you acted with pleasure in the World, you shall act the same in great measure in Hell, but to your eternal torturing: You shall there act your Revenges, but wound none with its poisoned Arrows, but your own Soul. You shall there have your covetous Desires enlarged, as wide as the Hell you are in; but it will only be your pain and punishment: Your own Lusts there, shall be the Flames that will scorch you. Come, thou trembling Wretch, will Death say, to the Place of sinning, and the Place of punishment; and thy very sinning shall be thy punishment. Oh! then will Death insult in the Words of the wise Man, Whatsoever thy Eyes desired, thou keepest not from them: Thou witheldost not thy Heart from any Joy, Eccles. ii. 10. And now all will be Vanity and Vexation of Spirit to thee, part of ver. 11. And also in those Words as are written, Lu. xii. 19. Thou hast long said to thy Soul; Soul, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry,— But, thou Fool, I am come this Night to require thy Soul of thee, part of ver. 20. And to add no more, Death will only, change the Moods and Tenses in that portion of Holy Writ, Eccl. ii. 9. insulting thus; Thou hast rejoiced, Oh! Young Man, in thy youth; and thy Heart has cheered thee in the days of thy youth; thou hast walked in the ways of thine Heart, and in the sight of thine Eyes; but know thou now, thou trembling Wretch, that for these things, I am sent by the God of Justice, to bring thee into judgement.  
Consider this, thou voluptuous sensual Wretch, thou Drunkard, thou Belly-slave, thou unclean Beast, thou Blasphemer, thou Swearer, thou Reveller and Persecutor, consider this, and ponder it in thy Heart, thou must ' ere long come upon a Deathbed; this griefly King of Terrors will stare thee in the Face. The Sting, that now at a distance thou seest not, when he ●… mes near thee with open Mouth, thou wilt then see, and be dismally affrighted at that fatal Fork. Death and thee must meet e'er long, and thou knowest not, but this dismal meeting may be e'er a Week rolls about, and how wilt thou like such an horrid greeting, such a black welcome, such terrible language, and bitter insultings as you have heard. How do you relish and savour thus being triumphed over in a dying Moment? Oh! consider this, and look out after the Remedy.  
2. Death triumphs over the Pride of the Soul. The Pride of the Soul is either a Glorying before God, or a Glorying before Men. As it is a Glorying before God, I shall reserve that to speak of under its proper Head, which is to follow. The Soul before Man prides itself in its Endowments, either outward or inward. Death will then thus Glory over their Glory; Where are now your airy Honours, and bubble Dignities? What is become of your State and Grandeur? Where are now your Crowns, O Kings, your sceptres, O Princes; I have tumbled them in the Dust, and my Spade has leveled them with the Earth. Could not your Purple, or your furs, your Swords and Maces, and Magistrates, defend you from my Arrest? What signified all your Guards, your Officers and Attendance, who could not protect you from me? What a bustle and fluster have you made? How have you set all in a flamme about you, and waded through blood and slaughter cruelty and oppression; and all manner of villainy to attain such a Degree of Honour, and where is it now? My breath has blown it all away. Where is now, O spluttering Monarch, that great Conduct, that deep Policy, wherewith you conquered other Nations, and enslaved your own? What could you use none of it to avoid my Attacks? Where is that Imperial Frown, that used to overawe the gaping, cringing Crowd? I have divested it of all Majesty, and made it now meaner and simpler than the look of an idiot; so says the Wise-man, A living Dog, is better than a dead lion, Eccl. ix. 4. Thou cunning admired Politician in thy Neighbourhood; that madest all thy Neighbours tremble at thy fraudulent Wit; that studied'st only how to over-reach, cheat, and impoverish; that thoughtest to hook in all to thyself! Why usest thou not some of thy cunningness to deceive me too? Why didst not thou play the Politician with me also? What do all thy Tricks and Artifices now advantage thee? Thou now perceivest that one event happeneth to the Wise, and to the Fool, Eccl. ii. 14, 15. As it happeneth to the Fool, so it happeneth to the Wise. Go now and try what all thy Wisdom and Cunning will do in Hell? Consider this you that are Great and Honourable on the Earth. You that are cunning to deceive in your Neighbourhood, that admire and flatter yourselves, that you can over-reach your Neighbours in bargaining. There will come an hour of Death; that will efface and tarnish all the Glory of your Honours, Dignities, Wisdom and Policies. There is no over-reaching Death. There is no such thing as being too cunning for the Grave. Death will soon tumble down all the Pageantry of your own Dignities and Abilities, that you have set up in your own Conceit. The Fire of God's wrath will soon burn up your Cobweb Policy: For this your Wisdom is your Folly. Methinks this should be as could Water upon all burning Pride, and a check and rebuk to all your glorying, that very few of your Class and Complexion are chosen out to eternal Life. Your very Wisdom, Parts and Dignities for the most part, mark you out for eternal Misery. This is the Sum of what the Apostle Discourses, 1 Cor i. 26, 27.28, 29. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh: not many mighty, not many noble are called, &c. red that Portion of the Holy Spirit of Truth, consider it seriously and tremble.  
3. Death triumphs over the Riches and Possessions of a Man in such Heart-rendring words as these; O where are now, Man, all thy vast Possessions? What signifies thy Heaps of Gold and Silver? Hadst thou amassed together all the Treasures of the Indies; they could not bribe me, or buy me off. Eccl. iv. 8. Thine eye has no been satisfied with riches in all thy life time. Now thou must carry none with thee to the Grave. Naked camest thou out of thy Mother's Womb, and naked shalt thou return thither, Job. i. 21. Instead of thy many Fields, Farms and Tenements, now thou must be content with so much Ground as thy Body can measure out. Now instead of thy many Bags of Gold and Silver, thou must rest satisfied, to be wrapped up in grosser day. Now farewell gilded Coaches, fair Palaces, splendid and well furnished Rooms, stately Beds, and all other costly. Furniture: Now for all the numerous Troop of cringing Attendants; thou shalt be surrounded with an Host of vermin, and for the very same End, with the former Attendants, to feed upon thee too. What is become of all thy Glory and Excellency now? 'tis all laid in the Dust. Job. xx. 6, 7, 8, 9. Though thy excellency did mount up to the Heavens, and thy Head reach unto the Clouds, Yet, thou shalt perish for ever, like thine own Dung: they which have seen thee, shall say; where is he? Thou shalt fly away as a Dream, and shalt not be found: Yea, thou shalt be chased away, as a Vision of the Night. The Eye also which saw thee shall see thee no more; neither shall thy place any more behold thee, and ver. 11. Thy Bones are full of the Sins of thy Youth; which shalt lie down with thee in the Dust. Thus will Death then ●… ph.  
Consider this, thou that forgettest God in the midst of thy plenty and abundance, that notwithstanding thy Pleasures and Treasures and great Possessions, thou must enter to Eternity, poor and wretched, miserable and naked, unless thou art clothed with that Royal rob of Christ's Righteousness. No riches then will suffice to enrich thee, but the Gold tried in the Fire, i.e. an interest in Jesus; who was made the perfect Captain of Salvation through sufferings. No raiment will then so cover thee, as to hinder the Appearance of the shane of thy nakedness like that white raiment, viz. the Righteousness of God, which is of Faith. And without that Wedding Garment, thou wilt stand speechless at the Bar of God, and then shall be bound hand and foot, and cast into utter darkness; where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Mat. xxii. 13.  
4. Death triumphs over a Man's own Righteousness. Men are apt through the horrid Pride of their Natures, to trust to their own doings for Salvation; and 'tis but too to common for Sinners in a State of Nature to apply plasters of their own making to the smarting Wounds of their Consciences, and to usurp Christ's Royal Prerogative of speaking Peace to their Souls; whereas, thus says the Lord, Isa. lvii. 19. I create the Fruit of the Lips Peace; I speak Peace to them, that are afar off, viz. in a natural State, and to them that are nigh, viz. Them that are made, Eph. ii. 13. nigh to my Father by my Blood. But over all such white-wash'd painted Pharisees, will, insulting Death, glory thus. Thou Pharisaical Fool, thou refusedst Fire from God's Altar, viz. the Lord Jesus, Joh. v. 40. Thou wouldst not come to him, that thou mightest have Life; but thou hast kindled a Fire of thine own; nay like Nadab and Abiu hast brought strange Fire; Isa. l. 11. Thou hast compassed thyself about with Sparks. Thou hast walked in the Light of thy Fire, and of the Sparks that thou hast Kindled. This thou shalt have now at God's Hand by my Dart to lie down in a Bed of Eternal Sorrows. Thou were't for digging to thyself a way to Heaven; and hast refused the Heb. x. 20. New and living way, that the God and Father of Christ had consecrated; that is to say the Flesh of Jesus, or his suffering, raised, glorified, human Nature; and though, Isa. lvii. 10. Thou wast wearted in the greatness of thine own way; and hast often tried in vain with thine own Doings and Works of the Law, and couldst not; but in spite of thy Teeth, the Fire of Hell that was in thy Conscience, would be often blazing out, yet saidst thou not, there is no hope; but wouldst be still hoping for Life from the Dead; unprofitable Works of the Law; Thus thou didst find the Life of thine Hands; therefore thou wast not then grieved; but still didst stifle all thy convictions: But now thou shalt grieve, and eternally grieve without intermission; now thou wilt not be able to stifle thy convictions, but they will rend and tear thy Soul with unspeakable horrors for ever and ever.  
Now Psa. xvi. 4. Thy Sorrows shall be multiplied, that didst hasten after other Gods, and other Idol Righteousnesses. Thou leftest no ston unturned, no way of working unessaied to procure warmth and life to thy Soul, Isa. lvii. 5. Thou didst inflame thyself with Idols under every Green three, and didst let thy Heart run out for Holiness and Salvation upon every branch of, in itself beautiful Morality. Isa. lvii. 6. Among the smooth Stones of the Stream was thy Portion, they were thy Lot, even to them thou hast procured a Drink-Offering, &c. i.e. e. Thou hast set up thy Duties for Saviours, hast trusted in them, and so fallen down and Worshipped them. Isa. lvii. 7. Upon a lofty and a high Mountain hast thou set thy Bed: Even thither wentest thou up to offer Sacrifice. i. e. Thou didst confided in thy splendid towering profession, and didst make a God and Saviour thereof, by laying the whole stress of thy Soul upon thy outward Profession, without Faith in Jesus. Isa. lvii. 8. Behind the Doors also and the Posts hast thou set thy Remembrance, 
* The 12th ver. of this Chapter, is a Key to open the rest of the Chapter.  i.e. e. And hast set up a Record within thyself for the Goodness of thy Estate from thy Family, and Closet Prayers; things good in themselves, but become Idols of Indignation, when advanced into the Room, and Throne of the Mediator. Isa. lvii. 8. Thou hast discovered thyself to others, then to Christ, and art gone up; but thou wouldst not come to Jesus, that thou mightest have Life: What are now become of thy Doings, thy Works, and thy Righteousness? Isa. lvii. 12. I will declare thy Righteousness and thy Works: for now they shall not profit thee. Cry now to thy Morality and Reformation; lift up thy suppliant hands to thy Duties and Profession. Cry aloud to thy Prayers and Tears; thy Convictions and thy Terrors of Conscience: Fall prostrate to thy wishings, and to thy wouldings, and thy desires to desire to have thy Sin inwardly mortified under the obstinate refusals of Christ and his Righteousness. And try these thy Idol Saviours whether they will now hear thee. Isa. lvii. 13. When thou criest, let thy companies of Saviours deliver thee; but the wind now carries them all away, and vanity takes them. Hadst thou trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shouldst now have, Isa. lvii. 13. possessed the Land, and shouldst have inherited his holy Mountain, even the everlasting Hills in the Highest Heavens. But now thy Mountains of Self-righteousnesses, which thou wentest up to, to offer Sacrifice, to set thy Bed, and to build thy Nests upon; and, which thou thoughtest eternally strong, I thrash them to dust, and my breath blows them away like chaff. All thy Pharisaical Doings, do now leave thee; and nothing of them goes with thee to Hell, but the unpleasant remembrance thereof to torment thee, that thou wast such a Madman to set up these instead of Christ the only Saviour; as if thy good Duties, good Professions, good Frames, and good Privileges had undertook for thee from Eternity, had obeied the Law for thee with a God-like Obedience, and suffered the cursed death of the across for thee, were raised up again, and by the Father's right hand were exalted to be Princes and Saviours to give repentance and remission of sins, and were now ever living at the Fathers right hand to make intercession for thee. Why callest thou these good Saviours? There is none good in that sense; but he that is God. Thus I say will Death then insult in the dying moment, and glory over, and tread under foot like Dogs meat, all the ragged Righteousnesses of Men and Women.  
Then consider it seriously, thou, that with the Pharisee in the Gospel, gloryest before the Lord, that thou art not as other Men, an Extortioner, Unjust, an Adulterer, or even as the Publicans and Sinners, and layest hold on this for eternal Life. Thy Conscience is not purged, but choked and bribed with false Counters, of outward Reformation. The unclean Spirit of Debauchery may be, has been cast out, and thou thinkest that enough; but the Spirit of the Lord, the Gospel sanctifier has not been there at work; for he walked through dry places: The rest and Peace of Conscience thou hast obtained are not right; for 'tis written, he sought for rest and found none. The House, i.e. e. Thy Person has been swept by Reformation, and garnished with a fine Profession: But 'tis but the stronghold of wicked Spirits still. 'Tis empty of the Spirit of the Lord. The Holy Ghost has had no in-dwelling there at all; therefore the unclean debauched Spirit transformed into an Angel of Light, with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself( not more unclean than himself, but more wicked) a complete Number of evil Spirits, i.e. e. the Devil of unbelief and spiritual Pride, two great Legions have returned and entered into thee; and if the Lord does not pity thee, and discover the rottenness of thine Estate to thee, Thy last State will be worse than the first. Ah! deluded Soul: Thou wouldst heal thy Conscience with thine own Medicines, thou wouldst cover thyself with thine own Righteousness, thou wouldest lay thyself down on thine own Bed of eternal Happiness; thou wouldst climb up to Heaven by thine own Methods, and find out a way for thyself to eternal Glory. But thou will find in Death, thy plasters will not stick, Isa. xxviii. 20. Thy covering will be too narrow for thy Soul to wrap itself in. Thy Bed too short for it to stretch itself upon; thy Ladder unlike Jacobs, will not reach to Heaven. Thy own way to Glory, how fair soever a Prospect it may have at first, does so wind and turn, that at last it will led directly, down to the Chambers of Death.  
I should have improved this Branch in several uses; but having done somewhat of that under every Head, I shall only now answer a Question, which I suppose some, if not many, may be ready to ask under the Conviction of their miserable and lost Estate by Nature. May be some, now under present awakenings, are inquiring,  
Q. What shall I do to be saved?  
Ans. I answer in the Words of the Apostles, Acts xvi. 31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, &c.  
Obj. What, nothing else but believe on Christ? That I do already, and did it ever since I was born, and so do all, that are not Turks and Pagans.  
Ans. I answer, First, They that say, they believed ever since they were born; never yet believed at all.  
Rea. For Faith grows not in Nature's Garden, neither is it born with us, But it is the Gift of God, Eph. ii. 8. and 'tis written, Phil. i. 29. For unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, &c. Whence observe, that to believe on the Lord Jesus, must be given from above: Therefore 'tis not born with us.  
Ans. 2. They that think Believing an easy thing, I dare engage never yet believed. For,  
Reas. Nothing less then the Almighty Power of God in Christ, can work this Faith in us; even the same Power that created the World, must be put forth to an Act of Faith: 2 Cor. iv. 6. God who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness, viz. in the Creation of the World, Gen. i. 3. hath shined in our Hearts, to give the light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Whence observe, That to believe is to have a view of the Glory of the Eternal Godhead, especially of the Glory of the Father's Grace and Goodness, shining through Jesus of Nazareth. 2. That this Divine Beam of eternal Light, is infused into the Soul by the same powerful Command, that sent down the creating Light, to inform the dark Chaos: God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness, &c. Nay, a greater Power must be put forth to an Act of Faith, than to the World's Creation; because in the World's Creation there was no Opposition, though there was Indisposition; but in the sinful Soul where Faith is wrought, there is Indisposition and Opposition too.  
Ans. 3. They that do not plainly feel the Evil of indwelling Unbelief, never knew what Faith meant, John xvi. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. there when the Spirit is said to convince of judgement and of Righteousness, he is said to convince of Unbelief too: And wherever Faith is, the contrary Principle of Unbelief rises always to oppose it, Rom. vii, 15, to the end; Gal. iv. 22, to the end, chiefly ver. 29. where though the Apostle speaks chiefly in both places of the contrary effects of the working Law and the working Gospel, in the same enlightened Conscience, yet the mutual opposition and warring of Faith and Unbelief, is also especially included. I apprehended that to be a typical instance of this, spoken of to Rebecca, Gen. xxv. 23. Two Nations are in thy Womb, &c. This is evident, That no sooner a grain of saving Faith is sown in the Soul, but Unbelief, that afore lurked undiscovered in the Soul, rises instantly in Arms to war against it.  
Ans. 4. They that are under no influence of the indwelling Spirit, have no Faith; Rom. viii. 9. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his; and he that is not in Christ, has not a dram of Faith. They that have the Spirit, walk after the Spirit, v. 1. and are lead by the Spirit, v. 14. they mind the things of the Spirit, v. 5. and their mortal Bodies are quickened, because of the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in them, v. 11. Now they that are never spiritually, but carnally minded, that know nothing what the indwelling of the Spirit means, nor his blessed Influences and Operations; but are so far from knowing all these, that they reproach and blaspheme his blessed Person and Operations, as Whimsies, heat of Brain, Fanaticism, Enthusiasm, and the like; how can it be said, That such Enemies of the Spirit have the Spirit? And if they have not the Spirit, they are not only wholly ignorant of, but utter Enemies to the Grace of Faith.  
Ans. 5. Dare the Drunkard, the Swearer, the Blasphemer, the Sabbath-breaker, the profane, ignorant, carnal, vile Person say he has Faith? His profanity, enmity and wickedness always give him the lie to his teeth, and his sinful practise is an undoubted Test of the badness of his Faith, and that he professes a lie, when he professes Faith in Jesus. show me, says the Apostle, Jam. ii. 18. thy Faith without thy Works, and I will show thee my Faith by my Works. The Heart is purified by Faith, Acts xv. 9. Nay, Faith sanctifies throughout, Acts xxvi. 18. Faith purifies the Conversation: 'Tis this Grace of God, this great Grace of Faith that teaches us, That denying Ungodliness and worldly Lust we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present World, Tit. ii. 11, 12. Nay, let me tell you, that such have no more Faith in Christ, than Turks or Heathens: They have no more of Christ and his Righteousness, than the chiming of Words in their Heads, and the sound of Phrases rolling in their Memories: They have heard of one Jesus Christ, and that is all; but they know him not. As to any Soul, Belief, and Conscience, Persuasion concerning him, his pardoning Grace and his Righteousness, they have as little as the very Heathens, that never heard of his Name: But they are worse than the Heathens, because they abuse his holy Name, to patronise their Lust and Wickedness.  
Object. 2. But I can show my Faith by my Works: I reform, hear, pray, meditate, weep, mourn for Sin, and profess: And have not I Faith then?  
Ans. Thou mayst do all these, very commendable in themselves, yet not growing on the root of Faith; and as trusted in, they are an abomination to the Lord. There is a vast difference between the Fruits of Holiness flowing from Faith, and good Works set up instead of Christ, the Object of Faith. Thou mayst do all these, and much more, and yet make Saviours of them, and so be voided of saving Faith, that looks to Jesus, and him alone at God's Right Hand for Salvation; and at last be damned for idolising thy good Works, as well as others are for wallowing in their Lusts: For all equally refuse the Lord Jesus, and will have none of him for Life and Salvation, but tread with like scorn and contempt, the offered Son of God under foot? There's not a Dram of Gospel-Holiness, nor one Evangelical good Work, but what flows from Faith in the Person and Righteousness of the once crucified, but now ascended, Jesus, at tho Father's Right Hand.  
Object 3. But for all my Reformation, Duties and Profession, I seek to Christ too.  
Ans. That is perhaps, as the common Proverb runs, You will set the Cart before the Horse. Your Duties and Righteousness shall led the Van, and Christ and his Righteousness shall bring up the Rear. You will put him to no other use, than to carry the Train of your ragged Robes of Righteousness, to patch up your Rags, and make up what is wanting in your Duties: But the Garment of Christ is seamless, and cannot be divided; but if it could be, that his new Cloth could be pieced to your old, the rent in yours would be the worse, Mat. ix. 16. Perhaps you are sensible of your inability to do, therefore ye look to him for assistance to help you to do for Life: But what says the Lord, The Just shall live by Faith, Rom. i. 17. You would have him be King over you, to subdue your Iniquities, that for your subdued Iniquities you may get to Heaven. But you must look to him by Faith to be saved, and then mortification of Sin, and Holiness shall be given in unto you. The High Priest under the Law had his Mitre and Crown on his Head, and his Urim and Thummim on his Breast, to typify, that the Lord Jesus executes his Kingly and Prophetical Office, by his Priestly Office; and all whom he instructs and subdues, he does it by shedding in the Faith and Hope,( either more or less) of their pardonned estate, through his Blood, into their Consciences. Again, do not you seek Christ because of your Reformation, Duties and Tears? If so, you bring your own Money in your Hands to buy Christ; and that's quiter contrary to the Proclamation the Lord makes of Heaven's Market, Isa. lv. 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth; that is, after the Things of the World, or their own Righteousness; for 'tis such thirsting, as ver. 2. calls spending Money for that which is not Bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not. These are summoned here to come to the Fair of the Almighty, where glorious Commodities are put to sale, Waters, Wine and Milk. But what price must the Buyers bring? No price at all. They that would speed in Heaven's Market, must come without Money and without price, Heb. xii. 13. Esau sought to buy Repentance with Tears, but he found no place for it. All buying in the meaning of Christ, is but accepting, and he gives the power to do that too: Therefore come to Christ as poor, blind, miserable, naked, vile, ungodly Wretches, and he will be Riches to the Poor, Eyes to the Blind, Happiness to the Miserable, clothing to the Naked, and Sanctification to the Vile and Ungodly. The voice of the Gospel is for the present time, 2 Cor. vi. 2. Now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of Salvation. Heb. iii. 18. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your Hearts. The Gospel does not say, Go home now, and pray, and mourn, and weep, and come to morrow, or next week, or next month, after you have prepared and qualified yourself with so much praying, mourning, weeping, repenting and reformation, then come to Christ; burr come now; now is the accepted time, now is the day and hour of Salvation. But, further, some may be ready to ask me,  
Quest. What is believing in Christ, or Faith in him?  
Ans. It would be too tedious now to answer the Question as it ought to be; I shall only briefly thus define it, and then make good my Definition. Faith, as strictly and properly taken, is a powerful Conscience-Perswasion wrought by God, concerning Christ and his Things, their excellency and suitableness to the Soul, and more or less concerning the Soul's Interest in them, according to the Word of God. Faith in the Original is 〈◇〉, from 〈◇〉 to persuade, and really signifies a persuading. 'Tis phrased in Old Testament-language, in Noah's prophesy, cencerning his Children, Gen. ix. 27. God shall persuade japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. And to the same purport 'tis phrased in the New Testament: 'tis said to be, 2 Cor. iv. 6. A light shining into a dark Heart; which is a persuasive Knowledge, called, Rom. i. 17. the Righteousness of God in the Gospel, revealed from Faith to Faith. 'Tis name, Rom. iii. 21. a manifestation without the Law of the Righteousness of God, ver. 25. styled a declaration of his Righteousness for the remission of Sins; and defined to be, Heb. xi. 1. The Evidence of things not seen, which are Christ and his Righteousness, which are wholly without us, not seen by our bodily Eyes, or natural Reason or Understanding. The Spirit in working Faith is said to take of Christ and his Things, and show them to the Soul, John xvi. 14, 15. God the Father, as the Worker of it, so is said to real his Son in the Soul, Gal. i. 16. Which Expressions evidently import a persuasive Knowledge. 2dly, This persuasion is an inward Conscience-Perswasion, and not only an Head Knowledge, or notional persuasion, Gal. i. 15. but when it pleased God, &c. ver. 16. to reveal his Son in me, &c. 1 John v. 10. He that believeth, hath the witness in himself; i.e. a Conscience-Testimony. 3dly, This Conscience persuasion is very powerful, for it instantly works a great change on the whole Man, Heart, Lip and Life: 'Tis a creating Power, 2 Cor. iv. 6. an exceeding great power, Eph. i. 19. and 'tis the Declaration of the King of Heaven to the Conscience; and where the Word of the King is, there is Power, Eccles. viii. 4. &c. And( as Divines say) in this the Soul is wholly passive, like a dark Room, that has light let into it from without. The object of this Faith is Christ, and the Things of Christ, as in that forementioned Place, John xvi. 14. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and show it unto you, ver. 15. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and show it unto you. The Rule of Faith is the written the Word of God, 2 Pet. i. 19, 20, 21. And this I take to be Faith strictly and properly taken. But there are inseparable Instantaneous Effects and Concomitants of this inward revelation of Jesus, which are also called believing, which is the Souls accepting of this manifested Jesus, and his Righteousness, venturing itself upon him, and committing itself to him; which Acts are set forth in Scripture by various phrases; as, Looking unto him, Isa. xlv. 22. Coming unto him, John vi. 37. Casting ourselves and burden upon him, Psal. lv. 22. Staying upon him, Isa. lviii 10. Leaning upon him. Cant. viii. 5. Trusting in him, and many more. And thus, I have answered this Question with all the brevity and perspicuity I could, as the Lord has enabled me, and as time would give me leave. And now, methinks, some are ready to ask in the words of the blind Man, whom Christ had restored to his Sight.  
Quest. But who is he that I might believe on him, John ix. 36. You say he must be seen and ventured on; pray then who is he?  
Answ. I shall answer you from the Sermons of the Apostles, preached by them after they were endowed with Power from on high. And first the Apostle Peter tells you who he is, Acts ii. 22, 23. Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God; him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and Fore-knowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked Hands have crucified and slain, comp. with 32. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all Witnesses. 33. Therefore being by the right Hand of God exalted, hath received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost. Once more, Acts v. 30. The God of our Fathers hath raised up Jesus, whom he slay and hanged upon a three, 31. Him hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of Sins. Add to these, Heb. xii. 2. Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who for the joy set before him[ in the saving of Sinners] endured the across, despising the shane, and is now set down at the right Hand of God. In short, he that was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh( Rom. i. 3.) who yet is God over all blessed for ever, Rom. ix. 5. That mighty glorious God-Man, who was born of a Virgin, that lived and preached in Judea, Rom. viii. 34. that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also ever lives to make intercession( Col. i. 18.) the first born from the dead( Col. i. 15.) and the first born of every Creature, the despised Jesus of Nazareth( Col. ii. 9.) in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily: And all the Glory, Excellency, Beauty and Majesty that shines on Jesus of Nazareth, is the Glory, Excellency, &c. of the Godhead. This is he, that blessed Object of your Faith, this is he whom you must believe in. When he lived on Earth, the Faith of his Children was more dark about his God-head than his human Nature, but now he is in Heaven, their Faith is more at a loss about his human Nature, and it is to be lamented that the glorified human Nature, even Jesus of Nazareth, is so little in the Preaching, Profession, Faith and Experience of God's own Children. But yet this is the Lord, whom we, thro' Grace, have seen and tasted to be gracious: Will not you too, O Sinners! come and taste and see how gracious he is? Cant. v. 16. This is our Friend, this is our Beloved, O Daughters of Jerusalem. He is altogether lovely, Cant. v. 10. He is the chief among ten thousand. He is able Heb. vii. 25. to save you to the uttermost. O come therefore and venture your Souls upon him, commit them to him: O that you would but try him! you have tried his Patience to the utmost, by your Rebellion and Obstinacy in Wickedness. O that you would but try his boundless Grace, by casting yourselves into the Ocean of it! You must venture on his Grace, or you must be damned, Mark xvi. 16. He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. If you accept not of this offered Jesus, you despise this only Sacrifice, and there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery Indignation, which shall devour the Adversary, Heb. x. 26.  
I am now come to the second Branch, the Believers triumphing over Death.  
And 1. The Believer triumphs over the Sting of Death, and what else does concur to make it.  
2. The Believer triumphs over every thing else in Death that is formidable.  
First, The Believer triumphs over the Sting of Death. He then can rejoicingly cry out, O Death, I fear thee not! thou art very harmless unto me. Thou comest indeed like a Dragon, with open Mouth; but where is thy Sting? I dread not that open Mouth, or that wide Throat. I with Joy am swallowed up of it, and pass thro' it up to the highest Heavens into my Redeemer's Arms. Here at this dark Portal, I undress myself of this mortal Flesh, and fly with holy Confidence to the Presence of the Lamb upon the Throne, and the Presence of God the Father in him, and the bright innumerable Company above in this full Assurance, that I shall not be found naked. Welcome Death, to dissolve and pull down this earthly House of my Tabernacle, that so I may go to my House, not made with Hands, the Building of God, eternal in the Heavens, 2 Cor. v. 1. Welcome sweet Messenger, that comest to fetch me home from this mad, confused, wicked, raging, tottering World, into my Father's House. I thank thee, O grim Porter! who openest the Gates to eternal Happiness. 'Tis true, the news of thy Approach did terrify me, as the Report of the Coming of rough blustering Esau, with his armed Men, did Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 6, 7. But yet now thou art come to me, I can say as he did, I behold thy black and grisly Face, Gen. xxxiii. 10. as the Face of the Angel of God, or the Messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ. For in thy black Face I see Beauty, in thy grisly Terrors great Glory. In thy Dragon's Mouth no Sting at all. O Death! where is thy Sting? Thus the Believer in dying triumphs over the Sting of Death.  
2. The Believer in dying triumphs over those things that go to make up the Sting of Death. And  
1. Over Sin. The Sting of Death is Sin, says the Words of my Text. And 1. In its Guilt. 2. In its Pollution. And  
1. Over the Guilt of Sin. Thus the Believer in dying glories over it: O Guilt of Sin! who in my Life-time, since my Conversion, notwithstanding I was washed with the Blood of Jesus, and he had obtained an eternal Redemption for me, didst often use to sting my Conscience, and thereby to fill me with Dread and Horror, and so didst weaken my Faith and Confidence in the Lord Jesus; didst strengthen the Hands of my Unbelief, in making me depart from the living God: Didst make me often come in Prayer to God as my angry Judge, and not as to my Father, reconciled to me in Christ. And thereby didst bind up my Soul, fetter my Spirits, so that I had no freedom of Access to God thro' Christ: Thou didst often deal with me as the Man that went from Jerusalem to Jericho; didst wound me and strip me, and leave me half dead: Didst often force me to entertain hard, murmuring and outrageous Thoughts against my dear Lord and Master Jesus, and my reconciled God and Father in him: Didst often make me add Iniquity to my Sin, and a carnal, loose, vain Conversation to my inward Deadness and Enmity; and when Death approached to bring me to a State of Perfection in Glory, didst represent him to me as a dreadful King of Terrors. But now Death is come, and has executed his Office, I welcome him, and laugh thee to Scorn. Free Grace has disarmed him of the Sting that thou wouldst have given him against me. I shall now no more be perplexed with thy Gripes: I shall now plainly see my Redemption eternal, and always the same, without as much as a Cloud as big as a Man's Hand to interpose. I shall never look off the Lord, my Righteousness, my Sanctification and Covering, but always behold my Father's reconciled Face in the Face of my beloved Jesus: I shall never depart from him any more: I shall now have perpetual Freedom and Enlargement of Soul before him: I shall never have an hard Thought of him any more, nor ever sin the least sin against him any more. farewell eternally, O Guilt of Sin! thou canst not enter into Heaven, where I am going. Thus I spurn thee now, mounting up into everlasting Glory.  
Death triumphs over the Pollution of sin, and makes a full End of Corruption and Iniquity. Then may the Believer cry, O filthy fink of Sin! thou shalt defile me no more. How often, even since Conversion, hast thou ravished my Virgin Soul? How oftentimes a day hast thou scattered thy Filth in my Conscience, and left an envenomed Taint there? How often, when I was going to approach an Holy God, didst thou appear in my Soul in thy ugly Colours, to terrify me, and to turn me aside from the living God? Yea, and though I often saw the Righteousness of Christ covering me, yet thou often filledst my Conscience with such a cloud of Filth and Stench, that that glorious Covering was hide from mine Eyes; but now thou shalt blind mine Eyes no more: I shall now have perfect uninterrupted Visions of that spotless beauteous Garment wraping me round, and that to all Eternity. Not the least spick of thee shall enter into Heaven; in my Father's House, I am entering into, there's nothing but complete Purity and Holiness: There is not the least Atom of Dirt in the Streets of the Jerusalem above. Here, thou filthy Load, I finally part with thee, I shall never be defiled any more with thee. Hallelujah, Amen. And thus the Believer triumphs over Sin; that is the Substance of the Sting of Death.  
Thirdly, The Believer triumphs over the Law, which the Words of my Text call the strength of Sin; and the Law, or the Covenant of Works, is the strength of Sin( though it be in itself holy, just and good) in a twofold respect. 1. It condemns the Soul, and tortures the Conscience; so drives the Soul farther from God, and increases the Enmity against him, and thereby puts the Soul more under the Power of Sin, enlarging and strengthening Sin's Dominion over it, Rom. vi. 16. Sin shall not have Dominion over you, for you are not under the Law, but under Grace. Where 'tis evidently implied, that to be under the Power of the Law, is to be under Sin's Dominion; and this is exemplified and proved plainly and clearly in the former Part of the seventh of the Romans, which I cannot now stay to open. 2. The Law judicially delivers the Soul up to the Will and Power of Sin by way of Punishment. Thus the Son of God is said to come in the Likeness of sinful Flesh, and for sin, or sinning, to condemn sin in the Flesh, Rom. viii. 3. Sin, by the condemning Law, has assigned it penally, as Executioner, a Power of sinning in the Soul; from which Sentence, only a crucified Jesus can free the Soul. The Law therefore as it is the strength of Sin, is a sore Exercise to the Believer, and the strength of the old Man, or the Body of Death in his Soul, all his life time; but in his Death he may thus glory over it. Thou Covenant of Works, thou killing Letter in my Conscience, though I was much freed from thee by the Law of Righteousness, which is of Faith, yet thou didst still work there gendering unto Bondage, opposing the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Gal. iv. 29. Thou that wast born after the Flesh, didst persecute that that was born after the Spirit, Gal. iv. 30. But now the Bond-woman and her Son shall be quiter cast out. Thou didst all my Life-time endeavour all ways to keep up Guilt in my Conscience, and if at any time removed, to do it away by Obedience to thee, by legal Sorrow and Contrition, by Resolutions to amend, and greater Watchfulness for the future. Whilst I was thereby diverted from making first Applications to the Blood of sprinkling, so that my fin was rather oftentimes compounded for, than in Faith washed away, in that Fountain that is opened for Sin and for uncleanness. Zech. xiii. 1. Whence I was not only diverted from continual Believing into a bleeding Jesus, but had my Conscience rather stupefied than healed, my sin made little, harmless and familiar, and rather encouraged, than a real dying unto it, and hence oftentimes my Soul cast into a deep Lethargy. But now I am absolutely freed from that Yoke of Bondage Mount Sinai in my Conscience, and I shall be made for ever, to Gal. v. 1. Stand fast in that Liberty, wherewith the Son hath made me free indeed, John viii. 36. Thus will the Believer in Death, triumph over the Law as it is the Strength of Sin.  
Fourthly, The Believer in Death may glory over the Justice of God, as it is armed with Vengeance against Sinners. The Believers are fully delivered in their life-time from the stroke of Divine Justice, yet they do oft-times not so fully apprehended it: But after Death, the Believer shall see as he is seen, apprehended as he is apprehended; and then be enabled to rejoice thus. Divine Justice, whilst I lived, though thou wast my Friend in Jesus, yet many times I dreaded thee as mine enemy; but now I plainly see that thou art my Friend indeed, and that it is just with thee to justify me in the Lord, my Righteousness, Rom. iii. 26. compared with Isa. xlv. 24, 25. Thy Sword that was pointed at my Breast, and should have now thrust me down to Hell, was received by my crucified Lord into his own Bowels, and I am now made for ever to escape, Being made more than a Conqueror through him that loved me, Rom. viii. 37. My dying Saviour in Falling, wrested thy Weapon out of thy Hand, and made his blessed Body a Grove, planted from thy poisonous Quiver, so that there is not an Arrow now left to spend upon me. I now come, O Justice, in the Right of my Lord, to sit for ever down in his heavenly Mansions; to sing Hallelujahs to that Righteous and true God for ever and ever.  
Fifthly, The Believer in Death may triumph over Satan. Satan, though a Soul is Translated out of his Kingdom, yet thro' his restless Enmity, is always seeking to de●our. He has wil●ss, Methods, and cunning Devices of Temptations to ensnare; imperious Suggestions, fierce Assaults, and fiery Darts to terrify; with these several ways of Attacks is the poor Believer harassed as long as he lives; but in Death he can insult over all. Thus then can the Believer vaunt it: Satan, thou hast long tortured me with throwing in wicked and blasphemous Suggestions, and then persuadedst me, to my great terror, I had sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost. Thou shalt no longer be able to throw in any more of thy fiery Insinuations. I am now beyond the reach of any of thy Darts. Thou hast always endeavoured to tempt me to Sin, and then to make me question my Interest. But now I shall sin no more, nor question my Interest any longer. I shall not now be tempted any more to Despair on the one hand, nor presume on the other. Thou darest not appear where I am going. Thou vile Satan, I shall be disturbed with thee no longer. I shall have no further Concerns with thee, till I come with my Lord to sit in judgement upon thee at the great Day.  
Sixthly, and lastly, The Believer can thus triumph over the World, which is the last thing that goes to make up the Sting of Death. Thou empty confused World, that didst use to terrify me with thy Threats, I defy thee and them now; thou wast wont to 'allure me with thy Flatteries: I am above their undermining now. I scorn thy Rattles, and thy painted Beads, and thy airy Bubbles. I dread not now thy haggard Face; nor shall I any more be moved with thine Enchantments. It will add to my Pleasure in my Mansions of Glory, to see thee burnt for thy Witchcraft; I shall no more dread thy mighty Hunters, nor be awed with thy grim Tyrants, nor be enslaved in Body, or Conscience, by thy bloody Laws, nor be harassed with brutish Executioners: There are no oppressing Magistrates, no Catch-poles, nor Informers in the place I now enter to. Nay, now I tread under foot all in thee, that is enticing; I set Health, Wealth, Pleasures, Honours, Friends, Relations and all in one Scale, and my dear Fore-runner in the other, and that Scale weighs down now to the Ground; I now go to the heavenly Jerusalem, and that better Country, where I shall have better Riches, and more durable Substance, better Honours, better Pleasures, and far better Relations. Thus will the Believer then triumph over Death, and whatsoever goes to make up the Sting of it.  
But Secondly, The Believer can triumph over every thing else in Death, that is formidable. To instance in one for many, Nature abhors a Dissolution, and the Soul, though it has but a bad Lodging, does not care to be turned out of Doors. Its tenement of Glay it cares not to be dislodged of, though its all over tattered, and needs Repairs. It shrinks back at entering into a new way of acting separate from the Body, when it has all the while been accustomend to act only by such an Organ. It has been used to such a poor Garment, yet as sorry as it is, it knows not how to be undressed of it, and made naked. Whereas now in the Moment of Death, that's over to the Believer: It can cry then like his Master giving up the Ghost, All is finished. It sees a better House to go to, upon its being dispossessed of this, even the Father's House, that has many Mansions. And a better Garment to be cloated with, even his elder Brother's glorious rob of curious Embroidery: And can triumph in the Words of the Apostle, varying a little the Form of speaking, 2 Cor. v. 1, 2. &c. I now see that my earthly House of this Tabernacle being dissolved, I have a Building of God, an House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens. In this I have groaned, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with my House which is from Heaven. I am sure, being so clothed, I shall not be found naked. I that in this Tabernacle did groan, being burdened, not for that I would be unclothed, but clothed upon; And now Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life.  
Thus the Believer triumphs over this Terror of Death, and every thing else in Death that is terrible. And thus I have finished the first Branch of my Doctrine, viz. That the Believer, in Death, triumphs over Death, in reference to his Soul. I should pass away now to various Uses, but time will not permit; I shall therefore wind up this Branch with one Word of Exhortation to poor Sinners.  
O you poor perishing Sinners, over whom my Bowels yearn! In my Master's Name I beg, that you would suffer a Word of Exhortation. You must needs be all persuaded firmly of this, that you must once die, and you know not how soon: You may perhaps go to bed well, and never see Morning. Would you then in that Instant of Time avoid being insulted over by Death, and triumph over that cruel Dragon, Death and fatal Sting; then look up to that brazen Serpent, the blessed Jesus, erected on the Pole of God's Word, the only Hope, set before you in the Gospel. O fly to it for Refuge! Would you glory over that King of Terrors, and all his Dread, 2 Tim. ii. 1. Be strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus. Would you die the Death of the Righteous; then you must live the Life of the Righteous; and we are  told what that is, Rom. i. 17. The Just shall live by Faith. Believe in the Lord Jesus, the exalted Prince and Saviour, and his God like Righteousness; and earnestly beg of the Lord for the Revelation of the Righteousness of God to you from Faith to Faith, Rom. i. 17. That so when that Faith is going to be swallowed up of Vision, you may triumph over Death, and all its Terrors, in respect of your precious and immortal Soul.   

The Second SERMON.  1 Cor. xv. 55. 
O Grave! where is thy Victory.  
SOME of you may remember, that from the Words opened and explained, I raised this general Observation. That every true Believer, in the Moment of his Death, can triumph over Death and the Grave, as well in reference to his Soul as to his Body.  
I divided it into two Branches; the first whereof was this: That a Believer in the Moment of his Death, can triumph over Death in respect of his Soul, which I have dispatched and now proceed to handle the Second, viz.  
That a Believer in Death can triumph over the Grave, in respect of his Body.  
I judge it most convenient to use the same Method in the Prosecution of this Branch, as I did in the former, viz. to illustrate it by its contrary; and therefore lay it down thus to be spoken to.  
The Grave can triumph over the Unbeliever's Body; but the Believer can triumph over the Grave, in respect of his Body.  
Sinners are apt to make Gods of their Bodies, honouring them excessively with Food, raiment, Lodging, and the like; and to glory in the Health, Beauty and Strength of their Bodies; but the Grave will trample upon all these. Instead of delicious Wine, and choice Dainties, the Grave will fill their Mouths and Bellies with Dust: Their Silks, and Laces, and abominable impudent whorish Head-dresses, their proud and lofty Crests shall be exchanged for stinking Rottenness, odious Filth, and crawling Maggots. And instead of their stately Houses and Down-Beds, they must be content to take up with a dark Hole, and a could Bed of day. The most vigorous Health then is vanished; a little pitiful vermin can there deal with the stoutest Hector, and the strongest samson. The fairest Face will soon prove as dismal there as the foulest Monster. The most exquisite Beauty look as squallid, and as horrid as the ugliest Blackamoor; and none shall be able to see any Difference between the rotten Skull of the one and the other. But having spoken somewhat to these things already, and being desirous to hasten to other Matter, I shall here put a Conclusion to this, and only add three or four Things to be considered in. Death, wherein Death and the Grave triumphs over a Sinners Body, but the Believer triumphs over Death and the Grave, &c. I shall speak to both the Contraries together by way of Antithesis.  
1. Natural Death to the Wicked is an entrance to eternal Death, Heb. ix. 27. And 'tis appointed to Men once to die, but after this, the judgement. The Righteous Law of God has so ordered it for Sinners, that Death, as a Sergeant shall arrest and cast their Bodies to the Grave, as to a Dungeon, there to be reserved in Death's Chains to the judgement of the Great Day. But natural Death to the Godly is a Passage to eternal Glory: And Death, like a skilful chemist, takes their Bodies, and puts them into the alembic of the Grave, and there distills them into pure Spiritual and Glorious Bodies against the Great Day; but more of this hereafter.  
2. Natural Death to the Wicked, is a part of the penal Sentence of the Law, Gen. ii, 17.— For in the Day that thou catest thereof, thou shalt surely die. The Law threatened a threefold Death, spiritual, temporal and eternal. The Hebraism in the Original is emphatical to the Purpose, dying thou shalt die. To me having this Force, dying in thy Body, thou shalt die eternally in thy Soul. 'Tis evident, that to the Ungodly, natural Death is a part of that punishment inflicted by the righteous Law of God? and what Death is, the Grave is the same. If one be the Law's Jaylor to the Body, the other is the Law's Prison. But to the Godly 'tis far otherwise: For as Death has lost his Sting to them, so has the Grave: 'Tis not to them penal, but purely natural; the putting off the old Adam, that the second Adam may take possession of the whole Body. The Apostle in 1 Cor. 15. discoursing of the Necessity of the natural Death of Believers, argues thus, That the old Adam had first took possession of the Elect Vessels Bodies, ver. 46. That what of the old Adam is there, is earthly, and tends to Earth and Dissolution. Ver. 47. It being the proper Nature thereof. Ver. 48. Concludes thus, That the Image of the old Adam on the Body, must be wholly laid aside, and that by Death; so that the Image of the second might take sole and full Possession. Ver. 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthy, we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly.  
3 Natural Death is a separation of the Body from all Life; and thus it is to the Wicked: Their Dust dwell alone in the Grave, united to nothing, only there reserved by an Almighty Power of God, in an extraordinary way, for the Glory of his Justice hereafter. But the Dust of the Godly in their Graves, are united to the Body of Christ now in Heaven, and there is held still a secret Correspondence between their scattered Dust and the Life of Jesus, who in this sense, is the Resurrection and the Life. John xi. 25. To make this more evident, 'tis to be considered, 1. That the Person of the Believer, both Body and Soul, in the first act of Faith, is united to the Person of Christ; yea, joined to the Body of Christ, Rom. vii. 4.2. That by virtue of this Union, the second Adam takes Possession of the Body as well as the Soul, as proved before from 1 Cor. xv. 45, to 50, especially 46. Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual; but that which is natural, and afterward spiritual. Observe that the Apostles Discourse must be here confined to the Bodies of the Saints, for it is the Resurrection of their Bodies he is a proving. 3. The Believer holds his natural Life upon another tenor than he did formerly, even from the second Adam, by virtue of his Implantation into him. The great Apostle Paul, in the 2 Cor. 4. declaring how his Body had been supported in the Work of Christ, under all Perils, Pains, Watchings, Labours, Imprisonments, &c. almost insupportable, declares the Cause, ver. 10. That it was from the Life of Jesus made manifest in his Body, repeating the same in the last Clause of the 11th Verse, only instead of Body, there he writes mortal Flesh: All which thus explained, does evidently prove, that the Bodies of the Saints derive now their natural Life in great measure from another Root. 4. As an undeniable Consequence of this, that that Life the Body holds from Christ, does not quiter vanish, as that of the first Adam does; but is gathered up into Christ, and retreats back to him the Root, as the Sap of Trees in Winter Time falls down from the Branches to the Root. And I take that to be the Meaning of that Place of holy Writ; or at least I may allude to it, Col. iii. 3. Your Life is hide with Christ in God, especially because of the following Verse, when Christ who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in Glory; which Glory respects the Body as well as the Soul. 'Tis to me plain that there is a secret Commerce between the Living glorious Body of an exalted Jesus, and the Dust of a deceased Believer, which may be further proved from Mat. xxii. 31, 32. The Argument Christ himself uses to prove the Resurrection of the Dead, and the force of his Argument I apprehended to lie here: That God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, though dead: That God is not the God of the Dead, but of the Living, therefore, that though Abraham, Isaac, &c. were dead, yet they were still united to the living God, and by virtue of those secret Beams of Life from him( the inseparable Effects of that Union) that still corresponded with, and preserved their mouldered Bodies in the Grave, they should be raised up at the last Day. This sense of the Place seems to be confirmed from the Answer of our Lord Jesus to Martha's Objection against the present Resurrection of her Brother, John xi. 24. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the Last Day. Ver. 25. Jesus saith unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life, &c. As if he should have said, thou grantest that I can raise him up at the last Day; but how? Is it not by virtue of that Union that is between his dead Body, and my living Body? If then, I will be his Life, and therefore his Resurrection. I am now his Life, and consequently can be now his Resurrection. I shall add that Argument, the Lord, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Life abides and dwells in a Believer for ever, in his Body as well as his Soul. 1 Cor. vi. 19. What, know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, &c. If it be granted then, that he does still in-dwell in the separate Soul of the Believer, why not, in a sense, in the separate Body too? He brooded formerly over the Chaos, till it was formed into a beautiful Creation; and why not in like manner over the Dust, till the appointed time of actual Life by the Father comes? But,  
4. Natural Death tends to an utter Abolition. Natural Death in itself, tends to an utter Consumption of the Body, and that by Steps retrogade to the Methods of the first Creation. First, There was a Chaos created, and then that disposed and digested into a very beautiful and lovely Frame; but Death deals thus with Man, the Epitome of the Creation, reduces the fair Structure to a Chaos, or Heap of Dust, and then commits it to the Grave to annihilate it. And so would the Bodies of Sinners be amnihilated, especially in the universal Conflagration; but that, as has been afore mentioned, the God of Nature by his infinite Power preserves and fits them to be Vessels of Wrath for Destruction, and at last raises them, that they might be for ever miserable Companions to their miserable Souls, on which he might make the Power of his Vengeance known to all Eternity. That as the Body has been a Companion to the Soul in sinning, so it shall be World without end, in suffering. But as to the Bodies of the Saints, it is otherwise. Death only sows their Bodies into the Ground, that they might be quickened again into more glorious Bodies, 1 Cor. xv. 36, 37. compare with 42, 43 &c. And pulls down the old tottering House, that it may be built up a more glorious fabric in the Day of Resurrection, and they shall arise then from the refining alembic of the Grave, with several wonderful Advantages; especially these five,  
1 Then Corruptibility shall put on Incorruptibility, 1 Cor. xv. 53. For this Corruptible must put on Incorruption, and when thrown into the Grave corruptible Bodies then shall be raised incorruptible— Ver. 42. Sown in Corruption, raised in Incorruption. The Bodies of the Saints shall have no tendency to decay any more; no more shall the Bodies of the Wicked: but here will be the Difference; the Bodies of the Saints will be unpassible, and will not be capable of suffering Pains; but the Bodies of the Wicked, though not apt to decay, yet will be the Seat of eternal Pains and Torments.  
2. Then Immortal shall put on Immortality, 1 Cor. xv. 53, 54. And the Bodies of the Saints sown mortal, shall rise immortal. There will be no dying in the new Jerusalem above, nor decaying, nor fading; but Bodies as well as the Spirits of the Just being made perfect, shall endure the same in that glorious State to all Eternity. 'Tis true, the Bodies of Unbelievers shall never die more; but their Living and Continuing will be a constant Dying. They will be dying to all Eternity, but never absolutely die; and happy would it be for them, if they could altogether cease to be. But on the Bodies of Believers, the second Death can have no Power at all. As for instance, The last Enemy that Christ will destroy for them, will be Death, 1 Cor. xv. 26. And then Death will be swallowed up in Victory, 1 Cor. xv. 54.  
3. Then natural Flesh will put on Spirit, 1 Cor. xv. 44. It is sown a natural Body, it is raised a spiritual Body, There is a natural Body, and there is a spiritual Body. Not that these natural Bodies in the Saints shall be turned into the very Essence of Spirits; but they shall come as near their Natures as 'tis possible, for corporeal Substances to come. So says our Lord himself, in answer to the Sadducees Cavil, Mat. xxii. 30. For in the Resurrection, they neither mary, nor are given in Marriage; but are as the Angels of God in Heaven. i. e. They shall be as near to the Nature of Angels as is possible. They will be of a purer and more incompound Substance, than the purest Elements of Fire: They will be endowed then with wonderful agility and celerity, and their motion surpassing swift; probably they will fly then as swift as Thought. We experience that our Thoughts now speed in an Instant to the farthermost Regions of the Earth, whilst the heavy Log of a Body stays behind, and can go no faster than its Legs can carry it, or some more artificial means. But doubtless then our Bodies, that believe will be fitted to keep place with our glorified Souls, in all their Motions, for the Glory of Christ, not hindered by Sicknesses and Ails, nor made slow with any weakness, imperfection, or mutilation. The Sun is swift in his race; but what is his race compared to that of the glorified Bodies of the Saints then!  
Fourthly, Dishonour then will put on Honour, and that that is sown in Dishonour will be raised in Glory, 1 Cor. xv. 43. Then they will be in part clothed with the Glory that is upon the Body of an exalted Jesus. 'Tis true, there will be difference in degrees, though not in kind: For as there is one Glory of the Sun, another Glory of the Moon; and another Glory of the Stars: For one Star differeth from another Star in Glory, 1 Cor xv. 41. So the Glory of the Body of Christ, will be as the Glory of the Sun; and the Glory of the Bodies of his Children, like the Glory of the Stars, all shining in Brightness, splendour and Majesty, though not equally alike. When Christ appeared with Moses and Elias in the Transfiguration on the Mount, the Glory then on his Body is set forth, as in a Glass: His Face did shine as the Sun, and his raiment was white as the Light, Mat. xvii. 2. So will the risen Bodies of the Saints be, shining brighter than the Sun, whiter than the purest Light. That, that is sown in Dishonour, as afore hinted, will be raised in Glory. They that are laid in the Earth, ●… le Infants, will be raised in full growth and perfect stature; they that be entombed decrepit, old and deformed, shall rise again well-shaped, vigorous and beautiful. They that drop to the Grave poor, tattered, Servants and Slaves, shall come out from thence rich, free and illustrious, greater than Kings and Emperors: Then indeed in a literal sense the Eyes of the Blind shall be opened, the Ears of the Deaf be unloosned, the Lame shall leap as an Hart, and the Tongue of the Dumb shall sing for Joy, Isa. xxxv. 5, 6. &c. For the Bodies of the risen Believers that are now wrapped up in Dishonour, shall be then clothed with the highest Honour.  
Fifthly, Then weakness shall put on Strength; and that that is sown in weakness, shall be raised in power, 1 Cor. xv. 43.  
Then the Coward shall be valiant, and the Feeble exceeding strong; their Strength and Courage will be very near angelic then. We red, that an Angel destroyed an hundred thousand in one Night; and how great, ineffably great, will be the Strength and Power of the spiritual Bodies of the risen Saints in that Day! But having spoken of this dispersedly afore under other Heads, I shall now add no more thereunto; nor mention several other Advantages that the Bodies of the Saints shall arise with, that I might insist on: For these are sufficient to evince, that Believers can triumph over the Grave in respect of their Bodies.  
Thus having dispatched the Doctrinal part, I now proceed to the Application, which I briefly intend to finish in three or four Inferences: The two first will particularly relate to the last branch of the Doctrine: The two last will respect the whole Doctrine in general.  
1. Infer. The first Inference is, for the Comfort of Believers against Death. If it be so that their dead Bodies can thus triumph over the Grave, what else is there in their Death that seems terrible? As for their Souls, they are then instantly lodged in the Mansions prepared for them above: But if their Bodies are thus also excellently provided for, every thing in Death is to be contemned. Nor need we shrink at the Pangs that usually attend Death; they are but the Cracks of a tattered House, blown up in order to be rebuilt a stately edisice; or rather a Groan or two at farewell, between two parting Friends that have been long loving Companions together, but now must be separated for a great Season, that they might meet again to the greater advantage of both, and these are the Body and the Soul. And Death is no less to be scorned coming by his terrible Messengers, Fire, Sword, Gibbets, Poison, or the like: When he uses Instruments, he is generally more courteous and gentle in his Dealings, and quicker of dispatch. A torrid malignant Fever, or a Torture of several Weeks or Months by the ston, Gout, or Strangury, have dealt more cruelly with a body in dissolving it, than the Spanish Rack, or Parisian Wheel have done. So that consider Death in all its affrighting Circumstances, it need not be at all frightful to the dying Believer.  
2. Infer. The second Inference is, for the Comfort of Believers, against the tiresome fatigue of Pains, Sicknesses and Infirmities. The comfortable Consideration is this: That all Pains and Maladies prepare and hasten the Body for the place of refining; as they are Nature's Suffering, so they are the effect of Grace mellowing the whole Man for Glory: They in whom Grace shines most, are commonly most infirm in their Bodies; for the Souls that are most on the Wing for God, whose Graces are most vigorous in their Exercise, eat out sooness the Tenement of day. As the painful feeling of the Body of Death within, is the nailing of the old Man to the across by the new Creature, and Corruption painfully felt and odiously seen, is Corruption a mortifying; proved by the Apostle, Rom. vi. 5. where he calls the mortification of Sin, a being planted into the likeness of the Death of Christ; which was a painful and shameful, as well as a cursed Death: v. 6. he calls it the crucifixion of the old Man, and the destruction of the Body of Sin; that of Galat. ii. 20. being added thereunto, and compared with Rom. vii. from the 15th ver. to the end, particularly ver. 24. compared with ver. 25. From all which places, 'tis evident, that the painful feeling of Unbelief, and the Body of Death within, is Unbelief and the Body of Death crucified, and the dying tiger roaring in the Soul. The inward Blows of that Nature we feel, are Stabs at Heart given to inbred Corruption by the second Adam: So the pains Believers feel in their Bodies are but as so many blows the second Adam gives there to the first, in order to drive him out, and take up the whole Room for himself. Comfort thyself then with these words, thou sick Believer, under thy tedious malady and and sore pains, or with such arguings as these: These Pangs indeed are sharp, but they will after yield peaceably and blessed Fruits, for 'tis in order that that which is earthly may be done away; that that which is spiritual may fill up all in all; 'tis for the refining of Flesh and Blood; for Flesh and Blood, as now circumstanced, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither Corruption inherit Incorruption, 1 Cor. xv. 50. I will be patient under my greatest pains then, since their tendency is to eat out Corruption in my Body, so that it might inherit eternal Glory, together with my Soul in incorruption.  
The other remaining Inferences relate to the whole Doctrine, as laid down in the first Sermon.  
1. Infer. That the Doctrine is a cogent motive to Holiness in Life and powerful Godliness in Conversation. If so be that a Believer can triumph over Death and the Grave, in reference to his Soul and Body, then the unspeakably free, rich, glorious Grace of God in Christ manifested in him, and believed into, must needs oblige the Man or Woman to all manner of holy Conversation. When Men have said all they can, against the Doctrine of Free Grace, impiously branding it with the Names of Antinomianism and Licentiousness, yet this is undeniable from the experience of the most Godly, as well as from the Word of the Lord, that nothing constrains to all manner of holy Obedience, like the Love of Christ revealed to the Conscience, and the Love of the Father in his Love. All that are most Godly, can say what is said of the Woman in the Gospel; they weep much, and do much, as she, Luke vii. 44, 47. because they love much; and they love much, because much is frankly forgiven them. This is certain, that the inherent Holiness of the Soul, is the strength of the Soul, and the strength of the inward Sanctification of the Soul, depends upon looking to, by Faith, that Grace that is in Christ. Thou therefore, my Son, be strong within,[ 〈◇〉] 2. Tim. ii. 1, 5. in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus, viz. at God's right hand. 'Tis not said, Be strong in the Grace that is in yourselves, for that is to seek the living among the dead, a living Christ in our dead Frames, when he is never to be found there for he is risen, and ever lives at the Father's right Hand, to make intercession for his Children, and a constant steady looking to him there, always interceding, and still full of Grace and Truth; 'tis that will carry on the work of Sanctification in the Soul. The spiritual Life of a Believer is from Faith, and maintained by Faith. It is written, The Just shall live by Faith, Rom. i. 17. Gal. iii. 11. Heb. x. 38. Faith is said to purify the Heart, Acts xv. 9. to sanctify, viz. the whole Man, Acts xxvi. 18. and Faith always respects Christ and his Grace. The Blood of Christ, i.e. pardoning Grace in the Blood of Christ, received into the Conscience by believing, is affirmed to purge the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God, Heb. ix. 14. The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation, and hath appeared to all Men in the Gospel, but as revealed unto the Consciences of them, that believe, teaching them, that denying ungodliness and worldly Lusts, they should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World, Tit. ii. 11, 12. And the God of all Grace in manifesting his Grace to the Soul, that he has called it to eternal Glory by Jesus Christ does go on to make perfect, establish, strengthen and settle the Soul: Which Expressions, comprehend all the Work of Sanctification, in its several parts and degrees, till it arrives to the fullness of the stature of a perfect Man in Christ Jesus. 'Tis apparent from these and several other places of the holy Scriptures, that the Grace that is in us, proportionably, rises and falls to the believing Views we have of the Grace that is in the Heart of Christ towards us, and in the Hand of Christ to give us. To draw towards a close in this matter: This is it I aim at, that our inherent Righteousness within us, is begun and carried on by Faith in the imputed Righteousness of Christ without us: These two are every way distinct, yet so as the former still flows from the latter. The alwise God has so ordered it in the dispensation of his Grace, that his free Grace shall be magnified, and the Righteousness of his Son highly valued and advanced. Were the only use of Christ's Righteousness( and indeed that is a great use of it) to secure eternal Glory for us, we should be tempted to have little recourse to it by Faith; for that being once done, and our state secured, corrupt nature would be apt to insinuate to us there would be no great need of such frequent viewing that God-like Righteousness without us, wherein we stand, it being that that is so contrary to Flesh and Blood. But now our Holiness in every step of it depending upon the Righteousness of Christ being apprehended by the Soul in believing; it must, or it ought, to necessitate us to have constant recourse, by continued Acts of believing to this glorious Righteousness all the day long. Since it is thus, that every dram of true Gospel-Holiness flows into the Soul only this way: The Apostle affirms it three times, That now the Just shall live by Faith; which Life, 'tis evident, he means to be a Life spiritual, or Life of Holiness here. And 'tis necessary that the Work of Holiness be carried on continually and constantly; and therefore that we believe in Christ and his Righteousness always. The reason of all is this: The Lord will have the Righteousness which is of Faith, the imputed Righteousness of his Son always viewed, believed in, and admired by us. So that hence you may believe the Doctrine of Free-Grace does not tend to Licentiousness( as Satan in various Instruments clamours against it) but the quiter contrary. Such undeserved super-abounding Grace to pardonned Sinners, being the main motive unto Holiness of Heart, Lip and Life. The Apostle plainly affirms, Rom. vi. 14. That the Souls being brought under Grace, breaks Sin's Dominion therein, i.e. e. the Soul being brought in believing under the powerful influence of that Grace that Reigns through Righteousness unto eternal Life, by Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. v. 21.  
2. Infer. The second and last use is, for the encouragement of Sinners; yea, the chiefest worst and vilest to come to Christ from the glorious Grace that is held forth in the Doctrine. The Believers, that thus have, and can triumph over Death and the Grave, were once Sinners as you; may be some of them as vile as the vilest of you. Come you, therefore, and taste and see how gracious our Lord the Redeemer is, Come you and join with us in a perpetual Covenant to serve the Lord. Accept of the peace of the Gospel, and make a venture upon an offered Jesus: Oh come you, the worst of you, and live the life of Faith like the Just, and you shall die the Death of the Righteous, to triumph over all in Death. Whatever your Objections can be, this astonishing Free-Grace can answer them all. Infinite Wisdom has permitted all along prodigious Mountains of Opposition to rise in the way of Grace, on purpose that that Grace of God may declare itself boundless by triumphing over all. Thus tho' it was designed from all Eternity, that free Grace should have all the Honour in making the Elect happy: Yet a Law for Life was set up, that through the Breaches thereof, Sin might be suffered to enter; Sin, that odious thing that was such an affront to the whole Godhead, and brought so great an eclipse on his manifest Glory, was suffered, I say, to enter, that electing Grace might be magnified in mounting above it. And the Law entered once again on Mount Sinai, that so Sin might abound, on purpose that Free Grace, might super-abound, and reign and triumph over all. Free-Grace and electing Love does not only, like Jordan, overflow all its Banks, but like the mighty Deluge, cover the tops of the highest Mountains of Opposition in the World. Therefore what Objections, O Sinners, can you have against bowing down to the Grace offered in the Gospel. O harden not your Hearts, but now hear ye his Voice? Know assuredly this, That objecting against your acceptance of the Grace of Christ( be your Objections never so specious) is no other but a gain saying of Christ. O do not rebel and gainsay against the wide opened and stretched forth Arms of eternal Mercy and Compassion that now is extended to you. Be thou the vilest on the face of the Earth, yet as vile as thou has obtained Mercy. There are on Record instances of Sovereign Grace, greater than any of you can be: What think you of Adam? I durst almost engage to answer all thine Objections thou vilest Sinner, from that single Precedent. You say you are the greatest of Sinners; you cannot be greater than he, who was the Arch-Rebel and traitor, who lead his whole Race into an horrid Rebellion against God, yet he found Mercy. Ay, but your Sins are great; not greater than his, who, in one Sin, was guilty of the highest Ingratitude, the most monstrous Unbelief, and the most devilish Pride and Discontent, &c. besides his breaking the whole Moral Law in that one Sin. Yet you may say, My Sins are many. I answer, That first Sin of his was a pregnant Monster, millions of Legions in it. But you'll reply, I sinned against Knowledge: So did he, against the most perfect Knowledge of God and his Will; yes, and against the most perfect enjoyment of God too; that is more than you can do. But you will object, I have sinned grievously. I reply, Adam was reeking hot in his deep-dy'd Iniquity, when Mercy stepped in. True, say you, but I have shunned Mercy: So did he, when he fled to hid himself in the Garden. But you may again object, I have extenuated mine heinous Sins, instead of abhorring myself for them. Indeed you have done ill; yet though thou hast done as evil as thou couldst, yet do not let that discourage thee from accepting of offered Mercy; which to refuse is the greatest Sin of all: So did he, and charged God with it too. The Woman thou gavest me, &c. yet he found Mercy; and why not you? Many other things of this nature might be added, but that I am now bound to the greatest brevity. What shall I add, the case of Paul, who was an injurious Person, a Persecutor and a Blaspemer, yet he obtained Mercy; or the case of Mary Magdalene, who had seven Devils; of the Woman of Canaan, and the Woman mentioned Luke 7. &c. who were all three notorious Sinners, yet Sovereign Grace was extended to them. Let me add but one instance more, and that is fresh in your Memories; the case of Mr. bog, whose late decease gives the occasion to this Discourse, and the present Solemnity. His Death-bed attended with the manifestation of such Sovereignty of Grace and Power from above, has alarmed the Neighbourhood. And you seem all to be in a surprise, and at a gaze about the things you have seen and heard relating thereunto: I shall therefore give as an exact account of the whole as has come into my Hands, that though he be dead, he may yet speak to you. And tho' in the Account I shall give, it will be necessary to touch upon his former Life, yet it shall be done with a favourable Hand, only so much as may tend to the advancment of that glorious Free-Grace manifested towards him: But ere I begin, I must antidote my Hearers with this Caution; because it pleased the Lord to magnify his glorious Grace towards him on his Deathbed, that none of you dare to presume from thence to put off your coming to Christ till a Death-bed season. 'Tis not, defer Believing till a dying Time. I durst almost venture to say, That whoever encourage themselves to continue in ways of Impenitency from this example, have breaking forth upon them the black Marks and Tokens of final Rejection. It was well observed by one, one Thief on the across, in his dying Moments, obtained Grace, that none might despair; and but one, that none might presume: So but one Mr. bog perhaps in an Age, that none may think when they have lived all their Life time, to Sin, they shall with ease, and at pleasure, die to Christ. Thus having given this Caution, I now proceed to my Narrative.   

A NARRATIVE OF Mr. BIGGS's Conversion, &c.  
MR. bog, when married to worthy Mr. Browning's Daughter, was very sober and well inclined, and by some, thought to be Godly. But it appeared in some time after, the Work was but outward; for being lead aside by vain Company, and being at first( as it was thought, and he expressed it to some) filled with dreadful Horrors for it, he fell into a woeful Security, and continued hardened in Sin, especially that of Company-keeping for several Years. At last he was surprised with a lingering Distemper, that brought him nigh to the Gates of Death; during which time, he continued stupid and unconcerned about his Soul; but it pleased the Lord that then he recovered, and continued well for about two Years, or above; but then fell into a dangerous Relapse, and then there appeared, pretty early in him, some Concernment about his Soul, though he kept it very secret; as indeed he was by Nature reserved, close, and of few Words, except he was amongst his Company, and distempered in his Head. The first time he was seen to be apparently concerned, was upon this following Occasion: It has pleased the alwise God, whose ways are in the Deep, and whose Judgments are past finding out, to lay his heavy Hand upon a Child of his, of twelve years of Age,( who is known to be very gracious) in that strange and unusual Distemper that hath seized many others; which Dispensation of God towards us, makes us to be taken up into the Mouths of Talkers, and to be gazed and wondered at by many, who pass their Censures variously, as they are disposed. Though we desire humbly to acquiesce in the Will of the Lord, waiting for his Salvation, not in the least questioning, but he will eminently glorify himself in the Issue, as he has already in some Measure, blessed be his Name, and then they that have reproached us, shall see, and hear, and be ashamed. The Distemper afflicting the Child with Light-headedness,( the first Effect of it in that kind, as was observed on her) she talked of divers things, and amongst the rest, of what good People there were in the Neighbourhood that she loved; and amongst the rest, she said her Mother was good, and would go to Heaven; but being asked concerning her Father, whether she thought her Father would go to Heaven; she replied, she desired he might: Hereupon Mr. bog being called, and she again in his Presence asked, what she said of her Father? Nothing, says the Child, very gravely and awfully, but that I wish his eternal Good! which Words fell upon him with such Power and Weight, that it cast him into great Passion of Weeping for some time. About that time, being very restless in the Night, said to his dear Relation, he needed to have something: It was answered( supposing he meant physic) that nothing would do him more good than a little Sleep. He replied, yes, a little Hope would do me more good. It was  told him, true! a little good Hope through Grace, would do you more good Indeed. Remember that Place of Scripture, Isa. xlv. 22. Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the Earth? For I am God, and there is none else. He presently answered, That was not so easily done, and then continued, These Words have run in my Mind of late to terrify me; Because I have called, and you have refused, &c. And many dreadful Scriptures altogether. Then he was  told, That Christ was able to save to the uttermost. Yes, said he, and able to destroy to the uttermost too. Then he ended( speaking nothing of Soul Matters, but what the Force of Terror one while, and Joy another while made him. Some time after he was again complaining; which, whilst he was doing, he was acquainted, That his Condition was hopeful, though painful: It being added, Time was, when you have been under God's Hand, and in great Danger, and to my Apprehension, was Stupid and Sottish. He answered, Yes, it was so. Then being asked, if he had not some Hope? he replied, that sometimes he was ready to think that if God had had a Purpose to destroy him, he would have done it before now. Nor long after, as he was going to Bed one Night, he asked one, what she thought of him, as to his Living? she answered, she did not know what the Lord would do with him: As to Sense, you are not like to be long in this World( he then being very weak.) And must I die then? said he: Oh, I dare not die! I dare not die! Oh! 'tis an aweful thing to die, &c. Some short time after, whilst he was in his bitter Complaints, several Scriptures were laid afore him to encourage his Believing into Christ. He said, right! if it had been in time; but it is too late now. He was answered, it was not too late, seeing the Lord had opened his Eyes on this side of the Grave, and made him see his Need of Christ. He said, yes, it is too late; for I have had the proffer of Christ, and the same Tenders of Salvation with others. And I would not have Christ then, and therefore it is just with God to deny him to me now. But one added, you can justify God under all. Oh! Ay, said he: Oh! Ay. He that hath born so many years Provocations at my Hands— I will speak well of him as long as I live, however he deals with me. Another time he desired that Scripture might be turned to, Phil. iii. 12. That I may apprehended that for, which also I am apprehended of Christ. Methinks, said he, it bears this Sense: That Christ must first take hold of the Soul, before the Soul can take hold of Christ. A little before he kept his Bed, he said to his Wife: Dear, What must I do; There is no way for me but to close with Jesus Christ, and I cannot do it, I cannot do it. I do not know either whether I am willing to be saved by Christ or no. May be, if I should recover, things would wear off. Oh! I dread the Thoughts of it. If I may but live till I have obtained Mercy, I shall think I have lived long enough. But Oh! the Thoughts how few find Mercy at last, would make any ones Heart to ache. It being on the Heart of his dear Relation to sand to the Church of Christ at Rothwell, to pray for him, acquainted him with it; asking him, if it was not his Desire also. He answered, he thought of it some Days afore, but durst not be so bold as to mention such a thing; but did desire they should seek the Lord for him, that he might close savingly with Jesus Christ, and have a true Godly Sorrow and Repentance, never to be repented of. Now we are drawing towards the close of his Life. The Friday before he departed, he could scarce rise, being exceeding weak; but he began to be very earnest about his Soul. He spake thus to Mrs. bog, The Prayers of God's People are a great support to me; I always had a great Esteem of the Prayers of God's People. That Night he was confined to his Bed; when he was laid in it, he said very awfully, I shall rise no more till the Trumpet sounds. When in Bed, he was complaining of the greatness of his Sins; he was taken up by one, saying, Whether he thought his Sins so great, as that there was not enough in Christ to pardon? No, says he, I will not reflect such Dishonour on the blood of Christ, as to think so. I know there is an effectual plaster prepared; but if not applied, what then; A little after he broke forth into this Expression, As there is a fullness of Sin in me, so there is much more fullness in Christ to Pardon. However that Night he continued very restless, his Distress being such, he could scarcely lay his Eyes together: And in the Morning( which was Saturday) he spoken in great Agony, I must die, and have not the least bit of Hope. Being then advised to venture on Christ, and cast himself upon him, as one able to save to the uttermost: He with a Countenance, that witnessed huge inward Grief, replied, it was too late. His dear Relation answered him thus, It is not too late. God has opened your Eyes on this side the Grave, and made you see your need of Christ; therefore 'tis not too late; but he calleth you now. He presently spake thus, Shall I venture then upon Christ? It was answered him, He must. Then having paused, his Countenance more composed and cheery, he spoken resolvedly, I can but perish— then stopped. Then his dear Wife observing his Words and Countenance, said, Hope is a Dawning. He quickly replied, I hope it is, and soon after burst forth into high Acclamations and Expressions of spiritual Joy, and Admirations of the free Grace of God as Strength would permit. But he was much afflicted, that he had not Strength nor Breath to speak of God's free Grace to him, that the World might know what God had done for him. Notwithstanding he spake somewhat to this effect: It troubles me that God should loose his Glory, who hath not, I hope, suffered me to loose my Soul. Oh, that I had Breath to speak of Christ! Methinks I could speak of Christ till Night. I think I could speak of Christ 〈◇〉 Year together! And indeed all that Day, when he had strength to speak, it was excellently of Christ: And once fetching his Breath with much Difficulty, he said, I shall breath out my last Breath with a blessed be God for Jesus Christ; and a little afterwards he would complain, that he could love Christ no more. That day there came a young Gentleman, an Acquaintance of his, to visit him, who found him very weak; but when he had recovered a little Strength, he addressed himself to him thus: All that we have to do for God and our Soul's Salvation, is to be done here: There is nothing to be done in the Grave, and it is my Advice, and my dying Counsel to all young Men, that they labour to make sure of Christ in a time of Health, and not put off so great a Work as I have done.  
The following Day, which was the Lord's Day, he was exceeding weak, and pained in his Body, and variously exercised in his Soul, as appears by several Expressions that dropped from him at times. Whilst he was complaining of his Illness, he was  told, that however it was, yet God is good. He answered, You shall never hear me say otherwise, sink or swim, saved or be damned, I will justify him. A little after, being exercised in his Soul, he cried out, How hard a thing it is to crowd through the Throng of Sin and Guilt to Jesus Christ: Sure Christ will not accept of such a filthy thing as I: But said he again, God's End in pardoning and saving Sinners, is to glorify his own free Grace; and then why not towards me as well as another? What a wonderful Word is that? A Man may die with that Word in his Mouth, The free Gift is of many Offences unto Justification. Then added, And though my Flesh and my Heart faileth, God is the Strength of my Heart, and my Portion for ever. Another time, being somewhat clouded, and speaking of the Grace of God, I cannot demand it, nor have I deserved it: But being asked, if he would not accept of it: Yes, replied, he very thankfully. Towards Night he grew more distressed, for several Friends being gathered about him he looked upon them dolefully, and said, Oh, I tremble! being asked at what? he answered, at the possibility of Perishing. One then sitting by, that knew how it was with him,  told him it was impossible, he being helped through Grace to commit his Soul into such Hands. It was said further, None can pull you out of his Hands. He speaks a little after, Poor Hearts, you are willing to hope the best; I wish you are not mistaken. You know, said he, to his Wife, Dear, oppressed Nature will cry out for Relief; but being answered, that oppressed Nature could not rest on Christ for Salvation; or to this Effect, he was filent. Next Morning he was much ●omplaining that he was to die, and do Christ no Service in the World. He cried out, Oh, that I might live but one Year! but may be if I should, I would be wicked: But yet, said he, I think verily, if I know my Heart, I am willing to embrace Christ on his own Terms; I think verily, if I was to live the strictest Life as ever Saint lived, yet I think I could embrace none but Christ. A little after, being full of Complaints as to his Soul, it was  told him, Yesterday you could say, though my Heart and my flesh faileth, &c. He answered, But I cannot-say so to Day. Some time after, his Faith began to mount up, and being melted under the sense of God's Grace to him, he said, If I had strength, I would soon make my Confession Town-Talk. I need not tell the Town what my Life hath been; they know that very well: But I would have them know the difference between them that have Grace and them that have none. Monday about Noon Mr. Bear, came to visit him, and asked him, What art thou going now to Christ? He answered, Better now than ever. But he was so weak, and laboured with such Difficulty of Breathing, that he could scarce speak; which he expressed himself, saying, That if it were to save his Life, he could not speak; yet desired Mr. Bear, that he would wrestle and strive with God in Prayer for him, that he might be helped sincerely to close with Christ. A little after, finding his Weakness increase upon him, he spake thus, I am brought to the Dust of Death. That Night, which was the Night before he departed, about nine a Clock, he grew weaker and weaker, and fetched his Breath shorter and shorter: Being a little lifted up on his Pillow, he lifted up his Hands, and bad all farewell. After which, he drew his Breath as one just departing; being( as 'twas thought) past speaking, was spoken to by a Friend thus, putting him in mind of his own Expression, Blessed be God for Jesus Christ; whereat he was heard to say softly, Amen. Then his dear Relation added, Christ the Fore-runner is for thee entred: Then he, with a pleasant Countenance, nodded his Head, being not able to speak. And now Death indeed was in his Face in all its Symptoms, and all concluded him just a dying; when, all of a sudden, his Blood returned in his Face, Vigour and Liveliness into his opened Eyes, and with a Voice exceeding loud, as if he had rose from the Dead on purpose to give in his dying Testimony for free Grace, he thus spake triumphantly. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that with these Eyes I shall see him, and not anothers: Come Lord Jesus, come quickly; Come Lord Jesus, come quickly; Come Lord Jesus, come quickly: These Words he spake with such Vehemence, that he made the whole House to echo, when afore he could scarce be heard if one laid his Ear to his Mouth, and then continued thus with no less Accent and Affection, I am no more afraid to die, than I am to shut my Eyes: I am no more afraid to die than I am to go to sleep. God loves me dearly, and I love God dearly: I am sure he will do me no hurt. Lord, strike the Blow, and the Work is done, I long to be gone, I long to see Jesus Christ. O that all the Town might ring of God's free Grace to me! What, at the last Hour too? Who would have thought of this a few Weeks ago? Nothing less than an Eternity is sufficient to admire free Grace: This is blessed work indeed: This is Dying indeed. Thy Father, said he, turning to his Wife, will wonder to see me in Heaven: He little thinks I am so near him. His Wife asked him, if he thought she should ever come where he was going. He answered, I do not question it; thou, nor thy poor Children neither. Through God's Grace, his dying prophesy is in a likely way to be accomplished in all of them. You will not be long after me. Come, one Bosom will hold us all: He that hath begun the good Work in them( meaning his Children) will carry it on till the Day of Jesus Christ. A Friend hearing him speak so hearty, said, Sir, I hope you may live still. He replied. Oh do not tell me so! I do not love to hear of that Ear: I would not come back again for thousands of Gold and Silver; but what the Lord will, I am wholly swallowed up in God's Sovereign Will. After he was spent with speaking, he said, I can speak no more; I hope you are all satisfied. Fare you well, expecting( as it seems) he should have gone immediately to Heaven. But it pleased the Lord to order it otherwise, and to continue him till the next Night, though under some Regret, for he presently added, Oh! I thought I had been going so sweetly, but I am here still; and next Morning, hearing some Friends discoursing about the Distress he had been in, he said to them, but the Lord has now fully satisfied me. Yet by reason his Dissolution was delayed, it occasioned further Temptation, and a black Cloud arose upon his Soul after all this glorious Sun-shine. He burst out into such bitter Expressions as these: God has forsaken me, and I am afraid 'tis a fore judgement of God upon me, that I lye in such a Condition. I am afraid, least I have deceived myself with false Hopes. Some time after the beginning of his Distress, there appeared on him Convulsive Fits: whereupon he said to his Wife, I have Fits. She answered, I am afraid you have, He added, I am almost frighted out of my Wits. Being asked at what: He replied, At the awfulness of Death. This Conflict lasted for some time; but the Lord was pleased to return again, as was perceived; for his Soul was composed and still. His Fits ceased, though his Strength was gone, that he could speak but little. However, this for Satisfaction was had from him a little before he departed. He said, would I was up! His Wife answered, That would be a pleasant Sight indeed to see thee up again, to tell us what thou hast seen on this sick Bed. He answered, I have seen that here, which hath made my Heart, and the Hearts of many more glad. It was then  told him, you may see now what Satan's Temptations are, when God permits him, he will rob a Child of God, of his Comforts; but that is all he can do. And it is a great All too, said he, it was that which made my Life a burden to me Being asked, if he did not believe he should have Comfort again. He answered, Yes, but did not know when. But it was not long before he had it to the full; for now he fell into a sweet Sleep, the best he had for many Days; in which Sleep he quietby slept in Jesus.  
Thus I have given you an Account of some of his Death-bed Experiences, in whom; though now dead, he yet speaketh to you the Living, and invites you all to partake of the same Grace with him, that you may enter into the same Glory he now is in. Have a care, as I cautioned you afore, to suck Poison to the Ruin of your own Souls out of this Instance of God's Free, Rich, and Glorious Grace; but make this Improvement of it, to stir you up now to accept of, and venture on the boundless Grace of God in Christ Jesus. Consider what has been said, and the Lord give you Understanding in all things.   

HIS EPITAPH.  
Here lies interred 
 The Body of Mr. JOHN bog; 
 Who departed this Mortal Life, 
 When he had seen his thirty seventh Year, 
 On the twenty eighth Day of January, 
 Anno Domini, 1689.  
cropped in his full blown Age, if we by Grace  
His time compute, he lived but five Weeks space.  
Dead whilst alive, in dying Life begins.  
Short Race of Life! But what a Crown he wins!  
In Sin him Death attacks; but Grace steps in,  
And makes him Triumph over Death and Sin.  
Thus by Christ's Death, in Death he's made to cry;  
Death, where's thy Sting? Grave, where's thy Victory?  
Now to the only wise God be Glory and Dominion World without end, Amen.  
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  
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