Christ's NAPKIN: OR, A SERMON PREACHED IN Kirkcubright AT THE COMMUNION, May 12. 1633  
By that Flower of the Church; Famous, famous, Mr. Samuel Rutherfurd.  
Never before Printed.  Revelation 21: Chapter 4▪ 5, 6, 7▪ 8, Verses. 
And GOD shall Wipe away all Tears, and there shall be no more Death, neither Sorrow, nor Crying, neither shall there be any more Pain: For former Things are done away.  
And He that sat upon the Throne, said, behold, I make all Things New. And He said unto me, write: For these Things are faithful and True. &c.   

THE TEXT.  Revelation 21. Chapter, 4. 5, 6, 7, 8, Verses. 
And GOD shall Wipe away all Tears, and there shall be no more Death, neither Sorrow, nor Crying, neither shall there be any more Pain: For former things are done away.  
And He that sat upon the Throne, said, behold, I make all Things New. And He said unto me, write: for these Things are faithful and True, &c.  
THIS Text contains Three Things. First, The State of the Glorified, verse 4. Secondly, A part of Christ's Office, verse 5. Thirdly, A Description of His Nature. Fourthly, The Promises. As, 1. Drink to satisfy the Thirsty. 2. An Inheritance to the Overcomers, or Overcoming soldiers. The 3. is a threatening of Eternal Wrath to Offenders against the First and Second Table of the Law. And GOD shall Wipe away all Tears. When Friends meets, they give the Stranger his Welcome Home. Here the Pilgrims Welcome Home that our Friend Christ gives us: This was spoken from Heaven, and therefore it is True Doctrine. Then we see that the Sufferings and Tears of the Saints shall be wiped away and removed, but not fully, while the Life to come; For here is Christ's Welcome Home to Poor Sinners: For they come all to Him with Wet Faces, and bleared with Tears for Sin, and the manifold Troubles in this Life; And Christ meets them in the Door with a fair Soft Napkin in His Hand, and puts up his hand to their Faces, and says, Hold your Tongue, My Dear Bairns, ye shall never Weep again. And indeed in my Judgement it is a Speech borrowed from a Mother that has a Bairn with a broken Face, all Bloody, and all bleared with Tears, and it comes to her, and woes her Heart to see him so, and she sits down, and wipes the Tears from his Eyes, and lays her Hand softly on the Wound, and lays his Head in her Breast, and dights away the Blood, and lays her two Arms about him, and there is no end of Fair Words. So when Christ and we shall meet in Heaven, He will Huss us, and wipe away all Tears, and lay our Heads in his Bosom: See how he alludes to this Place, Isaiah 54. O thou afflicted and tossed with Tempest and not comforted: behold, I will lay thy Foundation with Saphires, &c. It is there to speak so, our Lord is ruing that ever he had handled his Saints as he did Isaiah 65. 18. Be Glad and Rejoice for evermore in that which I Create; for behold, I Create Jerusalem a Rejoicing, and his People a Joy. Verse 19 And I will Rejoice over Jerusalem, and Joy in My People, and the Voice of Weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the Voice of Crying. If ever there was a Blyth Meeting betwixt Two, it must be betwixt the Bridegroom and the Bride in the Marriage-day. And what a Meeting there is of Joy betwixt such a Bridegroom and Bride cannot be conceived: For Christ that Day will have on all his Best clothes, and such a Bride as the Lamb's Wife, What a Welcome will She get? To get a Drink at our first Meeting, and Incoming to Heaven of the Well of the Water of Life, O Strong Comforting Water. When we shall be clothed, and not a Wrong pin on us. A Fair Bride in Silks and Purple of Christ's own Busking; And Christ our Lord shall Present his Bride to his Father, and our Father-in-law the Father of our Husband shall take us by the Hand & Lead us benn the House to the Dinning-hall, and set us down at a Table to feast our fill upon the Tree of Life. O! Strong Comforting Water, the Well of Life, to feast upon the Trinity for evermore. Now Mock and Scorn the Way to Heaven as ye please, ye never heard of True Happiness till now: Here is a Banquet of Joy for evermore. He shall wipe away all Tears: Christ our Lord here wipes the Tears from his Bairns Faces; Yet after that they weep New Tears: He never wipes away all Tears till now. Here shall be our Last▪ Good-Night of Death: Good-Night Mourning and Crying, and Sorrow: We shall be on the other Side of the Water, over beyond the Black River of Death, and shall Scorn Death: For Christ (Rev. 20. 14.) shall take Death and Hell, and cast them in Prison: Former Things are done away. The Mother that lost her Bairns shall get them; All the Lord's Widows shall get their Husbands: The Old World which was the Mourning World shall be away: And therefore, never while now shall all Tears be wiped away; for it is the Way. The Kirk is half a Widow here; Her Lord is in an uncouth country, far from her here, and ilk Lown round about plucks at this Silly Widow, while she is in the valley of Baca, wherein is no Water. The Watchmen striketh her, and taketh her veil from her; And Christ writes a Love-Letter to her, and after she has read it, she rejoiceth and wipeth her Face; But when the Letter grows old, and she has lost the Letter, New Troubles comes on, she sheds New Tears, and she comes under New Persecutions, and her Lord for her Sin goes in behind the Wall, and hides himself, and lets her Mourn her fill: But in that Day He will wipe away all Tears from her Eyes. See then how it goes here in this Life: First a Fair Day, than again a foul Day, while at last that Fair Day Dawn that all Shadows shall flee away; and there shall never be a foul Day after that; but ay the long lasting Summer Day for evermore. Ye see a Man Travelling to his Home, here is a Water, than a Dry Land, than another Water, then Dry Land, than a Water, and only Dry Land between and his Home; Then he goes Home to his Wife and his Bairns, and has no more Waters: But all our Tears are never dried till we come to Heaven; For the Saints have a Liferent-Tack of the Cross of Christ, while we are here, and ay Ill Weather, Matthew 16. ever the Cross. See John 16. Our Lord compares our Troubles to the Pains that comes upon a Woman Travelling, now a shower, and then some Ease, a shower again, and then Ease, ay while the last shower that she be Delivered, and then no more showers; She remembreth no more Pain for Joy that a manchild is born into the World. We must be in Pain ere our Birth be Born; but we will be Delivered of our Birth.  
use 1. Let us prepare, for Tears will follow us to Heaven▪ unto the very Entry of the Door, our Face shall be wet, for we go out of this Life Sad and Groaning for this Miserable Life, and to thrust throw the last Port, and to wade throw the hindermost water, it is a sore set: But be blithe Christians, and Grip to the Promise: But ye that Laugh now (and so are far from Tears, that Mock the Mourners of Zion) ye may Sigh and close the Bible, and say alas! I never shed a Tear for Christ, yond Text is not for me; It may be Christ shall that Day gar you weep and shed Tears for Evermore. This sour Laughing World will away; There is a Day of Tears coming on you, Greeting and Gnashing of Teeth. And when a Man Gnasheth his Teeth one against another, he has no mind of Laughing: But I would not have your Mirth for a World; be doing, we will see who will Laugh fastest yond Day.  
use 2. There is an Ill coming on this Land; Sin is not come to a full Harvest. GOD's Bairns that can now Mourn for their own Sins, and the Sins of the Land, Rejoice in Heaven; there is never seen a Greeting Bairn there: GOD has a Napkin to dight their Faces. It is the Laughing, Rejoicing People that GOD Destroys.  
He that sat upon the Throne. John heareth more of Christ, a Sweet Speech. Here Three Things, 1. A Speaker. 2. A Speech. 3. A Direction to keep the Speech. Who spoke the Speech is not told; whether an Angel or an Earthly King; For they sit on Thrones also: But it is He of whom it is said, Rev. 4. 2. And a Throne was set, and one sat on the Throne. John tells not his Name. But he thinketh so much of him that he takes it as granted, that there is none Worthy to be a King but He, and to sit upon a Throne but He. The Saints measures all the Affections of others by their own Affections; As if one speared at John who is He that Sits upon the Throne? He would have answered, what needs you spear, Is there any in Heaven or Earth in my Estimation Worthy to be a King but He? and to Sit upon a Throne but He? and to take a Crown but He upon His Head? The Saints sets ay Christ His alone, they set Him ay above all: Speak of Kings to them, but Christ is out of play. So Cant. 2. The Kirk Meeting with the Watchmen, saith, Saw ye Him whom my Soul loveth? What kenned the Watchmen Him whom her Soul loveth? For she might have loved a loon, or a Harlot, or an Idol-god, or the World: But she measureth the Watchmen by herself; there was none in her Mind but Christ: And therefore she needed not to tell them as she thought. So Mary Magdalen, John 20. 15: says to the gardener (as she thought) Sir, if ye have born Him hence, tell me where ye have laid Him: She tells not what he; taking as granted, none was so much in her Mind as Christ, Nay, I pray you, let the same Mind be in you that was in John. Let Christ be to your Soul the Pearl of the Ring. Amongst all Kings, to us Christ should be made High and Esteemed as He, the Only He, that is Worthy to Sit on the Throne. So Canticles 5. He is to the Kirk the Chief among ten thousand. Gather all the Angels, and all the Saints in Heaven and Earth together, Christ is too Good to be their Captain; And indeed what is all that sits on a Throne? It must be infinitely more in Him: And what Glory is in the World, is far more in Him? Take all the Roses in the Earth, and put them all in one, that would be a Dainty Thing and Sight; Now what are all these to Christ? No more than a Nettle to the fairest Rose; fie upon the Tasteless Love of Men that never Loveth Jesus Christ, and yet falleth in Love with Lusts: They Love Gold, Riches and Honour, and puts Christ to a Backside; ay Christ gets not his own amongst us, we Commend him not, neither will we match with him.  
Thirdly, I will make all Things New. This is as much as all Things were Old: Sinhath made all things Old, Rom. 8. They are like a Woman Groaning in childbirth with Pain and Vanity, because of our Sin; All the Creation are sickened because of Sin; Because of our Sin, Vanity came on the Sun, Moon, and other Creatures, they Sigh under this, and Pray in their kind a Mallison, and a woe to Man, for Sin has made us all Miserable, The Heavens that are the fairest part of the Great Web of the World, waxes Old as an Garment. The Prophet saith, they are like an Old Clout▪ The Water saith, Let me drown Sinners, they have sinned against my Lord: The Fire saith, Let me Burn him, let me Burn Sodom, for they have sinned against my Lord. All Things has lost their Glory that they got in their first Creation. Jesus seeth all Things gone Wrong, and quite out of Order: And Man fallen from his Lord; and He did even with the World, as a pilot once with an Untentive Man at the Rudder, stirring the Ship on an Sand-Bank, he stepped in quickly and turned Her incontinent, or else, all would have gone to Confusion. So our Lord steeped in when the Great Ship of this World was running on a Sand-bed; The Sun and Moon looked Sad like, and said, They would not Serve us; Our Lord Renewed them by his Death, and made them all Laugh on the Elect again, and gave them all a suit of New clothes Drunkards, Christ gave his Blessing to the Wine that ye Spew on the Walls. Ye that Dishonours your Maker with your Vain Apparel, ye know not what it Cost Christ; Our Lord bleed to buy a Right of them that ye abuse in Vanity. All that sets the World in their Hearts where the Lord should be, forgets that Christ bought the World to be their Servant, and not to be as their Darling and Wife that lies in their Bosom: Ye that makes the Earth and the broad Aikers of it your soul's Portion, so as ye Desire no more but Land, ye forget Christ that bought the World, and made it New to be a footstool, and not a Chair for your Souls to sit down upon: And if Christ has this Art to make all Things New, come to Him all ye that are Old, ye that has Old Hearts come. Indeed Christ may get his Craft among us, if we would go to Him, for He makes all Things New. The Devil borrows another Man's Heart for Covetousness, and he has crooked it with the Thorny-Cares of this World and holled it, and dung the Bottom out of it. O if ye would put it in Christ's Hand, he would put it in his Furnace and Melt it again, and by his Art bring it out a New Heart for himself to Dwell in: Alas! Christ gets not his Trade or Calling amongst us: But why are not our Old Hearts mended? Because we handle them as a Foolish Mother doth a Datted Bairn; She will not let him go to School to Learn, and why? Because she dow not want him out of her Sight; She will therefore never let him do well, but feed him to the Gallows. We dow not give away our Souls to Christ who would fain have them, and easily Mend them; but Lust keeps them like the Foolish Mother out of Christ's Company. And Pride keeps another Man's Heart, and Covetousness another Man's Heart, that, that Dear Craftsman Christ that made the Heart and made the Earth under our Feet New, and the Mountains New, yet we will not let Him make our Old Hearts New; Our Souls are all hinging in tatters, Worn and Old, with Sin, and we dow not put them in Christ's Hand that would make them Whole and Cleanse them. Fie upon thee that thy Garden was Cursed in Adam's Days to bring forth Nettles and Thorns, and is Blessed to bring out Fruit in Christ, and thy Soul gets not so much Good of Christ as thy Yard; It is made New, and thy Soul remains Old, and Christ gets not his Craft among us. He bids John write these Things about the State of the Glorified, and calls them faithful and True. He would not Intrust his Word to Man's Memory and Conscience; He will have it written. Blasphemous Papists laugh not at this, nor call the Pope's Breast the Bible; Here a warrant for the written Scripture. But indeed it tells us that man's falsehood wore his Conscience, had his Conscience been a faithful Register, there should have been no need of a written Bible: But now the Lord has lippened more to Dead Paper than to a Living man Soul. Our Conscience now under Sin has not been a Good Bible: Because Man is ready to run away from his Conscience; because what is written on our Conscience as that there is a GOD, a Judgement, a Heaven, or Hell: Satan and Sin comes in as Two False Witnesses and blots our that, and writes that in the Fool's Heart, that says, there is no GOD. And there is many Holes in our Souls, the Word of GOD comes in and runs out again at back spouts, except Jesus make their Soul Water-fast, so that the Word of GOD may Dwell in them plentifully, Colos. 3. 16. Is not our Hearts compared to a Field, wherein the Preacher sows the Seed, Mat. 13. and the Black Spirits of Hell comes and gathers up Christ's Wheat. O but there are many running out Souls, and much need we have of a written Bible; and therefore make much of the written Word, and pray GOD to Copy his Bible, and to write a New Book of his Doctrine in our Hearts, and put it in the Conscience as he directs, Jer. 31. 1. Of his prophecy. 2. A Description. 3. A Promise of Matter. Christ says to John, It is done. That is Exponed in Rev. 16. and 17. The World is ended, so speaks Christ of the World, and Glory of it passeth away in the Twinkling of an Eye, and Christ cryeth to those that has the World in both their Arms, It is done; It is a past Thing, there is no more of it. It is but a word to our Lord, he said, Let all Things be, and they were. He said, Let all Things be, and they are at an end. And we are beginning with the World, as if it would be evermore ours; and our Lord says, in a Moment, let it be plucked from them, and it is done. It is no for nothing that the taking down of this Inns of Heaven and Earth is touched in so few words. It is done: For it is an easy Thing for the Almighty to take the staffs in his own Hand that holdeth up this Fair Tent, and when he pulleth it, he Garreth it come down with a Titt. So Rev. 4. 7. Four Angels is brought in holding the four Winds in their Hands, as if they had the World in their Hands, and as if they had it ready to Fold it up as a Sheet. And O! what a fighting and business do they make to get a Clout of this Sheet; He starring out his Eyes, and he setting out his Neck, for a piece of this holly Clout and Sheet, and for a Gloib of the Earth. But see Rev. 6. 14. The Heavens shall depart away like a Scroll of Parchment that is rolled together, and the Fair Stories thereof are like Figs, with the shake of the Almighty's Arm they shall fall together to the Ground; and what more, with a Touch of the Almighty's Hand, or a Put of his Little Finger, with the Blast of his Mouth, saying, It is done. The Cupples of the Walls of the House cometh down. Now I cannot but speak of Fools that has their Heads full of windmills, and cries it is beginning, and to Morrow shall be as this Day, and much more abundant, Isaiah 56. And there is no end of Buying and Building; I came not here to bide anybody be Unthrifty; but not to be like Bairns building Sandy Bourocks at a waterside, when presently a Speat of Water comes and spills all their Sport, or a shower chases them in from their Play. Men are even bigging Castles in the Air. In very deed we are like Bairns holding the Water at a riverside with their Hand, they think (Daft Things) they hold the Water, while in the mean time it runs throw their Fingers. And what says GOD of Honour, Riches, Pleasure, Lands, Fair Houses, Sums of Money? Even that in a word, all is done. Ask of them that had the World once at Will, and had broad Lands, and what is to the fore? And what is to the fore of so many Thousands? Nothing but their Name; And what if their Name he Lost too? What has the World of them but their Name? And what is that? Ten or Eleven or Twelve Letters of the A, B, C; and for their Bodies, howbeit they were Living, Kingdoms would not content them, and yet the Clay in which the Bodies are Dissolved, would not now fill a Glove. I think that a True Word, and a Strange spoken Word, Isa: 40. 22. GOD sits in the Circle of the Heaven, and all the World are as grasshoppers. We even Creep like grasshoppers up and down the Globe of this Earth, and cry to Men of the Vanities of all Things, while Death come like a Little Common Thief without any din or Feet, and plucks them away, and there is no more of them, and then they say, it is done. All Men will say, it is True that I say: But I think to be Dead ere they believe it, or be brought to Hate the World. I think the World is the Devil's Great Herry-water-net that has Taken Thousands and Slain them: Ye say ye are sure of it. Then I say ye are a dieted Horse for Heaven.  
The Second Thing that is in the Verse, is a Description of Christ, I Am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Our Lord here being to make an Offer of the Water of Life: He first showeth what He is, even the first & the last Letter of the A, B, C; The Ancient of Days, the Eternal Son of the Eternal GOD. It Teaches us that we may Crack more of our Old Holding, and Old Charter, nor all the world can do: For why? When began Christ to bear a goodwill to a Sinner? Even when he began to be GOD; and he was GOD from all Eternity. Suppose the Sun in the Firmament were Eternal, the Light of it behooved to be Eternal: For the Light of the Sun is as Old as the Sun. Love is a Beam of Light, and Heat that comes from Christ the Sun of Righteousness: Therefore everliving Christ and everliving Love; For Love comes not on Christ the Day which was not in him Yesterday. Man's Love, and a King's Love are hunted for very much, and yet they die, and their love dies with them, and often their love dies before themselves: But who seeks Christ's Love that Changes not? Yea this is a Matter of Admiration and wonder that Christ should have thought on us worms of Clay ere ever we were, and that our Salvation is as Old as Evermore, and as Old as Christ, and Christ is as Old as GOD: For indeed if GOD should begin at any Point of Time to love Sinners, his Love should have had a Beginning; and if his love should have had a Beginning, Christ himself should have had a Beginning; Because love with him is one with his Essence and Nature: But it may be said, Can the love of GOD be Older than the Death of Christ? Answer. Christ's Death doth not make GOD properly a Hater or Lover of Man; for then both his Will should be changeable and his Love have a Beginning. How then? Christ's Death doth not only let that GOD may kith the Fruits of his Eternal Love out upon us, but after such a way as he thought convenient for his Justice; and therefore, we are said in Scripture to Reconciled to be GOD; and GOD is not said to be Reconciled to us: His love is Everlasting; because by order of Nature it is before the Seed, before we had done either Good or Evil; So that Sin should not Change GOD's Mind, but only by the order of Justice; Sin stood in the Way to hinder us of Life Everlasting which is a Fruit of his love: yea more, GOD with that same love in Christ, loveth the Elect before and after Conversion: And therefore, we have to Rejoice in feeling any of God's love to us in Christ. It is Old Acquaintance betwixt him and us; and therefore, as it is Folly in Man (as Solomon saith) to cast off his Old Friend, and his father's Friend: So let us think it Madness to cast off such an Old Friend as Christ, and let our Faith hold fast by this under Temptations and Desertions; Alpha and Omega Changeth not, the Change is in us.  
The Third Thing in the Words is a Promise of the Water of Life to the Thirsty, Isaiah 55. 1: and John 13. 7. Christ at the Mercat-Cross cries the Well free; But Learn, 1. The Thirsty and Hungry Souls are meetest for the Water of Life▪ What, (ye will say) are not all Thirsty? all wants the Life of GOD and the Sap of Grace, and are burnt and withered at the Root: But all knows not their own Want: But indeed a special Comfort for the Weak Ones to say, O say they, I know Christ doth Good to Believers, to Repenters, and to such as love Him; But I dow not nor cannot win to Faith and Repentance, Hope & Patience; I have too short an Arm to Rax so High. Then say I, Have ye a Desire, a Hunger for Faith and Repentance and Love? now upon your Conscience speak the Truth; I trow ye cannot deny it. Then your Lord bides you come, the Well is open unto you; for Hunger and Thirst being next to Motion, and are the Two Properties that begins first with Life. So every Thing that is New Born is Lively and hath a stomach for Meat and Drink. O but say ye, I am many Times in my Soul even at death's Door; I have neither Faith nor Feeling: I am even at this, GOD loves me not, and the Well is not ordained for me at these Times. Would ye fain be at the Well? Now in my Mind ye cannot win away. The Children of GOD when at the lowest Ebb, even when Faith, Comfort, Joy, Love, and Disposition to Pray is away, Is there not a longing for a Presence? I speak to the Conscience of GOD's Child, lie not. No, David, Psalms 6. when he thought GOD strake him in his Wrath, was at how long LORD? A cutted word. I think that he looked like a Poor Hungry Beast, looking o'er the Dyke, who would fain have had a mouthful; he was even going about to seek a Slapp to break o'er the Dyke of his Doubtings And so it is with GOD's Bairns under their Thirst for the Well of Life. See Cant. 3. when the Kirk can get no spearing of Christ, and has no smell of Him, and cannot find the Print of His Foot; yet she is at this, Saw ye Him whom my Soul loveth? and Chap. 2. I charge you tell Him that I am Sick of Love. Then let me now speak to Weak Ones, and I will tell you who are Christ's Companions that Drinks with Him, and shall get their Heads and Hearts full of the Water of Life; even the Tender Christian that is ay seeking; The Bairn in Christ's House that is most Cumbersome, and makes most din for his Meat, is the best Bairn that Christ has; The Bairn that is Greeting ilk hour of the day for a Piece and a Drink: We say of such a silly Thing he would fain love. Ay the Cumbersomer that Christ's Bairns be, they are ay the Welcomer. Na, He loveth the Bairns best that has no shame, and is ay crying, alas black Hunger, Dear Lord Jesus, I am burnt with Thirst; O for an open Cold Fountain. O it is a sweet thing ay to be whinging, and crying, and seeking about Christ's Pantry Doors, and to hold ay an Eye upon Christ when he goes into the House of Wine, into His father's fair Luckie wine-cellar where there are many Wines, and bout in at Christ's back. But in a word, Have ye a Good stomach? Much Hunger & thirst: Well, ye shall get much Satisfaction of Grace in Christ. Now who are they that are Debarred from Christ's Well? Answer. These who has gotten an Ill Drink from the Devil, full of Lusts, Pride, and Covetousness, full of Love of the World; Such are they that has no stomach for Christ: Alas and woes me, Christ standeth at the Wells side, and cryeth, the back of My Hand to you. The Lord Jesus give you a Vomite-Drink, that you may grow wholesome and Hungry again for Christ; For while then, ye are never meet for Christ. Is there not a Time when you cannot get Presence, and ye have no pith to put up the Door and bout in, but puts it half up, and blinks in? Love ye to Pray, or desire ye but a Desire of Prayer? Hold on then there, ye are Right; The True Desire is Absolute, and not Conditional; Not like the Sluggard that wouldhave have a Crope upon Condition he might have a featherbed to lie on for fear of Cold: Even so they would have Heaven upon Condition they might keep their Lusts, and take their Lusts with them. But, Secondly, Hunger is ay seeking throw the whole House, for the Belly can hardly play the Hypocrite. The Natural-Man is in Darkness, he is in a Sleep; it is Night with him, and he is like a Cumbersome Bairn Greeting in the Night for a Drink, and crying, Psal. 4. Who will show us any Good Thing? and Satan is ready at his Elbow with his Dishfull of the Dirty Myrie-Matters of Lust to the World, and he Drinks while he Sweats and Tynes Breath, and Tynes a Sight and Desire of Christ, the Fountain of the Water of Life, John 7. 37. It is true this Fountain of Life is said to proceed out of the Throne of GOD, and from the Lamb: But it is all one, for the Streams of the Water of Life, proceed from the Fountain Christ▪ How then is the Water Christ? Christ-Man Dying and sending out His heartblood for Quenching of the Thirst of such Poor Sinners as fi●deth the Fire of Hell at the stomach of their Soul, burning them up with the Fire of the Wrath of GOD for Sin; this is the Well, Why He is called a Fountain of the Water of Life. As, 1. Because a Man burnt with Thirst, nothing can quench him, no, not a World of Gold is so Good as a drink of Pure cold Clean Fountain-Water. In a word, a Soul wakened under Sin, findeth nothing in the World Satisfactory to the soul's Appetite, but in Christ. Tell me, art thou a Thirsty Sinner after Christ, thy Soul is Dead Sick, while thou get Him. Lay a Man down on a Soft Bed, dry the Sweat off him, give him a Cold Refreshing Drink: Now ye cannot speak such a word to a Soul bursten thing under Sin, as to lay it upon a Crucified Christ; O that is a Soft Bed; his sinful Soul being stretched upon the open warm flowing Blood and Wounds of Christ; O that is a Soft Bed. O but a part of Christ●s Blood is a Refreshing Cooling Drink to him. To know a Slave of Hell that he is made a Free Heir of Heaven, O that is Sweet: Hence it is that those that are wakened with the Furies of Hell, howbeit they know not yet what Christ is to them; Yet this World cannot Calm their Conscience, because for Men that are Soul-sick, and in-sick, there is no physic, but one only a Drink of the Well of Life; and because they ken not the gate to this Well of Life, they loup out of this Life out of Despair into the Fire of Hell, throw the Madness of an awakened Conscience. For a Thirsty Sick-soul finds Two Things in Christ, never to be found in all the World, or any Thing else. 1. Christ takes off the Hardness of Sin: None has Power to do this but He: All the Pardons of Sin are in Christ's keeping, & of Christ's making; It is His Office to forgive Sin. 2. Besides they find in Him an Influence and Abundance of Happiness in Him; So as what they sought before in the Creature, they find nowhere else but in Him; Then speak to them of Gold, it is nothing to Christ; Speak of Lands and Lordships a Saviour, & such a Saviour has and is another Name to a Sinner that is wakened.  
Again, The Text calls Him, The Water of Life. We see here, there is some Water that is Rotten and Ill Tasted; Will a Thirsty Man Drink of it? he shall not be the better: But the Wholsomest Water is the Running Spring: So all that Sinners can get beside Christ is Standing-water. Let them Drink in Gold, and Kingdoms, and Lands. they shall never be Satisfying to a Sick Soul as He will be; And who have drunk in these at Death, they would be content to spew them out again, they lie so heavy upon their stomach; But Christ is the Coolling Wholesome Spring, the Well of Water springing up to Eternal Life. Now to make our Use of this: Seeing Christ is such a Living Well of Water, How is it in the Gospel that there are so many withered dried Souls? I Answer, for GOD's Part, indeed GOD has not put an Iron-Lock upon the Well of Life; But Christ by His Word and Sacraments opens the Well in the midst of us, and for Seventy Years and more in this Kingdom the Well has been Open: Christ and His Messengers has been Crying to Dry Souls: But now for aught we see, He will Close the Well again; for He has been setting out the Means of Life, and opening His Booth-doors to give us freely, even to such as will take it, but He gets no Sale: Therefore He must put up his Wares and go away, for Men are not Thirsty for his Waters; but Thirst for Court and Honour; Another for Lust and Moneys; A Third Lusts after sinful Pleasures. 1. There be few stomachs gapping for Christ. 2. They have not a Vessel to cast down in the well, and take up the water: This is a Fruitless Generation. Oh we loath Christ, and Christ loathes us. We need speak no more of the Call of the word; All the Land, Court, King, Noblemen and Kirkmen has spewed the Waters; by Despising Mercy, and Contemning the Gospel: And in very deed, when we cast in Clay and Mudd in Christ's Well, and mixes His worship with the poison of the whores well of Rome. What do we else, but Provock the LORD to Close the well. I will give it freely: So are all Christ's Mercies given of Grace; His Mercy is for Nothing, and of free Grace. I grant the well is Dear to Christ; GOD's Justice digged it out of his Side, and Heart, and Hands, and Feet: The Man Christ got not this water for Nothing; Yet He gives it to us for Nothing; Because He minds not to make a Gain of us: We live upon Christ's Winning; For know ye that Christ Redeemed many, do so by the Rule of Justice, since He gave Himself, and has bought all with His own Blood: So that in this Sense Christ was bought to us with Blood, else we could not get Him, for He was both the Price and the wares: So that as far as we can see by Order of Justice, it is Decreed by the Lord that Christ could not have lived, and given to us the waters of Life. It was Dear Water to him; for in the Garden GOD Deserted him, and Blood came out on the Cross▪ GOD Bruised him, and Blood came out, and that is the well we have here: And we have here a Great Impediment removed. We think we would have something to give to Christ for the water of Life, some of our own Righteousness, some of our own Worthiness. But that is plastered Humility, watered Copper; and in doing so, we Refuse Grace, and makes Grace to be no more Grace; for if it be given for any Worth in us, it is no more Grace: And therefore let Men here see then, that the Kingdom of Grace is a Good Cheap World, where the Best Things are gotten for Nothing: And therefore I think in this Dear World, wherein all Things goes for Money; when Court cost expenses, Lands are Dear, and Gold is not gotten for Nought, and Laws are Dearer than ever they were: yea, Papet and Ink are now Dearer than Jewels; and Gold Rings were long sign Nothing, now is bought for Nought: Yet CHRIST for all that, will not Change his world; but all Things with Him are given Gratis, and ye are Welcome when all is done. We get no Garments for Nought; No physic for Nought. Christ gives white raiment, Eye Salve, and all for Nought, without Money▪ Sinners says, LORD, what take ye for the water of Life? He Answers. Even Nothing, and yet welcome. Christ plays not the Merchant with his wares, he makes no Gain, but cries, the well is free. No, says the Pope, not a drop, till ye tell down Money. That Bloody Beast would Sell the Water of Rome for Gold, as meikle Money, as meikle Gtace and Forgiveness. Want ye Money? He answers, Ye shall not come here. Nothing in Rome without Money. Fie, fie, the stink of the Devil's World. Nay, but CHRIST is for Nothing. Nay, Justice giveth Money, and Officers give Money; it is a Dear World: But CHRIST and his world cares no more for Money nor before.  
Verse 7. He that overcometh shall Inherit all Things. Still in this Book, John urgeth Fighting and Overcoming for Heaven. We wonder much that GOD will not have Poor Men going to Heaven, but by Fighting, seeing he might have sent us to Heaven by a second Heaven; But this is but a thought of Men, that would have made a New Back-gate of their own to Heaven: But GOD advised well, when he made this Causay to it, and ordained all his Saints, and his own Sons to ●o that Way; But it is easier for us to Complain on GOD's Decree than to Obey, and to Dispute than Believe. Men has too Thin Skins, and for Health they will cut a Vein, or let a Leg or an Arm be cut off for fear of a Feaster, and yet for Life Everlasting, they are so that they dow not Venture a moment's Pain.  
Secondly, There are Excellent Promises made to the Overcomers; To him that taketh Heaven with stroke of Sword and Blood; For Heaven is a besieged City or Castle: Armies of Sin with all their Armour, and the Deceiving and Malicious world; The world has Evah's Apple in the one Hand, and Fire and Sword in the other, and the Devil is the Captain of the Army. Now here is a Price set, and an Offer made to him that overcometh, to him that will mount up by Faith and Hope, and leap up in CHRIST's Chariot, and betide him Life, betide him Death, he will go throw: But they are Cowards that take a Backside, and lets the Devil coup them in a Gutter. But yet to lead Men on, here is a Promise of Two Things.  
First, He shall Inherit all Things. Then ye see, that the Christian's Captain is a Man of a Fair Rent, 1 Cor. 3. 21. For all Things are Yours, whether Paul or Apollo, or Cephas, or the world, or Life, or Death: Things present, or Things to come. And to let us see he bides by the thing he has said; He says again, All Things are Yours. Ye see then, one has a Kingdom as Asa, but wants Health, and is Sick of his Feet, he has not all Things. Another has Strength of Body above any Living, yet had many Troubles, and wanted his Eyes as Samson; and therefore had not all Things. O the Business Adam's Sons are at for Inheritances: Here a Mealline, there a Lairdship, there a New Lordship, that they call their all Things. I think this is a Greedy style, and Proud like, Lordship, or Lairdship, that they call all Things: Yet Greedy Adam's Sons has more Greediness here than Wit. They run all upon their Lordships, that they call the Lordship of many Things, Luke 10. Martha, Martha, thou art troubled. Worldlings, ye are ay troubled about this, to be called my Lord of many Things. But we shall see if the Text be True. I Am Alpha and Omega; Then, First, The Apostle here puts in Death. Death is the Wages of Sin. I think Death an Ill Mealline; better want it out of the Charter. How then have they all Things? I Answer, Death is also a part of the Lordship this way; because it is my Lord of all Things, and a coach to Glory; CHRIST Himself being the coachman, and Driving the Horse; Death is the Servant; as the Wind serveth to bring the seaman Home; So Death serveth him that hath the New Lordship. Death is Christ's Ferry-Boat to Carry us Home; For in CHRIST he sets his Foot on Death's Neck; It is a Bridge o'er the River of Hell that he walketh on to Heaven, and it is his: The Christian is advanced in CHRIST's Court, and gets the New style, to be my Lord of all Things, the Prince, the Duke of all Things. Yet I shall get you a Lordship beneath them all; but much sought for: The Lordship of Vanity or Nothing, Prov. 23. 5. Wilt thou set thine Eyes on that which is Nought: For verily Riches has Wings; He that is Rich has Nought.  
Secondly, If he Inherit all Things, Then the whole World in his, and so he wanteth Nothing.  
A Third Question, How is it then that the Saints are Hungry and Poor? Answer, This Promise is so taken from them, 2 Sam. 3, 14. Psal. 89. 27, 28. I will set His one Hand on the Sea, and His Right Hand on the River. Then see how broad CHRIST's Two Arms are. His one hand upon all the Sea, and his other hand upon the River, and that Promise is made to CHRIST as Principal-Cautioner of the Covenant: For it is said, Verse 26. He shall say unto Me, Thou art My Father and My GOD, and the Rock of My Salvation. Verse 27. Also I will make him My First-born Higher than the Kings of the Earth. Which is Exponed of CHRIST, Heb. 1. 5. Rev. 10. 2. He has his right foot on the Sea, and his left foot on the Land. Put these Two together, and see how Wide his Arms and Legs, or Feet are, they go over the whole World as his Inheritance which he won to himself, and his Heirs after him with his Blood. Now CHRIST got Land not to himself: What needs him Land to give his Blood for Clay? But he won it to us, and took Infeftment in the Earth in Name of his Friends. And now it is True, they are not Possessors of all Things. But, Secondly, For people's Wants, ye see their Interest is in and over all Things; Yet their tutor lets them go with a Toom-purse; He knows the Heir is a Young one, and cannot keep Gold, and therefore he gives them Food and raiment for their present Necessity; but keeps the Lordship for the present. Our tutor CHRIST is made of GOD our tutor, our Purse-Master: It is all one whether we have it in our Chist-neuk, or if it be in CHRIST's Purse to keep while we need it, providing we want not:  
Thirdly, A Third Question, and a Third Doubt is, at least, Seeing they are under so many Troubles in this Life, and has no Ease, they have not all Things? I Answer. Yet I must Defend it, and say, if they have the Inheritance, that they have all Things; because the Sweet of the Comfort and Troubles are theirs.  
A Fourth Question or Objection. They have not Heaven and Glory, at least, in this Life, and therefore they are not Inheritors of all Things? I Answer. The Promise is not fulfiled in this Life: Yet when a Man has shorn a Stouk or two of Corn, we say he has gotten Harvest and New Corn. So the Believer gets Joy, Hope, Faith, Assurance of Heaven and the First Fruits of the Spirit, are New Corn. So in the beginning he gets all Things. 2. Having GOD and CHRIST they have all Things: For ye see the Great-Ship Trailleth the cockboat after her: So the Great CHRIST bringeth all Things after him at his Back: So I say, having CHRIST, they have all Things; They have the Father, and the Spirit, the Word, Life and Death. Amen. Let us Pray▪