the Jewish law of holiness, holy flesh in the skirt of the garment could not infuse a holiness into the garment, but the touch of an unclean person might diffuse uncleanness to the garment; thus our professed holiness and pretended graces are sure to be defiled by our secretly-maintained corruption, not our corruption sanctified by our graces: as, in common experience, if the sound person come to see the infected, the infected may easily taint the sound; the sound cannot, by his presence, heal the infected. If ever, therefore, we look to be welcome to the feasts of God, we must put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.' LXXX. It is not for us to cast a disparagement upon any work of our Maker; much less upon a piece so near, so essential to us; yet, with what contempt doth the apostle seem still to mention our flesh! And, as if he would have it slighted for some forlorn outcast, he charges us not to make provision for the flesh!' What! shall we think the holy man was fallen out with a part of himself? Surely, sometimes, his language, that he gives it, is hard. The flesh rebels against the spirit: I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing; but how easy is it to observe, that the flesh sometimes goes for the body of man; sometimes for the body of sin! as the first, it is a partner with the soul; as the latter, it is an enemy; and the worst of enemies, spiritual. No marvel, then, if he would not have provision made for such an enemy. In outward and bodily enmity the case and his charge is otherwise: If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink;' but here' make no provision for the flesh.' What reason were there that a man should furnish and strengthen an enemy against himself? But if the flesh be the body of the man, it must challenge a respect; but the very name carries an intimation of baseness; at the best, it is that which is common to beasts with us: There is one flesh,' saith the apostle, 'of men, another flesh of beasts;' both are but flesh! Alas! what is it but a clod of earth better moulded; the clog of the soul; a rotten pile; a pack of dust; a feast of worms? But, even as such, provision must be made for it; with a moderate and thrifty care, not with a solicitous; a provision for the necessities and convenience of life, not for the fulfilling of the lusts. This flesh must be fed and clad, not humoured, not pampered: so fed as to hold up nature, not inordinateness: shortly, such a hand must we hold over it, as that we may make it a good servant, not a lawless wanton. LXXXI. What action was ever so good, or so completely done, as to be well taken of all hands? Noah and Lot foretell of judgments from God, upon the old world and Sodom, and are scoffed at; Israel would go to sacrifice to God in the wilderness; and they are idle. Moses and Aaron will be go 1 Prov. xxv. 21; Rom. xii. 20. 21 Cor. xv. 39. 2 verning Israel according to God's appointment: 'Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi:' David will be dancing before the ark of the Lord; 'he uncovers himself shamelessly, as one of the vain fellows:' our Saviour is sociable; he is a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners :' John Baptist is solitary and austere; he doth it by Beelzebub, the prince of devils: he rides in a homely pomp through Jerusalem; he affects a temporal kingdom, and he is no friend to Cæsar that can suffer him to live: he is, by his almighty power, risen from the dead; his disciples stole him away while the soldiers slept: the Spirit of God descends upon the apostles in fiery and cloven tongues, and they, thus inspired, suddenly speak all languages; they are full of new wine.' Stephen preacheth Christ the end of the law; he speaks blasphemous words against Moses and against God.' And what aspersions were cast upon the primitive Christians, all histories witness. What can we hope to do or say, that shall escape the censures and misinterpretations of men, when we see the Son of God could not avoid it? Let a man profess himself honestly conscionable; he is a scrupulous hypocrite: let him take but a just liberty in things merely indifferent; he is loosely profane: let him be charitably affected to both parts, though in a quarrel not fundamental; he is an odious neuter, a lukewarm Laodicean. It concerns every wise Christian to settle his heart in a resolved confidence of his own holy and just grounds; and then to go on in a constant course of his well-warranted judgment and practice, with a careless dis3 Acts, ii. 13. 1 2 Sam. vi 20. 2 Matt. xi. 18, 19. regard of those fools'-bolts which will be sure to be shot at him which way soever he goes. LXXXII. All God's dear and faithful ones are notably described by the apostle to be such as 'love the appearing of our Lord Jesus; for, certainly, we cannot be true friends to those whose presence we do not desire and delight in. Now, this appearing is either in his coming to us, or our going to him: whether ever it be, that he makes his glorious return to us for the judgment of the world, and the full redemption of his elect; or, that he fetches us home to himself, for the fruition of his blessedness; in both or either we enjoy his appearance. If, then, we can only be content with either of these, but do not love them, nor wish for them; our hearts are not yet right with God. It is true that there is some terror in the way to both these: his return to us is not without a dreadful majesty; for 'the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat;' and the glorious retinue of his blessed angels must needs be with an astonishing magnificence; and, on the other part, our passage to him must be through the gates of death, wherein nature cannot but apprehend a horror; but the immediate issue of both these is so infinitely advantageous and happy, that the fear is easily swallowed up of the joy. Doth the daughter of Jephtha abate aught of her timbrels and dances, because she is to meet a father whose arms are bloody with victory? Doth a loving wife entertain her returning husband otherwise Judges, xi. 34. 2 Tim. iv. 3. 2 2 Pet. iii. 10. than with gladness, because he comes home in a military pomp? Is the conqueror less joyful to take up his crown, because it is congratulated to him with many peals of ordnance? Certainly then, neither that heavenly state wherein Christ shall return to us, nor the fears of a harmless and beneficial death wherein we shall pass to him, neither may nor can hinder aught of our love to his appearing. O Saviour, come in whatever equipage or fashion thou wilt, thou canst be no other than lovely and welcome. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. 2 LXXXIII. Suppose a man comes to me on the same errand which the prophet delivered to Hezekiah, 'Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live,' with what welcome do I entertain him? Do I, with that good king, turn my face to the wall and weep? or, do I say of the messenger, as David said of Ahimaaz, 'He is a good man, and brings good tidings? Surely, nature urges me to the former,which cannot but hold dissolution her greatest enemy; for what can she abhor so much as a notbeing faith persuades me to the latter, telling me, that 'to die is gain.'' Now, whether of these two shall prevail with me? Certainly, as each of them hath a share in me, so shall either of them act its own part in my soul. Nature shall obtain so much of me, as to fetch from me, upon the sudden apprehension of death, some thoughts of fear; faith shall straight step in and drive away all those weak fears; and raise up my heart to a cheerful expectation of so gainful and happy a change. Nature shows me the ghastliness of death; faith shows 12 Kings, xx. 1. 22 Sam. xviii. 27. 3 Phil. i. 21. |