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not deceive ourselves, God is not mocked, he will not accept of the world's leavings.

The ever-blessed God, the fountain of all happiness, the chief good of man, the most excellent and desirable Being, out of his infinite grace and goodness, from time to time calls upon us in the ministry of his word, and by his providence, to take off our hearts from the things of this world, and offers himself to our acceptance, and even courts us (O, infinite condescension!) to be happy, for ever happy, in the enjoyment of him. Now, if after all this, we still cleave to the lusts and vanities of this world, and prefer them before God the Creator, blessed for ever, and that even to the last, till death is just ready to hale us off from the world, and we can enjoy it no longer; how can we expect, or so much as imagine, that God will bear this affront at our hands, this vile contempt of his most glorious majesty, or ever receive us into his grace and favour?

Let us therefore now, in the day of our health and prosperity, in the midst of the enjoyments of this life, whilst the world smiles on us, and tempts us with its alluring vanities, take off our hearts from it, despise it, and live above it, and heartily choose God for our portion, and set our affections on the things which are above. And then we may be secure, we may depend upon it, that in the day of our distress, even in the hour of death, God will be our God, to stand by us, and to support and comfort us. And the light of his countenance shall make even the valley of the shadow of death bright and lightsome And after death, we shall be received into those regions of bliss, where we shall see and enjoy things that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nei

to us.

ther hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. To which blessed state God of his infinite mercy bring us all in his due time, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

To whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour and glory, adoration and worship, now and for evermore. Amen.

SERMON IX.

WHAT THAT WORTHINESS IS, AND WHEREIN IT CONSISTS,

WHICH

IS REQUIRED OF THOSE THAT SHALL BE
PARTAKERS OF THE FUTURE HEAVENLY GLORY.

REV. iii. 4.

And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. THE whole verse runs thus: Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

My text is part of the epistle or letter of our blessed Saviour dictated to and sent by St. John, his apostle, to the angel or bishop of the church of Sardis. Wherein our Lord severely reprimands that bishop (and, as it appears, the generality of the church under his government) for great corruptions, both in doctrine and manners, which they were guilty of, ver. 1, 2, 3. But in the verse out of which my text is taken, our Saviour takes notice of some few in that very church, who had kept themselves pure and free from the general and prevailing corruptions of it: Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. A few names, i. e. a few persons; so the word ivóμata,

a [From a passage in this Sermon concerning the prospect of persecution being removed, it would seem to have been written not long after 1688.]

The Worthiness of the Partakers, &c. 217

names, is used Acts i. 15. and in other places of Scripture.

In the greatest corruptions of the church, God's grace always reserves some few that retain their integrity. Thus in Isaiah's time, when the people of the Jews were generally become so vile, that the prophet, speaking to them and their magistrates, calls them rulers over Sodom and people of Gomorrah; yet even then God had left to himself a small remnant of good men, for whose sake the city of Jerusalem, though as wicked as Sodom, was not destroyed as Sodom was, with a final and utter destruction, Isai. i. 9, 10. When the church of the Jews was so overwhelmed with idolatry, that good Elias thought himself the only man that stuck to the worship and service of the true God; yet even then the Lord could tell him, Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him, 1 Kings xix. 18. In that exceeding numerous and populous nation, there were but seven thousand that adhered to the God of their fathers, just so many, and not one more. In general corruptions, when those few good men that are left are hid, and seem as it were to be lost and swallowed up in the vast multitude of the wicked; yet even then, the all-seeing eye of God finds them out, and not a man of them escapes his gracious and favourable notice; and as the expression of our Lord, concerning those few good men in the degenerate church of Sardis, imports, he knows them all by name, Thou hast a few names in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. Those names the Lord so knew and took notice of, as to write them

in his book of life, for so it follows in the text: And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

They shall walk with me ev λevkoïs, in white, or bright, garments. As they walked before me in the pure and clean garments of sanctity and holiness in this life, so shall they walk with me in bright garments of glory in the life to come. Thou hast a few names in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white. It is a metaphorical expression frequently used in this book of the Revelation, to set forth the heavenly glory, which the saints shall be partakers of in the future state. So, to look no farther, it is used in the verse next to my text, ver. 5. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

This is the promise of our Saviour to the good men of the church of Sardis, and in them to all sincere and faithful Christians. The reason of the promise follows in the next words of my text, or ažioí Eloi, for they are worthy. And upon this part of the text I shall insist in my following discourse.

For they are worthy. Let no man startle at the expression, for to be sure there is no hurt in it, it being the language of the Holy Ghost; and when we have thoroughly inquired into it, it will be found pregnant of matter, tending very much both to the glory of God, and the instruction, yea, and comfort too, of all sincere Christians. In the mean time, from the plain words of the text, we may venture to lay down this proposition as an undoubted truth:

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