pocketed up the gain, shall be punished; their masters, as the great devourers, and they as their sharks to seek and provide prey for them.

CHAP. XIV.

WHEREIN IS DEFEATED THE THIRD STRATAGEM SATAN USETH TO DISARM THE CHRISTIAN OF HIS BREASTPLATE, AND THAT IS BY SCARING HIM WITH THE CONTRADICTION, OPPOSITION, AND FEUD, IT BRINGS FROM THE WORLD.

ASSAULT 3. There is yet a third stumbling-block, which Satan useth to lay in the way of a soul setting forth in this path of righteousness; and that is the contradiction which such a one is sure to meet with from the world. O, saith Satan, this is the ready way to bring thee under the lash of every tongue, to lose the love of thy neighbours, and contract the scorn, yea hatred, of all thou livest among; and dost thou not desire to live friendly and peaceably with thy neighbours? canst thou bear to be hooted at, as Lot was among the Sodomites, and Noah amidst the old world, that were all of another way? This holiness breeds ill blood wherever it comes; own that, and you bring the world's fists about thy ears presently.

Answ. Truly though this be a sorry weak objection in itself, yet where it meets with a soft temper, and disposition tendered with a facility of nature, one in whom love and peaceful inclinations are predominant, it carries weight enough to amount to a dangerous temptation. No doubt Aaron stumbled at this stone in the business of the golden calf. He did not please himself surely in the thing; but it was an act of mere complaisance to the people as appears by his apology to Moses. "Let not the anger of my lord wax hot, thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief." Exod. xxxiii. 22.

As if he had said, I did not know what they would have done to me upon my denial; what I did was to pacify them, and prevent more trouble from them. There is need we see to be armed against this temptation, which that thou mayest be, seriously weigh these two particulars.

First, Thy God, Christian, whom thou servest, commands the tongues, hands, yea hearts of all men. He can when he pleases, without the least abating in thy holy course, give thee to find favour in the eyes of those thou. most fearest: "When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." Prov. xvi. 7. Laban in a fury pursues Jacob, but God meets him in the way, and gives him his lesson how he should carry himself to the good man, Gen. xxxi. 24. and ver. 29. he doth ingenuously confess to Jacob what turned the wind into a warmer corner, and made him so calm with him, that set out so full of rage, ver. 29. "It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt, but the God of your father met me yesternight," &c. Thank him for nothing; he had power to hurt Jacob, but God would not let him. Mordecai, one would have thought, took the readiest way to incur the king's wrath, by denying Haman that reverence which all were by royal command to pay him; Est. iii. 2. but the holy man's conscience would not suffer his knee to bow; and yet we see, when that proud favourite had done his worst to be revenged on him, he was forced himself to inherit the gallows intended for Mordecai, and leave Mordecai to succeed him in his prince's favour. Thus God, who hath a key to king's breasts, on a sudden locked Ahashuerus's heart against that cursed Amalekite, and opened it to let this holy man into his room. O who would be afraid to be conscientious, when God can and doth so admirably provide for his people's safety, while they keep close to him.

Secondly, Suppose thy holy walking stirs up the wrath of ungodly ones against thee; know there may be more mercy in their hatred than in their love. Commonly the saints get good by the wrath of the wicked against them, not so oft by their favour and friendship; their displeasure wakens their care, and makes them more

accurate. Thus David prayed God to "make his way plain for him, because of his observing enemies;" whereas their friendship too oft lays it asleep, and proves a snare to draw them into some sinful compliance with them. Jehoshaphat was wound in too far by his correspondence with Ahab; so hard is it to keep in with God and wicked men also. Luther professed he would not have Erasmus's honour for a world; indeed the friendship he had with and respect he had from the great ones of the world made him mealy-mouthed in the cause of God. The Moabites could not give Israel the fall at arm's length, but when they closed in alliances with the children of Israel then they were too hard for them; not their curses, but their embraces did them the hurt. Again, we can never lose the love or incur the wrath of men upon better and more advantageous terms, than for keeping our breast-plate of righteousness close to us. First, when we lose for this any love from men we gain God's blessing instead of it. "Blessed are ye when all men speak evil of you falsely, for my name's sake." Matt. v. 11. God's blessing is a good roof over our head, to defend us from the storm of man's wrath. O it is sad when a Christian opens the mouths of the wicked by some unholy action to speak evil of him; no promise will open then its door to hide thee from the storm of their railing tongues; man reviles, and God frowns; little welcome such a one has, when he returns home to look into his own conscience, or converse with his God. But when it is for thy holiness they hate thee, God is bound by promise to pay thee love for their hatred, blessing for their cursing; and truly that courtier has little cause to complain, that for a little disrespect from others, that cannot hurt him, is advanced higher in his prince's favour. Secondly, while thy holy walking loseth thee some love from the world, it gains thee the more reverence and honour. They that will not love thee because thou art holy, cannot chuse but fear and reverence thee at the same time, for what they hate thee. Let a saint comply with the wicked, and remit a little of his holiness to correspond with them, he loses by the hand, as to his interest, I mean, in them; for by gaining a

little false love he loses that true honour which inwardly their consciences paid to his holiness. A Christian, walking in the power of holiness, is like Samson in his strength, the wicked fear him; but when he shews an impotent spirit by any indecency in his course to his holy profession, then presently he is taken prisoner by them, and falls under both the lash of their tongue and scorn of their hearts. They can now dance about such a one, and make him their may-game, whose holiness even now kept them in awe. It is not poverty, or the baseness of thy outward state in the world, will render thee contemptible, so long as thou keepest thy breastplate of righteousness on. There sits majesty in the brow of holiness, though clad in rags. Righteous David commands reverence from wicked Saul. The king himself does this homage to his poor exiled subject: "he wept, and said to David, Thou art more righteous than I." 1 Sam. xxiv. 17. Aye, this is as it should be, when carnal men are forced to acknowledge that they are outshot by the holy lives of Christians. O Christians, do some singular thing, what the best of your merely civil neighbours cannot do, and you sit sure in the throne of their consciences, even when they throw you out of their hearts and affections; so long as the magicians did something like the miracles Moses wrought, they thought themselves as good men as he; but when they were nonplussed in the plague of lice, and could not with all their art produce the like, they acknowledged the "finger of God to be in it." Exod. viii. 16. Do no more than carnal men do, and you stand but level with themselves in their opinions of you, yea they think themselves better than you, because they equal you who pretend to holiness more than they. It is expected that every one in the calling he professeth should more than a little exceed another that is not of that calling, which if he do not, he becomes contemptible.

CHAP. XV.

CONTAINS TWO USES OF THE POINT.

WE come to the application, in which we shall be the shorter, having sprinkled something of this nature all along as we handled the doctrinal part.

SECT. I.

Use 1.. First, For information in two particulars. First, Are we thus to endeavour the maintaining of the power of holiness? Then sure there is such a thing as righteousness and unrighteousness, holiness and sin that opposeth it; yet there is a generation of men that make these things to be mere fancies, as if all the existence they had were in the melancholy imaginations of some poorspirited timorous men, who dream of these things, and then are scared with the bugbears that their own foolish thoughts represent to them. Hence some among us have dared to make it their boast and glorying that they have at last got from under the bondage of that tyrant conscience; they can now do that which we call swearing, lying, yea what not, without being bearded and checked by an imperious conscience; yea that there is no sin to any but him that thinks so. These are worse fools than he the Psalmist speaks of, Psalm xiv. 1. He doth but say in his heart, "There is no God;" but these tell the world what fools they are, and cannot hide their shame. I do not mention these so much to confute them; that were to as little purpose as to go prove there is a sun shining in a clear day, because a mad frantic man denies it; but rather to affect your hearts with the abomination of the times, ye boly ones of God. O how deep asleep were men, that the enemy could come and sow such tares as these amongst us! perhaps they thought such poisonous seed would not grow in our soil, that hath had so much labour and cost bestowed on it by Christ's husbandmen; that such strong delusions would never go down with any that had been used to so pure a gospel-diet; but, alas! we see by woeful expe