~ .. ,. . .. · State· tH .. t-i:oefs of his reformation of life is clifcovered. His repent-· ance appears to him no better than the repentance of Ju.-. diu.; ~· his tear Jil{e Efau's, and his defires. after Chrifi to:· be felfifh and lothfom; like theirs who fougbt Chrifi be~ ~auje of the loaves, John v.i. 26• . His anfwer from God. fee:;ns now to be, Away proud .beggar, f!owjhalll put the~ Rmon& the children? he feems to Jook fiernly on him, for his {lighting of Jefus Ch,ifl: by unhelief, which is a fin he fcarce difcerned before. But now, at length, he beholds i:c in its crimfon colours; and is pierced to the heart as with · a thoufand darts. while he fees how he has .been going on blindly,· finning agaioft the remedy of fin, and, in the w.hole courfe of his life, trampling on the blood of the Son of God,. And now he is, in·his own eyes, the miferable object of law vengeance-, yea,. and gofpel vepgeanee too. · Eleven~h!y, ·The man bei)jg thus far humbled, will no more plead, · he is. wr;rthy .f<lr whom Chrifl Jhould do thi.f · thing; but, on the contrary, looks on himfelf as unworthy of Chrifl, ' and unworthy of the favour .of God. We may ·compare him, in th'is cafe, to the yol!lng man who followed Chrill, having a linen clath cafl abo.ut hirnaked body ;. on whom, when the young men laid hold, he left the lin e"N– cloth . andjledfiom them naked, Ma-rk xiv. 51, 52. Even fo the .man had been following Ghrill, in the thin and cold– rife garment of his own perfonal cworthin~:r i but by it, e– ven by it, whi·ch he fo much trlil.fled to, the law catche th· hold of him, to mt!ke him prifoner ; and then he is fain to leave it, and Hi es away naked; yet not to Chrifl:, ~?ut from him. lf you now tell him, he is welcome to Chrifi, .if he will come to birn ; he is apt to fay, Can fuch a .vil e and un.• nJJorthj wretch as I. be welcome to the holy Jefus ? If a. plaifter be applied to his wou nd ed foul, it will not !tick. He· fays , D-epart lrom me, for I amajinfidman, 0 Lord, Luke v. 8.' No man needs fpeak to him of his repentance, for bis comf(nt ; he can quickly efpy fuch fauhs in it- as makes it naught; n,or of his tears, fot he is a!flilted, they h.ave ne– ver come into the Lord's bottle. He difpntes himfelf aw2.y fwm Chrit1: ; ar~ condudes now: that he has been fuch a fl;ghter of Chrifi, and is fuch an unholy and vile creature, he. cannot, he will not, h~ ought not , to come 'to Chrift; ~nd tha.t b-e muG: eithet: be in better caJe, or elfe he' 11 ne· / ~eff'" I -
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