Chap. 6, An Expeftion upen the B oot ¿ o f J OB. Verf.ai. 5 1 5 now ye are fallen into feares your (elves ; Thus ye are not ; ye are no fuch thing as ye promifed me, ye promifed to comfort, at leali to pittyme, but ye do not. So the Septuagint, Te vifit me, but lÓ3 rte vtfißíF p are not moved with any compaffion toavords me.I had been as well cordi3 etÿtii- without your company ; or if no fuch men had ever been in yui8, the world. Obferve firth, from thefe words, For nowyeare nothing. Ile that`is not what he ought to be, or what be promifed to be, is nothing. To be ufelefs is (in afence) to be effence-lefr. To be ufelefs in the world, is to be as out of the world ; a man who lives only toeat and drink, and fleep, may be laidnot to live at all. What we fay in our Englith Proverb,is true, both of pert ns and of ae;}ions, As goodnever a whit as never the better ; as good not to be, as do nogood.The Apoille Jude (peakingof unprofitable perfons (verfe r 2.) calls them Trees Without fruit ; and what then ? Twice dead,plucked up by the roots ; as if the Apoftle had faid, I look upon fruitlefs perlons, as dead perlons, yea as duu- bly dead, that is, dead Jure enough. As a man can be born but once, in one kind (Nicodemus argued from a truth, though not to a truth; becaufe he could not diliinguithnatural fromSpi- ritual, job, 3. 4.) fo a man can dye but once,in one kinde. Thefc men of whom the Apofile fpeaks, were alive naturally, though dead fpiritually, how then is it Paid that they were twice dead ? they were judged twice dead, either, becaufe a fpiritual death is fogreat a death, that it may well go for two, yea one fpirituat death is worCe than a thoufand natural deaths. Or fecondly, they are faid to be twice dead, becaufe they were dead, both in regard ofdre truth of grace, and in regard of any outward adings of grace; for Torre hypocrites who are indeed dead in fin, yet aft grace in many outward fruits, as if they were alive. But of theee.perfor}s it is Paid, their fruit withereth, and theyare without fruit. Theywere no: fp much as externally a- dive ; they had no life of unionwithChril?, and they did no good, with the life of their profeflion in Chrifl, and therefore are jufily laid tobe twice dead. l hey whohave leaves 8c look frefh and lively, as if theyhad more than one life in them , yet, if VJe lefo, are called livelefs, and tiny who do nothing in the world, are to be reckoned no bedies"in"theSorld. In the Parable of the Prodi- gal, the conclufion is, This my fin was dead, and io alive ; why dead ? becaufe he was unanfwerable to thole purpolts, tk thole Y1uu2 ends .
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=