What man e #ot..earning to :%rá t. are held and kept under the creature as a I le. van. uttht c iris Matter, asan adulterer m under the harlots as 4;T icar r w:áei his burthens ; the worlds imployments Kcepe them under is Pharaohs o Taske- mafters the Ifraelites : Thefe, like Lelilab, (have off their locks, and make them weak, that, like samp- fon, they cannot go forth, they cannot come to Chriit : This withheld the Guefts in the Parable from comming to the . marriage feaft of the Kings fon : this made the Pharires de- fpifeChrifts do &rine : this fruftrates all holy inftru &ion and graicous perfwafon, as:the thornes make the lowing of the tied unfruitful : this extinguifheth the love of Chrift, as a ftrange lover in the.bofome of the wife, puts out the love fhe fhould have to her husband. The foule which is not divor- ced from the world, cannot marry Chrift. Chrift is never precious in mans apprehenfion, as long as the world feemes glorious to him. CuiChri(f us incipit dulcefcere, neceffe eft ama- refcere mundum, faith Bernard : as we begin to relifh fweetneffe in Chrift, fo the world begins to be bitter to us ; the more fweetncffe we tafte in the one, the more bitterneffe we tafte in the other : If the world be as a pleafant feafi, Chrift is but as an empty difh. And there are maine.grounds of mans neglcbing Chrift, ftanding aloofe offfrom Chrift, and refit- fing to come freely and fully home to Chrift. And this is a very great folly of man : For what is man not comming unto Chrift,not partaking ofChriîtin whom is all fulnefíe, but an empty man, a broken ci7erne, wherein is no water of grace ; an empty 13' Vine, whereon growes no good fruit, no fweet Grape ; 2. A dead man in whom is no life of God, a withered branch feparate from the Vine ? As Lazarus. remained dead in the q rave till Chrift came and railed him ; fo doth man in t rave of thane, until Chilli cometh to him, and he to Ç Lift ; for be that bath not the Son, :.hatb not life; 3. A r barren man,as a woman that abides with- out a husband; all our fruit is but as an illegitimate birth, until we are married unto Chrift ; if we come not to Chrift as to a husband -man to manure us, as to a cloud to water .us, we are but as a barren heath ; g.. A blind man : as he that :comes not unto the Sun, fits icy &rkneffe; fo he that comes F 2 not 35 iti1.u. _6 24. m `YUI-S 4 4. n ves, 49.24. tl EX.c43 I I I. Ludt; s i 6. M;ttth.22. Luke t 6 14. Matti-1.-13.22. Bernard. Folly ofnot comming to Chrift din- ar veci. p Hof èa to. I. 2. q lohn 11.44. t Iohn S, 12. 3' i Heb 6.7 4.
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