Christ apprehends the sinner by his Spirit, page 234 The sinner apprehends Christ by faith, Quest. If all true Christians be growing ones, what shall be said of those who, instead of growing, are going backward? Answered, Quest. Do hypocrites grow at all? And if so, how shall we distinguish betwixt their ib. In what cases a wicked man may be willing to die, 303 Whence they are driven, and whither, Their hopes of peace and pleasure in this life cut off, ib. Death roots up their delusive hopes of heaven, 308 Makes their state absolutely and for ever hopeless, ib. Caution against false hopes: Character of those hopes, 309" Exhortation to hasten out of a sinful state, To be concerned for the salvation of others, The state of the godly at death, a hopeful state, Ten cases of saints anent death, Answered, ib. They will see Christ with their bodily eyes, They will see God, with the eyes of the mind, The eternal duration of this kingdom, The saints admission to the kingdom, The quality in which they are introduced, Trial of the claim to the kingdom of heaven, Their misery under that curse, The punishment of loss, separation from God, The horror of separation from God, evinced The punishment of sense, departing into fire, Hell-fire more vehement and terrible than any ib. ib. NAMELY, THE STATE OF INNOCENCE, OR PRIMITIVE INTEGRITY, IN WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. ECCLES. vii. 29. Lo, this only have I found, That God hath made Man upright: But they have sought out many Inventions. HERE are four things very necessary to be known was in the state of innocence, as God made him. Secondly, What he is in the state of corrupt nature, as he hath unmade himself. Thirdly, What he must be in the state of grace, as created in Christ Jesus unto good works, if ever he be made a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. And, Lastly, What he shall be in his eternal state, as made by the Judge of all, either perfectly happy, or completely miserable, and that for ever. These are weighty points, that touch the vitals of practical godliness, from which most men, and even many professors, in these dregs of time, are quite estranged. I design, therefore, under the divine conduct, to open up these things, and apply them. I begin with the first of them, namely, The state of innocence: That, beholding man polished after the similitude of a palace, the ruins may the more affect us; we may the more prize that matchless Person, whom the Father has appointed the repairer of the breach; and that we may with fixed resolves, betake ourselves to that way which leadeth to the city that hath immoveable foundations. In the text we have three things: 1. The state of innocence wherein man was created. God hath made man upright. By man here we are to understand our first parents; the archetypal pair, the root of mankind, the compendized world, and the fountain from B |