And dreadful temporal destruction from the Lord may overtake even his own children, who defile their garments: "For this cause many are weak and sickly, and many sleep." 3dly, You will break your peace, and mar your comfort. If you keep not your garments clean, you may provoke the Lord to fill you with terrors, and to cast such a spark of hellfire into your bosoms as shall make you roar, and cry out of broken bones, with David; or, with Job, "The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit." 4thly, You will cast a blot upon religion, and on "the good ways of the Lord." If you who have been professing to own Christ at his table, shall be found defiling your garments, by lying, swearing, drunkenness, or the like, what will the graceless world say? They will conclude, that professors are but a company of hypocrites; that religion is nothing but a piece of trick and imposture. You will be a blemish to Christian society: "These are spots," says the apostle, "in your feasts of charity." And he speaks of some, who, through their untenderness," made the way of the Lord to be evil spoken of." 5thly, You will dishonour Christ, that glorious Master whom you have been professing to own. Hence the Lord complains of the children of Israel, that they, by their wickedness, caused his "name to be polluted among the Heathen." David's sin made the name of God to be blasphemed and reproached. 6thly, By polluting your garments, you will "offend the generation of the righteous;" and "it were better for you that a millstone were hanged about your necks, and ye cast into the midst of the sea, than that ye should offend one of Christ's little ones." It is a dangerous thing to grieve the hearts of those that are dear unto God; for God will not grieve their hearts; and he will resent it, if any other do it by their untenderness. 7thly, You will harden others in their sins. When the wicked see professors, or ministers, going along with them, they conclude, that their way is the best of it, and preferable to the way of religion. Thus, you see the dismal effects that will follow upon your defiling your garments.

MOT. 4. Consider the great advantages that shall accrue to you by keeping your garments clean. 1st, It will yield you great peace; peace in life; for "as many as walk according to this rule, peace shall be upon them." Peace in the midst of all troubles: "This is our rejoicing, the testimony of a good conscience." Peace at death: Psal. xxxvii. 37: “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." Peace after death. In Is. lvii. 2, we are told, that "the righteous," at death, "enter into peace; they rest upon their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." Peace at the last judgment. It is only the cleanly remnant to whom

the Lord will say then, "Lift up your heads; for the day of your redemption draweth nigh." 2dly, By keeping clean garments, you will be in a continual fitness for maintaining fellowship and communion with God in any ordinance of his appointment; for it is the man that "hath clean hands, and a pure heart," that shall stand on God's holy hill, and have a place in his tabernacle. And not only so, but it will fill you with a holy boldness and confidence, in your approaches to God in the ordinances of his appointment: Job xi. 14, 15: "If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away," &c. 3dly, The influences of ordinances will stay the longer upon you, that you keep your garments clean. What is the reason why the impression of any thing of God, that we meet with in ordinances, so soon vanishes, like the morning cloud? The reason is, the untenderness of our walk: we lie down among the pots of sin, and this makes God to withdraw from us. We read of some mountains that are so high, that if men draw figures in the sand upon the tops of them, they will abide for many years. The reason is, they are so high, that they are above the winds and rains. O sirs, if we were living and walking on high with God, the impression of ordinances would stay longer with us than they do. 4thly, By keeping your garments clean, you will perhaps save the souls of others, and commend religion to them. Hence is that [direction] of Christ, (Matth. v. 16,) "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 5thly, By keeping your garments clean, you will find more strength to keep yourselves: "for the way of the Lord is strength to the upright." If ye keep God's way, he will "keep you in the hour of temptation," Rev. iii. 10. God will keep you by his power through faith unto salvation. 6thly, After a little time is elapsed, ye shall be clothed in white, and walk with Christ in the new Jerusalem, according to his promise in the text.

Now, I conclude all with directions and advices, in order to your keeping of your garments clean.

1. Be persuaded of your own utter inability to keep your garments clean by your own power, or the strength of created grace: for "the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps."

2. Take care that you be united to Christ, the fountain of holiness; for you do but wash the Ethiopian, while you attempt to make yourselves clean and holy, while you grow on the root of the old Adam. You may indeed "wash the outside of the cup and platter," but you will remain "filthy still" in the sight of God, till you be created in Christ, the true root of sanctification; "Can a man gather grapes of thorns, or figs

of thistles?" The tree must be good before the fruit be good.

3. Being united to Christ, you must make daily use of him by faith. Do not think, that, when you have first believed in Christ, your work is done; no, your life must be a life of faith. By faith we live, by faith we stand, by faith we work, by faith we fight; and "whatever we do, in word or deed," we must "do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." You must be always "building up yourselves in your most holy faith," and going on from faith to faith; and whenever you have, through infirmity, or the prevalency of temptation, defiled your garments, be sure to run by faith unto the blood of sprinkling, that you may get your hearts sprinkled from an evil

conscience.

4. Set God continually before you, and keep up the impression of his all-seeing eye on your spirits: Psal. xvi. 8: "I have set the Lord always before me : because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved."

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5. Be much in viewing and meditating on the dismal and terrible effects of sin; how it did cast angels out of heaven, Adam out of Paradise, and brought God's curse upon all his posterity; how it brought a deluge on the old world, Sodom and Gomorrah burnt by fire and brimstone; how it made the earth to swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

6. If you would keep your garments clean, O then beware of going to the utmost length of Christian liberty; it is dangerous to come too near God's marches. We should take heed to ourselves, even in the use of things that are in themselves lawful; "many things are lawful," but every thing lawful is not at all times "expedient." You would shun every "appearance of evil;" do not stand in the way of temptations, or occasions of sin. And, in particular, take care to avoid evil company; for " can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burnt?"

7. Beware of giving your consent and countenance to the sins of others; for hereby ye shall be "partakers with them in their sins." We may not only defile our garments by personal sins, but by the sins of others, when we encourage them in an evil way, when we assent or consent to them, or do not faithfully warn and reprove them, or endeavour to reclaim them.

8. Lastly, Be importunate with God, at the throne of grace, for guidance and direction; for "unless the Lord keep the city, the watchmen watch in vain." Unless his "grace be sufficient for us, we will soon be carried down the stream of temptation and corruption; for "the way of man is not in himself." And therefore, I say, plead hard at the throne, that the Lord

would keep you, who "keeps the feet of his saints." And for this end plead the promise that he has made to his people, Jer. xxxii. 40: "I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Zech. x. 12: "I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord."

SERMON II.

THE BACKSLider characTERIZED; OR, THE EVIL And danger of DEFECTION DESCRIBED.*

If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.-HBB. x. 38.

[The following Discourse was represented to the commission, May 1725, by Mr. Alexander Anderson, as if it had been of such a turbulent or erroneous tendency, that he himself, preaching after me, was obliged publicly to contradict me. The following notes are, to the best of my remembrance, the ipsissima verba which I delivered at that time. Whether the doctrines contained therein deserved the character he gave them before the Reverend Commission, or if he had ground publicly to contradict, I submit to the judgment of the impartial world.]

From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.-JOHN vi, 66.

In the beginning of this chapter, our blessed Lord works a notable miracle; he feeds five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, twelve baskets of fragments remaining. The multitude is so taken with this miraculous entertainment, that they would needs make him a king. But our lowly King of Zion did not affect worldly grandeur, his kingdom not being of this world; therefore he withdraws himself, and passes over the sea to Capernaum. Many of the multitude, whom he had fed, followed him thither. And there our blessed Lord takes occasion to preach a very heavenly and spiritual sermon to them, holding out the necessity of living and feed

• Preached at Dysart, on a thanksgiving day, after the sacrament, Monday, October 7, 1714.

ing by faith upon him, in order to everlasting life. These carnal hearers are exceedingly stumbled at the spirituality of his doctrine, looking upon it as a piece of unaccountable stuff and nonsense. Upon which they begin to drop off from him, as the evangelist remarks here, in the words of my text, From that time many of his disciples went back, &c.

In which words we may notice, 1. A defection, or going back from Christ. 2. The season of it: namely, From that lime, or, after he had preached the foregoing sermon. 3. The cause of it, implied in the time, namely, the spirituality of his doctrine. 4. The persons guilty of this defection, namely, professed disciples; and that not a few, but many of them. 5. The final and irrecoverable nature of their defection, they walked no more with him.

The words are plain and easy; and therefore there is no need of any critical explication. Wherefore, take this native observation from them; namely,

Doct. "That there are some seasons in which many of Christ's pretended disciples fall off from him, and that finally and irrecoverably. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

In handling this doctrine, I shall observe the order of the words, and speak a little,

I. To this defection, or falling off from Christ.

II. Inquire a little into the causes of it.

III. The seasons of it.

IV. The persons guilty of the defection, namely, the disciples.

V. Give a few characters of those who fall off finally, and walk no more with him.

VI. Apply the whole.

I. I say, I will speak a little of this defection or falling off from Christ. And here I would, 1. Give you some of the scriptural names of it. 2. Speak of the kinds and degrees of it. 3. Notice some of its ingredients. 4. Mention some of its concomitants.

First, I would give you some scriptural names by which it is called. And sometimes it is called a looking back: Luke ix. 62: "No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven." My friends, you have been professing to set your faces heavenward; O beware of casting a back-look upon your old lovers: "Remember Lot's wife;" take heed that God do not set you up as monuments of his vengeance. Again; it is sometimes called a turning back: Lam. i. 8: "Jerusalem sigheth, and turneth back