"Until the day break, and the shadows flee away,"c. Therefore your main concern will be to reach eternal light there, Phil. iii. 14. to be prepared and made meet for it, Rev. xix. 7. And you will aim at the purity of it, 1 John iii. 3. So you will be going thro' this world, as in a night journey, with the eye fixed on the other world before, defiring and expecting the break of day that will be there. USE III. Of caution, This gives a watchword to all that profess their fouls marriage with Christ. It is night-time; therefore, 1. Beware ye fall not asleep, 1- Theff. v. 7. Take heed of carnal fecurity, which is the bed of the devil's making for us; a dangerous bed, how foft foever; and the fofter the more dangerous. Satan got David into it, and there he polluted himself with adultry and murder; and Peter alfa, where he defiled himself with denying his Lord and Mafter. But it is but few that get the caft of grace to raise and cleanse them in fuch a cafe, that these two eminent faints got. People are ready to fall asleep after a full meal, Cant. v. 1, 2. and wife virgins may be overtaken with fleep, as well as foolish virgins, Mat. xxv. 5. 2. Beware ye fall not a-dreaming. The whole life of fome is one continued dream or delufion, which they awake not out of till they are past hope and help, If. xliv. 20. "He feedeth on afhes; a deceived heart hath turned him afide, and he cannot deliver his foul, nor fay, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Chap. xxix. 8. God's children alfo are in hazard of dreaming too in this their night-time, when they fall afleep. David fell a-dreaming of golden mountains in this world, Pf. xxx. 6. Peter of perfect fafety, when Satan was laying a fnare for him, and feeking to winnow him. O Sirs, open your eyes, ftand on your watch, know ye are here among the lions dens, and the mountains of the leopards. Do not dream of world's eafe, but lay your your account with trials; nor of fafety from fnares, but lay your account with temptations. 3. Beware of mistakes and misapprehenfions of things, to which people are liable in the night. Live by faith, and truft not your own understanding, Prov. iii. 5. Judge not of things in your way by fenfe, but by the rule of God's word. Our eyes in the night are apt to deceive us. A ftep will appear much more difficult by reason of the darkness, than really it is; fo there will be ftones of difficulty appearing in the way, of a duty not to be rolled away, which yet when come up to will be found rolled away to your hand. A bush will appear a houfe to the traveller, and disappoint him turning to it for fhelter; fo does this and the other created comfort to us in this night-journey. In the night we are ready to take our friends for our foes, as did the difciples on the fea; fo we are apt to do with our croffes and trials. ye 4. Beware of ftumbling, John xi. 10. and walk circumfpectly, Eph. v. 15. Keep up a holy jealousy over yourselves, Prov. xxviii. 14. "Happy is the man that feareth alway." Where the darkness of the night trysts with fnares and ftumbling block's in one's way, it is hard for one to keep his feet; fo it is in your way to heaven. Peter found a snare in the mount, as well as in the high-prieft's hall; and Lot in the cave with his own children, as well as in Sodom. Take then that caution, I Cor. x. 12. "Let him that thinketh he ftandeth, take heed left he fall." Laftly, Beware of wearying in a way of languishing, fretfulness, and impatience; the which is incident to people in the night not asleep. Whatever be your troubles in the world, yea your ftruggles with the body of fin and temptations, do not weary fo as to fall a languishing, unfitting yourselves for bearing and doing; fo as to fret and be impatient, and fay, It will never be day. For tho' it is night, the morning cometh. USE ult. Evidence yourselves truly married to E e 2 Chrift, by your looking on the time of this life, as a night-time, a fhadowy one. And this, 1. By ftretching your view habitually beyond it, "looking not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not feen," 2 Cor. iv. ult. A foul married to Chrift will not terminate its defires and expectations within the narrow limits of time; nor would they, if it were in their offer, fit down contented with this life perpetuated, more than they would be content of an eternal night here that would never have a day, Job vii. 16. "I lothe it, I would not live alway." But live ye in expectation of this night's paffing, and of the morning's coming in the other world. 2. By watchfulness and circumfpect walking, as not infenfible of your hazard. Travellers by night look well to their feet, however carelessly men walk that travel by day, Prov. iv. 26. Many profeffing to be efpoufed to Chrift, difcover their hypocrify by the loofenefs and carelessnefs of their after-walk. 3. By continual eying and ufe-making of the pillar of fire that gives light in the night in this wilderness. Chrift is that pillar of fire, that enlightens the believer's darkness in this world; as he is a Hufband, he is the foul's guide. Keep the eye of faith on him, while the night lafts, that all your motions, removes, and refts may be directed by him, Col. ii. 6. "As ye have there. fore received Christ Jefus the Lord, fo walk ye in him.” John viii. 12. "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me, fhall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Laftly, By learning and using the song in the night. Our Lord has allowed the travellers to Zion, fuch a fong, as may refresh and cheer them in their nightjourney thro' the wilderness, Ifa. xxx. 29. " Ye fhall have a fong as in the night, when a holy folemnity is kept, and gladnefs of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Ifrael." They learn it out of their Bible, Pfal. cxix. Pfal.cxix. 54. Thy ftatutes have been my fongs in the house of my pilgrimage." They fing it by faith, believing the promises, and crediting and applying the bleffed report concerning the other world, the day's breaking and the fhadows fleeing away. And this cheers them in the melancholy night they have. Slight it not, Job xxxv. 1o. "But none faith, Where is God my maker, who giveth fongs in the night?" If.lxiv. 5. "Thou meeteft him that rejoiceth and worketh righte oufnefs, thofe that remember thee in thy ways." Neh.. viii. 10. "The joy of the Lord is your ftrength." DOCT. II. To thofe that are truly married to Christ, the day will break in the other world, and the fhadows flee away; and they should live in the comfortable expectation of it. IN handling this point, I fhall, I. Confider the day's breaking, and the fhadows fleeing away thereupon. II. Believers living in the comfortable expectation of the day's breaking to them in the other world, and the fhadows fleeing away thereupon. III. Lastly, Apply the doctrine. I. I SHALL confider the day's breaking, and the fhaTM dows fleeing away thereupon. And on this head I fhall speak of, 1. The day's breaking in the other world to thofe that are married to Chrift. 2. The shadows upon this breaking of the day, fleeing away. 3. Confirm the point, that the day will break, and the fhadows flee away, as to thofe that are married to Christ. FIRST, I am to speak of the days breaking in the other world to those that are married to Chrift. And here I fhall fhew, 1. What a day will break to them there. 2. How this day will break to them there. Ee 3 FIRST, I FIRST, I fhall fhew what a day will break in the o ther world to those who are married to Christ. 1. A clear and bright day, Ifa. lx. 1, 2. “ Arife, fhine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is rifen upon thee. For behold, the darkness fhall cover the earth, and grofs darkness the people; but the Lord fhall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." Whatever gloomy, dark, and melancholy times the spouse of Chrift has here, fhe will have a bright day of it in the other world. There will be no clouds in it; the dark and cloudy day will then be at an end. The glory of God lightens the upper hemifphere there, whither they go; and in him there is no darkness at all. 2. A fair day and calm. There are no ftorms nor tempefts, no bluftering winds nor rains in Immanuel's land, Rev. xxi. 4. "There fhall be no more death, neither forrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." It will be one continued tempest in the lower part of the other world; there the great rain of his ftrength will be falling continually on his adversaries; but there will be an abfolute calm there, as Ex. ix. 24,-25. where we are told, "There was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, fuch as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt, fince it became a nation.-Only in the land of Gofhen, where the children of Ifrael were, was there no hail." O what a pity is it, that the faith thereof should not make us bear better the clouds returning after the rain now! 3. A glad and joyful day, Pfal. cxxvi. 5. "They that fow in tears, fhall reap in joy." Their wo days will then all be at an end, Rev. xxi. 4. The light and gladness now under the clod, will be fairly sprung up to them then. It will be the day of the heir of glory's home-coming from his travels in the foreign land, unto his own country, his Father's house, and his Father's embraces. It will be the spouse of Chrift's marriage |