that he may make about religion, he will ever come to God by Christ.

If he knows not himself and the badness of his condition, wherefore should he come?

If he knows not the world and the emptiness and vanity thereof, wherefore should he come?

If he knows not the law and the severity thereof, wherefore should he come?

If he knows not hell and the torments thereof, wherefore should he come?

If he knows not what death is, wherefore should he come?

If he knows not the Father and the Son, how can he come?

And to know that there is a judgment to come, is as necessary to his coming, as most of the rest of the things propounded. Coming to God by Christ is for shelter, for safety, for advantage, and everlasting happiness. But he that knows not that, understands not the things aforementioned-sees not this need of taking shelter, of flying for safety, of coming for advantage to God by Christ.

I know there are degrees of this knowledge; and he that has it most warm upon him, in all likelihood, will make most haste, or, as David saith, will haste his escape from the windy storm and tempest; and he that sees least, is in danger of being the loiterer, and so of losing the prize. For all that run do not obtain it; all that fight do not win it; and all that strive for it have it not.

II. I shall now come to the second man mentioned, namely, the man that is turned back from his backsliding, and speak something also about his coming again to God by Christ.

There are two things remarkable in the returning of a backslider to God by Christ. The first is, that he gives a second testimony to the truth of all things spoken of before.

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He also gives a second testimony of the necessity of coming to God by Christ.

Of the manner of his coming to God by Christ, perhaps I also may speak a word or two. But,

come.

1. The returning again of the backslider, gives a second testimony to the truth of man's state being by nature miserable, of the vanity of this world, of the severity of the law, certainty of death, and terribleness of judgment to His first coming told them so, but his second coming tells them so with a double confirmation of the truth. 'It is so,' saith his first coming. 'Oh! it is so,' saith his second. The backsliding of a Christian comes through the overmuch persuading of Satan and lust that the man was mistaken, and that there was no such horror in the things from which he fled, nor so much good in the things to which he hasted. Turn again, fool,' says the devil, 'turn again to thy former course. I wonder what frenzy it was that drove thee to thy heels, and that made thee leave so much good behind thee, as other men find in the lusts of the flesh and the good of the world. As for the law, and death, and an imagination of the day of judgment, they are but mere scarecrows, set up by politic heads, to keep the ignorant in subjection.' 'Well,' says the backslider, 'I will go back again and see.' So, fool as he is, he goes back, and has all things ready to entertain him; his conscience sleeps, the world smiles, flesh is sweet, carnal company compliments him, and all that can be got is presented to this backslider to accommodate him. But, behold, he doth again begin to see his own nakedness, and he perceives that the law is whetting his axe. As for the world, he perceives it is a bubble. He also smells the smell of brimstone; for God hath scattered it upon his tabernacle, and it begins to burn within him. 'Oh! saith he, I am deluded. Oh! I am ensnared. My first sight of things was true. I see it is so again.' Now he begins to be for flying again to his first

refuge. 'O God, saith he, I am undone! I have turned

from thy truth to lies! find them such at last.

I believed them such at first, and
Have mercy upon me, O God!'

This, I say, is a testimony, a second testimony by the same man, as to the miserable state of man, the severity of the law, the emptiness of the world, the certainty of death, and the terribleness of judgment. This man has seen it, and seen it again.

A returning backslider is a great blessing (I mean intended to be so) to two sorts of men. 1. To the elect uncalled. 2. To the elect that are called, and that at present stand their ground. The uncalled are made to hear him and consider; the called are made to hear him, and are afraid of falling. Behold therefore the mystery of God's wisdom, and how willing he is that spectators should be warned and made take heed. Yea, he will permit that some of his own shall fall into the fire, to convince the world that hell is hot, and to warn their brethren to take heed that they slip not with their feet. I have often said in my heart, that this was the cause why God suffered so many of the believing Jews to fall, namely, that the Gentiles might take heed. 'O brethren,' saith the backslider that is returned, 'did you see how I left my God? did you see how I turned again to those vanities from which some time before I fled? Oh! I was deluded; I was bewitched; I was deceived: for I found all things from which I fled at first, still worse by far when I went to them the second time. Do not backslide. Oh! do not backslide. The first ground of your departing from them was good; never tempt God a second time.'

2. And as he gives us a second testimony, that the world and himself are so as at first he believed they were; so by this his returning, he testifies that God and Christ are the same, and much more than ever he believed at first they This man has made a proof before, and a proof after

were.

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conviction, of the evil of the one and good of the other. This man has made a proof by feeling and seeing, and that before and after grace received. This man God has set up to be a witness. This man is two men; has the testimony of two men; must serve in the place of two men. He knows what it is to be fetched from a state of nature by grace; but this all Christians know as well as he. Ay, but he knows what it is to be fetched from the world, from the devil, and hell, the second time; and that but few professors know for few that fall away return to God again. Ay, but this man is come again, wherefore there is news in his mouth; sad news, dreadful news, and news that is to make the standing saint to take heed lest he fall.

The returning backslider therefore is a rare man, a man of worth and intelligence, a man to whom the men of the world should flock, and of whom they should learn to fear the Lord God. He also is a man of whom the saints should receive both caution, counsel, and strength in their present standing; and that should, by his harms, learn to serve the Lord with fear, and to rejoice with trembling.

This man has the second time also had a proof of God's goodness in his Christ unto him-a proof which the standing Christian has not. I would not tempt him that stands to fall; but the good that a returning backslider has received at God's hands, and at the hand of Christ, is a double good; he has been converted twice; fetched from the world and from the devil, and from himself twice (oh grace !), and has been made to know the stability of God's covenant, the unchangeableness of God's mind, the sure and lasting truth of his promise in Christ, and of the sufficiency of the merits of Christ, over and over.

Of the manner of this man's coming to God by Christ, I shall also speak a word or two.

He comes as the newly awakened sinner comes, and that from the same motives and the knowledge of things. But

he hath over and above (which he had as good have been without) that which the newly awakened sinner has not, namely, the guilt of his backsliding, which is a guilt of a worse complexion, of a deeper dye, and of a heavier nature than is any guilt else in the world. He is also attended with fears and doubts that arise from other reasons and considerations, than do the doubts and fears of the newly awakened man; doubts built upon the vileness of his backsliding. He has also more dreadful scriptures to consider, and they will look more wishfully in his face (yea, and will also make him take notice of their grim physiognomy) than has the newly awakened man. Besides, as a punishment of his backsliding, God sometimes seems to withhold the sweet influences of his Spirit, and is as if he would not suffer him to pray, nor to repent any more; as if he would now take all away from him, and leave him to those lusts and idols that he left his God to follow. Swarms of his new rogueries shall haunt him in every place, and that not only in the guilt, but in the filth and pollution of them.

None knows the things that haunt the backslider's mind; his new sins are all turned talking devils, threatening devils, roaring devils, within him. Besides, he doubts of the truth of his first conversion; consequently he has it lying upon him, as a strong suspicion, that there was nothing of truth in all his first experience; and this also adds lead to his heels, and makes him come, as to sense and feeling, more heavy, and with the greater difficulty, to God by Christ. As the faithfulness of other men kills him, he cannot see an honest, humble, holy, faithful servant of God, but he is pierced and wounded at the heart. Ay,' says he, within himself, 'That man fears God; that man hath faithfully followed God; that man, like the elect angels, has kept his place; but I am fallen from my station like a devil. That man honoreth God, edifieth the saints, convinceth the world, and condemneth them, and is become heir of the righteous