A CHOICE DROP OF HONEY
FROM THE
ROCK CHRIST.
A word of advice to my own heart and thine:—Thou art a professor, and partakest of all ordinances: Thou dost well, they are glorious privileges. But if thou hast not the blood of Christ at the root of thy profession, it will wither, and prove but painted pageantry to go to hell in.
If thou retain guilt and self-righteousness under it, those vipers will eat out all the vitals of it at length.—Try and examine with the greatest strictness every day, what foundation thy profession and thy hope of glory is built upon, whether it was laid by the hand of Christ; if not, it will never be able to endure the storm that will come against it. Satan will throw it all down, and great will be the fall thereof, Matt. vii. 27.
Glorious professor! thou shalt be winnowed, every vein of thy profession shall be tried to purpose! It is terrible to have it all come tumbling down, and to find nothing but it to rest upon.
Soaring professor! see to thy waxen wings betimes, which will melt with the heat of temptations. What a misery it is, to trade much, and break at length, and have no stock, no foundation laid for eternity in thy soul!
Gilded professor! look if there be not a worm at the root, that will spoil all thy fine gourd, and make it die about thee in a day of scorching. Look over thy soul daily, and ask, “Where is the blood of Christ to be seen upon my soul? What righteousness is it that I stand upon to be saved? Have I got off my self-righteousness?”—Many eminent professors have come at length to cry out in the sight of the ruin of all their duties, Undone, undone, to all eternity!
Consider, the greatest sins may be hid under the greatest duties, and the greatest terrors. See the wound that sin hath made in thy soul be perfectly cured by the blood of Christ; not skinned over with duties, humblings, enlargements, &c. Apply what thou wilt besides the blood of Christ, it will poison the sore. Thou wilt find that sin was never mortified truly; that thou hast not seen Christ bleeding for thee upon the cross; nothing can kill it, but the beholding of Christ’s righteousness.