the path of which Job fpeaks, which the vulture's eye hath not feer, Job xxviii. 7. But, even as to these Christ knows mens works. He has before him what we did in all times and places, and ftages of life: in childhood and youth, in manhood and riper years. Works that we may have forgotten, are known to him, and remembered by him.

(4.) The knowledge Chrift has of the works of men, is infallible and liable to no mistake. He cannot be deceived, and will not be mocked.

(5.) Laftly, The knowledge Chrift has of the works of men is with approbation, or diflike, according as they are found to be good, or bad. He knows thofe of the humble ferious chriftian, and accepts of him and them; but looks with abhorrence upon the deceiver, who has a name to live, and yet is dead.

But this brings me to the

II. Thing obferved, viz. Whoever he be that hath a name to live, and yet is dead, is known to Chrift, as what he really is.

Here let me briefly fhew,

1. What is implied in having a name to live. 2. That fuch a name one may have that is spiritually dead.

3. The fadness of having a name to live, if there is no more.

1. To fhew what is implied in having

to live. This in general is to be understood of the reputation any may have of being in a state of grace, and refcued from that they were in by nature, which the fcripture fpeaks of as a state of death. Real chriftians are, by the quickening

Spirit, brought into a special union to Christ, and fo yield themselves unto God through him, as those that are alive from the dead: they are born from heaven, and tending thither; being turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God: they are juftified in the blood of Jefus, and fo delivered from condemnation, and entitled to heaven: they are fanctified by the Spirit of Chrift, and fo made partakers of the divine nature, preparing them for heaven: they are adopted into God's family, made his children, and have many privileges peculiar to fuch in their way to heaven, with the promise of a glorious inheritance reserved for them there, at the end of it. Now to be reputed fome of this happy number, is to have a name to live.

They that are really in a state of grace may be juftly faid to live: as fuch fouls live to the best purpofe; for to them to live, is Chrift: as they only are prepared to take the comfort of life, even of the natural one; they being juftified by faith, and at peace with God: as they are out of the reach of the fting of death, and so need not thro' fear of it, pass their lives in bondage: as they are near a blessed immortality, in which they are to live for ever. To be thus privileged is to be alive indeed; and all true chriftians are fo: but fome may have a name for this, and yet be none of the number.

And fuch a name may be acquired.

(1.) By a freedom from the groffer pollutions of the world. The prophane perfon indeed that makes a trade, and a boaft of fin, cannot be faid to have a name to live: fuch a one, may eafily know, that he is not written among the living in Jerufalem.

Confcience

Confcience may tell those who wallow in all manner of uncleanness, that they are dead indeed. And if they have fallen back to this course, after they have made a profeffion of being followers of Chrift; if after they feemed to begin in the Spirit, they end in the flesh; fuch may be faid to be twice dead, and in the moft deplorable cafe of any others: For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they kave known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them, 2 Pet. ii. 21. Freedom from grofs enormities is a first and chief reason of those having a name to live that are really dead. The Pharifee our Lord fpeaks of, would in vain have pretended to a reputation for holiness, if he could not have begun his own commendation with this boaft, I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, &c.

it

2.) A name to live, as it implies an open and vifible profeffion of fubjection to Chrift, a joining with his people in his worthip and ordinances, and an holding on fome time in fuch a course; fo may arife from these. Mere negatives are not fufficient to denominate a man religious: there must be a form of godliness, a doing materially and externally what the people of God do, in order to our pafling for fome of the number.

(3.) A name to live may refult from experiencing the common operations of the Spirit of God, which for a time may look hopeful and promifing. Many may have great convictions for fin, and affecting apprehenfions of deferved wrath, warm motions and strivings of the Spirit, fhewing them the reasonableness of refolving for God, and

Christ,

Christ, and holiness, and heaven, against what would ftand in their way and betray them to deftruction; and fuch convictions may produce fome reformations, and as to what is outward, a ftrictnefs in walking: and where these abide a confiderable time, they tend to procure to the perfons in whom they are feen, the credit of a name to live.

(4.) Thefe convictions and external reformations may be accompanied with excelling gifts, enlargedness and remarkable workings of affection in the duty of prayer, joy and delight in hearing and attending upon the fupper of the Lord, frequency in acts of felf-denial and mortification, and with speaking of these with visible pleasedness and fatisfaction there may be great head-knowledge and ability to discourfe of hypocrify itself with appearing abhorrence, and of fincerity with figns of love to it; and yet all these may be found in one unchanged at heart. But where many of fuch things meet in a profeffor, he may have a name to live, a creditable one: which brings me,

2. To fhew, that fuch a name fome profeffors of christianity may have, who are all the while they bear it, fpiritually dead. The church of Sardis is here mentioned as an inftance of this: and we find that the church of Laodicea boasted. of her being rich and increased in goods, and having need of nothing; not knowing that she was wretched, and poor, and blind, and naked, Rev. There may be a name to live, where the power of fin was never broken, nor the heart taken off from the habitual love of it.

iii. 17.

If it be asked, With whom such may have a name to live? A negative anfwer is obvious, not

with him who feeth not as man feeth. It is known unto God, who are fincere, and who are not. And Chrift exprefly declares his knowing the cafe of thofe within his church, as it is: I know thy works, that thou haft a name that thou liveft, and art dead. He has eyes like a flame of fire, piercing into every heart: hence fome that claim a relation to him, and call him once and again, Lord, he will bid depart from him another day, as thofe that were never his, but workers of iniquity, and known by him to be fuch. Hypocrites therefore, cannot have a name to live with either God or Christ.

But, 1. They may have a name to live, with themselves: they may reckon themselves in a state of grace, when they are all the while in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity. This, the apoftle tells us was his own cafe while he was a Pharifee, Rom. vii. 9. 1 was alive without the law once, i. e. concluded myself in a safe and happy state. And finners being alive, or having a name to live in their reckoning of themfelves, fhews itself,

(1.) In the fecurity that reigns in their fouls. They dread no danger, tho' the nearest to it, but cry, Peace, Peace, to themfelves, when fudden deftruction is coming upon them. They are in the cafe we read of, Luke xi. 21. The ftrong man armed keepeth his palace in them, and his goods are in peace. While many ferious humble chriftians are watching and trembling, they fleep fecurely; and as they live, fo they fometimes die : they have no bands in their death; no doubts but what they can easily folve; no difficulties but which they can get over. They may have fecret gripes and fears through confcience begin

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