Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments close, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.-REV. XVI. 15.

WE spake the last day concerning watching, out of the 12th of Luke and the 37th verse, 'Blessed are those servants whom their Master, when he shall come, shall find watching.' We will now go on in the argument a little, to add somewhat to that which hath been spoken, out of this 16th chapter of the Revelation, the 15th verse, being my present text.

'Behold, I come as a thief in the night. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments close, lest he walk naked, and be ashamed.'

After the sixth vial was poured out upon the enemies of the church, these words are brought in somewhat abruptly, out of Christ's care and love to his poor church in times of danger, Behold, I come as a thief in the night.'

You have in the words a prophetical premonition of watching and keeping our garments close, lest men walk naked, 'Behold, I come as a thief.' Beloved, Christ's coming is compared to the coming of a thief:

How comes a thief? He comes secretly and unexpectedly; secretly, lest he be discerned, and then with all advantages of surprisal, that he may not be taken himself while he is taking others. So Christ is said to come to judgment. He comes suddenly, and unexpectedly, and with a purpose to surprise. When people will take no warning, he watches the time of their destruction, so that here you have 'the goodness and the severity of God,' Rom. xi. 22; first, his goodness is shewed in that he will give warning in all dangers; but here is his severity also: when warning will not be taken, then he comes with judgment. The scripture runs thus, Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel,' Amos iv. 12; but when nothing will do, neither judgments nor mercies, then it is just with God to come with all advantage to our overthrow, as a thief in the night.

Comparisons usually are to be taken from that which is usually done, whether good or evil; for the goodness or badness of a thing is not regarded in comparisons.

The Spirit of God makes use of all things, ill things and good things. You see the diligence of the devil and the Jesuits, those old Jews and Pharisees that go about sea and land to make a proselyte. Why should not we be as diligent as they? A gracious heart will take good of them from their industry.

Christ here says 'he will come as a thief in the night,' and this his coming is by reason of our unfaithfulness. And his coming is sudden, unless to some of his children that he prepares by warning.

When he came into the world at his first coming, there were but a few 'waited for the consolation of Israel,' Luke ii. 25: the rest did not. So when he shall convert the Jews and judge the world' Shall he find faith upon the earth?' Luke xviii. 8. When he comes to any man or nation in his judgments, doth he find faith? No; he finds them blessing themselves that to-morrow shall be as to-day. Beloved, let us take heed; for there be divers degrees of Christ's coming. He comes to a person, and comes to a nation. We here in this nation bless ourselves when all the world is in combustion and we are safe; as the three children in the fiery furnace. We bless ourselves, and cry, 'The temple of the Lord! Oh the temple of the Lord! but go to Shiloh, and see what the Lord hath done there,' Jer. vii. 12. Go to Bohemia, go to the Palatinate, and see what God hath done there. Oh, how should our hearts be awakened with the consideration of this, when we have such fair warning, and when the judgments of God are abroad.

But mark the prophecy spoken by Enoch, which was a thing to come he was the seventh from Adam-Behold, he comes in the clouds, with thousands of his saints,' Rev. i. 7. This prophecy was five thousand years ago, yet Behold, he cometh in the clouds."

It is the nature of faith to answer all relations of God's dealings. That which God prophesies of, it is as sure as if it were past; so faith is affected with it. In matter of judgment, faith is affected with sorrow, and affected with a waking heart; in matter of joy, it is affected with delight. Alas! what is the difference of time between us and the last coming of all? what is this little distance? It is nothing. Therefore, 'Behold, I come as a thief in the night; blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments close.'

The Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ, here makes use of this his coming to stir us up to watch.

All that have spiritual life, labour to be waking Christians and then watching Christians. That which usually awakens is the noise of a trumpet, or some shining light. Now, living in the light of the gospel, and under the sound thereof, this should awaken us; if not this, the noise of the judgments round about us should. If ever we will be waking Christians, now is the time. And it is not enough that we be waking, but watchful Christians.

What is the difference between men, but that carnal men are sleepers, and spiritual men are waking? And what is the difference of Christians that are good, and that are not? The one is a watchful Christian, and the other not so. Wherein is one better than another? As the one is more careful to avoid sin than another. A weak Christian being watchful is better than a strong that is not so. See the difference between David and Joseph. Joseph was a servant tempted to folly, yet in the midst of his youth he avoided the temptation. David was a grown man, a holy man, a man of many experiences of God's mercies; yet you see with how small a temptation he was overtaken, because he was not watchful. So that thus Christians differ from themselves and others, as they are more or less watchful.

To come therefore to some directions how to carry ourselves, and among others remember this: we should have this waking and watchful considera

tion, that we have a soul immortal, and that we are for eternity; and whatever we do in the flesh, that shall be ever with us; and how that shortly we are going to the tribunal seat. In all these respects we should labour to be watchful at all times, because that time in which we take liberty to ourselves may be the time of our surprisal. We should therefore watch at all times, in prosperity and adversity. We should watch against all the sins of our persons, and the sins of the state we are in.

Moreover, we are not Christians indeed but when we are waking and watchful Christians, and we never live indeed but when we are watchful; neither can we give so good an account of our time.

Besides, if we use this course, we shall bring our souls to that awe as that they shall not dare to offend God, by reason they must come to be examined. And how will our souls be willing to be judged before Christ, when we are unwilling to set ourselves before ourselves? If we use this, it will bring a holy awe upon our souls, because they know they must come to examination for every sin.

But mark what follows: Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments close, lest he walk naked.'

Watchfulness is for action; as 'Watch unto prayer,' Mat. xxvi. 41, and Watch unto thanksgiving,' 1 Peter iv. 7; as he saith here, Watch to the keeping of your garments close.' Now, this keeping of our garments close, is somewhat alluding to the ceremonial law; as if their garments were spotted, or as if they had touched some unclean body.

By garments here is meant, first, the keeping Christ close to the soul, and together with Christ all that is in him; for as a Christian is clothed with Christ, so also with his satisfaction, obedience, and righteousness, for Christ is given of God. Let us therefore keep our garments close; and not only so, but apply Christ for our sanctification. Put on the Spirit of Christ, and keep the soul in a holy frame. And keep not only the righteousness of Christ, but the holiness of Christ; and put on Christ, with the expression of his life in our life and conversation; as we are said to put on a man, when we express him in our life and conversation. And then keep Christ with his obedience, and keep him with his Spirit, with a holy desire to express him, keep all things close; and with Christ all the good we have by him, by using all means. Keep truth and our profession; keep the obedience of Christ and the graces of Christ; keep the Spirit of Christ and the truth of God, whereby all good is conveyed, and the profession of that truth keep unspotted. The danger is, lest you walk naked, and you be ashamed.'

You know sin and shame came in together.

Adam was not ashamed of his nakedness till he saw it, and then he was loathsome to himself when his conscience was awakened; so it is sin that makes us ashamed. Therefore 'keep your garments close.' To come to that I mean to speak on, the words being clear,

1. First, Know we have no garments of our own. No man is born clothed; but God gives him wisdom to make use of all creatures for ornament for him, notwithstanding we are born naked.

Now, it is thus in spiritual things. We have no garments of our own since the fall; but before we had. We have none now but original corruption, that spreads over the soul. Besides that, men living unto years have another nature worse than the leprosy, custom. Here is all the clothing we have of ourselves; but for any spiritual good, we must fetch it from Christ. Since the fall we must have all our garments out of another

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wardrobe. That is here supposed that we have no garments of ourselves; and therefore'Buy of me,' saith Christ, Rev. iii. 18.

2. Now, the second thing is this, we having none of ourselves, therefore we must have garments; and when we have them, we must keep them clean and close: 'Blessed is he that keeps his garments close.'

For the first, being born naked, there is a necessity for modesty to have garments to cover our shame. When God saw Adam naked, he would make him garments himself rather than he should be naked. There must be garments for defence; so in spiritual things there must be garments to defend us from the wrath of God, else we lie as naked to God's wrath as a man in a storm being naked lies open to the storm.

We must have garments of amity and friendship now. Being to entertain friendship with God, we must have something applied to us and wrought in us by the Spirit of God; for whatsoever is of Christ is amiable, because he is the only beloved.

Again, we must have garments for distinction. Now, garments do distinguish Christians at the day of judgment, for then God looks upon us to see what we have of his image; and if he find us in ourselves and not in Christ, then we are condemned with the world.

Garments that are coverings must be all over of equal extent. They cover the whole man. So head, hands, and heart, all must be sanctified as well as justified. So that those that look upon a Christian should see nothing in him but somewhat of Christ, his words, his callings, his thoughts. And as a man sees nothing of another man outwardly but his apparel, so the whole conversation of a Christian should be nothing but the expressing of Christ. He should speak by the Spirit of Christ, do all that he doth by the Spirit of Christ. We must labour to be 'wholly sanctified,' as the Scripture phrase is, 1 Thes. v. 23. There is an expression of this in the 2 Chron. xviii. 33: A certain man drew a bow, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness.' There was some small place open, and that cost him his life. Let a man's profession be never so great, and let him have good expressions thereof, if there be any place for Satan's entrance, he will be sure to wound him in that place. So that by this you may see there must be an universal clothing.

And we must be clothed not only with garments, but armour, because we live in the midst of our enemies; by which we may perceive the necessity of the putting on of the one as well as the other.

Now, as we must have garments, and must keep them close, so also we must keep them from stains. The persons where these graces are, may be defiled, but the graces are pure. We should therefore labour to keep our actions unspotted. The reason why we should do so, among many other, is this, we live in a soiling age. The holy prophet could say, 'I am a man of polluted lips, and live among men of polluted lips,' Isa. vi. 5. We are defiled with corruption, and that soils all our actions; and therefore we ought, as much as in us lies, to keep our nature unspotted. We are polluted ourselves, and we live among men that are polluted. We live in an infected air, therefore we ought to keep our garment close, unspotted, and safe. Beloved, nothing will do us good but the application of things. All the virtue of things without us is conveyed unto us by application; therefore as the garments of a Christian are precious, so they must be applied. We must keep them close, and we must labour for the spirit of faith and of all graces. The truth must be engrafted into our spirits, that the word may be an engrafted word; for being from without us, we never

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have them to do us any good without the application. Therefore watchfulness is put before: Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments close.’

The righteousness of Christ is an excellent garment, but it must be put on; and if we have Christ we have all. We will speak a little to shew you what is the reason men are tempted to despair, viz., because they keep not the garment of Christ clean, and close to their souls by the spirit of faith, for then the devil gets in between them and Christ. When garments are not close, the wind gets between them, or else perchance [they] fall off. So here we must labour to keep our garments close, and to renew our right in Christ every day, that we may not fall away utterly; and that is the reason we so often take the sacrament to strengthen our faith, by which we are ready against all despair, and against all the temptations that Satan can administer; and so we have all necessary graces ready. We have our hope ready to set our souls quiet; our preparation to endure is ready; our meekness and our love is ready. 'Put on love,' saith the apostle, because it is the uppermost, the largest, and the richest garment; and set all other graces on work, as meekness, patience, &c., Col. iii. 14. We should therefore labour to have these graces ready, that is, by watching; for watchfulness is nothing but to have grace in readiness. And we have opportunity every day for one grace or other; but when we have them, we must keep them close by watching.

And so for truth, by which all comfort is conveyed unto us. When that is ready we are able to withstand temptations, but when that is to seek, mischief is ready to surprise us. Now if the word were engrafted in our hearts, then we should have some divine truths upon every occasion, and we should be ready against every sin, as Joseph was. We should therefore

labour for this spiritual leaven, to season all other truths, that we may savour of them in all our thoughts and actions, and so shall our garments be close about us.

There is another thing intended in this Scripture. These are dangerous times, and there are spiritual cheaters abroad in the world. Therefore we should keep our profession close, and keep our truth and our judgments close, and get love into our affections; for we shall be set upon, and if we walk at large, then heretics and seducers will come between us and salvation, because our garments are not close. What a deal of loose profession have we! Were it not for authority that establisheth it, how many thousands have we would fall off? and all because they keep not their garments close. They fasten not truth to their souls. Their garments are loose about them, that so hereby the Jesuits have some points ready to fall upon by reason of unready Christians, for so they are taken. Therefore, Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments close.

So it is in the life and conversation; for in all men sin and corruption are ready, and where truth is not invested grace is not in the heart, but only in the brain. Some have some knowledge of things, but it is not ready, and hereupon they yield unto any temptation.

Now you have many halters in religion between God and Baal, between Christ and Belial. Our religion, beloved, must be our house. It is that with which we must cover our souls. We must build upon a rock, and our profession is our building, and the soul must not be so unsettled or loose, as not to know whether it should serve God or Baal.

If a man will have any good by religion he must cleave to religion. No loose profession shall ever come to heaven; for with the mouth we must