the Laodiceans; be zealous in time
coming, and repent of your former lukewarmness: "What fruit had ye then in
those things whereof ye are now ashamed?" (Rom. vi. 21,) saith the Apostle
to the saints at Rome, of whom he saith plainly, that they were "servants
to righteousness," (ver. 19;) and had their "fruit unto holiness." But
that is not all; they were also ashamed while they looked back upon their
old faults, which is the rather to be observed, because it maketh against
the Antinomian error now afoot.(1375) It hath a clear reason for it, for
without this God is still dishonoured, and not restored to his glory: "O
Lord (saith Daniel), righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us
confusion of faces," Dan. ix. 7. These two go together. We must be
confounded, that God may be glorified; we must be judged, that God may be
justified; our mouths must be stopped, and laid in the dust, that the Lord
may be just when he speaketh, and clear when he judgeth (Psal. li. 4). And
as the Apostle teacheth us, 1 Cor. xi. 31, that if we judge ourselves, we
shall not be judged of God; and, by the rule of contraries, if we judge
not ourselves, we shall be judged of God; so say I now, if we give glory
to God, and take shame and confusion of faces to ourselves, God shall not
confound us, nor put us to shame: but if we will not be confounded and
ashamed in ourselves, God shall confound us, and pour shame upon us; if we
loathe not ourselves, God shall loathe us.

Nay let me argue from the manner of men, as the Prophet doth, Mal. i. 8,
"Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept
thy person?" Will thy governor, nay, thy neighbour, who is as thou art,
alter an injury done to him, be pleased with thee, if thou do but leave
off to do him any more such injuries? Will he not expect an acknowledgment
of the wrong done? Is it not Christ's rule (Luke xvii. 4) that he who
seven times trespasseth against his brother, seven times turn again,
saying, I repent? David would hardly trust Ittai to go up and down with
him, who was but a stranger (2 Sam. xv. 19), how much more if he had done
him some great wrong, and then refused to confess it? And how shall we
think that it can stand with the honour of the most high God, that we seem
to draw near unto him, and to walk in his ways, while, in the meantime, we
do not acknowledge our iniquity, and even accuse, shame, judge, and
condemn ourselves? Nay, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked,