ostles intend, in the frequent turning
the eyes of saints about to the accursed state of the world, partly
consolation, and partly some provocation to suitable walking. Things that
are opposite are best known by comparison one with another, each of them
cast abroad a light to see the other by. Therefore it is that the apostles
do frequently remind the converted Gentiles of the wretched estate the
world ties into, and themselves once were into. You see it, 1 Cor. vi. 11,
"And such were some of you, but now you are washed." And, Eph. ii. 1, "You
who were dead in sins hath he quickened." There is not any thing will more
commend unto a Christian the grace of God towards him, nor(192) to look
abroad round about him, and take a view of the whole world lying in
wickedness, and then to look backward to what himself once was, and
compare it with what the free grace of God hath made him. O what a soul
ravishing contemplation is that, 1 John v. 19, "And we know that we are of
God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." How doth this heighten the
price of grace, and how much doth it add to a soul's inward contentment,
to think what it was of itself, and what it would undoubtedly have been,
if not thus wonderfully surprised! One used always to look to those below
him, that he might not envy those above him. Truly it might do well here,
when a Christian is grieved and disquieted, because he hath not attained
to that desired measure of the image of God, and fellowship with him, to
cast a look about him to the miserable and hopeless estate of so many
thousands who have the image of Satan so visibly engraven on them, and
have no inward stirring after this blessed image, and reflect a little
backward, to the hole of the pit whence he was taken, to look upon that
primitive estate that grace found him into, so loathsome, as described in
Ezek. xvi. Would not such a double sight, think you, make him break out in
admiration, and be powerful to silence and compose his spirit? O to think,
that I was once in that black roll of those excluded from the kingdom!
"Such were some of you," and then to consider, that my name was taken out,
and washed by the blood of Christ to be enrolled in the register of
heaven. What an astonishing thing is it! You see in nature, God hath
appointed contrarieties and varieties to beautify the world, and
certainly, many things could not be known how good and beneficial they
are, but by the smart and hurt of that which