f you
do really apprehend your lost and miserable estate, you cannot but behold
that ravishing goodness in it; and behold that you cannot, till you see
the other first. Whence is it, I pray you, that so many souls are never
stirred with the proposition of such things in the gospel,--that the riches
and beauty of salvation in Jesus Christ doth not once move them? Is it not
because there is no lively apprehension of their misery without him?(155)

THE SINNER'S SANCTUARY, OR, A DISCOVERY MADE OF THOSE GLORIOUS PRIVILEGES
OFFERED UNTO THE PENITENT AND FAITHFUL UNDER THE GOSPEL: UNFOLDING THEIR
FREEDOM FROM DEATH, CONDEMNATION, AND THE LAW, IN FORTY SERMONS ON THE
EIGHTH CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

The Preface.

Courteous Reader,--It floweth more from that observance--not to say
honour--which is due to the laws of custom, than from any other motive,
that the stationers hold it expedient to salute thee at thy entry into
this book, by any commendatory epistle, having sufficient experience, that
books are oft inquired after, and rated according to the respect men
generally have of the author, rather than from the matter contained
therein, especially if the book be divine or serious; upon which ground
this treatise might have come abroad merely upon the virtue of the title
page,--Mr. Hugh Binning being so well known, and his other treatise so
universally, as deserving, received by the intelligent and studious in the
great mysteries of the Trinity, and other dark principles of the Christian
faith.

Yet if worthiness of matter--as the curious carved stones of the temple
were to the disciples--be amiable to thine eyes, and nervous sentences,
solid observations, with a kind of insinuating, yet harmless behaviour, be
taking with thy spirit, here they are also, and acquainting thyself with
them, either as the sinner or the saint, which thine own conscience shall
best inform thee of, there shall be virtue found to proceed from them,
either for thy souls refining from the dross of this corrupt age, or to a
diligent heed taking to preserve thyself pure from the pollutions which
are in the world through lust, to be more and more pure against the day
and coming of Christ our Saviour.

Though many elaborate pieces are already extant, and treatises of many
worthies of the church be already abroad upon this golden chapter, yet he
who hath seen the manyest, and knows the sublimity and darkness withal the
excelle