you have put on this garment nor you shall never be blest without it Seventhly Christ is a lasting yea an everlasting garment a garment that will last thee as long as thou libest and will never be the worse for wearing but will alwayes be the better for wearing the more thou wearest this garment the more glorious it will be and as this garment will last thee no long as thou livest so thou mayest carry it along with thee when thou dyest thou canst not carry any thing of the world with thee for naked comest thou into the world and naked shall thou go out of the world but if thou hast put on Christ as a garment in thy life thou canst not leave him behinde thee when thou dyest thou shalt carry this garment with thee into the next world I should come now to shew you how this garment is to be worn but I shall speak of that by way of Use and Application Now the Uses that I shall make of this useful point shall be these Is it so that Jesus Christ is a Christians garment then in the first place I beseech you observe the miserable and wretched condition of wicked and ungodly men men out of Christ they are naked and have not as we use to say of some poor people a rag to cover their nakedness withal Ah! sinners for the Lords sake for your precious and imnortal souls sake I beseech you consider and lay to heart a little your own most miserable and sad condition how will you be able to stand in the day of the Lords wrath how wilt thou be able to contend with the Almighty when once he is angry thou hast nothing to shelter thée against the storms and fury of the Lords indignation I beseech you then as you love your own souls that you would now put on the Lord Iesus Christ O put him on he is freely offered to thee O then do not be so foolish and Bedlam mad as to refuse him if thou doest thou art undone for ever art thou naked and wilt not thou take this garment of Christ to cover thy nakedness withal consider a little I beseech thee thy own sad condition as thou art in thy self out of Christ In the first place thou art liable to all Dangers every sinner out of Christ lies open to overy danger every merry thou enjoyest out of Christ is in wrath thy preservation is but by common providence and its cursed as well as common as one saith sweetly Thy preservation is but a reservation of thee to the day of wrath thou art kept but remember thou art kept but as a malefactor to the day of execution thou hast nothing to guard thee from the wrath of God it is possible thou mayest be secure in thy sin but remember thy security is not from want of danger but from the want of discovery of that danger which is every day and hour hanging over thy head and ready to fall upon thée wert thou but once seriously sensible of that danger which every day thou art in I am confident thou couldst no more rest in thy sins out of Christ then thou couldst goe to bed when thy house is on fire about thy ears Secondly thou art if our of Christ in the power of every Devil and every lust thou art the devils for egress and regress when he pleases thou art taken captive by him at his will as the Apostle expresses it 2 Tim. 2.26 Thou art like a Common without a hedge a prey to every beast of prey thou wilt not take Christ as a garment thou wilt not let God be a hedge to keep thee from straying into sin and God will not be an hedge to preserve thee from being destroyed in and for thy sin O sinner thy condition if very sad and very dreadful thou liest at the mercy of the devil every moment at the cruel courtesie of every temptation thou hast a hole it may be to keep thy Swine in but if thou hast not a Christ to lodge thy soul in thou art liable to all the curses in the book of God how dreadful is it to want the benefit of every sweet promise in the word of God to want a Iesus to deliver us from the wrath to come Doest thou think thou canst be able to endure the wrath of God to all eternity if thy foundation be not laid upon the rock of Christ thy whole building will soon be destroyed and thou wilt be found to be the veriest fool in the world if thou art out of Christ thou canst never be safe thou art a mad man and thou delightest in thy own destruction Secondly by way of motive consider I be séech you Christ will not onely cover thy nakedness and shelter thee from the wrath of God but will be an ornament of grace and glory to thee for ever but how shall we get this garment of Christ may some say I see my own nakedness but how shall I do to get this garment I answer in the first place thou must beg it of God thou mayest have it for asking for ask and thou shalt have it is freely offered unto thee Secondly throw away all thy own rotten rags of sin thou must strip thy self even naked of all self righteousness Christ will not be a garment to any but to such as shall first put off their own rags throw away then all thy old rotten rags and put on the Lord Iesus Christ put him on he is freely offered to thee do not despise thy own mercy get Christ for thy garment here it ever thou expectest to have Christ for thy comfort hereafter Remember without Christ there is no happiness to be had hereafter thou art miserable here and thou shalt be miserable to all eternity hereafter O consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Psalm 50.22 In the next place is it so is Christ a garment then here is matter of great joy and comfort to those that are Christs O happy Christian God hath made a blessed exchange with thee the hath taken away from thee thy own rotten filthy stinking rags and he hath in the room thereof put thee on his own most glorious white Robes O happy soul O blessed exchange But before I proceed any further I shall a little endeavour to give you some few but brief directions for your better instruction and edification And first of all hast thou put on the Lord Iesus Christ as a garment O then for the Lords sake do not put him off again keep him on while thou hast him on children you know when they have gotten a new garment they do not love to put it off again they would wear it alwayes if they might Secondly hast thou put on the Lord Iesus Christ as a garment then wear him cleanlily have a care that thou doest not soil this precious garment O do not dirty it nor sully it Men when
and so not able to do any thing for a livelihood You have seen the sore evils of Unmercifulness and the great Blessings that are promised â—o such as are Merciful they shall obtain mercy when merciless men shall have no mercy hewed them Consider that the same God that hade them poor made you rich and might have hade them rich and you poor you might have been in their condition Therefore seeing God hath given you Talents Wealth and Riches use them to his Glory lay up some of them in store for the time to come for eternal life bâ— laying them out on the poor That so at the great day of accounts the Lord may say unto you VVell done good and faithful servant enter thou into thy Masters Joy thou hast glorifte me on Earth now will I glorifte thee in Heaven Thou hast dispersed abroad thou hast give to the poor thy righteousness endureth for ever thy horn shall be exalted with honour Psal 112.9 Now shalt thou receive the full possession and enjoyment of those unspeakable pleasures that are in Heaven for ever Now then consider what hath been said and the Lord give you understanding hearts in all things Now unto him that is able to do abundantly more for us then we can think or desire the onely wise marciful God be Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS Licensed and Entered according to Order THE CHRISTIANS Best Garment OR The putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ Wherein the absolute necessity excellency and usefulness of Christ as a Garment to believing Souls is briefly opened and applied Secondly The naked miserable lost and undone condition of all Unbelievers who have not put on this Garment discovered Thirdly and lastly Some few brief but powerful Motives to perswade us to the putting on of this Garment with directons how to live to the glory of Christ here that so we may live with Christ hereafter in glory The second Edition By a goldly able and faithfull Servant of Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory London Printed for John Andrews at the White Lion near Pye-Corner 1661. THE Christians best Garment OR The putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ Romans 13.12 13 14. The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof IN these words beloved now read unto you we have these two parts in the first place we have some things which the Apostle endeavours to perswade Christians from in the second place we have some things which the Apostle endeavours to perswade Christians to The things perswaded from are the works of darkness the things perswaded to are these 1. That we put on the armour of light and that we walk honestly 2. The Apostle having erborted us to this two-fold duty 1. The casting off the works of darkness and the putting on the armour of light here sets down expresly some Christian directions how this is to he done and that two wayes 1. Negatively and then 2. Affirmatively 1. Negatively not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envy 2. Affirmatively by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and denying of the works of the flesh and the motives here laid down whereupon the Apostle enjoyns this duty are these in the 12. verse The night is far spent the day is at hand therefore saith he let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armout of light Where by the way we may observe that works of darkness are very unsuitable and unseasonable to the times of the Gospel light and darkness are contrary In the words then you see 1. Here is a duty exhorted unto and that is laid down in the 12. verse And then 2. you have here also the Apostles amplification and illustration of this duty here exhorted unto and that is set down particularly in the 13. and 14. verses The duty exhorted unto you see here is two-fold 1. Here is something to be cast off And then 2. Here is something to be put on 1. The things to be cast off are the works of darkness 2. The things to be put on are the armour of light Let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light and as the exhortation is two-fold so like wise are the reasons whereupon the Apostle grounds his exhortation also 1. The night is far spent And 2. the day is at hand Before I proceed to the observation give me leave a little to open the words unto you and first I shall endeavour to shew what is here meant by the night and then secondly what is here meant by the day by the night here may be meant the times of darkness and ignorance in which the Bentiles lived in before the breaking forth of the Gospel of Christ and those times may very well be compared to the night for these three reasons First In the night men cannot so well see their way and therefore may the more easily wander out of their way for it is onely the want of light that makes men to erre 2. In the night no thing is visible or discernable but darkness all light is then extinguished the blinde man is not able to value or judge what a mercy it is to have the fruition and enjoyment of the light of the Sun 3. The night is the most suitablest time and season for the doing of evil in in Job 24. 14 15 16. The murderer saith Job rising with the light killeth the poor and needy and in the night is as a thief The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight saying No eye shall see me and disguiseth his face In the dark they dig through houses they know not the light They that are drunk saith the Apostle are drunk in the night 1 Thes 5.7 in Psal 25.20 The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty And then secondly by the day here is meant the times of the Gospel it is night in the soul till such time as the day light of the Gospel breaks forth and shines into it Matth. 4.16 The people which sate in darkness saw a great light and to them that sate in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up In John 13.19 Light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light and why so the reason is saith he because their deeds were evil For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved
Ephes 5.8 Ye were sometimes darkness saith the Apostle but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light In 1 Pet. 2.9 God hath called us out of darknesse into his marvellous light Luke 1.78 79. The day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness In Acts 26.17.18 the Apostle was sent to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness unto light In 1 John 2.8 The darkness is past and the true light saith the Apostle now shineth In Acts 17.30 The times of Heathenisme are there called the times of ignorance and it must needs be night in such souls wherein Christ the Sun of righteousness never did arise as it is never day in the world until the Sun ariseth so it is never day in the soul till Christ the Sun of righteousness ariseth with healing in his wings Now there are several useful and profitable points of doctrine which naturally flow from hence for our instruction and edification I shall onely name them and so procéed to that which I chiefly intend The first point of doctrine is this that works of darkness are works of the night night works Secondly that the times of the Gospel are times of light Thirdly that in the day of the Gospel all these works of darkness are to be cast off when the Sun shines it dispels and scatters all those mists and fogs of darkness that lie upon the earth so when Christ the Sun of Righteousness arises in the soul he dispells and scatters all those mists and fogs of sin and wickedness which naturally ariseth in the soul Fourthly in Gospel times or times of light men should live Gospel lives or walk in the light of the Gospel while ye have light walk as children of the light Walk saith our Saviour John 5.35 36. while ye have light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth While ye have light believe in the light that ye may be the children of light Fifthly that rioting and drunkenness chambering and wantonness strife and envy are not works of the day but of the night Sixthly they that would live as becomes the Gospel of Christ should cast off all those unfruitful works of darkness Seventhly that Iesus Christ is a Christians garment Eighthly that Iesus Christ is a garment to be put on Ninthly that all of Christ whole Christ is to be put on put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ as a King to rule you as a Priest to offer up himself a sacrifice for you and as a Prophet to teach and instruct you Tenthly and lastly that the putting on of the Lord Iesus Christ is accompanied with the casting off all sinful and fleshly works Now the point of doctrine that I shall chiefly insist upon shall be this namely that the Lord Iesus Christ is a garment in handling whereof I shall briefly touch upon and speak something to all the rest by way of use and application The Doctrine then to be insisted upon is this That the Lord Iesus Christ is a Christians garment in handling whereof I shall endeavour by the assistance of God to shew you first wherein the Lord Iesus Christ is or may be said to be a garment And here I shall endeavour by the assistance of God to shew you the natural agreement and resemblance that is between the Lord Iesus Christ and our natural garments First wherein they do agree and secondly wherein they do not agree and having done this in the next place God willing I shall endeavour to shew you what kinde of garment Christ is and how this garment is to be worn Thirdly and lastly to whom and for what he is a garment and then having done this I shall briefly endeavour to give you some directions by way of motives to perswade you to the putting on of this garment and so conclude all by the assistance of God in a word or two of use and application I begin with the first of these wherein the Lord Iesus Christ is or may be said to be a garment and this will appear briefly in these two things 1. considering what we are and 2. considering what Christ doth I. Christ may be said to be a garment considering what we are by nature the best of us are but as St. John saith Rev. 3.17 empty naked miserable sinners the best garments we have by nature are nothing else but rags yea filthy rotten rags as the Prophet Isaiah expresses it in Isa 64.6 We are all of us by nature poor and blinde miserable and naked till Christ appears in us thereupon the Apostle Paul in Phil. 3.8 9. desires so earnestly that he might be found in Christ not having on his own righteousness which he accounted dross and dung in comparison of Christ and his righteousness 2. Christ is a garment in regard of what he path to us he covers our nakedness by casting over us the skirts of his love as in Ezek. 16.8 And to illustrate this a little I shall here take occasion to show you wherein Christ may be said to be a garment by giving you the resemblances that are between the Lord Iesus Christ and our natural garments and what our garments are to our bodies the same and much more is Christ to our souls now the natural use of our natural garments are chiefly these thrée 1. Our natural garments are for necessity 2. For distinction 3. For ornament First for necessity our natural garments are necessary yea they are of necessity we cannot be well without them they are needful for us to cover and shelter us to cherish and preserve our weak frail naked bodies from all the dangers and incumbrances which would irresistably fall upon us without the use of them Our garments are useful to cover and preserve us from the cold blustering storms of the world how unable would our frail weak mortal bodies be to subsist and live without the natural use of our natural garments to cherish and preserve us and this and more then this doth Christ to our souls as our bodies are not able to subsist without cloaths no more are our souls able to subsist without Christ who is the life and garment of our souls as our natural garments serve to defend us from the cold blustering storms of the weather so Christ the garment of our souls preserves and shelters us from all those raging assaults of Satan which in the world we are often yea alwayes lyable unto Secondly as our natural garments serve to defend us from the cold stormes of winde and weather so likewise they serve to defend us from the violent and scorching heat of the Sun as in the blustering storms of rain and cold our garments preserves us from perishing under them so in the violent scorching heat of the Sun our garments serve to keep us from being melted and devoured by its violent and scorching heat of the like use is Christ to our souls
Text and make no provision for the flesh Christianity and sirâ—â— are no kin one to another sin is a work of thâ—â— night and it ever thou would it put on thâ—â— Lord Iesus Christ thou must cast off and forsake all thy sins but it thou wilt needs keep thy sorry rags of sin still upon thy back let me tell thee Christ will never be a Savtour unto thee thou shalt have nothing to desend thee in the evil day of the Lords wrath In the last place by way of Motive O that I could perswade you this day to enâ—â— brace Iesus Christ as he is tendered and offered unto you in the Gospel wouldst thou put on the Lord Iesus Christ as a garment then in the words of the Apostle I beséech you Cast off the works of dardness and put on the armour of light Walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness and do not commit works of darkness at noon-day eben the light of nature should make men blush to commit sin in the very face of the Sun it self Kemember I beseech you how unsuitable and unseasonable rioting and drunkenness is to the profession of the Gòspel of Christ Let every one saith the Apostle that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Christ will never be a garment to thee if thou delightest in slit its impossible to serve God and Mammon thou canst never wear the livery of Christ and the livery of Satan together as holiness is the badge and livery of Christ so sin and wickedness is the badge and livery of the Devil in this the children of God are manifest saith the Apostle and the children of the Devil Whosoever doth not righteousness is not God John 1.3 10. and in the 6 7 8. verses of the same Chapter Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not and whosoever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him He that committeth sinne is of the Devil Ye are of your Father the Devil saith our Saviour to the unbelieving Jewes John 8.44 and the works of your father ye will do wieked men will do the Devils work al though they are sure to dye for it The work of your father ye will do And let me tell you belobed they that will do the Devils work must look for nothing but the Devils pay and the Devil will be sure to give them their due at last And I beseech you remember what the wageâ—â— of sin is in Romans 6.23 The wages of sin iâ— death death eternal the wicked in hell they are alwayes dying and yet never dead thâ— forments of the damned in hell as they arâ— easeless so they are endless O consider thiâ— you that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Wouldst thou put on the Lord Iesus Christ as a garment then in the last place and so I have done Do not make provision for the slesh to fulsill the lusts thereofâ— spend not thy time in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness but cafting off and abhorring all these unfruitfull works of darkness labout to live up to that God who has so dearly loved us and bought us with his own most precious blood that so living here to all the intents and purposes of his Grace and walking daily before the Lord in all manner of holiness and righteousness all thy dayes thou mayest in the end of thy dayes here live and reign for ever with Christ in glory hereafter Now blessed are all those and for over blessed shall they be who so live and so walk as that they may be truly said to have put on the Lord Iesus Christ and do so give up themselves to be ruled and guided by him in Grace here that so when they come to die they shall be found in Christ cloathed upon with the glorious white Robes of Christ his righteousness and shall for ever live and reign with Christ in glory hereafter To whom be Glory and honnour for ever and ever Amen FINIS Courteous Reader THere is lately published an excellent and profitable Sermon called Christs first Sermon oâ— The necessity duty and practice of Repentance opened and applied Also Christs last Sermon or The everlasting estare and condition of all men in the world to come Very godly Books and is but three pence price There are likewise eight other small Books all of them very godly and very comfortable for thy soul One is entituled Englands Faithful Physician The second Dooms-day at hand The third The Black Book of Consicience The fourth The Dreadful Character of a Drunkard The fifth The sin of Pride arraigned and condemned The sixth The Plain Mans Plain Path-way to Heaven The seventh The Fathers last Blessing The eighth The Charitable Christian All very necessary for these licentious times and each of them being but of two pence price They are to be sold by John Andrews at the White Lion near Pye-Corner