A professor that hath not forsaken his iniquity, is like one that
comes out of the pest-house, among the whole, with his plague-sores
running upon him. This is the man that hath the breath of a dragon;
he poisons the air round about him. This is the man that slays his
children, his kinsmen, his friend, and himself. What shall _I_ say?
A man that nameth the name of Christ, and that departeth not from
iniquity, to whom may he be compared? The Pharisees, for that they
professed religion but walked not answerably thereto, unto what doth
Christ compare them but to serpents and vipers; what does he call
them but hypocrites, whited walls, painted sepulchres, fools, and
blind, and tells them that they made men more the children of hell
than they were before? Matt. 23. Wherefore, such a one cannot go out
of the world by himself; for as he gave occasion of scandal when he
was in the world, so is he the cause of the damnation of many. The
apostle did use to weep when he spake of these professors, such an
offence he knew they were and would be in the world. Acts 20:30;
Phil. 3:18, 19.
These are the chief of the engines of Satan; with these he worketh
wonders. One Balaam, one Jeroboam, one Ahab, O how many fish such
bring to Satan's net. These are the tares that he strives to sow
among the wheat, for he knows they are mischief to it. "Wherefore
let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."
Those that religiously name the name of Christ and do not depart
from iniquity, how will they die; and how will they look that Man in
the face, unto the profession of whose name they have entailed an
unrighteous conversation; or do they think that he doth not know
what they have done, or that they may take him off with a few cries
and wringing of hands, when he is on the throne to do judgment
against transgressors. O, it had been better they had not known, had
not professed; yea, better they had never been born. And as Christ
says it had been good, so Peter says it had been better, Mark 14:12;
14:22; 2 Pet. 2: 20, 2l--good they had not been born, and better
they had not known and made profession of the name of Christ.
We read that the tail of the dragon, or that the dragon by his tail,
did draw and cast down abundance of the stars of heaven to the
earth. Rev. 12:4; Isa. 9:14,15. The prophet that speaketh lies
either by opinion or practice, he is the tail, the dragon's tail,
the serpentine tail of the devil. Isa. 9:14,15. And so in his order,
every professor that by his iniquity draweth both himself and others
down to hell, he is the tail. Nor can Satan work such exploits by
any, as he can by unrighteous professors. These he useth in his hand
as the giant useth his club; he, as it were, drives all before him
with it. It is said of Behemoth, that "he moveth his tail like a
cedar." Job 40:17. Behemoth is a type of the devil; but behold how
he handleth his tail, even as if a man should swing about a cedar.
This is spoken to show the hurtfulness of the tail, as it is also
said in another place, Rev. 9:5,10,19. Better no professor than a
wicked professor; better openly profane, than a hypocritical namer
of the name of Christ; and less hurt shall such a one do to his own
soul, to the poor ignorant world, to the name of Christ, and to the
church of God.
There is the sin of professors; there is a profession that will
stand with an unsanctified heart and life. The sin of such will
overpoise the salvation of their souls, the sin-end being the
heaviest end of the scale: I say, that being the heaviest end which
hath sin in it, they tilt over, and so are, notwithstanding their
glorious profession, drowned in perdition and destruction.
The iniquity that cleaveth to men that profess, if they cast it not
away, but countenance it, will all prove nettles and briars to them;
and I will assure thee, yea, thou knowest, that nettles and thorns
will sting and scratch but ill-favoredly. "I went," saith Solomon,
"by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void
of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and
nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was
broken down." Prov. 24:30,31.
Suppose a man were, after work all day, to be turned into a bed of
nettles at night; or, after a man had been about such a business,
should be rewarded with chastisements of briars and thorns; this
reward for work would be but little help, relief, or comfort to him.
But this is the reward of a wicked man, of a wicked professor from
God: nettles and thorns are to cover over the face of his vineyard,
his field, his profession, and that at the last of all; far this
covering over the face of his vineyard with nettles and thorns, is
to show what fruit the slovenly, slothful, careless professor will
reap out of his profession when reaping-time shall come.
Nor can he whose vineyard, whose profession is covered over with
these nettles and thorns of iniquity, escape being afflicted with
them in his conscience; for, as they cover the face of his vineyard
through his sloth now, so will they cover the face of his conscience
in the day of judgment. For profession and conscience cannot be
separated long: if a man then shall make profession without
conscience of God's honor in his conversation, his profession and
conscience will meet in the day of his visitation. Nor will he whose
condition this shall be, be able to ward off the guilt and sting of
a slothful and bad conversation from covering the face of his
conscience, by retaining in his profession the name of Jesus Christ;
for naming and professing the name of Christ will, instead of
salving such a conscience, put venom, sting, and keenness into those
nettles and thorns that then shall be spread over the face of such
consciences. I beseech you, consider this, namely, that the man that
professeth the name of Christ and yet liveth a wicked life, is the
greatest enemy that God has in the world, and consequently one that
God will most eminently set his face against.