of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her fins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Another is Sodom, which fire from heaven was abiding the call Lot got to get out of it, ye have Gen. xix. 15. Arise, -left thou be confumed in the iniquity of the city. It was set forth for an example, Jude 7. fuffering the vengeance of eternal fire. A third is the tents of Dathan and Abiram, which were to be fwallowed up of the earth. The call to the congregation to get up from about them, ye have Numb. xvi. 26. " Depart, I pray you, from the tents of thefe wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, left ye be confumed in all their fins." Which is applied to gofpel-hearers, 2 Tim. "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." Ye can have no more fafe ftaying there than ye could have had in these, believe it or not.

ii. 19.

4. It is poffible ye may get away from among them. If ye were once down in the lower world lying in wickedness, it will be impoffible ever to get out from among them more; this call has nothing ado with that part of them. But ye are yet in the upper world lying in wickednefs, where Chrift has his lower house, with a commiffion to fill it out of those of them that are lying there. And for this caufe the call founds in your ears this day, Pfal. xlv. 10. " Forget thine own people, and thy father's house," Luke xiv. 66 23. Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." Come away before your feet flip,-ye may get away though never fo far on.

5. God has fome amongst them that shall not get leave to stay, for he would never send out fuch a call altogether in vain. No; there is an elect number among them, on whom the call shall be effectual, fit it who will, 2 Tim. ii. 19. "The foundation of God ftandeth fure, having this feal, The Lord knoweth them that are his." Satan may get leave to keep a reprobate world, but the sheep of Chrift, purchased with

his blood, cannot be loft, John x. 16. "Other fheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they fhall hear my voice." There is a fecret mark on fome of the ftrayed, and they fhall be made to come out from among the reft. Let this encourage you to come away, standing as fair as others to get help from heaven to make your escape.

6. Ye will be very welcome to Chrift from among them, Pfal. xlv. 10, 11. "Hearken, O daughter, and confider, and incline thine ear; forget alfo thine own people, and thy father's houfe. So fhall the King greatly defire thy beauty." They that come uncalled fit unferved; but ye need not fear, the Mafter calleth you. It is what you have his word on, I will receive you. Do not fay, "Alas I need never think that Chrift will receive me; for I have been a poor worldly carnal creature, favouring nothing but the world;" no, the call fuppofes that, that ye are among them. "But I am deep in wickedness;" yet welcome, if ye had even been among the very worst of them, come from among them, and welcome, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, 11.

7. Ye will not be carried away from amongst them against your will. No; if ye come not voluntarily upon your own feet, ye will get leave to stay and perilh among them; Pfal. cx. 3. "Thy people fhall be willing in the day of thy power." Chrift will have none but willing fubjects, fuch as fubmit by choice, not by force. Compel them; but how? as men are compelled to a feaft, by moft earnest entreaties, importunity, &c. but no otherwife. They that will needs lie ftill in their wickedness with the world, they will get their will with a vengeance; they will not be forced from the fociety they chufe.

8. Ye will not be carried away fleeping from among them neither; ye must awake, hear the call, and fet down your feet to make your efcape. Some fay, they can do nothing, they cannot convert themselves, and they hope for grace afterward. So they make G

foft

foft their pillow, fleep fecurely, and will do nothing. But if ye were willing to come away from among the world lying in wickedness, ye would stretch out the withered hand, ye would try the lame leg, take the help of offered grace, and take no reft till ye were got away.

you out

9. Ye need not expect their good will to the parting. The call is directed to you, without noticing of them; for it is certain they will never lct from among them, as long as they are able to keep you. Therefore ye must be refolute and peremptory, Matth. xi. 12. "The kingdom of heaven fuffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." Hell's flatteries and threatenings will all be plied to keep you among them; but ftop your ears, and look not behind you, as the angels enjoined Lot, when they had brought him out of Sodom, Gen. xiv. 17.

10. Laftly, Ye will be received of the Lord into the fociety of the clean and holy, Heb. xii. 22,-24. One part of them is perfectly clean, as to the other their cleanfing is begun, John xiii, 8.; but all are but one family; the former the elder children, in the upper rooms; the latter the younger, in the lower rooms; the whole headed by Chrift.

II. I come now to fhew what is the finner's coming out from among the world lying in wickedness.

Negatively, I. It is not a finner's going out of this world. That is brought about by death, whether we will or no; and they that die in the Lord, they are indeed abfolutely separated from the world lying in wickednefs. But they that die out of Chrift, they are for ever thereby fixed in the world lying in wickednefs. Since they are not come out from among them here, they are put in among them there, their fouls gathered with the wicked in death, with whom they gathered themselves in life.

2. It is not a coming out from among the immoral

part

part of the world lying in wickedness, and joining in with the profeffors of religion, in a vifible churchftate. For there is a moral and religious part too of the world lying in wickedness; and those that are of thefe parts are as fure among them, as the immoral are. In a word, nothing fhort of true converfion and a faving change, is a coming out from among them.

Pofitively, It is a fpiritual gracious motion of the foul unto Jefus Chrift, and is the very fame with effectual calling, which is the work of the Spirit of Christ on these ordained to eternal life. We may take it up in these four fteps,

FIRST, The finner's coming to a true sense of his own state and cafe among them; and this he is brought to in a work of conviction, John xvi. 8. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of fin, and of righteoufnefs, and of judgment. Thofe of the world lying in wickednefs are under fpiritual blindness, they know neither what they are, nor where they are in very deed; and one must be brought to himself, before he come out from among them; otherwife he will not ftir. Now the coming finner,

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1. He comes to be fully perfuaded, that he is among them, and out of the family of God, Luke xv. 17. He gets a difmal view of a natural state, of the cafe of the unregenerate world, of the world lying in wickednefs; and he fees himself in the midst of them; so he is like one awaking out of a dream, and seeing himself befet about. So there are two things here,

ft, He gets a frightful view of the world lying in wickednefs, as a fociety in moît miferable cafe. The world lying in wickednefs, that was in his eyes before like a paradise, a garden of pleasure, a fort of fafety, appears in quite other colours, as a Babel of confufion, a wilderness of emptinefs, a Sodom of wickedness, and tents of Dathan to be fwallowed up. He fees it to be a fociety,

(1.) Lying in wickedness, under the guilt, pollu

tion, and dominion of fin, contrary to God, and hateful unto him, Eph. ii. 12.; a fociety abominable in the eyes of a holy God, however pleasant in the eyes of one another; wherein there neither is nor can be any thing good or acceptable in the fight of the great King.

(2.) Laid open to destruction from the presence of the Lord, Eph. ii. 12. He fees the curfe lying on it, and binding it over to revenging wrath, and in virtue thereof certainly to be deftroyed. The flaming fword appears, wherever he turns his eyes, ready to cut off the miferable inhabitants.

zdly, He gets a frightful view of his own case, as being among them, lying in wickedness, and lying open to destruction, Luke xv. 17. He fees his own finfulness, is convinced of the finfulness of his own life, heart, and nature; and fees his loft and undone cafe under the wrath of God, and curfe of the law, Rom. vii. 9.

2. He comes to be fully perfuaded, that there is no abiding for him among them, as Peter's hearers were, Acts ii. 37. and the Phillipian jailor, Acts xvi. 30. He fees he is ruined for ever, if he get not away from among them. Time was when he could not think of parting from among them; but could get no reft among them; feeing every moment the city of destruction ready to be overthrown, and himself to be swallowed up in the ruins.

This is a new fight, that one gets, not by the fight of the eyes, but from the word, by the Spirit acting as a Spirit of bondage on the foul and confcience; awakening, convincing, and perfuading into a firm belief of the report of the law, with application to one's own particular cafe.

SECONDLY, The finner's coming to fee a better ftate and cafe for him, with Chrift and his company, Luke xv. 17. If the convinced finner did not fee a refuge, where he might be in fafety, he would fink in

despair;