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Show !Ph are Wick,.ed men compared to Thoms ? womb of ~e fame wrfe, and are the fruit of that dreadfetl malediniou with which the World was curled for mans fake. Had not h d b tl e Earth bad bem wit bout a tborn, and the Wotld t at ay een, ' 'k b · ) d h without wicked men (the be(\ of whom are II c a nar, . a~ t e heart of man without a care ( fave only h?w to glonhe God, ) and the body of man without an Ache or ~atn. . . SecoJtdly, A Thorn is an ugly plant.' ~t hath no beauty to It, no lov elinefs at all, hence no man plants 1t m hts garden ; th~ Rofe, d Lilly have their beauties but the Thorn hath none. As It was :~e fruit of the curfe, fo it bears a mark ?f it in the very loook<, anJ furface of it. There is no beauty 10 a Smner. A wtcked man IS an inordino1fe creature, and where there is no ordrr tlu;re can be no beauty at all. The mofiofwicked men have no beauty to the eye of Rcafon;but noqe of them have any in the eye of God.In the eye of Reafon what beauty is there in a Swinijh Drunk,_ard, a beajlly Adulterer,• prof"'" Swearer,~ gripin~Vjierer,an oppreffive Exto:ttoner,a maiiciouJ Perfecutor ?The light of natu~e!h e wsthH ~uch honers are a!• together darknefs,uglinefs, deformitY: But now 10 the eye of God, every impenitent unbelieving finner ,.ts a deformed creature; fc~ he counts none comely,but fuch as have Chnlls comchnefs upon !urn, The !inner looks upon himfelf in the fJife gla[s o~ hz~ own conce~t and opinion and thinks he fees many tine features 10 Lts face: He IS thus and tht;S born thus bred; he hath luch an efiate and fuch honours: But his neighbour,looking on him in the glafs ofMo_rality, fees he hath octane line of come!inefs;netther tef)'lperance,nor ]~<llzce, neither chajlity, nor bttittility, nor any thing elfe t!t~t tho~t!d make_a Soullovely:yet thi< man who juflly condemneth hts Netghbour IS alfo deceived himfelf;for he looi<S upon himfdf in the glafs of Moralit y;( a glafs which Ariftot/e maae for him) and he thi r- ks himfe!f lovely, and indeed he is fo in comparifon with an ill-fa voured Drunkard;he fees in his owo face the fair lines o[jujliceJabriety, c/;a. ftity,verJcity: But tho Chriflian that f\ands by him,arrd looks for the face of one that owns the great name of a Chrillian, in the glafs of Gods holy Word where he feeth ,That evet'YV1.hdiever is pronounced a damned creature,&c.he fees no beauty at all in him. And God whofe eye difcerns no b'"uty in any Sou.l but what it ha'h from Chrill ; he judgetb the Souls of the(e <men deformed Sou ls in whom no beauty is. Some Thorns may be·comparatively beautiful, 'but none of them· hath the bealtty of a flow er; they can have but the beauty of Thorns which at the beLl: is but very little. Thirdly, Thorns are ufrlejJ both as to fmrU and fruir :·what Why are Wic/zed men compared · to Thorm? pleafure is there in the fmell of a briar? What's the fruit of a thillle worth? No man ( faitb our Saviour) gath ers grapes of' thiftlu or {igg1 of tborn1, Mat.7.16. Luk.6.4-4- the barten field of the flug'gard, Prov.24·3'· is faid to be all grown-over with tborJIJ, And ihe Judgment of barrennefs which God threatned to the l[rae/un, Hof.to.8. is fet out und er this Metaphor, Hof. 10.8. l.Ja.H.13· The barren Earth is fet out underthnntion of the ground that bringeth forth nothing but BriarJ and TbarnJ , Heb. 6.8. A finell indeed the Thorns have,but ufually it is a vety ungrateful one: Fruit indeed lome of them do bear, but of little or no value. Of what ufe are wicked and ungodly men, either as to fme/1 or fruitlthey have a fmell indeed,but it is notCas Leah faid) like the Jme/1 of t·he field wbich the Lord hath blr.ffid. No, it is like the fmell of a Thickp which the Lord hath cur fed: what is their report in the World l What have they a name for lone man - fmells of Beer and Wine, that's his fmell ; What's his name in the World l he hath a name for much drinking, a name for putting . his bottle to his neighbours nofr, till he hath made him lick with vomiting, that he may look upon his nakednefs : this is his name, this is that he is famous for. Another man he hath a name for uncleamzefi; a third for !wearing, curling, &c. And as is his mme fo is his huit. He bringeth forth much of thefruits of the fleflt, which ( faith the .Apollle, Gal.5.t9.) ore adulte>'), fornicatiPn, uHcleannrfi, la[civio,.fnejJ,idolatry, witchcraft, &c. but nothing of the fruits of the Spirit; much of the fruit of fin unto death, but ncth ing of the fruit ofRif!.bteoujilfji unto life. · 4o Thorns are p•ickJy grirvotu th i~<p. Thus the Metaphor is frequently ufed in Scripture: f.zek. 28.24 . There j1Jall be no more a prick,jng briar u•to_the boufr of I frat!, nor a grifving thorn of tboft th6t are rou•d about them. Pro. 2 6.9. A1 a thorn goeth up into tbe hmd of a drunk,_ard. Thus it is faid of the Canaanitn they thould be thmu in the eyes of the ljraeliteJ, J of.23"3· Thus Saint Paul had a thorn in the fldh, 2 Cor. r2.7. Such arc wicked and ungodly men: Mi"b·7 ·4· Tbc bejl of tbem is ar a briar, tbe moft ttpright i1 }harper than a thornc-bedg; Ash a Thorn to the tender flower, fo is a wicked man to a ch i!J of God , continually galling and piercing him: And as a thorn naturally offends what is next it that is of a tender nat me; So there is a natural Enmity in the nature of wicked men to the true child,·en of Gcd. Tlrt: fame d~y that the earth was ~urfed , and i>cgan to bring forth briars I |