Eighteen Quaint Sermons
十八个古雅的讲道

By Samuel Rutherford
由塞缪尔·拉瑟福德撰写

WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES BY REV. ANDREW A. BONAR, D.D.
由安德鲁·A·邦纳牧师博士撰写的前言和注释。

Table of Contents
目录

Preface
前言

I "Fear not, thou worm Jacob." (No. 1.)—ISA. 41:14–16
不要害怕，雅各，你这只虫子。（第一首）- 以赛亚书 41:14-16

II "Fear not, thou worm Jacob." (No. 2.)—ISA. 41:14–16
“不要害怕，小雅各。”（第二首）-以賽亞書 41:14-16

III A Charge to the Lord's Prophet.—HOSEA 8:1–3
III 向主的先知传达信息。—何西阿书 8:1–3

IV The Weeping Mary at the Sepulchre.—JOHN 20:9–13
耶稣的坟墓前的痛哭玛利亚。 - 约翰福音 20:9-13

V The Spouse's Longing for Christ.—SONG OF SOLOMON 5:3–6
V 对基督的配偶的渴望。——《雅歌》5:3–6

VI The Church Seeking her Lord.—SONG OF SOLOMON 5:7–10
寻找她的主的教会。——《雅歌》5:7-10

VII The Deliverance of the Kirk of God.—JER. 50:4, 5
第七章 上帝的教会的拯救。- 耶利米书 50:4, 5

VIII The Kirk's Holy Resolution.—JER. 50:4, 5
第八章 教堂的神圣决心 - 耶利米书 50:4，5

IX The Forlorn Son.—LUKE 15:11–12
九 悲伤的儿子。-路加福音 15:11-12

X The Forlorn Son seeks away from his Father.—LUKE 15:11–13
失落的儿子离开了他的父亲。-路加福音 15:11-13

XI The Forlorn Son—The Grounds why he came Home, and his Prayer.—LUKE 15:14–19
第十一章：孤独的儿子——他回家的原因和他的祈祷。——路加福音 15:14-19

XII The Forlorn Son—The Father's Welcome.—LUKE 15:20–1
十二 孤独的儿子-父亲的欢迎-路加福音 15:20-1

XIII The Forlorn Son—The Father's Expressed Welcome.—LUKE 15:22–23
十三 孤独的儿子—父亲的明确欢迎—路加福音 15:22-23

XIV The Forlorn Son—He was Lost and is Found.—LUKE 15:24–28
十四 迷失的儿子——他迷失了，现在被找到了。——路加福音 15:24-28

XV The Forlorn Son.—LUKE 15:29–32
十五 无助的儿子。-路加福音 15:29-32

XVI The Worth and Excellence of the Gospel.—2 COR. 10:4–5
第十六章 福音的价值和卓越-哥林多后书 10:4-5

XVII The Apostle's Choice. (No. 1.)—PHIL. 3:7–8
十七 使徒的选择。（第一部分）-腓立比书 3:7-8

XVIII The Apostle's Choice. (No. 2.)—PHIL. 3:8
十八 使徒的选择。（第二部分）-腓立比书 3:8

Preface
前言

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD'S "Letters" are known in the churches everywhere; and here are notes of his preaching. These sermons, as quaint as his "Letters" in some respects, have never till now appeared in print. They form part of a manuscript volume in which are included other sermons of the same author that have already been published. They are carefully and neatly written in the old style of handwriting. Who it was who took down the notes of these sermons at the time, and who it was that gathered all together into the volume, we do not know. One thing is certain, viz., he was a most attentive hearer and a faithful attender on the minister's preaching; for at p. 232 he notes that he had the misfortune to miss one sermon in the course by absence. It is something of a guarantee for the authenticity of the whole to find, as we do on a close examination, that the first half of the MS. collection contains the discourses that have already been published, but in a much more archaic spelling, and with Scotch words that must have been modernised in the printed copies. Besides, the character of the somewhat peculiar penmanship suggests that it is quite possible the writer was a cotemporary of Rutherford, and not a mere transcriber of original notes.
塞缪尔·鲁瑟福德的《信》在各个教堂中广为人知；这里是他的讲道笔记。这些讲道，与他的《信》在某些方面一样古怪，直到现在才首次出版。它们是一本手稿中的一部分，其中还包括了这位作者已经出版过的其他讲道。它们以古老的书写风格仔细而整洁地书写。我们不知道当时是谁记录了这些讲道的笔记，以及是谁将它们全部汇集到这本书中。有一件事是肯定的，那就是他是一个非常专注的听众，也是这位牧师讲道的忠实听众；因为在第 232 页上，他记录下自己因为缺席而不幸错过了一次讲道。仔细检查后，我们发现整个手稿集的前半部分包含了已经出版过的讲道，但拼写更加古老，其中还有一些苏格兰词汇，在印刷的副本中可能已经现代化了，这在一定程度上可以保证整个手稿的真实性。 此外，这种有些特殊的书法风格表明，写作者很可能是与拉瑟福德同时代的人，而不仅仅是原始笔记的抄写者。

This MS. volume of which we speak has been a sort of heirloom in the family of one who knew its value, viz., the Rev. David Russell, for fifty-seven years an earnest minister of Christ, first in Hawick and then at Errol, in Perthshire, in connection with the "Relief" and "United Presbyterian" Church. About six years ago his son, James Eccles Russell, Esq., London, was led to tell me of the manuscript volume, and to let me examine it. Other friends also became interested in it, and the result was that Mr. Russell kindly agreed, at the suggestion of these friends, that the portion of it which as yet had not appeared in print should be published. A greatly esteemed brother in the ministry, Mr. J. H. Thomson, of the Free Church, Hightae, skilled above many in deciphering such documents, and in fullest sympathy with the spirit of the author, was not loath to spend time and labour in preparing the work for the press.
我们所说的这本手稿是一位知道其价值的人家族中的传家宝，即大卫·拉塞尔牧师。他在基督教中担任了五十七年的职务，先在霍威克，然后在珀斯郡的埃罗尔，与“救济”和“联合长老会”教会有关。大约六年前，他的儿子詹姆斯·埃克尔斯·拉塞尔先生在伦敦告诉我这本手稿，并让我检查它。其他朋友也对它产生了兴趣，结果是拉塞尔先生很慷慨地同意，根据这些朋友的建议，尚未出版的部分将被出版。一位备受尊敬的同行，自由教会的汤姆森先生，是解读此类文件的高手，对作者的精神充满同情，他乐意花时间和精力为出版工作做准备。

The Discourses are throughout characteristic of the man. Try, for example, the lecture on John 20:1–9. Christian reader, you may glean many a sheaf of the finest of the wheat in these fields. Samuel Rutherford never fails to set Christ on high, for truly he had—
《论述》一书始终体现了这个人的特点。例如，试试看关于约翰福音 20:1-9 的讲座。基督教读者，你可以在这些领域中收获许多最好的麦穗。塞缪尔·拉瑟福德总是能够将基督高举起来，因为他确实拥有这样的能力-

"A thirst no earthly stream could satisfy—
一种地球上的溪流无法满足的渴望

A hunger that must feed on Christ, or die."
一个必须以基督为食物才能生存的饥饿。

ANDREW A. BONAR, D.D.
安德鲁·A·博纳博士

GLASGOW, April, 1885.
格拉斯哥，1885 年 4 月。

Note
注意

IN transcribing the sermons from the manuscript volume, a faithful reproduction has been the great aim. The proof sheets have also been carefully compared with the manuscript volume. In transcribing, it has not been thought necessary to reproduce the original spelling, which is plainly that of the first half of the seventeenth century, such as "behooved" for "behoved," "bot" for "but," "considder" for "consider," "heir" for "here," "lyke" for "like," "noblie" for "nobly," "sall" for "shall," "sould" for "should," "sweit" for "sweet," "whilk" for "which," "wold" for "would," &c.; but the Scotch, or Northern English words, amounting to about 400, have been carefully retained. Notes explanatory of their meaning are printed at the foot of each page.
在转录手稿卷的布道词时，忠实地复制是最大的目标。校样页也已与手稿卷仔细比对。在转录过程中，没有认为有必要复制原始拼写，明显是十七世纪上半叶的拼写，例如"behooved"代替"behoved"，"bot"代替"but"，"considder"代替"consider"，"heir"代替"here"，"lyke"代替"like"，"noblie"代替"nobly"，"sall"代替"shall"，"sould"代替"should"，"sweit"代替"sweet"，"whilk"代替"which"，"wold"代替"would"等等；但苏格兰或北英格兰的词汇，约有 400 个，已经被仔细保留。对其含义的解释注释在每一页的底部打印出来。

Perhaps the most remarkable feature about the following sermons is the apparent correctness with which they have been taken down from the lips of Rutherford. The proper names, and the one or two Latin phrases that occur, are always correctly given, so that their writer must have been an educated man, and, from the skill with which he has caught the line of thought, in full sympathy with the preacher. There is no sign of abridgment throughout their pages. The student of Rutherford's letters and his other works will recognize in them a full transcript of what he must have said.
以下布道词最引人注目的特点是它们似乎准确地记录了鲁瑟福德的讲话。人名和偶尔出现的拉丁短语总是准确给出，因此写作者必定是受过教育的人，并且对讲道者的思路非常熟悉。在整个页面中没有缩写的迹象。研究鲁瑟福德的信件和其他著作的学者将会认识到，这些布道词是他所说的完整记录。

Dr. Bonar has kindly read my transcription, sheet by sheet, as it was made, and he has again read the proofs with me. Our common aim has been to reproduce the sermons in a form that will not in any way do discredit to their author, Samuel Rutherford.
博纳博士很友善地逐页阅读了我的抄录，就像它被制作出来的那样，他还和我一起再次校对了证据。我们的共同目标是以一种不会对他们的作者塞缪尔·拉瑟福德造成任何不利影响的形式来复制这些布道。

J. H. T.

HIGHTAE, LOCKERBIE, N.B.
高塔，洛克比，新不伦瑞克省。

Fear not, thou worm Jacob
不要害怕，雅各，你这只虫子

No. I
不。

"Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel."—ISAIAH 41:14–16.
不要害怕，雅各的虫子和以色列的人们；耶和华说，我要帮助你，你的救赎主，以色列的圣者。看哪，我要使你成为一个有锋利牙齿的新打谷器：你要打谷山岭，将它们破碎，使山丘如同碎秸。你要把它们扬起，风要把它们吹散，旋风要把它们分散；你要因耶和华而欢喜，因以色列的圣者而夸耀。

THE Lord, beloved in Him, in this chapter is looking upon the case of a captive people, looking upon the case of a people that were both weak, few, poor, and were also amongst the midst of their enemies. And the Lord knows well what are the thoughts of His children when they are in such a case. He knows well enough what is in the heart of these who are strangers unto Him. And He knows also the heart and thoughts of His people when they are in captivity. And for that reason, to hold up their head above the water, which now might have swallowed them up, and put them in peril of losing for ever the promise that the Lord had made, in the words that now are read there is an encouragement given unto the captive Kirk, unto a base, miserable, weak, and destitute people, amongst the midst of their enemies. And in the words there be thir particulars remarkable.
主啊，你在这一章中看着一个被俘虏的民族，看着一个既软弱、人数稀少、贫穷，又身处敌人中间的民族。主很清楚当他的子民处于这种情况时会有什么想法。他很清楚那些对他陌生的人的内心。他也知道他的子民在被俘虏时的内心和想法。因此，为了让他们的头高出水面，这个水现在可能已经吞噬了他们，并使他们面临永远失去主所许下的应许的危险，所以在这些话语中给予了被俘虏的教会、一个卑微、可怜、软弱和贫困的民族在敌人中间的鼓励。在这些话语中有几个值得注意的细节。

First of all there is an encouragement, "Fear not." (2) A description of the party to whom the Lord speaks this: "Worm Jacob" and the "Men of Israel." And (3) There is a warrant why the Lord speaks this, and why He comforts "Worm Jacob." "Fear not, says the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." (4) There is a reason of this taken from a promise of God, and the promise it is set down two ways in the words: first, in general terms on God's part, "I will help thee;" second, more particularly on the people's part, what they shall be, "I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as caff." All the powers in the world that are against thee, albeit they be grown, and high above the rest, as indeed the enemies of the Kirk of Christ, they are swelled pieces of clay, and yet the Lord says that the Kirk shall get strength from Him to thrash these mountains, and to beat the hills, &c. And, lastly, by whose strength is this done, and who shall get the thanks of it? "Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One of Israel." That is, thou shalt thank Me for doing of this, and not thyself and thy power.
首先有一个鼓励：“不要害怕。”（2）描述主对谁说这话的一方：“虫子雅各”和“以色列人”。而（3）主说这话的原因和安慰“虫子雅各”的理由。 “不要害怕，耶和华你的救赎主，以色列的圣者这样说。”（4）这是从上帝的应许中得出的原因，这个应许以两种方式在这些话中表达：首先，以一般的方式在上帝那一方，“我要帮助你”；其次，在人民那一方，更具体地说他们将成为什么，“我要使你成为有锋利牙齿的新犁，你要把山岭打碎，把丘陵磨得像糠秕一样。”世界上所有反对你的力量，尽管它们已经长大，高出其他力量，正如基督教会的敌人一样，它们只是膨胀的泥块，然而主说教会将从祂那里得到力量来击败这些山岭，打碎这些丘陵等等。最后，这是靠谁的力量完成的，谁将得到感谢？“你要因耶和华而欢喜，因以色列的圣者而夸耀。”那就是说，你应该感谢我做这件事，而不是你自己和你的力量。

Now, if ye will consider to whom it is that the Lord speaks this, and gives this encouragement—to a worm and to Jacob, a worm! He says to them, "Fear not." It would teach us this meikle, that a distressed Kirk and people they have cause to rejoice upon luck's head, long before the deliverance come. And the reasons wherefore a distressed Kirk and people may rejoice on luck's head, even before the deliverance come, they are very good.
现在，如果你考虑一下主对谁说这话，给出这样的鼓励——对一条虫子和雅各。他对他们说：“不要害怕。”这将教导我们很多，即一个受苦的教会和人民在救赎到来之前就有理由在幸运即将降临的时候感到欢喜。受苦的教会和人民在救赎到来之前为何可以在幸运即将降临的时候感到喜悦，这些理由非常充分。

First, if ye will look to God, who bids them rejoice, He knows very well what will be the end of all the troubles of the Kirk, and He knows very well what will be the end of these who are troublers of them; for His Kirk and people He knows that they shall laugh, and in the end shall rejoice in His salvation. He knows there the rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the lot of the righteous. The Lord's Kirk maun laugh and rejoice when He calls them to it. And there is none who has right to be merry and to rejoice but the Kirk and people of God, and so He knows that their time is coming. And He knows also what shall be the end of the wicked who are troublers of them (Psa. 37:13); it is said of them that the Lord laughs at them, for He sees their day afar off. He sees them when they are in all their mirth and joviality, and knows there is a black hour coming upon them, albeit they see it not themselves; and therefore He laughs at them.
首先，如果你们要求寻求上帝，他命令他们欢乐，他非常清楚教堂所有困扰的问题的结局，他也非常清楚那些困扰者的结局；对于他的教堂和子民，他知道他们将会笑，最终将会因他的拯救而欢喜。他知道恶人的杖不会永远压在义人的身上。当他呼召他们时，主的教堂必须欢笑和欢喜。只有上帝的教堂和子民有权利欢乐和欢喜，因此他知道他们的时机即将到来。他也知道那些困扰他们的恶人的结局（诗篇 37:13）；有关他们的话说，主嘲笑他们，因为他看到他们的末日。他看到他们在所有欢乐和快乐中时，知道黑暗的时刻即将降临，尽管他们自己看不到；因此他嘲笑他们。

And then a second reason wherefore the Kirk may rejoice upon luck's head before the deliverance come, is because the Kirk of God they see this also, what is to come, and so may rejoice beforehand, they know how all shall be in the end. And that is the difference between the Kirk's enemies and the Kirk. The enemy knows not what will be the night-year, and what the end of things will be, and therefore they are led to hell blindlings. They know not what is at the foot of the stair where they are coming down. But where faith is, it has the gift of prophesying and foresight there, albeit hand should join in hand, and all armies by sea and land should gather against them, yet it shall be well with them in despite of them all, as it is, Isa. 3:10: "Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him, for the fruit of his doings shall be upon him." Faith tells these news beforehand.
然后，教会之所以可以在解救到来之前为幸运而欢欣鼓舞的第二个原因是，因为上帝的教会也看到了未来，所以可以提前欢喜，他们知道最终一切将如何。这就是教会的敌人和教会之间的区别。敌人不知道夜年将会如何，事物的结局将会如何，因此他们被盲目地引向地狱。他们不知道他们即将下来的楼梯脚下是什么。但是有信仰的地方，就有预言和先见之恩，即使手与手相连，所有的陆海军队都会聚集起来反对他们，他们仍然会好起来，就像以赛亚书 3:10 所说：“你们要对义人说，他必享福乐，因为要吃自己行为所结的果子。恶人有祸了！他必遭灾难，因为要照自己手所行的报应在他身上。”信仰提前告诉了这些消息。

A third reason whereupon they may rejoice beforehand is this—if we will look unto God's dispensation, His people under trouble may rejoice upon luck's head before their deliverance come; I say, if we look unto His dispensation of justice and mercy, albeit the people of God be worms and despised ones in the eyes of the world, they need not to cast away their confidence for all that, because there is mercy in God, and it maun out to His people. Let them mourn and weep before noon; yet in God's wise dispensation they maun laugh afternoon. Let them be sorry and afflicted, and borne down this year, yet there is light sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart. And if ye will look upon the other side, to the wicked, and to those who trouble the Kirk, there is justice in God, and so they may not win away with it. They maun in the dispensation of God's justice be taen order with. They may not aye be in prosperity and laugh. They maun of necessity mourn at last, and the righteous shall rejoice. Their shell of the balance shall go down, and the godless shall go up. When the short heaven of the wicked is expired, they maun sorrow then, for there are righteousness and justice in God, and it is a righteous thing with God, that He recompense to them who trouble the Kirk vexation and sorrow, and to them who are troubled joy and peace.
第三个让他们提前欢喜的原因是，如果我们看到上帝的安排，他的子民在困境中可以在解救到来之前就为幸运而欢喜；我说，如果我们看到他公正和怜悯的安排，尽管上帝的子民在世人眼中是渺小和被蔑视的，他们不需要因此而失去信心，因为上帝有怜悯，他会施予他的子民。让他们在中午之前哀悼和哭泣；然而在上帝的智慧安排中，他们将在下午欢笑。让他们悲伤和受苦，今年被压垮，然而对于正直的人来说，有光明播种，有喜乐。而如果你看另一方面，看那些邪恶的人，那些困扰教堂的人，上帝有公正，所以他们不能逃脱。在上帝公正的安排中，他们必须受到处理。他们不能永远繁荣和欢笑。他们最终必须悲伤，而义人将欢喜。他们的天平将下沉，不虔诚的人将上升。 当恶人的短暂天堂结束时，他们必须感到悲伤，因为上帝有公义和正义，对于那些困扰教堂的人，上帝会给予他们痛苦和悲伤的报应，而对于那些受困扰的人，上帝会给予他们喜悦和平安。

Whom to is it that the Lord speaks thus? To "Worm Jacob," and to the men of Israel, or to "the few men of Israel." This is sweeter nor if the Lord had said "My people," and it is liker God nor if He had called them "My sons," or "His spouse and married people with whom I am in covenant, by all the people of the earth." It says this meikle to us that the Kirk of God is never so miserable, nor so desolate and forsaken, but they have a Lord that pities them, One who sees their misery, and takes notice of it with a pitiful eye. That is an eye, indeed, that is spoken of, Exod. 3:7: "I have seen, I have seen the affliction of My people, and their groaning which are in Egypt." There is a Father's eye in heaven that is lifted up towards the Kirk when they are in trouble, and He pities their case. See what a style the Kirk gets from God, Isa. 54:11: "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours," &c. Even such another style as that which is given to the Kirk, Ezek. 37:4: "Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord," &c.
主对谁说这样的话呢？是对“虫子雅各”，对以色列人，或者对“以色列的少数人”。这比主说“我的百姓”更甜美，更像上帝，也比主称呼他们为“我的儿子”或“他的配偶和与我立约的人民，地上所有的人民都知道他们的痛苦”更像上帝。这对我们来说意味着上帝的教会从来没有如此悲惨、孤独和被遗弃，但他们有一个怜悯他们的主，一个看到他们的痛苦，并以怜悯的眼光注意到他们的主。这确实是一个眼睛，出现在出埃及记 3:7 中：“我亲眼看见了我的百姓在埃及所受的困苦，听见了他们的哀声。”当教会遇到困难时，天上有一个父亲的眼睛向上仰望着教会，他怜悯他们的情况。看看上帝给教会的称呼，以赛亚书 54:11：“你这受困苦、被风飘荡、不得安慰的人哪，我必以彩色安置你的石头。”等等。就像以西结书 37:4 中给教会的称呼一样：“你要对这些骸骨说预言，对它们说，枯干的骸骨啊，要听耶和华的话。”等等。

Why would not the Lord say to them, "My beloved people," "My people with whom I am in covenant," &c., but "Worm Jacob"? This is a word of pity, and it sets our Lord very well to show pity. The use of this is, let us learn to make use of all these styles that the Lord gives unto His Kirk and His children in this world. Isa. 52: Zion, wallowing in the dust, is comforted with many sweet promises and encouragements. And fra our Lord casts comforts into our hand that way, let us put out our hand and to take a grip of them. Fra the Lord is pleased to make many fair promises to His Kirk, when it is black in the West, let us take them unto us when we are under trouble, let us learn to take all our crosses from our [Lord] as it becomes us to do, and spill not our crosses by taking them from any other cause than the hand of God. If we could learn to put all our crosses over into our Lord's hand to be disposed of by Him, and take them all from Him, we would get a better gate of them nor for the most part we do. But it is well wared that thy cross and trouble be thy death, when thou wilt not put it over upon thy Lord, that puts not a crazed estate or the cross of an ill husband, or an ill wife, or wicked children, or fears for the cause of God, that it go not well, that puts not all over upon the Lord. If all these things could be put over upon the Lord Himself by us, there is no doubt but He who is a giving and a pitying Lord, who sees our sufferings and our crosses, He would no doubt send a sure deliverance to such who, in faith and patience, commit themselves and all things that come upon them unto Him.
为什么主不对他们说：“我亲爱的子民”，“我与之立约的子民”等等，而是说“虫子雅各”？这是一个怜悯的话，它很好地展示了我们的主怜悯的一面。我们要学会利用主在这个世界上给予祂的教会和子民的所有称呼。以赛亚书 52 章：滚在尘土中的锡安得到了许多甜蜜的应许和鼓励。当我们的主以这种方式给予安慰时，让我们伸出手来抓住它们。当我们遇到困难时，让我们学会从我们的主那里接受所有的十字架，不要因为其他原因而接受它们。如果我们能学会把所有的十字架交给主来处理，并从祂那里接受它们，我们会得到比我们通常得到的更好的结果。 但要注意，当你不把你的十字架和痛苦交托给主，不把疯狂的状态、恶劣的丈夫、妻子或邪恶的孩子、为神的事而担忧的恐惧，都交给主，这所有的痛苦都将成为你的死亡。如果我们能将所有这些事都交给主，那么毫无疑问，他是一个慷慨和仁慈的主，他看到我们的痛苦和十字架，他一定会给那些相信并耐心委身于他以及所有降临在他们身上的事情的人带来确定的解脱。

Again, "Worm Jacob, and men of Israel." This is as base a style as can be given to any—a worm. Where met they His married people and the people in the world whom He thought most of, and why should He not [have] given them a more honourable name? The Lord is now speaking of them as they are in the eyes of the world, and not as He thinks of them; for His people are never the most in multitude, nor are they the strongest to look to, nor the wisest, nor the richest, &c. No; for the most part they are the basest bodies. Jerusalem is a forsaken woman; and (Lam. 2) when all go by Jerusalem and see it so sore sacked they say, "Thou city which men call the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth, all the enemies opened their mouth against her to devour her." And yet ye will get the Lord's Kirk no better (Mic. 4:6), ye will get the Lord's Kirk there, a halting cripple woman, that has but one leg to gang upon. Aye (1 Cor. 1:27), His Kirk there is called the nothings of the world, those that are not worth the uptaking, the kinless things of the world, the ignoble, base, contemptible ones, the refuse of men! and (chap. 4) "the off-scourings of the world." Are the Lord's people so, indeed? No. They are not so, indeed; for (Mal. 3:17) they are called the Lord's jewels, His beloved people. Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? (Jer. 31:20.) How comes it to pass, then, that God speaks so of His Kirk? Answer: The Lord speaks so of His Kirk and people as men speak of them and according to their outward estate in the world, for the world sees not the Kirk's best side. The world knows not our Father, nor they know not our joy nor our inheritance; they see not our day of rejoicing. That which makes the Kirk glorious is hid from the eyes of the world (Prov. 14). A stranger meddles not with the joys of the Kirk. They know not our joy, for it is hid up with God in Christ. All our best things are hid from the eyes of the world; they only see our worst.
再说一遍，“雅各的虫子，以色列的人。”这是一种非常低贱的称呼，可以给任何人。他们在哪里遇到了他最看重的婚配的人和世界上的人，为什么他不给他们一个更尊贵的名字呢？主现在谈论的是他们在世界眼中的形象，而不是他对他们的看法；因为他的子民从来不是人数最多的，他们也不是最强壮、最聪明、最富有的人等等。不；大多数时候，他们是最卑贱的人。耶路撒冷是一个被遗弃的女人；当所有人经过耶路撒冷，看到它被洗劫得如此惨重时，他们说：“你这个城市，人们称之为美丽的完美和整个地球的喜悦，所有的敌人都张开嘴巴来吞噬她。”然而，你们也不会得到主的教会更好（弥迦书 4:6），你们会在那里得到主的教会，一个跛脚的瘸子女人，只有一条腿可以走。是的（哥林多前书 1:27），他的教会被称为世界上的无物，那些不值得拿起的人，世界上没有亲属的人，卑贱的、低贱的、可鄙的人，人类的废物！还有（第四章）“世界的渣滓。”主的子民真的是这样吗？不，他们并不是这样；因为（玛拉基书 3:17）他们被称为主的宝石，他所爱的子民。以法莲是我的亲爱儿子吗？他是一个可爱的孩子吗？（耶利米书 31:20）那么，上帝为什么这样说他的教会呢？答案是：主这样说他的教会和子民，就像人们根据他们在世界上的外在状况来谈论他们一样，因为世界看不到教会的最好一面。世界不认识我们的父，也不认识我们的喜乐和我们的产业；他们看不到我们的欢乐日。使教会荣耀的东西对世界是隐藏的（箴言 14）。外人不会干涉教会的喜乐。他们不知道我们的喜乐，因为它与上帝在基督里隐藏在一起。我们最好的东西都对世界是隐藏的；他们只看到我们最糟糕的一面。

The thing that we have to learn from this is, if the Kirk of Christ seem to be thus in the eyes of men, and then if the Lord, upon the other hand, count so highly of them, then let us not despise them, bourd not with them, albeit they be baselike in the eyes of the world; for rise against the Kirk who will, because they think her strength not to be great, for, as weak as she is, they shall be broken in pieces whoever they be who draw a sword against the Kirk of Christ, or rashes hard heads with it. Look there! they had not an arm to put up their sword again. See there! they be not all broken in pieces. What a cursed word is spoken of these who are enemies to the Kirk and haters of Zion! Psa. 129:6: "They shall be as grass upon the housetop, which withereth before it groweth up: wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. Neither do they who go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord." None that sees them at their work shall bless them, but the wrath of God shall be upon them; the mowers, nor shearers, shall get no good of them, but wrath and calamity shall seize upon them.
我们从中要学到的是，如果基督的教堂在人们眼中是这样的，而主在另一方面如此看重他们，那么让我们不要轻视他们，不要与他们争吵，尽管他们在世界的眼中可能是卑贱的；因为无论谁对基督的教堂动手，他们都会被打得粉碎，因为他们认为她的力量不强大，尽管她很脆弱，无论是谁拔剑对抗基督的教堂，或者与之冲撞，他们都会被打得粉碎。看那里！他们没有手再拔剑。看那里！他们并没有全部被打得粉碎。对于那些敌对教堂、憎恨锡安的人，他们说的是多么可恶的话！诗篇 129:6：“他们必如房顶上的草，未长成而枯干，收割的也不用手摘取，捆禾的也不用怀抱。”看到他们工作的人都不会为他们祝福，而是上帝的愤怒会降临在他们身上；收割者和剪羊毛的人都得不到他们的好处，而是愤怒和灾祸会降临在他们身上。

There is another thing in this style. He calls them Jacob, and Jacob is the Lord's covenanted people. And so it is as meikle as if He had said, "Fear not, despised and weak people, and yet the Lord's covenanted ones." There is not a cross, misery, or affliction that comes upon the people of God but it is the Lord's, and is sib to Him, for the first word is as meikle as they were despised and silly—a worm; but the next word, "Jacob," is a word of honour. We have to learn here that the very misery of the Kirk of God it is glorious, the very crosses of the Kirk have another sort of lustre nor all the glory that is in the world; for thir two words are as meikle as if it had been said, "Base bodies, and yet highly honoured of God, the refuse of the world, and yet for all that those whom the Lord has taen by the hand to be His people, and He has taken upon Him to be their God." There are three blessed things that befall the children of God in all their crosses that the world has not in its troubles and crosses.
在这种风格中还有另一件事。他称他们为雅各，雅各是主立约的子民。所以这就好像他说：“不要害怕，被轻视和软弱的人民，但你们是主立约的子民。”上帝的子民遭受的十字架、苦难或痛苦都是属于主的，与他有关，因为第一个词就像是说他们被轻视和愚蠢——一条虫子；但是下一个词“雅各”是一个荣耀的词。我们在这里要学到的是，上帝的教会的苦难本身就是荣耀的，教会的十字架比世界上所有的荣耀都有另一种光彩；因为这两个词就好像是说：“卑贱的人，但在上帝眼中却是高贵的，是世界的废物，但上帝却拿他们的手成为他的子民，他也成为他们的上帝。”在他们所有的十字架中，上帝的子民有三件有福的事情，而世界在困境和十字架中没有。

First. There is a moderation while they are under them. We may see the proof of this in this text. "Worm Jacob" He calls them, and yet He says to them, "I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth, to thresh the mountains and to beat the hills to caff." The Kirk under affliction dreeing, and yet they live, hungered and yet well fed, persecuted but not forsaken. The enemies are doing what they can to put us in the grave; and yet even then, when we are in the grave, we shall live. No; there is such a moderation of the troubles of the Kirk of God and of His children that there is not one ounce of sorrow or trouble that comes upon them but it is all weighed in heaven before it come upon you, and thou shalt get no more of it nor the Lord pleases. The Lord will have you to drink no more of that cup nor thy stomach will bear. He will not have you to drink till thy heart stand. Such a sweet attemperation have the children of God in all their troubles. This meikle baseness shall come upon them, and no more; and it shall be mixed with honour.
首先，当他们处于困境之中时，会有适度的调节。我们可以在这段文字中看到这一点的证明。“虫子雅各”他称呼他们，然而他对他们说：“我要使你成为有锋利牙齿的新犁，用以打碎山岭，将丘陵磨成碎末。”教会在苦难中忍受，然而他们仍然活着，饥饿却得到滋养，受迫害却没有被抛弃。敌人尽其所能要把我们送进坟墓，然而即使当我们在坟墓中时，我们仍然会活着。不，上帝的教会和他的子民所遭受的困难是如此适度，以至于没有一丝一毫的悲伤或困扰会降临在你们身上，除非在天上被称量过，你将不会承受更多，除非主愿意。主不会让你喝下那杯，除非你的胃能承受。他不会让你喝到你的心停止。上帝的子民在所有的困境中都有如此甜美的调和。这些卑劣的事情将降临在他们身上，不再多了；而且它将与荣耀混合在一起。

Another thing that is in the afflictions of the children of God, even a trim lustre upon them. "Worm Jacob," and despised of the world, yet thee whom I have chosen from among all the people in the world to be Mine. O! there is such a trim lustre on all the crosses of the children of God, that whatever befall them it is well watered over with the love and favour of God, Rev. 14:13: "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours and their works follow them." What is sourer and more fearful-like than death, and yet death being in the Lord it is sweet, and well watered to the children of God, for then they rest from their labours, and Job (chap. 5:17) says: "Blessed is the man whom Thou correctest." Of itself correction is sour, and yet coming from the Lord, and being watered with His love, it is sweet, and so sweet, that it is a thing wherein blessedness stands (Acts 5:41). The apostles when they were scourged before the council for preaching the gospel, it is said of them, "They went out rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus." There are two trim coverings there put upon their sufferings. First, the Lord's blessed estimation of them. He "counted them worthy." Second, they themselves rejoicing "that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus." Well is it that we get a blae hide and bloody shoulders for preaching our Lord's gospel. There is glory in such baseness as that is. Our shame it is a glorious shame. Our hunger is His fulness. With it our Christ is a refreshing Christ. Our death it is a life unto us.
上帝的儿女所遭受的苦难中，还有一种美丽的光辉。"虫子雅各"被世人蔑视，但你是我从全世界的人中选择出来的。哦！上帝的儿女的十字架上都有这样一种美丽的光辉，无论发生什么事情，都被上帝的爱和恩惠浇灌着。启示录 14:13 说："在主里面死了的人是有福的，因为他们得以安息，他们的行为也随着他们。"死亡是什么比它更苦涩和可怕的事情，但是在主里面的死亡对上帝的儿女来说是甜蜜的，被上帝的爱所浇灌，因为他们从劳苦中得到了安息，约伯书 5:17 说："上帝责备的人是有福的。"责备本身是苦涩的，但是来自主的责备，并且被他的爱所浇灌，是甜蜜的，甚至是一种有福的事情（使徒行传 5:41）。使徒们在为传福音而受到公议会鞭打时，有人说他们"因被算是配为这名受辱，就欢欢喜喜地离开"。这里有两种美丽的掩盖放在他们的苦难上。 首先，主对他们的祝福评估。他们被视为“值得的”。其次，他们自己欣喜地“因耶稣的名被算是配受苦难”。我们为传扬主的福音而受到责打和流血是理所当然的。在这种卑贱中有荣耀。我们的羞辱是一种光荣的羞辱。我们的饥饿是他的丰满。在其中，我们的基督是一位令人振奋的基督。我们的死亡对我们来说是一种生命。

Third. "Worm Jacob." This is as meikle as the Lord He esteemed Himself sib to their crosses. There is no cross or misery that befalls the Kirk of God or any of His children, but it is sib to God. There is an excellent word which is spoken by the apostle (Col. 1:24), "I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh;" and (Heb. 11:26) speaking of Moses, he says of him: "He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." The sufferings of the Kirk and the children of God, they are Christ's sufferings. Thy wae heart, thy losses, thy sufferings, they are Christ's. The world's afflictions, they are bastard afflictions, they belong not to Christ. There are enew under crosses that Christ has nothing ado. Well's them who are under crosses, and Christ says to them, "Half mine." And you should learn to make use of this and see when you are under crosses how sib they are to Christ. Is it your grief and your sorrow for fear that the Lord's cause and His people in the camp be not well? That is a sorrow that is sib to Christ, and He will comfort those who are under sorrow that way. But if your grief and your sorrow be that ye will be poorer nor ye were before, because there is something sought of you to the cause of God that ye will be in greater danger nor ye were before by entering in a covenant with God ye will get none of Christ's comfort then for your cross and trouble: He has nothing ado with it. Well's them who know their crosses are not their own, but they are Christ's crosses, and then their crosses are well winded up in a web of His love, for then it shall neither hurt you nor kill you, but thou shalt bear it patiently and handsomely. That is a happy affliction that is Christ's affliction, and He has waled it to thee.
第三点，“虫子雅各”。这是上帝认为自己与他们的十字架有亲缘关系的程度。上帝的教会或他的子民遭受的十字架或苦难，都与上帝有亲缘关系。使徒保罗说了一句很好的话（歌罗西书 1:24）：“我在肉身中为基督的身体，就是教会，补满了基督患难的缺欠。”（希伯来书 11:26）在谈到摩西时，他说：“他看为受基督的凌辱比埃及的财物还宝贵。”教会和上帝的子民的苦难，都是基督的苦难。你的伤心、损失、苦难，都是基督的。世界的苦难，都是私生子的苦难，与基督无关。有些人在十字架下，基督与之无关。那些在十字架下的人是有福的，基督对他们说：“一半是我的。”你应该学会利用这一点，看到当你在十字架下时，它们与基督有多么亲近。如果你因为担心主的事业和他的子民在营地里不好而悲伤和忧愁，那是与基督有亲缘关系的悲伤，他会安慰那些以这种方式悲伤的人。 但是，如果你的悲伤和忧愁是因为你会比以前更贫穷，因为有人要求你为上帝的事业付出，你会因与上帝立约而面临更大的危险，那么你将得不到基督的安慰，因为他与此无关。那些知道自己的十字架不是自己的，而是基督的十字架的人是有福的，因为他们的十字架被他的爱所包裹，所以既不会伤害你，也不会杀死你，而你将能够耐心而优雅地承受它。那是一种幸福的苦难，是基督的苦难，他已经为你选择了它。

"Fear not, worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel," and to speak the word with a warrant, he adds to it: "I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." What ground of comfort were this if it were said by one that could not help?—but the Lord says it.
不要害怕，雅各的虫子和以色列的人们，"并且以授权的话语说，他还补充说："我必帮助你，这是耶和华说的，你的救赎主，以色列的圣者。"如果这是由一个无法帮助的人说出来，那么这将是什么样的安慰呢？—但是耶和华说了这话。

There are three sorts that take upon them to comfort under trouble.
有三种类型的人试图在困境中安慰他人。

First. There are some who can do more, but only speak a good word to them. And that is but a cold comfort, to speak a word, and no more, to a troubled conscience.
首先，有些人可以做更多的事情，但只是对他们说一句好话。但对于一个困扰的良心来说，仅仅说一句话而没有更多的帮助，只是一种冷漠的安慰。

Second. There are some who take upon them to comfort under trouble, and they can do something; but it is but man's help when all is done, and we are forbidden to trust in any help of man—Psa. 146:3: "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help."
第二点。有些人承担起在困境中安慰他人的责任，他们能做些事情；但当一切都结束时，这只是人的帮助，我们被禁止依赖任何人的帮助——诗篇 146:3：“不要倚靠君王，不要倚靠世人，他一点不能帮助。”

There is a third, again, that helps in trouble, who only should take upon Him to help, for He can infallibly help in trouble. But He is a king of His word. He helps indeed where He promises. When God says "Fear not," albeit thou wert compassed about with enemies on all sides, and there were as many devils round about you as there are piles of grass upon the earth, or as there have fallen of drops of rain since the world began, thou needst not to fear; thou may go through the sea then, and the sea shall not drown you, the fire shall not burn you; thou may'st dance on the grave, for the grave shall not rot you. And so this is a well-fard word: "I will keep thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." What if Jeremiah or Isaiah had said this to them! No, certainly that had not been enough, but the Lord says it, and that maun stand sure. Then hang by this word, and this word is putten to to tell us that a trembling and doubting soul in trouble, it can get no fastening word, but only that which the Lord speaks. Albeit an angel or a king should say, "Fear not," or twenty or thirty thousand armed men should say it, it is nothing; and God grant that we trust not more in men nor we do in the Lord at this time. But if the Lord say to a soul in trouble, "Fear not," we may trust in that word. A doubting soul it gets no sure word to fasten on until it get God's word to uphold it. Bind a ship to a rash bush to hold her by! That is but a slim anchor; it cannot hold her when she begins to be moved. Even so to bid a distressed soul believe in the Kirk, or in the Pope's word, or lippen in a Service-book, it is worth nothing to it, especially to a soul under perplexity and trouble, when many enemies are besetting it. And, you know, a worm is a beast that has as many enemies as any beast has, for when it is creeping on the ground it has as many enemies as there are feet going upon the ground ready to tramp upon it, and to put out the guts of it. So is the Kirk and the children of God, environed with enemies on all hands. But there is a binding word here for "worm Jacob:" "I will help thee, saith the Lord," and so they may ride it out against all storms and temptations that can overtake them. You may know how many doubtings are ready to overtake the children of God, especially if there be armies about them, and if the power of those who are against us be great, as, if there be kings upon their side. But even when it is so, the Lord's "Fear not" is a powerful word to them who can grip to the promises of God, who can say in faith, "If I die God's promise shall die with me, for I shall hold by it." When God, who is a king of His word, says, "Fear not," what need you to care for hundreds, or thousands, or fear them when they are about you? The Third Psalm says, "I will not be afraid for ten thousands of the people that have beset themselves against me round about." That is a stout soul, and he is the best sojour and the stoutest that draws a sword that lippens more to the promise of God nor to all other outward helps in the world beside.
有第三个人，在困境中帮助，只要他愿意帮助，因为他能够无误地在困境中帮助。但他是一个信守诺言的国王。他确实在他承诺的地方帮助。当上帝说“不要害怕”，即使你四面环敌，周围有与地球上的草堆一样多的魔鬼，或者自世界开始以来下落的雨滴一样多，你不需要害怕；你可以穿过海洋，海洋不会淹死你，火焰不会烧伤你；你可以在坟墓上跳舞，因为坟墓不会腐烂你。所以这是一句美好的话：“耶和华说，我必保护你，你的救赎主，以色列的圣者。”如果耶利米或以赛亚对他们说了这话呢！不，当然不够，但是主说了，那就必定成立。所以依靠这个话语，这个话语告诉我们，在困境中，颤抖和怀疑的灵魂，只能得到主所说的话语作为依靠。 即使是天使或国王说“不要害怕”，或者二三万名武装人员说了这句话，也毫无意义；愿上帝不让我们此时对人比对主更加信任。但是，如果主对一个困扰的灵魂说“不要害怕”，我们可以相信这句话。一个怀疑的灵魂在得到上帝的话支持之前，无法找到可靠的依靠。把船绑在一个脆弱的灌木丛上来固定它！那只是一个薄弱的锚；当船开始移动时，它无法固定住船。同样，要求一个困扰的灵魂相信教会，相信教皇的话，或者依赖一本仪式书，对它来说毫无价值，尤其是对于一个困惑和痛苦的灵魂，当许多敌人围攻它时。而且，你知道，蠕虫是一种有着和其他动物一样多敌人的动物，因为当它在地上爬行时，有多少只脚踩在地上，准备踩在它身上，把它的内脏挤出来。教会和上帝的子民也是如此，四面环绕着敌人。但是这里有一个对“虫子雅各”的约束性话语：“我必帮助你，这是耶和华说的”，所以他们可以在遭遇一切风暴和诱惑时坚持下去。 你可能知道有多少怀疑会降临在上帝的子民身上，尤其是当他们周围有军队时，当那些反对我们的力量强大时，比如说，如果有国王站在他们一边。但即使如此，主的“不要害怕”对那些能坚守上帝的应许的人来说是一个有力的话语，他们可以信心满满地说：“如果我死了，上帝的应许也会随之消失，因为我会坚守它。”当上帝，作为他话语的君王，说“不要害怕”时，你还需要担心周围的数百人、数千人，或者害怕他们吗？《诗篇》第三篇说：“我虽有万人来围攻我，我也不怕。”那是一个坚强的灵魂，他是最好的旅人，也是最勇敢的人，他更相信上帝的应许，而不是世界上其他一切外在的帮助。

Again, some may object and say, "I know that there is enough every way in God, but what is that to me, when I am so unworthy? What the better can I be of His promises, I am so sinful and unworthy?" Answer: Whom to is His promises made if not to you? If Christ be thy Redeemer, and thou be in covenant with Him, then all His promises, they are made to thee whoever thou be, though never so unworthy in thy own eyes. But that is our great neck-break in the point of believing, and in the point of faith, that because we may justly find fault with ourselves, therefore we are ready also to find fault with God and with Christ. O, say we, "There is meikle guiltiness in me, and so I cannot believe your word of promise that I have anything to do with it." That is as meikle as to say, that because thou art ill, therefore Christ is ill also. A doubting soul is ready to find many faults with God and with Christ. Thou wilt say He is long in coming, and complains that He lets them not soon enough into Him. The truth is, because thy eye is ill therefore thou believest His to be ill also. It were good for us in looking to the promises of God, to look out of ourselves and to look to them in Christ only; for if ye look for any cause or ground of believing in yourselves, or in the creature, ye shall never believe. That is the surest way of believing to say, "Thou, thyself, art toom, but Christ is full. I am a lost soul, but He seeks that which is lost, and He is found of them who seek Him not." When once we come to this, and rest upon the Lord this way, then we take a right grip of the promises. Now for all that we have heard of, or seen, to be against us, and for as weak as we are, yet we may bless God for what is done in this land: four and twenty or thirty thousand men going into a neighbour kingdom. But they may raise five score thousands to come against them: yet if we could grip to this word of promise, "Fear not, worm Jacob, and men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel;" and if they resolve (if they be put to it) to fight because they believe; and if we who stay at home can be instant in praying to God for them, that the Lord would make many to favour them and make the hearts of their enemies to faint, what would not our Lord do for them who believe in Him?
再说一遍，有些人可能会反对并说：“我知道上帝在各个方面都足够，但对我来说有什么用呢，当我如此不值得时？我如此罪恶和不值得，我能从他的应许中得到什么好处呢？”回答是：他的应许是给谁的？难道不是给你吗？如果基督是你的救赎主，你与他立约，那么他的所有应许，无论你自己眼中多么不值得，都是给你的。但这是我们在信仰和信心上的一个巨大障碍，因为我们可以正当地对自己找茬，所以我们也准备对上帝和基督找茬。哦，我们说，“我内心有很多罪恶，所以我不能相信你的应许，认为我与之有关。”这就好像说，因为你生病了，所以基督也生病了。一个怀疑的灵魂准备对上帝和基督找很多毛病。你会说他迟迟不来，并抱怨他不让他们尽快进入他。事实是，因为你的眼睛有问题，所以你相信他的眼睛也有问题。 我们在寻求上帝的应许时，最好不要只看向自己，而是只看向基督；因为如果你寻找相信的原因或根据是自己或创造物，你永远不会相信。这是最确信的相信方式，说：“你自己是空虚的，但基督是充满的。我是一个失丧的灵魂，但他寻找那些失丧的人，他被那些不寻找他的人找到。”一旦我们达到这一点，并以这种方式依靠主，我们就能正确地抓住应许。现在，尽管我们所听到的或看到的都对我们不利，尽管我们如此脆弱，但我们仍然可以为这个国家所做的事情感谢上帝：二十四或三十万人进入邻国。 但是他们可能会集结五万人来对抗他们：然而，如果我们能坚守这个应许的话，“不要害怕，雅各小虫，以色列人啊，我必帮助你，耶和华说，你的救赎主，以色列的圣者。”如果他们决心（如果他们被迫）因为相信而战斗；如果我们留在家中的人能够坚持不懈地为他们祈祷，求主使许多人喜悦他们，使他们的敌人的心灰意冷，那么我们的主对于那些相信他的人会做什么呢？

The style that God gets here. It is a new style, for God has two sorts of styles in His word. There is Jehovah and God; and the Lord, He would hold these styles albeit the world had not been or any created thing. But if there had not been a world, and lost sinners, and a Kirk, He had not been a Creator, nor a Redeemer, nor a Husband to His Kirk. And so the Lord He has these styles of Creator, Redeemer, the Lord of the whole earth, the Husband of His Kirk, the Holy One of Israel, from us, and our house. And we may say two things of these styles that the Lord has from us. First: That they are very humble styles, and very comfortable to us; for by that we may see, that He has married with us, and with our house, because He has taen styles from us: from His lost people He takes the style of a Redeemer; from the covenant that He has made with His people He takes the name of the Holy One of Israel; from marrying with His people He takes the name of Husband. This is even like unto a house that is like to go out of the name for want of male heirs, and there comes in one and marries the heritage of the house, and takes styles from the house, and calls himself after the name of it and so keeps it in the name. Second: We may say again that the Lord He has no toom empty styles. Many in the world indeed they have toom names and toom styles. The Lord has made many kings, and many of them fill not the chair of a king; albeit they be princes, yet they have not the minds of princes. And magistrates in the Psalm (Psa. 82:6) they are called "gods;" and yet they will die the next day, and so they fill not the chair of a god, for God cannot die. And many that are called friends, yet they fill not the rowme of a friend; for either they will change their mind, or they will die the next day, and then their friendship is gone. But for the Lord our God He has no toom names at all; Isa. 43:3: "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour;" and Mal. 3:6, He says, "I am the Lord that changeth not." This should teach us to put our trust and confidence in this Lord who thus takes styles to Himself from us, and to trust more in Him nor in all the men in the world who are not able to fill their seat—to trust in Generals and Commanders, and such others as these who are not able to fill their seat. No, it is better to trust in the Lord who never yet tint a field and who takes no toom styles to Himself. Whatever God is called in His word that He is indeed. It is a damnable doctrine that the Arminians teach to say that Christ is a King, and yet it may be that He have no subjects; for they make His kingly office only to stand in this, that He has right to be a King, albeit all His subjects they should be apostates. And they say He is a Husband because He has right to marry a spouse, albeit she will not marry Him. O, but that be a most damnable doctrine to say, that Christ is a King and yet it may be that He have no subjects! That He shall be a Lord and not have a willing people! He taketh no toom names to Himself. Whatever name the Lord takes unto Himself is salvation. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are saved. Is that the letters of the name Jehovah that is a strong tower? No; it is the Lord Himself. The righteous trust in the name of the Lord, and to trust in the name of the Lord is to trust in Himself. So that if we can learn to acknowledge the Lord in His styles, and in His lordship and dominion, and put Him in His chair of state, then no doubt but He will be all unto us that He is called, He will be a friend to you who want thy friend, a father to the fatherless, a king to those who trust in Him, and want no earthly king, or has a king who does not his duty to them. He will be a husband when the husband of those who trust in Him dies, or have a husband who does not his duty to them. He fulfils all the wants that those can have who trust in Him.
上帝在这里展示的风格是新的风格，因为上帝在他的话语中有两种风格。有耶和华和上帝；主，他将持有这些风格，即使世界不存在或没有任何被创造的事物。但是如果没有世界、失落的罪人和教堂，他就不会成为创造者，也不会成为救赎者，也不会成为教堂的丈夫。因此，主有这些风格：创造者、救赎者、全地之主、教堂的丈夫、以色列的圣者，来自我们和我们的家。关于主从我们这里得来的这些风格，我们可以说两件事。首先：它们非常谦卑，对我们非常舒适；因为通过这些风格，我们可以看到他与我们和我们的家结婚，因为他从我们这里得到了这些风格：从他失落的子民那里，他得到了救赎者的风格；从他与子民所立的约中，他得到了以色列的圣者的名字；从与他的子民结婚中，他得到了丈夫的名字。 这就像一个家族，因为没有男性继承人而面临失去家族名字的危险，然后有人进来娶了这个家族的遗产，继承了家族的称号，并以此为名，从而保留了家族的名字。其次，我们可以再次说，主并没有空虚的称号。世界上确实有许多人有空虚的名字和虚假的称号。主造了许多国王，其中许多人并没有坐上国王的宝座；虽然他们是王子，但他们并没有王子的心智。在诗篇中，官员们被称为“神”（诗篇 82:6）；然而他们第二天就会死去，所以他们并没有坐上神的宝座，因为神不能死。许多被称为朋友的人，但他们并没有朋友的地位；因为他们要么会改变主意，要么第二天就会死去，那么他们的友谊也就消失了。但对于我们的上帝，他根本没有虚假的名字；以赛亚书 43:3 说：“我是耶和华你的神，以色列的圣者，你的救主。”玛拉基书 3:6 中，他说：“我耶和华是不改变的。”这应该教导我们将信任和信心放在这位主身上，他从我们这里接过权柄，并且更加信任他，而不是世界上那些无法履行职责的人——相信将军和指挥官，以及其他无法履行职责的人。不，更好的是相信那位从未输掉一场战役的主，他不会接过空位。无论上帝在他的话语中被称为什么，他就是什么。亚米拿派教导的那种说基督是国王，但可能没有臣民的邪恶教义是可恶的；因为他们认为他的国王职位只在于他有权利成为国王，即使他的臣民都是背教者。他们说他是丈夫，因为他有权利娶一个配偶，即使她不愿意嫁给他。哦，但那是一种最可恶的教义，说基督是国王，但可能没有臣民！他将成为主，却没有一个愿意的子民！他不会接过空名。主所接受的任何名字都是救恩。耶和华的名是坚固的台；义人奔入其中就得救。 那是耶和华这个名字的字母吗？不，那是主自己。义人信靠主的名字，信靠主的名字就是信靠主自己。所以，如果我们能学会在主的风格、主的统治和主的权柄中承认主，并将他安置在他的王座上，毫无疑问，他将成为我们所称呼的一切，他将成为你需要的朋友，无父的人的父亲，那些信靠他并不需要地上的国王，或者拥有一个不尽职责的国王的人的国王。当信靠他的丈夫去世或者拥有一个不尽职责的丈夫时，他将成为那些信靠他的人的丈夫。他满足了那些信靠他的人的一切需求。

"Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as caff.Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away." Lest the Kirk should take ill with this style, "Worm Jacob" and "Men of Israel," as base styles—as base styles they ofttimes cast our hearts down—the Lord says to them: "Giving, but not granting, that it be so, yet I will help you, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." And the help it is set down in the 15th verse, "I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth." There is a doubt met with here in this 15th verse. They might have said, "Why have not we just cause to fear, we being but a worm and few men (as the word in the first language reads); and so why have we not cause to fear?" The Lord says to them, "Ye have no cause to fear for all that;" and I shall meet with that objection as there is no ground of doubting in a weak believer, but the Lord He has a wedge to meet it with to ding it out again: "I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth." How meets this with their objection? Very well; for first they are called a worm, and now they are called a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth. A base and a despised Kirk, and base and lightly esteemed in the eyes of the world; and yet for all that a flail to beat the mountains of the earth to nothing, and to beat them so small that they shall be blown away, so that they are not able to bide their straikes. Then ye see the Kirk, it is a small party in the eyes of the world, and despised of them; and yet for all that the hardest party that ever the powers of the world yoked with. Rise up against the Kirk of Christ who will, they shall find that they never yoked with the like of them. Let kings and antichrist, the Pope and his power, and prelates and Papists, rise up against the Kirk of Christ, they shall find that they had never such a tough party as the Kirk is, for the Lord He has ways anew to make His people strong, that they may prevail.
看哪，我要使你成为一个有锋利牙齿的新打谷器，你要打谷山岭，将它们破碎，使山丘如同糠秕。你要把它们簸扬，风要把它们吹散。"免得教会对这样的风格感到不满，"虫子雅各"和"以色列人"，作为低劣的风格，它们常常使我们的心沮丧。主对他们说："虽然给予，但不授予，即使如此，我也会帮助你们，这是耶和华说的，你们的救赎主，以色列的圣者。"这种帮助在第 15 节中被记载下来，"我要使你成为一个有锋利牙齿的新打谷器。"在这第 15 节中遇到了一个疑问。他们可能会说："我们为什么没有正当的理由害怕呢？我们只是一条虫子和少数人（正如原文所说）；所以我们为什么没有理由害怕呢？"主对他们说："你们没有理由害怕这一切；"我将回应这个异议，因为在一个软弱的信徒中没有怀疑的根据，但是主有一个楔子来回应它，将它再次驱除："我要使你成为一个有锋利牙齿的新打谷器。"这如何回应他们的异议呢？ 非常好；首先，它们被称为蠕虫，现在它们被称为有牙齿的新锐的打谷工具。在世人眼中，它们是卑贱和被轻视的教堂；然而，尽管如此，它们是将地球上的山脉打成粉末的连枷，将它们打得如此细小，以至于它们无法抵挡它们的打击。然后你会看到，教堂在世人眼中只是一个小派别，被他们轻视；然而，尽管如此，它是世界上最坚强的派别，与世界的权力结合在一起。不管是国王和反基督、教皇和他的权力、教长和天主教徒，还是起来反对基督教堂的人，他们会发现他们从未与教堂这样强大的派别结合过。因为主有新的方法使祂的子民强大，使他们能够战胜。

How is it that they become a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth? The Lord makes them so, and were it not so that they are something of the Lord's making they were nothing indeed. But fra they are something of the Lord's making they are strong enough against all opposers; an' the kirk were slain He can win a battle with them; and they were dry bones He can put sinews and flesh and skin upon them and put life in them to make them prevail; and ye were a worm, ye shall be a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth, to beat the mountains of the world and make them small, and to make the hills as chaff. Then the strength of the Kirk it is from God's making of them strong. We are daft that looks to our own strength, and to the number of our men. God grant that our eyes be not fixed upon men for our security! And, indeed, I fear that more nor anything that our eyes be fixed upon men over meikle. Let us look to the Lord's making of us strong. And, indeed, we look all wrong if we look not to our Lord's strength and to anything else. This says that we look all wrong when we look to anything that is in ourselves, and look not only to that which is in Christ. Alas! says some one, "I am a great unbeliever, and will Christ lay His fair face to my black cheeks? Will He kiss me who has so foul a mouth? No." And God make you something, then ye shall be something indeed. It is not our wit or strength or worthiness that will do our turn. It is our Lord and His strength who must do it. Paul he is nothing in himself and in his own account, and yet through Christ that strengthens him he is able to do all things (Philip. 4:13). And, Heb. 11:34, it is said, of weak He makes strong—"they waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the enemies," through His strength; Rev. 1:6: "The Lord makes us to be kings and priests unto Himself;" and Rom. 8:37, who are made "more than conquerors through Him that loveth us."
他们如何成为一把有牙齿的新锐利的打谷工具？这是主使他们如此，如果不是因为他们是主所造的一部分，他们确实一无所有。但既然他们是主所造的一部分，他们足够强大，可以抵抗一切对手；即使教堂被杀，他也能与他们一起赢得战斗；即使他们是干枯的骨头，他也能给他们加上筋骨、肉体和皮肤，并赋予他们生命，使他们能够战胜；你曾经是一条虫子，你将成为一把有牙齿的新锐利的打谷工具，可以击败世界的山脉，使它们变小，使山丘如同碎秸。因此，教堂的力量来自上帝的加强。我们是愚蠢的，如果我们只依赖自己的力量和人数。愿上帝不让我们的眼睛只盯着人来保护我们！实际上，我担心我们的眼睛过于盯着人。让我们仰望主使我们强大。实际上，如果我们不仰望主的力量和其他任何事物，我们就是错误的。这说明当我们只看自己身上的东西，而不仅仅看基督里的东西时，我们是错误的。唉！ 有人说：“我是一个大不信者，基督会把他美丽的面容贴在我黑暗的脸颊上吗？他会亲吻我这张如此污秽的嘴吗？不会的。”但是上帝使你成为某种东西，那么你确实会成为某种东西。我们的智慧、力量或者价值并不能帮助我们。我们需要我们的主和他的力量来完成这一切。保罗本身并不重要，也不自视甚高，然而通过加强他的基督，他能够做到一切（腓立比书 4:13）。希伯来书 11:34 说，他使软弱的人变得强大——“他们在战斗中变得勇敢，击退了敌人的军队”，都是通过他的力量；启示录 1:6 说：“主使我们成为自己的君王和祭司”；罗马书 8:37 说，我们是“因爱我们的主而成为得胜有余的人”。"

How will the Lord do this to His weak Kirk, to worm Jacob, and to the few men of Israel? There are four ways how the Lord does this. The first way is this. Sometimes the Lord He gives unto them worldly strength to overcome their enemies outwardly; as sometimes the Lord He will make some few thousands to rise against many thousands and to put them to flight. The Lord will make good that word which is spoken, Numb. 24:5, 7, 8 (albeit he was a false prophet who spake it, yet it is the Word of God for all that): "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! He shall pour out the waters of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of unicorns: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, he shall break their bones, and pierce them through with arrows." This was spoken of the seed of Jacob when they came out of Egypt, and had not a foot of ground of heritage; nor had they a cothouse above their heads, nor a sheaf of corn growing, to show that our Lord He can give security to those who are mean and weak in the eyes of men, and as it is, Isa. 10:33: "He will lop the boughs with terror; and the high ones in stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled." He can make them to bow down under the prisoner. Ay, albeit we of this nation were blocked up by sea and land, yet they wanting the Lord's strength and we having it, they shall fall under us.
主如何对待他的软弱的教会，对待蠕虫雅各和以色列的少数人？主有四种方式来做到这一点。第一种方式是这样的。有时主会赐予他们世俗的力量，以战胜他们的外敌；有时主会让几千人起来对抗成千上万的敌人，并使他们溃败。主会实现那句话，如民数记 24:5、7、8 所说（尽管那是一个假先知说的，但它仍然是上帝的话）：“雅各啊，你的帐棚何等佳美！以色列啊，你的帐幕何其华丽！他如谷中的溪水，如栽在水旁的河流。他的王必超过亚迦，他的国必得胜。”上帝将他从埃及领出来，他有独角兽的力量。他要吞灭敌国，折断他们的骨头，用箭射透他们。这是关于雅各的后裔的话，当他们从埃及出来时，他们没有一寸土地的产业；他们没有房屋顶上的小屋，也没有一捆长出来的谷物，以显示我们的主能够给那些在人眼中卑微和软弱的人以安全，正如以赛亚书 10:33 所说：“他要用恐吓砍断树枝；身量高大的要被砍伐，傲慢的要被降卑。”他能使他们屈服于囚禁之下。是的，尽管我们这个国家被海洋和陆地封锁，但他们没有主的力量，而我们有，他们将在我们之下倒下。

A second reason of this is, Because they who come against Zion, whoever they be, they have seen their fairest day. Fra once they come against Zion they have never a day to do well again. You know what end Babylon made fra once they carried away the Lord's people to captivity, and Babylon is called the Lord's hammer for beating the earth; and yet fra once they carried away the people of God, their well days are done. And Jeremiah he brings in all the nations about against Babylon; fra once they come against God's people, and His land. And among many other plagues pronounced against them, Jeremiah he pronounces this, 51:26: "And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the Lord." Fra once Pharaoh came against Israel and against Moses, there came one plague after another upon him till at last he was made meat for the fishes, and the wrath of God lighted upon him and upon his princes and his people. The Kirk of God is a mite, but crack that mite who will they will break their chaft-teeth upon it, that they shall never eat well again. Be an enemy who will to this covenant that God has made with this land and they with Him (and it were but to be an heart enemy to it), it is a hundred to one if ever they have a day to do well. Can the husband endure that any should come against his married wife to wrong her? No; we believe certainly that the Lord He will take vengeance upon the enemies of our Covenant in Scotland, and of this cause that we are now called to go unto the fields for.
这是第二个原因，因为那些反对锡安的人，无论是谁，他们曾经见过他们最美好的日子。自从他们反对锡安以来，他们再也没有过好日子。你知道巴比伦一旦将主的子民掳走，巴比伦就被称为主的锤子，用来打击大地；然而一旦他们掳走了神的子民，他们的好日子就结束了。耶利米在他的书中提到了所有围攻巴比伦的国家；一旦他们反对神的子民和神的土地，就会遭受许多其他的灾祸。在对他们宣告的许多灾祸中，耶利米宣告了这样一句话：“他们不从你那里取一块石头作拐角石，也不取一块石头作根基石，你必永远荒凉。”一旦法老反对以色列和摩西，灾祸接踵而至，直到最后他成为鱼的食物，神的愤怒降临在他和他的王子和人民身上。神的教会是微小的，但无论谁试图破坏它，他们都会折断自己的牙齿，再也无法好好吃饭了。 成为一个敌人，违背上帝与这片土地以及与祂结盟的人所达成的盟约（即使只是对它心怀敌意），百分之百地他们将无法有一天过得好。丈夫能容忍任何人对他的妻子不利吗？不；我们确信主必会向我们在苏格兰的盟约敌人复仇，也因此我们现在被召唤到战场。

The third way, How the Kirk is victorious over her enemies is because her head, Christ, has strength enough for Him and her both. You know what is said of Christ, Psa. 2:9: The Lord has put a rod of iron in His hand to dash all His enemies in pieces therewith as a potter's vessel. All that rise against the Lord and against His Kirk they shall be broken in pieces. In Isa. 49:25, there is a terrible word spoken there to the enemies of God's people: "I will contend with them that contend with thee, and I will save thy children; and I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." So this is all done through Christ's strength. For as He is Mediator there is a promise made unto Him (Psa. 110:5) that whoever they be who are His enemies they shall never thrive nor do well; and fra the Lord has given Him all power in heaven and earth He may take order with all His enemies, for He may head and hang within His own bounds. He shall fill the pits with the dead bodies of His enemies; and in the pursuing of His enemies He shall be so hot, and in such a haste, that he shall not go into the tavern to take a drink of wine there and to take good cheer, but He shall drink of the water out of the brook until the time that He has brought utter judgment and desolation upon His enemies.
第三种方式，教会之所以能战胜她的敌人，是因为她的头，基督，有足够的力量来支撑他和教会。你知道圣经中如何评价基督的，诗篇 2:9 中说：主要用铁杖打破列国，用铁棒碎坏他们。凡起来攻击主和祂的教会的，必要被打碎。在以赛亚书 49:25 中，对神的子民的敌人发出了可怕的警告：“与你相争的，我必与之相争，我要拯救你的儿女。我要使欺压你们的吃自己的肉，饮自己的血如甜酒。凡有血气的，必知道我是耶和华，你的救赎主，是雅各的大能者。”所以这一切都是借着基督的力量完成的。因为祂是中保，有一项应许赐给祂（诗篇 110:5），无论是谁做祂的敌人，他们永远不会兴旺或者过得好；并且，自从主在天上和地上赐给祂所有的权柄，祂可以对付所有的敌人，因为祂有权柄，也有能力掌控一切。 他将用敌人的尸体填满坑洞；在追击敌人时，他将如此炽热，如此匆忙，以至于他不会进入酒馆喝一杯酒和愉快地享受，而是会喝溪水，直到他对敌人进行彻底的审判和毁灭。

Fourth. The Kirk of Christ it maun be a sharp threshing instrument because of this gospel, for the ill and sorrowful days of the enemies of the Kirk they are contained in this gospel and in this Covenant that Scotland has sworn with God. And whoever they be who will not obey this gospel there is vengeance prepared for them; to let all the world see this, that it is better to make any party in the world your enemy nor to make Christ and His Kirk your enemy, and to comfort those who are upon our Lord's side of it. Let the world say the contrary, whoever they be who are upon our Lord's side of it when He triumphs, they shall also triumph. And is it not enough that we get a part of our Lord's triumphant victory, and that He will rain vengeance upon His enemies and ours? And it is a part of the Kirk's joy that there is a day coming when no devil in hell, nor no Pope, nor no prelate, nor any whoever they be, who have given wicked counsel against His people, if they have not repented unto Him thereof He shall tread them all under His feet, and He shall say to them, "Bring hither those My enemies who would not that I should reign over them: bind them hand and foot and cast them in utter darkness." That is a sore sentence, and yet our Lord has left it in His Testament to His enemies, and to the enemies of Zion. And they shall have a share of Christ's joy who love His cause and covenant, and rejoice when Zion rejoiceth, and sorrow when it is in distress. Look, what is your greatest fear and sorrow?—that which wakens you first in the morning and is last in your thought at night? If it be concerning the estate of the Lord's Kirk and Zion there cannot be a more blessed mark of a child of God than to be rightly mindful of Zion's case; Psa. 137:5, the penman of that Psalm says there: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, then let my right hand forget her cunning." If thy joy or thy sorrow be according as the Kirk of Christ is joyful or sorrowful, thou shalt then get a share of her victory thou shalt help to divide the spoil with her. When Christ has overcome all His enemies, Rome, and Spain, and Pope, and prelates, and thou shalt sit down beside Christ all sweating, then He shall take the napkin of His consolations to dry thee withal. And He shall then lay thee into His heart and bosom, and shall say: "Come sing a song of victory with Me! All ye who were partners of My woe, come now and take a share of My joy. Come and sit down in a cushion beside Me, and rejoice in Me and in My salvation." Now, to this Lord who has purchased this unto us, and fights for the keeping of it, to His Father and our Father and to the Holy Spirit be all praise, dominion, and glory for ever.—Amen.
第四点。基督教堂必须是一个锐利的打击工具，因为这福音书中包含了教堂敌人的邪恶和悲伤的日子，也包含了苏格兰与上帝所宣誓的盟约。无论是谁不服从这福音书，都将受到报应；让全世界看到，与任何派别为敌都不如与基督和他的教堂为敌，并安慰那些站在我们主一方的人。让世人说什么都无所谓，无论是谁站在我们主一方，当他得胜的时候，他们也将得胜。难道我们得到我们主得胜的一部分，上帝将对他的敌人和我们的敌人降下报应，这还不够吗？ 这是柯克的喜悦的一部分，有一天将会来临，地狱里的魔鬼、教皇、主教或任何反对上帝子民的人，如果他们没有悔改，上帝将把他们踏在脚下，并对他们说：“把那些不愿意我统治他们的敌人带到这里来，捆起他们的手脚，把他们投入黑暗之中。”这是一个严厉的判决，然而我们的主在他的约中留下了这个判决给他的敌人和锡安的敌人。那些爱他的事业和盟约，为锡安欢欣鼓舞，为它的困厄而忧伤的人，将分享基督的喜悦。看看你最大的恐惧和悲伤是什么？—那是早上醒来时首先想到的，晚上思绪最后的事情？如果它涉及主的教会和锡安的状况，那么对锡安的情况正确地保持关注，是上帝的儿女最有福的标志；诗篇 137:5，那篇诗的作者在那里说：“我若忘记你，耶路撒冷啊，情愿我的右手忘记技巧。”如果你的喜乐或悲伤与基督的教会的喜悦或悲伤相一致，那么你将分享她的胜利，你将帮助分割战利品。当基督战胜了所有敌人，罗马、西班牙、教皇、主教，你将坐在基督旁边，一起流汗，然后他将拿起他的安慰之巾来擦干你。然后他将把你放在他的心脏和怀抱中，并说：“来和我一起唱胜利之歌！所有与我同受苦难的人，现在来分享我的喜悦。来坐在我旁边的垫子上，因我和我的救恩而欢喜。”现在，对于为我们购买了这一切并为保护它而战斗的主，对于他的父亲和我们的父亲以及圣灵，愿所有的赞美、统治和荣耀归于他们，直到永远。阿门。

Fear not, thou worm Jacob
不要害怕，雅各，你这只虫子

No. II
二号

"Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel."—ISAIAH 41:14–16.
不要害怕，雅各的虫子和以色列的人们；耶和华说，我要帮助你，你的救赎主，以色列的圣者。看哪，我要使你成为一个有锋利牙齿的新打谷器：你要打谷山岭，将它们破碎，使山丘如同碎秸。你要把它们扬起，风要把它们吹散，旋风要把它们分散。你要因耶和华而欢喜，因以色列的圣者而夸耀。

MOUNTAINS and the greatest powers in the world (beloved in our Lord), they will not be able to bide God when He is angry, when the Lord kindles a fire in His anger, as it is spoken by Himself, Deut. 32:22, He burns up the foundations of the mountains, the mountains they become valleys before the Lord when He is angry; the sea it becomes as dry land. Then all the powers in the world, how great soever they be, they maun bow to Him. Who was there ever that drew a sword against Him and prospered? Who was there that ever exalted himself against Him, and was not laid low in the dust? We have here as weak a party mentioned as you could speak of: "Worm Jacob." And here, on the other hand, there is as strong a party as any can be—the mountains of the world; and yet, for as strong as they are, and for as weak as the Kirk is, here they are brought to confusion before the Kirk of God. And the Lord He does this; for it is borrowed strength from God that does the Kirk's turn, and no strength of her own. "Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; and thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat the hills as caff." And who shall get the Psalm and song of victory for doing this? "Thou shalt rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel." It is not thy own arm, and thy own strength, and the multitude of thy own men whom thou shalt thank for this; but thou shalt thank the Lord for it, and rejoice and glory in Him.
山脉和世界上最强大的力量（在我们的主中受爱戴），当上帝发怒时，它们将无法抵挡上帝的力量，正如上帝自己所说的，申命记 32:22，他在愤怒中点燃了火，烧毁了山脉的基础，山脉在上帝发怒时变成了山谷；海洋变成了干地。那么，世界上所有的力量，无论多么强大，都必须向他屈服。有谁曾经拔剑与他对抗而获得成功？有谁曾经高举自己反对他，而没有被摧毁在尘土中？在这里，我们提到的是一个非常弱小的团体：“虫子雅各”。另一方面，这里有一个非常强大的团体，就是世界的山脉；然而，尽管他们如此强大，教会如此脆弱，但在上帝的教会面前，他们被带到了混乱之中。而这是主所做的；因为教会所借用的力量是来自上帝，而不是她自己的力量。“看哪，我要使你成为一个有锋利牙齿的新犁，你要把山脉踏碎，把山丘打得像糠秕一样。”谁将因此而得到诗篇和胜利之歌？“你将因耶和华而欢喜，因以色列的圣者而夸耀。”这不是你自己的手臂、你自己的力量和你自己的人数，你应该为此感谢；而是你应该感谢耶和华，并因此而欢喜和夸耀祂。

Will there be any poor and needy ones within the Kirk at this time? Let it be so, yet, "when the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will help them. I shall make fountains and rivers for them in the wilderness," when they are thirsty. And they shall want nothing that may do them good.
此时教堂内会有贫穷和有需要的人吗？就算有，"当贫穷和有需要的人寻求水喝，却没有水，他们口渴得舌头发干时，我耶和华必应允他们，我以色列的神必不离弃他们。我要在旷野为他们开江河，使水泉涌出。他们必不再渴，也不再饥饿。"他们将不缺乏任何对他们有益的东西。

Is this like the Lord's Kirk and the estate thereof to be in such a case as is here spoken of, who are cumbered this day with the Papists about the falling away of the true Kirk, and what are the marks whereby to discern the true Kirk from the false Kirk? They put this in a question. If Christ shall have a true Kirk to the end of the world? And that is but a foolish question for any to propose, "If Christ shall have a Kirk?" for the Kirk of Christ shall never fall away totally, for albeit there be few of the Kirk, and they be silly like to look unto, yet they shall never fail. Many shall be hungry before they die for hunger, for Christ has His Kirk written upon His loof, and upon the palms of His hands. And let hell and devils and all contrary powers rise against them to destroy them; yet they are builded upon the rock, and who can put them off that rock? Well's them who take part with them who are upon Christ's side of it, for all the mountains in the world shall not be able to overcome them and to bear them down.
这是否像主的教堂和其所在的地产一样，处于这样一种情况，即今天被天主教徒困扰，关于真教堂的背离以及如何辨别真教堂和假教堂的标志？他们把这个问题提出来。如果基督将拥有一个真正的教堂直到世界的末日？这只是一个愚蠢的问题，任何人提出“基督是否将拥有一个教堂？”因为基督的教堂永远不会完全背离，尽管教堂的人数很少，他们看起来很愚蠢，但他们永远不会失败。许多人在死前会因饥饿而挨饿，因为基督将他的教堂写在他的手掌上。让地狱、魔鬼和所有相反的力量起来摧毁他们；然而他们建立在磐石上，谁能把他们从磐石上推下来？幸运的是，那些站在基督这一边的人与他们一起，因为世界上的所有山都无法战胜他们并压垮他们。

A second question that may be proposed is this: looks this like the meek saints of God to thresh the mountains and ding the hills to caff, and to winnow them? Are Christ and His Kirk fighting folks. Where fra comes this that Christ, He will make His Kirk a new sharp threshing instrument against their enemies to beat them all to dust? Indeed, the cause of this is not in Christ nor in His Kirk, for they love peace best of anything else. Christ says, "I came to make peace in the world and not for war." And how comes it, then, that Christ and His Kirk, they have aye commonly the fighters' part of it; and His Kirk maun be made a flail to thresh the world, and a wind to winnow them away as caff? Christ and His Kirk, they would live in peace, but the wicked in the world would not let them live in peace and ease, since that day that war was pronounced in Paradise between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; they have never been at peace yet to this day. Neither will they ever be at peace so long as the world lasts. The Kirk of Christ maun still be pursued till they be up in heaven with their Father and Lord; except the devil be dead, and so his instruments cease. Christ maun evermore fight so long as He is here and has a Kirk. The mountains and powers of the world they dow not endure Christ. Is this for any wrong that Christ does to them that they dow not endure Him? What is the controversy that is this day between Christ's Kirk and the powers of the world? Nothing else is the controversy but because He is seeking His own from the powers of the world, because we are seeking to have the gospel established, and to have it established in purity and with peace. We are seeking no more, and that makes the pley, and this pley it will last as long as the world stands, and as long as Christ has any followers to follow Him. It is a pley that has evermore been, and a pley that will evermore be; so that it is no new thing to see Christ in the camp. Christ is as oft to be found in the camp as He is to be found in His royal palace. And who are these who are against Christ? The mountains and the great powers in the world. Those have evermore been cold friends to Christ and of His Kirk, and yet for all that they are left by the Lord in this world to be tutors and defenders of Christ, and of His Kirk, for they ought to be mountains to hold the stormy winds off the kirk, that they do her no harm, and to keep the rains of afflictions off her, and, Isa. 49:23, it is said, kings they should be nursing fathers, and queens they ought to be nursing mothers to the Kirk of Christ; and yet, albeit they should be so for the most part, they dow not endure Christ. When Herod hears that Christ is born, he says, "He is come to take my kingdom from me, and therefore I will have Him slain now when He is young, that so I may keep my kingdom." Fool! Christ came not to take crowns off the heads of kings in the world. No; by the contrary, there are no such friends for kings, and none so meikle for keeping their crowns upon their heads as Christ is; for, Prov. 8:16, the wisdom of God even Christ says: "By Me kings reign and princes decree justice." If kings would become Christ's tenants, they might be more blessed under Him than under any other master.
一个可能提出的第二个问题是：这看起来像是上帝的温和圣徒去打击山岭，把它们打成碎片，把它们风筛掉吗？基督和他的教会是战斗的人吗？这是从哪里来的，基督会让他的教会成为一个新的锐利的打击工具，对付他们的敌人，把他们都打成尘土？实际上，这不是基督或他的教会的原因，因为他们最喜欢和平。基督说：“我来是为了在世界上创造和平，而不是战争。”那么，为什么基督和他的教会通常都是战斗者的一方呢？他的教会必须成为一个打击世界的打击工具，一个把他们风筛掉的风吗？基督和他的教会想要和平相处，但是世界上的邪恶之人不让他们和平安逸地生活，自从在伊甸园中宣布了女人的后裔和蛇的后裔之间的战争以来，直到今天他们从未和平过。只要世界还存在，他们永远不会和平。基督的教会必须继续被追逐，直到他们与他们的父亲和主一起升入天堂；除非魔鬼死了，他的工具才会停止。 基督必须一直战斗，只要他在这里并且有教会。世界的山脉和权力不能忍受基督。这是因为基督对他们做了什么不对吗？今天基督教会与世界权力之间的争议是什么？争议无非是因为他正在从世界权力中寻求自己的东西，因为我们正在寻求建立福音，并以纯洁和和平的方式建立福音。我们不再寻求其他，这就引起了争论，这场争论将持续到世界存在的时间，以及基督还有追随者跟随他的时间。这是一个永远存在的争论，一个永远存在的争论；所以在军营中看到基督并不是什么新鲜事。基督在军营中和在他的皇家宫殿中一样频繁。那些反对基督的人是谁？是世界的山脉和伟大的权力。 那些对基督和他的教堂一直冷淡的人，尽管如此，他们仍然被主留在这个世界上成为基督和他的教堂的导师和捍卫者，因为他们应该是山峰，抵挡教堂的狂风，不让其受到伤害，保护她免受苦难的雨水。以赛亚书 49:23 说，他们应该是君王的养父，王后应该是基督教堂的养母；然而，尽管他们大部分时间应该是这样，他们却不能忍受基督。当希律听说基督降生时，他说：“他来夺取我的王国，所以我要在他年幼时将他杀死，这样我就能保住我的王国。”傻瓜！基督来不是为了夺取世界君王的王冠。相反地，没有什么人比基督更能成为君王的朋友，没有什么人能像基督一样保住他们的王冠；因为箴言 8:16，就连神的智慧基督也说：“君王借着我掌权，王子借着我定公义。”如果君王愿意成为基督的承租人，他们在他的统治下会比在任何其他主人的统治下更加幸福。

Who are these who are called mountains? Even the great powers of the world who rise against Christ and against His Kirk. And the mountains and these great ones who rise against Christ's Kirk, they agree very well in thir particulars.
这些被称为山的是谁？即使是世界上的大国也会起来反对基督和他的教会。这些山和这些反对基督教会的伟大势力，在某些方面非常一致。

First. You know there is no difference between the mountains and the rest of the earth. There are valleys, but only that they are some higher than the rest of the earth is, and by that means the sun when it rises, it shines upon them first, and it shines last upon them at night. Even so the great powers of the world they are flesh and blood as other men are, only they have a glance of glory beyond others when they come into the world, and it may be when they go out of it again; as one when he is born he may be born a king, and he gets a glance of glory then and another glance of glory at his burial—that is all the difference. They are called gods indeed, but they are only clay gods, for they maun die as well as others. Death and judgment miskens them. No; but it searches upon them as well as it does upon the poorest in the world.
首先，你知道山与地球其他部分没有区别。虽然有山谷，但只是比地球其他部分高一些，所以太阳升起时首先照耀它们，夜晚最后也只照耀它们。世界上的大国虽然是人，跟其他人一样都是血肉之躯，只是当他们出生时便具有比其他人更多的荣耀，也许在他们离世时也是如此；就像一个出生时可能就是国王，他就会得到一片荣光，丧礼时也会再有一片荣光——就是这样的区别。他们被称为神，但实际上他们也只是泥神，因为他们最后还是得死。死亡和审判都会对他们不留情面。不会，它们也受到同样的搜寻，正如它在世界上穷人身上一样。

Second. Another difference between the mountains and the valleys is: their uses to come spates of rain off the mountains to the valleys, that do the valleys meikle harm. Even so there has come meikle harm to the Kirk of Christ from the mountains of the world since the beginning: There is a destroying mountain spoken of, Jer. 51:25; the Lord says He will stretch out His hand upon it, and will roll it down from the rocks, and make it a burnt mountain.
第二点。山地和山谷之间的另一个区别是：它们用来将山上的暴雨引导到山谷，给山谷带来了很大的伤害。同样，自从开始以来，基督教堂也受到了来自世界的山地的很大伤害：有一个被提及的毁灭性山地，耶利米书 51:25；主说祂将伸出手来，将它从岩石上推下来，使它成为一座焚烧的山地。

Third. Mountains, they are impediments to a servant when they are going a hasty errand of their masters, being in their way. Even so the mountains of the world, they are ofttimes a stone in Christ's gate, when He has ought ado, and yet (Isa. 40:4) it is said every mountain shall be made low which stands in Christ's gate, when He has ought ado. When will these mountains go out of Christ's gate? As soon as He begins to reprove them, Zech. 4:7: "Who art thou, O mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." When Christ is angry at them He can shool the mountains into the sea. What have these mountains for them to boast themselves against Christ our Lord and against His Kirk, for those of them who are torn away out of the gate, even kings themselves, they are now lying in as little bounds as the poorest bodies that lived with them, and yet those who are behind they will boast also. But the Lord He takes some of them away that all the mountains of the world may know against whom they come, when they come against Christ and against His Kirk, He will make them low valleys.
第三，山脉，当仆人匆忙为主人办事时，它们会成为阻碍，挡在他们的路上。世界上的山脉也常常成为基督门前的绊脚石，当他有事要做时，正如以赛亚书 40:4 所说，每座山都要被夷为平地，当基督有事要做时，这些山脉会离开基督的门前吗？当他开始责备它们时，它们会立刻离开，撒迦利亚书 4:7 说：“大山啊，你算什么呢？在所罗巴伯面前，你必成为平地。”当基督对它们发怒时，他可以把山脉推入大海。这些山脉有什么可以自夸的呢？他们敢与我们的主基督和他的教会对抗，那些被撕裂出门外的人，甚至是国王，他们现在和与他们一起生活的最贫穷的人一样，都处于同样的境地，但那些留在后面的人也会自夸。但主会带走他们中的一些人，让世界上的所有山脉都知道，当他们来对抗基督和他的教会时，他会使他们成为低谷。

Here is a lesson to Scotland and a lesson to us this day. Our dear Lord has been letting us see that the mountains in the world they are not able to bide Christ when He is angry. Poor Scotland! that is the outcast of all the nations of the world, the Lord has done this for it when the mountains of the world could not abide it. And there were fourteen great mountains in this land, and there were enew who builded their nests under these mountains, doctors and deans and archdeans, and all these who looked to be prelates; but the Lord He has casten down all these mountains and all the nests also that were bigged under these mountains. And we trust that we may say of them that that shall be upon them which David says of the mountains of Gilboa, "Let never rain nor dew fall upon them, nor any grass grow upon them." So we trust in God shall it be with them. They shall never rise that rain may fall upon them or that anything may grow upon them. The Lord will make them as it is spoken of the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4), to cleave in the midst toward the East and toward the West, and they who bigged their nests under them shall flee to the valleys for safety. The Lord will make these mountains to cleave in the midst who rise up against Him and against His Kirk. Alas! they have ever far the worst part of it who come against the Lord and His covenanted people; but happy are they who are upon the Lord's side of it, for they shall prevail.
这是对苏格兰的教训，也是对我们今天的教训。我们亲爱的主让我们看到，当基督发怒时，世界上的山脉无法容忍他。可怜的苏格兰！它是世界上所有国家中的被遗弃者，当世界的山脉无法容忍它时，主为它做了这件事。这个国家有十四座巨大的山脉，有许多人在这些山脉下筑巢，包括医生、教长和总教长，以及所有看起来像是教长的人；但主已经推倒了所有这些山脉，也推倒了这些山脉下的所有巢穴。我们相信，我们可以用大卫对吉勒波山的话来形容他们：“愿它们永远不受雨露滋润，愿它们上不长草。”所以我们相信上帝会这样对待他们。他们永远不会再崛起，雨水也不会再降在他们身上，任何东西也不会再在他们身上生长。主会使他们像橄榄山一样（撒迦利亚书 14:4），从中间向东向西裂开，那些在山下筑巢的人将逃到山谷中寻求安全。 主会使那些起来反对祂和祂的教会的山峰分裂。唉！那些反对主和祂立约的子民的人将永远处于劣势；但那些站在主一边的人将获得幸福，因为他们将获胜。

What sort of instrument makes the Lord His Kirk to be? "A new sharp threshing instrument having teeth." Is not [this] against the meekness of the Kirk? for if any want teeth, should not the Kirk and children of God want teeth, for who was more toothless-like nor our Lord Jesus was? When they were putting Him away out of the world, were scourging Him, mocking Him, and doing all the ill that they could to Him, He says, "Father, forgive them: they know not what they do;" "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Should the Kirk of Christ then have teeth, seeing Christ Himself had none? Yes; the Lord's Word tells us of three teeth that the Kirk has, and come into their chafts who will, the Lord has given them teeth to bite them so that they shall never do well again (Psa. 58:9–11).
主的教堂是什么样的乐器？是"一把有锋利牙齿的新打谷器"。这难道不违背了教堂的温和吗？因为如果有人没有牙齿，难道基督的教堂和神的子民也应该没有牙齿吗？因为谁比我们的主耶稣更像是没有牙齿呢？当他们将他赶出世界，鞭打他，嘲笑他，并对他做尽一切坏事时，他说："父啊，赦免他们，因为他们不知道自己在做什么"；"主啊，不要将这罪归于他们的账上"。既然基督自己没有牙齿，基督的教堂应该有牙齿吗？是的，主的话告诉我们，教堂有三颗牙齿，无论谁进入它们的颚骨，主都给了它们牙齿咬他们，使他们再也无法行善（诗篇 58:9-11）。

The tooth of revenge is given unto them. "The righteous shall rejoice, when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." Why, but we may be glad if so be that we insult not over men's persons, but only for their wicked courses, to see our righteous Lord kything Himself to be righteous in revenging Himself upon His and our wicked enemies; and if we sacrifice not the praise of the doing thereof to our own net, we may justly say, "Blessed be God for it," when we see Rome and Spain and Antichrist, and the mountains of the world that are against Christ and His Kirk and people, fall to the ground.
复仇之牙赐予他们。“义人见到报复就会欢喜，他会用恶人的血洗净自己的脚。”为什么我们不应该对人的个人进行侮辱，而只是因为他们的邪恶行径而感到高兴呢？我们可以看到我们公义的主在对待他和我们的邪恶敌人时显现出公义；如果我们不把这样做的赞美归功于我们自己的网罗，我们可以公正地说：“感谢上帝”，当我们看到罗马、西班牙、敌基督和世界上反对基督、他的教会和子民的山峰倒塌时。

Second. There is a tooth of justice also which is given unto the Kirk of God. What sort of a direction is that which is given to Saul against Amalek? (1 Sam. 15:3)—to slay Amalek and all that was within his land, both men and women, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass, and to spare none. There is a sword sometimes put in the Kirk's hand to destroy her enemies, and this proves our Lord Jesus to be a victorious Lord over His enemies. These are not the special weapons of our Lord's warfare, for they are not carnal but spiritual for dinging down of strongholds, even prayer, fasting, &c. And (Psa. 137:9) there is a direction given there to take Babylon's young ones off their knees and to dash their heads against the stones, and they are pronounced to be blessed who do so.
其次，上帝的教会也被赋予了公义之齿。扫罗对亚玛力人所受的指令是怎样的呢？（撒母耳记上 15:3）——是要将亚玛力人以及其领土上的男女婴孩牛羊骆驼驴全都杀尽。有时教会手中将有利剑来消灭敌人，这证明我们的主耶稣是战胜敌人的得胜者。虽然这些不是我们主战争的特殊武器，因为不是属乎肉体，而是灵性的，用来拆毁坚固的营垒，包括祈祷、禁食等。此外（诗篇 137:9）那里也赋予了一个指令，把巴比伦的婴孩从母膝上夺去，摔在石头上，这样行的人被宣称是有福的。

Third. There is a tooth of the power of the Mediator Christ put into the Kirk's head. Christ and His people are brought in, coming so sonsy-like,Isa. 63:1, and all His garments dyed with blood: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength? I, says the Lord, that speaks righteousness, mighty to save." The Lord and His Kirk have a tooth to eat up all the mountains that come against them, prophesied by that false prophet Balaam, whether he would or not—Num. 24:8: "He shall eat up the nations His enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with His arrows." Who will, who will no, the Lord will have the Kirk to have teeth to bite her enemies, so that the enemies they shall stoop and fall under the sword of the Lord and of His Kirk. And the Lord is likely to make it to be so at this time. Who knows but this great work which is begun in Scotland now when it is going into England, and it has tane some footing there, but the Lord He will make it to go over sea? Who knows but the Lord will make Scotland, who is a worm indeed in comparison of other nations, to be a sharp threshing instrument, to thresh the mountains and to beat the hills to pieces? Who knows but He will make them a sharp threshing instrument to beat Rome and the Pope and Antichrist to pieces, and make all her merchants to cry, "Babylon, Babylon, that great city, is fallen"? O! for to see that great stumbling-block that stands into the way of Christian religion tane out of the way, and then to see the people of the Jews brought in again to Christ, their old Husband, and married upon Him, and the fulness of the Gentiles! O! to see our Redeemer Christ have one fair day of it in the world; to see Jew and Gentile married on Christ, and to see His dominions going from the East to the West and from sea to sea, and to see the whole earth in one sheepfold, obeying the voice of one Shepherd! That is the blessedest day that ever we saw if it were come, and we should pray to the Lord to hasten it that so that may be fulfilled which the Lord promises.
第三点。基督中保的权力之牙已经插入教会的头上。基督和祂的子民被带进来，像儿子一样快乐，以赛亚书 63:1，祂的衣服都染满了血：“这是从以东来、穿红衣、装扮华美、大能行事的，是我所说的，是以公义说话、以大能施行拯救的。”主和祂的教会有一颗牙齿，可以吞噬一切来攻击他们的山，正如假先知巴兰所预言的，不管他愿意与否——民数记 24:8：“他要吞灭敌国，折断他们的骨头，用箭射透他们。”无论谁愿意或不愿意，主要让教会拥有牙齿来咬嚼她的敌人，以至于敌人们将屈服并倒在主和祂的教会的剑下。而且主很可能在这个时候使这成为现实。谁知道在苏格兰开始的这项伟大工作，现在正向英格兰发展，并在那里取得了一些进展，但主会让它传到海外呢？ 谁知道主会使苏格兰成为一个锐利的打谷工具，用来打谷山岳，粉碎山丘呢？谁知道他们会成为一个锐利的打谷工具，将罗马、教皇和敌基督粉碎，使她的商人们哭泣，“巴比伦，巴比伦，那座伟大的城市已经倒塌了”？哦！希望看到那个阻碍基督教的巨大绊脚石被移开，然后看到犹太人民再次归向基督，他们的旧丈夫，并与他结合，以及外邦人的丰满！哦！看到我们的救赎主基督在世界上有一个美好的日子；看到犹太人和外邦人与基督结合，看到他的统治从东到西，从海到海，看到整个地球在一个羊圈里，听从一个牧人的声音！如果那一天来临，那将是我们所见过的最幸福的一天，我们应该祈求主加快它的到来，以实现主所应许的。

"Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them;" the enemies they shall be as chaff before the wind. That is a mark of the false Kirk that when Christ and His Kirk rise against them they have no more standing, but they are blown away. Cast the wicked in a furnace of affliction and trial, they will not win out of it again. But cast the godly in a furnace when ye will, they will win out of it unburnt. Cast dross in a hot fire, it will never be seen again. But cast pure gold in a fire, it will come out as good as it was put in. Cast the wicked under the stroke of an angry God, they dow not bide Him, but they are consumed, Isa. 50:9: "They shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up;" Isa. 51:8: "The moth shall eat them like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool." When God is angry at a wicked man, and He begins to strike him, there is no more strength in him to stand against Him than in an old moth-eaten clout that falls out all in holes when any hand touches it; the hearts of the enemies of God's people fail them like water when the Lord grows angry at them. That is a nation that is void of grace that are not able to stand before the Lord when He begins to blow at them. That great and strong city of Jericho, the people heard but news of the great and valiant acts that Joshua and the people of God had done, and incontinent there remained no more spirit in them. There is news of death and of the wrath of God told unto that wicked man Nabal, and incontinent he tynes all his courage. Wherefra is it that all this comes? Will temporal afflictions take away faith, or will it deprive a man of the common gifts of God—as of reason, of sense, of joy? No. No more will any outward trouble take away faith, or take any of these common gifts of God where they are, nor a fire will burn the devil, and that is impossible. But whenever God sets Himself against wicked men, there is another thing backing crosses and troubles nor we see, even the wrath of an angry God backing the judgment, whether it be sword, or famine, or death; and that is the thing that blows away their faith and all their natural parts, and makes them to tyne their strength and courage. Who is the man that will be able to bide a battle, and to stand out when the ill day comes? Only the man who is in Christ and has true faith. Hell shall not fear such a man, nor anything he can be threatened with. Once get saving grace and be in Christ, then thou may be sure thou shalt not be caff before the wind in the day of God's anger. I know if the Lord would kythe in His might and in His power against the strongest in the world, He would make their blaw to fall. But the Lord never tries the strength of His omnipotence upon His own Kirk. But there is vengeance poured out upon His enemies, and upon the enemies of His Kirk, that which the Lord says to Eli by the mouth of Samuel, "When I begin to punish I will make a full end." That is true concerning the wicked. But, by the contrary, the Kirk of God and His children, notwithstanding of all the enemies that be against them, be they never so strong or never so many, they shall be made as caff before the whirlwind. But for the children of God, who are His own Kirk, He says of them (Isa. 43:2), "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." And these are the two most merciless enemies that can be—fire and water; and yet He will preserve His own from both. But here is a terrible destruction threatened to come upon wicked men. Have they no more courage nor caff before the wind when God is angry with them? No; no more. There is a terrible destruction told to come upon the wicked—Job 18:6: "The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him." Woe to that man whose candle God puts out! "The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. The girn shall take him by the heels," &c. It is cursed ground that he gangs upon. What more terrible thing can be spoken of the wicked man nor is spoken of here? Look again, Job 20:6: "Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. The eye which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him. His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods," &c. He shall be like a ghost in the night that folks think they see, and, incontinent it passeth out of their sight. They are like a dream that a man cares not for. The Lord shall pull the wicked man out of his sheets, and He shall make him to perish as his own dung from the earth. He shall not swallow down the riches that he gets, or if he swallow them down, they shall be like gravel between his teeth. And (Job 21:17–19) among all other judgments prepared for the wicked, the wrath of God is prepared for his children and posterity. The fools of the world, they will not take a lesson of this, for as meikle as God has spoken against them and against their seed. Woe would the hearts of wicked men be, I am sure, if they kent this! I am sure a wicked man would never laugh if he kent this. The fear of hell is a very rare thing. There are few who think upon that what the mystery of hell is. Would ye think upon thir two, ye would think it a very ill thing to go on with the wicked. 1. To think that there is an eternity, and an eternity of wrath, abiding them. 2. To think upon the anger of God, and that it is an anger which will never be quenched. What a terrible oath is that which the Lord swears (Amos 8:7) against them who sell the poor for a pair of shoes; who wished the Sabbath to be gone that they may sell the refuse of the wheat; who would have the ephah small and the shekel great. By God Himself, "I shall never forget their ill-doing as long as I am God." Woe's ye that have such an oath sworn against you for thy wickedness. Remember what a terrible word is spoken against the house of Eli—1 Sam. 3:14: "I have sworn unto Eli's house, that the iniquity of the house of Eli shall never be put away by sacrifice nor burnt-offering for ever." And there is no greater oath the Lord can swear by nor by Himself, as the apostle says. That is a sore word that there are some whose sins the Lord God has them written with the point of a diamond that they shall never be forgotten. That is a fearful imprecation that is put up against Babylon (Isa. 13–14), and against Saul and those who were the enemies of David and of the Kirk at that time (Psa. 109). Woe unto the wicked, and to them who have tane up a banner against God! Meikle misery and woe abide them. Pre-suppose that a man had a sea of poison to drink, and aye as he drank it filled again, it would be thought a very hard matter. And that sea of wrath that the Lord is brewing for His enemies they shall drink thereof and be mad, and shall fall and never rise again; and yet they fear it not, albeit that be the lot there is appointed for them.
“你要把他们扇散，风要把他们吹去，暴风要把他们分散。”敌人在风中如同碎秸。这是假教会的标志，当基督和他的教会起来对抗他们时，他们再也站不住脚，只会被吹散。把恶人投入痛苦和试炼的炉中，他们将再也无法逃脱。但是，无论何时把虔诚的人投入炉中，他们都能毫发无损地走出来。把杂质投入炽热的火中，它将永远不会再被看到。但是，把纯金投入火中，它将和放入时一样好。当上帝对一个恶人发怒，并开始惩罚他时，他没有任何力量来抵抗，就像一块被虫蛀的旧布，在任何人触摸它时都会破洞。当主对他们发怒时，神的子民的敌人的心会像水一样消散。 那是一个没有恩典的国家，当主开始对他们吹起风来时，他们无法站在主面前。那个伟大而强大的耶利哥城，人们听到了约书亚和上帝的子民所做的伟大而勇敢的事迹的消息，立刻他们内心再也没有勇气。有关死亡和上帝的愤怒的消息传给那个邪恶的人拿八勒，立刻他失去了所有的勇气。这一切是从哪里来的？临时的苦难会带走信仰吗？或者会剥夺一个人上帝的普通恩赐，如理智、感知和喜悦吗？不会。任何外在的困扰都不会带走信仰，也不会带走这些上帝的普通恩赐，只要它们存在，就像火焰无法烧毁魔鬼一样，这是不可能的。但是每当上帝对邪恶的人发怒时，还有另一件事支撑着十字架和困扰，我们看不见，那就是愤怒的上帝支撑着审判，无论是刀剑、饥荒还是死亡；这就是吹散他们的信仰和所有的天性，使他们失去力量和勇气的东西。谁能在战斗中坚持下去，在邪恶的日子来临时站出来？ 只有那些在基督里并拥有真正信仰的人。地狱不会害怕这样的人，也不会害怕他所面临的任何威胁。一旦获得救赎的恩典并在基督里，那么你可以确定，在上帝愤怒的日子里，你不会像风前的糠一样被吹散。我知道，如果主以祂的力量和能力对抗世界上最强大的人，祂会使他们的威势崩溃。但主从不试探祂无所不能的力量对待自己的教会。但对于祂的敌人，以及对待祂的教会的敌人，主会倾泻复仇，就像主通过撒母耳对以利说的那样：“我开始惩罚时，必使其彻底灭亡。”这对于恶人是真实的。但相反，上帝的教会和祂的子民，尽管有许多敌人，无论他们多么强大，他们都将像风暴前的糠一样被摧毁。但对于上帝的子民，也就是祂自己的教会，祂说（以赛亚书 43:2）：“你从水中经过，我必与你同在；你从江河中经过，水必不漫过你；你从火中行过，必不被烧，火焰也不着在你身上。”这是两个最无情的敌人——火和水；然而，他会保护自己免受这两者的伤害。但是，邪恶的人面临着可怕的毁灭威胁。当上帝对他们发怒时，他们是否没有勇气和信心？没有；没有了。邪恶的人将面临可怕的毁灭——约伯记 18:6：“他的帐棚里必有黑暗，他的灯必熄灭。”那个上帝熄灭灯火的人有祸了！“他的力量的脚步必受限制，他自己的计谋必使他跌倒。因为他被自己的脚陷入网中，走在陷阱上。罗网必抓住他的脚跟，”等等。他踏足的地方是被诅咒的。还有什么比这里所说的邪恶的人更可怕的事情吗？再看一下，约伯记 20:6：“他的威势虽高达天，他的头顶触及云彩；然而，他将永远灭亡，如同自己的粪土一样：看见他的人会说，他在哪里？他将如梦一般消失，再也找不到他；是的，他将如夜间的幻影被驱逐。” 看见他的眼睛再也看不到他；他的位置再也看不到他。他的子女将寻求取悦穷人，他的手将恢复他们的财物，等等。他将像夜晚的幽灵，人们以为看到了他，但很快就消失在他们的视线中。他们就像一个人不在乎的梦。主将把恶人从床上拉出来，使他像自己的粪土一样从地上消失。他不会吞下他所得到的财富，即使他吞下了，它们也会像牙齿间的砂砾一样。在为恶人准备的所有其他审判中，上帝的愤怒也为他的子女和后代准备着。愚蠢的人，他们不会从中吸取教训，因为上帝已经对他们和他们的后代说过话。我敢肯定，邪恶人的心会感到痛苦，如果他们知道这一点！我敢肯定，邪恶的人如果知道这一点，永远不会笑。对地狱的恐惧是非常罕见的。很少有人会思考地狱的奥秘是什么。如果你考虑这两个问题，你会认为继续与邪恶同行是一件非常糟糕的事情。1. 想到有永恒存在，以及永恒的愤怒将降临在他们身上。2. 想到上帝的愤怒，这是一种永远不会熄灭的愤怒。主发誓的可怕誓言（阿摩司书 8:7）针对那些以一双鞋子换取穷人的人；他们希望安息日过去，以便出售剩下的麦子；他们希望以法和舍客勒变小。上帝自己说，“只要我还是上帝，我永远不会忘记他们的恶行。”哀哉，你们因为邪恶而受到这样的誓言的威胁。记住，对以利家族说了多么可怕的话——撒母耳记上 3:14：“我曾对以利的家起誓，以利家的罪孽必永远不得赎，无论是献祭，还是燔祭。”正如使徒所说，主能发出的誓言没有比这更大的了。有些人的罪过被上帝用金刚石的尖端写下，永远不会被遗忘，这是一个痛苦的话。对巴比伦（以赛亚书 13-14 章）和扫罗以及当时大卫和教会的敌人（诗篇 109）提出了可怕的诅咒。 祸哉邪恶之人，以及那些举起反对上帝旗帜的人！他们将遭受巨大的痛苦和灾祸。假设一个人有一海量毒液要喝，每次喝完都会再次填满，这将被认为是非常困难的事情。而主正在酝酿给祂的敌人的愤怒之海，他们将饮之而发狂，倒下再也无法起身；然而他们并不畏惧，尽管这是他们所注定的命运。

Now whom shall the Kirk thank for all this? "And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel." God will not have the glory of the victory to go by Himself, and we have more reason to fear this nor any other thing. And God grant that Scotland put not her trust in so many thousands of men and so many gallant spirits. Lord, save us from the sin of idolatry in taking away the thing from God which is His own due. There is an excellent word spoken in Psa. 115—when the Kirk had gotten many victories at that time they say, "Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but to Thy name be the praise." Not unto Scotland be the praise of victory, albeit we had thousand thousands of men moe nor we have, but unto the name of the Lord be the glory of all. Lord, save us in anyways from meddling with the Lord's glory. It becomes us rather to humble ourselves in the presence of God, and to acknowledge Him in what He is doing. Now the praise of all our works, both in us and for us, be ascribed to Christ's Father and our Father, and to His Son Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.—Amen.
现在，谁应该为这一切感谢教堂呢？“你要因耶和华而欢喜，要因以色列的圣者而夸耀。”上帝不会让胜利的荣耀只属于自己，我们更有理由担心这一点，也不会有其他事情。愿上帝保佑苏格兰不要把信任寄托在如此众多的人和如此勇敢的精神上。主啊，拯救我们免于偶像崇拜的罪恶，剥夺上帝应得的荣耀。在诗篇 115 中有一句极好的话——当教堂在那个时候取得了许多胜利时，他们说：“耶和华啊，不要将荣耀归给我们，不要将赞美归给我们，只要将荣耀归给你的名。”胜利的赞美不归苏格兰，尽管我们拥有比现在更多的人，而是归给主的名。主啊，无论如何都要拯救我们，不要干涉主的荣耀。我们更应该在上帝面前谦卑自己，并承认他所做的一切。现在，我们所有工作的赞美，无论是在我们内心还是为我们而做的，都归功于基督的父亲和我们的父亲，以及他的儿子耶稣基督和圣灵，直到永远。阿门。

A Charge to the Lord's Prophet
上帝的先知的责任

"Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law. Israel shall cry unto Me, My God, we know Thee. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him."—HOSEA 8:1–3.
把号筒放在你的嘴上。他必像鹰来攻击耶和华的家，因为他们背弃了我的约，违背了我的律法。以色列必向我哀求说：“我的神啊，我们认识你了。”以色列弃绝了善良的事，仇敌必追逼他们。——《何西阿书》8:1-3。

THE Lord's prophet, beloved in the Lord, he had to do with very rough and hard timber at this time; he had to do with a stiff-necked people. And not only had the prophet of God to do with the ten tribes to prophesy to them; but sometimes also he prophesies against the Kirk and the kingdom of Judah. The most part of this chapter it is prophesied against the kingdom of Israel, the ten tribes, and the last verse thereof it is prophesied against Judah. And because the Lord's prophet he had to do with such a stiff-necked and rebellious people, therefore he uses more threatenings nor he does promises; and he has more threatenings nor any of the rest of the prophets has. For this prophet lived in a time when the people where he lived had no sense, nor knowledge of God. And the kings and princes of these lands, they had set their heads and their shoulders together for bearing down the true worship of God. And, ye know, an ill and a great knot of timber it requires a hard wedge to make it to rive. Even so because they had all revolted from God, and had taken them to a false worship, he maun speak to them as one who kent very well what was in their hearts; and therefore, for the most part, he speaks to them of the wrath and anger of God. And in this chapter, the prophet, inspired by the Spirit of God, he begins with a charge and a proclamation: "Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord." That is, declare unto them that there is war coming against them from the Lord. And then he gives a reason for it why he makes this proclamation. Some expone this to be king of Assyria, Salmanasar, that was come to against this people, "who should come as an eagle against the house of the Lord;" and some expone it otherways. But this is sure that this was some swift judgment that was to come against them. Some of them thought this judgment is long a coming; but when it comes, it comes with eagle's wings. It is a better judgment, if any judgment can be better nor another, that comes upon feet nor that which comes upon horseback. Against whom shall this judgment come? Not against the wicked folks in the world, but against the house of the Lord, against His own sworn and covenanted people, His main quarrel and controversy that He has is against them. What ailes the Lord to come against His own house? He maun be very angry when He does so. A father that comes against his own child to strike him if he be wise, he must have a just cause for it and be very angry at him. And the prophet says that the Lord He has just cause to do this. In the first verse He gives one reason of it: "Because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law." That is a warrantable judgment that comes for such a cause. When there is sin against God's law and transgressing of His covenant among a people He has just cause to punish them.
主的先知，受主所爱，那时他必须处理非常粗糙坚硬的木料；他必须处理一个顽固背叛的人民。上帝的先知不仅要向十支派预言；有时也对基督教会和犹大王国进行预言。这一章大部分预言针对以色列王国，十支派，最后一节是针对犹大。因为主的先知不得不与这样一个顽固背叛的人民打交道，所以他使用更多的威胁而不是承诺；他比其他先知更多的威胁。因为这位先知生活在一个人民对上帝没有感觉、没有知识的时代。这些土地的国王和王子们一起设置了头和肩膀，来打倒真正的上帝崇拜。你知道，一块坏而巨大的木料需要一把硬楔子才能劈开。 即使如此，因为他们都背叛了上帝，转向了错误的崇拜，他必须像了解他们内心想法的人一样与他们交谈；因此，大部分时间，他向他们讲述上帝的愤怒和怒火。在这一章中，先知受到上帝的灵感，他开始发出指责和宣告：“把号角放在嘴边。他将如鹰一般来攻击耶和华的家。”也就是告诉他们，有一场来自上帝的战争即将降临在他们身上。然后他给出了一个原因，为什么要发出这个宣告。有些人认为这是亚述的国王撒拉曼沙来对付这个民族，“他将如鹰一般来攻击耶和华的家”；还有些人有其他的解释。但可以确定的是，这是一场即将降临在他们身上的迅猛的审判。他们中的一些人认为这个审判来得很慢；但当它来临时，它就像鹰一样迅速。这是一种更好的审判，如果有任何一种审判比另一种更好的话，那就是步行而不是骑马而来的审判。这个审判将降临在谁身上？ 不是反对世界上邪恶的人，而是反对主的殿宇，反对祂自己宣誓和立约的子民，祂与他们的主要争执和争议。当祂这样做时，主对自己的殿宇有何不满？祂一定非常生气。一个父亲如果明智的话，会对自己的孩子动手打他，那一定是有正当理由并对他非常生气。先知说，主有正当理由这样做。在第一节中，祂给出了一个原因：“因为他们违背了我的约，违犯了我的律法。”当一个民族中有违背上帝的律法和违反祂的约的罪行时，祂有正当理由惩罚他们。

What, will Israel make no apology for themselves when the wrath of God comes thus upon them? Yet, says the prophet, they will have their own excuses at that time. "Israel shall cry unto Me, My God, we know Thee." That is the first skonce that ever the pursued people of God gets to hide themselves under, and a hypocritical people when they are plagued make this objection against the Lord first. Will the Lord, say they, send a destroying enemy against us fra Thou art our God and Thou art in covenant with us, and so why should we be put to the worse? Why should Assyria come as an eagle against us, seeing we say, "We know Thee," and we profess Thee to be our God? In the third verse that objection is answered, as there is nothing that a plastered hypocrite can say to God as an excuse of his ill but the Lord has an answer to it. "Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him." It is not said that they have forsaken good, but they have forsaken the thing that is good. They have forsaken the Lord and tane them to Balaam; they have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and digged to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. And therefore judgment shall come upon them; the enemy shall pursue them.
当上帝的愤怒降临在以色列身上时，他们会不会为自己道歉呢？然而，先知说，他们在那个时候会有自己的借口。“以色列要向我哭泣，说：‘我的神啊，我们认识你。’”这是上帝的追随者第一次找到的掩护所，当他们受到惩罚时，这个伪善的民族首先对上帝提出这个异议。他们说，上帝会派遣一个毁灭性的敌人来攻击我们吗？因为你是我们的神，你与我们立了约，那么为什么我们要处于劣势呢？亚述为什么要像鹰一样来攻击我们，既然我们说“我们认识你”，并且公开承认你是我们的神呢？在第三节中，这个异议得到了回答，因为伪善者对上帝的恶行没有任何借口，但上帝对此有答案。“以色列弃绝了善良的事，仇敌必追赶他。”并没有说他们离弃了善良，而是他们离弃了善良的事物。他们离弃了上帝，转向巴勒，他们离弃了活水的泉源，挖掘了不能存水的破裂水池。 因此，审判将降临于他们；敌人将追击他们。

Now for the first part that there is a charge given to the Lord's prophet, "Set the trumpet to thy mouth." What is the duty of those who are the Lord's ministers when wrath is coming upon a people? They maun either tell them of it, or their blood shall be upon the pastor's head. Isa. 58:1: "Cry aloud and spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins." All ministers and prophets of God who would be free of the blood of lost souls are bound and obleist before God to tell them freely of their sins. The Lord says to the prophet (Ezek. 2), "Tell them from Me what it is that they have deserved." Then all ministers they are heralds sent out in God's name to denounce woe against all God's foes, and to speak peace unto God's friends, and they are messengers sent out from the Lord to tell what is the will of God to His people, to declare whether He be at peace, or if He be at war with a nation.
现在来谈谈第一部分，即上帝的先知所承担的责任：“将号角放在你的嘴边。”当上帝的愤怒降临到一个民族时，上帝的仆人应该做什么？他们必须要么告诉他们，要么他们的血将归咎于牧师的头上。以赛亚书 58:1：“大声呼喊，不可止息，扬起声来像吹号角，向我的百姓宣告他们的过犯，向雅各家说明他们的罪恶。”所有神的仆人和先知，为了不让失丧的灵魂的血归咎于自己，都有责任在上帝面前自由地告诉他们他们的罪恶。主对先知说（以西结书 2 章）：“告诉他们他们所应得的。”然后，所有的牧师都是奉上帝的名义派出的传令兵，向上帝的敌人宣告灾祸，向上帝的朋友传递和平的信息，他们是从主那里派出的使者，告诉上帝的子民上帝的旨意，宣布上帝与一个国家是和平还是战争。

The use of this is, any prophet or minister that changes God's message by the way, and tells it not as God bids him tell it, he is not a faithful messenger, nor a right blower of the Lord's trumpet. He cries not the alarm at the command of the general, as he should that cries not unto the righteous, "Mercy, mercy unto you for all thy doubting and fainting; salvation to you for all the contrary thoughts thou hast, for there is blood enough in Christ's wounds to cleanse and to save you." And that tells not to the wicked man, "Laugh and rejoice as thou wilt, the anger of God is biding you, albeit thou seest it not." That is a false minister that changes God's wine, and puts in his own water instead of it, that changes God's copy in any point and fills it up with his own devices, that has not his warrant to show you for what he does. As he is a false messenger that will not show his message to you when he summons you. It is a token he is not right. Even so, all these who cannot let you see the copy of God's Word for anything they speak to you, it is a token that they are bastard trumpeters, and are not sent of God to speak to His people. Such ministers run and God sends them not; they speak the lies of their own head without the warrant of God's Word; and whenever there is a service pressed upon the kirk that is not warranted out of the Word of God, that contains such things therein as bowing before altars and sets apart days of man's devising for worshipping of saints, that is a false copy of God's will, and whoever follows it they speak and God sends them not.
使用这个的目的是，任何改变上帝信息的先知或传道人，如果他不按照上帝的吩咐传达，他就不是忠诚的使者，也不是主的号角吹鸣者。他不按照将军的命令高声呼喊警报，就像他不对义人呼喊“怜悯，怜悯你，因为你的怀疑和软弱；救恩属于你，因为你所有相反的想法，因为基督的伤口中有足够的血来洁净和拯救你。”他不告诉邪恶的人，“你尽管笑和欢喜，上帝的愤怒正在等待你，尽管你看不见。”那是一个改变上帝的酒，用自己的水代替的虚假的传道人，改变上帝的副本的任何一点，并用自己的计划填满它，没有他的授权来展示他所做的事情。就像一个虚假的使者，在召唤你时不愿向你展示他的信息一样。这是一个迹象，他不是正确的。同样，所有那些无论如何都不让你看到上帝的话语副本的人，这是一个迹象，他们是私生子的号角手，不是上帝派来对他的子民说话的。 这样的牧师奔跑，上帝未派他们；他们说谎，不依据上帝的话语；每当教堂上出现了没有上帝话语支持的仪式，包括在祭坛前鞠躬和设定人定节日崇拜圣人，那是上帝旨意的赝本，追随它的人是在说谎，上帝未派他们。

Wherefore is a trumpet mentioned here? Because a trumpet is a shrill instrument of war, and a trumpet it is ordinarily blown to waken all and to stir them up who are not thinking of war, nor has any mind of it. So this is as meikle as if it were said, "Set thy trumpet thy mouth; let them hear on the deaf side of their head." The thing that we are to learn here is that a sleeping world and a sleeping Kirk they maun have a trumpet blown to waken them, for they will not be wakened with rounding into their ear to tell them that God is angry at them. But we maun blow a trumpet, and tell you of the wrath of God and of His anger against you. And there are four reasons wherefore we maun blow with a trumpet to waken secure sinners.
为什么在这里提到了号角？因为号角是一种尖锐的战争乐器，通常用来唤醒那些没有考虑战争或没有意识到战争的人们。所以这就相当于说：“把你的号角放在嘴边；让他们在他们的聋耳边听到。”我们在这里要学到的是，一个沉睡的世界和一个沉睡的教堂必须吹响号角来唤醒他们，因为他们不会因为有人告诉他们上帝对他们发怒而醒来。但我们必须吹响号角，告诉你们上帝的愤怒和对你们的愤怒。我们必须用号角唤醒安全的罪人，这有四个原因。

First. Because they dawt their own conscience that it may not accuse them for that which their mind lets them see to be wrong. Even as a father does to a dawted bairn lets him not wit by correcting him when he does wrong. Even like unto that spoken by the prophet (Isa. 30:10) they "say to the seers, See not; prophesy not," so that sinners have need to be shouted unto as with a trumpet that they may be wakened. Woe's them that can never be wakened with nothing till hell waken them, and if anything in the world be our wreck that same is it, even a spiritual security and sleeping in sin.
首先，因为他们怀疑自己的良心，害怕它指责他们看到的错误。就像父亲对待一个被宠爱的孩子一样，他不会通过纠正他的错误来让他明白。就像先知所说的（以赛亚书 30:10），他们“对先知说，不要看见；对先见者说，不要向我们说预言”，所以罪人需要像吹喇叭一样大声呼喊，以唤醒他们。可怜那些除非地狱唤醒他们，否则他们永远不会被任何事物唤醒，而且如果世界上有什么毁灭我们的东西，那就是精神上的安全感和沉睡在罪恶中。

A second reason wherefore there maun be blowing with a trumpet to waken sinners is because there is meikle din, and that hinders hearing when God speaks unto us. Gain is crying so loud in some men's ears, and court, and the honour and pleasing of kings, and ease, &c. These things, and the like, cry so loud in the ear of the natural man that all that God's ministers and His prophets can cry unto him of the Lord's righteousness, of His justice, of His truth, they will not hear, neither can they hear. They who know what a disease in the ears means say this of it, that when there is a wound within, it makes a crackling there, and it hinders hearing of any sound without; and that is it which makes deafness. Even so, when the day of the Lord's anger and wrath, of His taking vengeance on transgressors is spoken of to some, there is something within that cries louder to them, that makes them not to hear the other, and therefore the Lord He bids sound a trumpet unto such.
因此，有第二个理由为何必须吹号角唤醒罪人，那就是因为有很多喧闹，这妨碍了上帝对我们说话时的听觉。对一些人来说，利益在他们的耳中尖叫得太过响亮，如权势、国王的爱抚、君王的赞美和安逸等。这些事情和类似的事情在自然人耳中尖叫得太响，以至于上帝的传道者和先知们怎样向他宣告主的公义、公理和真理，他们都无法听见，也听不见。了解耳朵问题的人说，当内部有伤时，内部就会出现爆裂声，这妨碍了外部声音的听觉，这就是导致耳聋的原因。同理，当上帝发怒和报复违背者的日子传达给某些人时，他们内心的某些东西会响得更响，使他们无法听到其他的声音，因此主命令向这类人吹号角。

A third reason wherefore the Lord bids sound a trumpet is, it is an ordinary thing for the devil to hold men off their compts till they be over the score, to keep them from seeing them till they can do no better, until they come to that that he makes them to think that they are over long a counting with God. Woe's them that let their compts run long, or without taking order with them, for it is a very dangerous thing. Our Lord, again, will have His messengers to set a trumpet to their mouth to tell His people what sin is, for nature will never tell a man what sin is. There are two sorts of convictions for sin that the Lord's Word tells us of. First: There is a natural conviction, and that never lets a man see what sin is. The natural man he is only a patient in that conviction; he never comes to be an agent. The conscience of the natural man may convict him of sin, but for his will and his affections they are mere patients, and join not at all in the work. They know that there is death and hell. But they would have death and hell to bide away from them, and this is the cause of that which is spoken, Isa. 26:11: "Lord, when Thy hand is lifted up, they will not see;" Amos 6:3: "They put the ill day far from them," and fra they think the ill day to be far fra them, and fra they see not the hand of God lifted up, albeit all the world should cry to them, they will not hear nor make them to know what they are doing. Second: The Word of God tells us of a spiritual conviction where God is an agent, and man himself He convicts also—1 Cor. 11:31: "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord;" Mic. 7:9: "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him." There is an evident mark of one who hears the voice of God convicting of sin when they come to that.
主将发出吹号的命令的第三个原因是，魔鬼常常使人暂时无忧，直到他们欠下债务或无法摆脱困境，让他们无法见到自己的罪恶，直到让他们以为与上帝计算时间太长。让账目拖延时间或不加以处理的人是可怕的。我们的主要求他的使者吹响号角，告诉他的子民罪是什么，因为本性永远不会告诉一个人罪是什么。主的话告诉我们有两种对罪责的认识。首先：有一种自然的认识，永远无法让人看到罪是什么。自然人只是这种认识的病人；他永远不会成为一个行动者。自然人的良心可能让他感到有罪，但他的意愿和感情只是病人，根本不参与工作。他们知道有死亡和地狱。但他们希望远离死亡和地狱，这就是以赛亚书中所说的原因。 26:11：“主啊，当你的手举起时，他们看不见。”阿摩司书 6:3：“他们把邪恶的日子远离他们”，他们认为邪恶的日子离他们很远，他们看不见上帝举起的手，即使全世界都对他们大喊，他们也不会听到，也不会让他们知道自己在做什么。第二：上帝的话告诉我们有一种属灵的确信，上帝是一个行动者，他也使人自己感到内疚-哥林多前书 11:31：“我们若是先审查自己，就不至于受审判。”弥迦书 7:9：“我要忍受耶和华的忿怒，因为我得罪了他。”当一个人达到这种境地时，他听到上帝指责他犯罪的声音，这是明显的标志。

A fourth reason wherefore a trumpet maun be blown is because to believe news of the wrath of God and of the Lamb is a supernatural thing, and so the spirit of nature will never make a man to believe them. Nature will never tell a man the thousandth part of the ill and sinfulness of sin, and therefore the Lord maun cry it into the soul as with a trumpet.
吹响号角的第四个原因是因为相信上帝和羔羊的愤怒之消息是一件超自然的事情，大自然的灵魂永远不会让人相信这些消息。自然永远不会告诉人罪恶和罪孽的千分之一，因此主必须像吹号角一样向灵魂呼喊。

Use. Well's that soul whom the Lord works upon in time, and He makes to hear Him when He cries. Well were Scotland if they wakened in time out of their security! I durst say, if Scotland were wakened in the name of that Lord, who sent me here to speak to you, that mercy should be the end of all thir tumults and troubles that have been among us. There is nothing that hitherto has been the wreck of Scotland but only security, and that the sinners of Scotland have never been wakened. There be two things that serve for wakening sinners out of their security, and we have both these to waken us.
使用。上帝在适当的时候感动的灵魂，当他呼喊时，上帝使他听见。如果苏格兰能及时从安逸中醒来，那将是美好的！我敢说，如果苏格兰以那位派遣我来这里与你们说话的主的名义醒来，那么怜悯将是我们所经历的所有动乱和困扰的终结。迄今为止，苏格兰所遭受的破坏只有安逸，苏格兰的罪人从未被唤醒。有两件事可以唤醒罪人的安逸，而我们拥有这两件事来唤醒我们。

First: The sins of the land wherein we live call upon us to be humbled. And there were no more but the drunkenness, the atheism, the hypocrisy, the ignorance of God, the sins of the families of the land in not setting up the worship of God, we have just cause to be humbled for these and for the like.
首先：我们所居住的土地上的罪恶呼唤我们谦卑。除了酗酒、无神论、伪善、对上帝的无知以及土地上家庭没有建立对上帝的崇拜之外，我们还有充分的理由为这些罪恶以及类似的罪恶而谦卑。

Another thing which calls for humiliation is when judgment is already begun, and that is among us. And God knows if it be not time for us now to take our pleasure and ease, and to lay down our heads upon a eod of the devil's stopping when the Lord's ark is in the fields, and when the Lord's people of this land are entering into a strange land; and God knows who are their friends or who are their foes into it; and yet we trust that God will make the people of that land to be for their good, and will cause them sell them meat and drink, and what they stand in need of, and that He who has said, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm," will do for them, albeit they should not show themselves friends to them. But when the Lord's glory is in such hazard, woe to them who are not praying to God for preserving, and for them who are in hazard for it, and are not humbled now for them, for they shall get none of our Lord's comforts in that day when He shall laugh and rejoice, and shall be set up high above all His enemies. They will not do something now when our Lord maun either die, or die when we are like to be an undone people, if He die not for us. Woe to them! but we trust that our Lord's salvation is not far off, but He will help us in time for His covenant's sake, seeing we are a people that are in covenant with Him; albeit the people of this land were all devils and remediless sinners. He will help us now, and take another time for punishing any wrongs of that kind.
另一个需要羞辱的事情是审判已经开始了，而且就在我们中间。上帝知道现在是不是我们该享受快乐和安逸的时候，当主的约柜在田野中，当这个国家的主的子民正在进入一个陌生的地方；上帝知道谁是他们的朋友，谁是他们的敌人；然而我们相信上帝会使那个地方的人民对他们有益，并会提供他们所需的食物和饮料，即使他们对他们不友好。但是当主的荣耀处于如此危险之中时，那些不为保护祈祷的人有祸了，那些为此处于危险中的人现在不为他们谦卑，他们在那一天将得不到我们主的安慰，当他笑和欢喜，并高高地超越他的一切敌人时。如果他不为我们而死，我们就像是一个毁灭的民族。他们现在不做些什么，真可悲！ 但我们相信，我们的主的救恩并不遥远，祂会因祂的约而帮助我们，因为我们是与祂立约的子民；尽管这片土地上的人都是恶魔和无可救药的罪人。祂现在会帮助我们，并在另一个时机来惩罚任何那样的错误。

There is a reason given for this in the next place why the Lord's prophet should set the trumpet to his mouth: "He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord." What king this was that at this time was threatened to come against thir people is differed upon by some of the interpreters. That it was Salmanasar, as some say, it is not likely, and yet it is sure that Assyria was to come against thir people, and to overcome them, and he was to come against them in a fierce and terrible manner, but we leave that. There are two sorts of judgments that come against the Kirk of God. There are some judgments that come upon four feet to them, that come, as it were, upon eagle's wings. And some judgments that come at leisure again, such as the wrath of God that came upon the old world. It was an hundred and twenty years coming upon them or it lighted, and yet for all that it came [at] last. Let the wicked in the world say as they will, yet the wrath of the Lord is long in coming, yet He is aye coming, and His judgment and wrath against the wicked sleep not. Isa. 30:18: "The Lord waits that He may be gracious, therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment." The judgments of God sometimes they go at leisure, but they will come. 2 Pet. 3:4, there is a reason asked for this, wherefore the Lord's judgments that He has threatened are so longsome in coming? And it is answered, "The Lord delays it, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." This is referred to the words that are spoken before; He is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. So that the enemies of the grace of God they can get no ground for their false doctrine.
有一个原因在下一个地方给出，为什么主的先知应该把号角放在嘴边：“他将像鹰一样来攻击耶和华的殿。”关于在这个时候威胁要来攻击他们的人是哪位国王，解释者们有不同的看法。有人说是萨尔曼沙，但这不太可能，但可以确定的是亚述将要来攻击他们的人民，并且要以凶猛可怕的方式来攻击他们，但我们不深究这个问题。有两种类型的审判会降临在上帝的教会上。有一些审判是四脚降临，就像鹰的翅膀一样降临。还有一些审判是慢慢降临的，比如上帝对旧世界的愤怒。它在降临之前经过了一百二十年，但最终还是降临了。不管世界上的恶人怎么说，主的愤怒来得很慢，但他总是会来的，他对恶人的审判和愤怒从不停息。以赛亚书。 主等待以施恩，因此祂必被尊崇，以施怜悯于你们，因为主是公正的神。神的审判有时会慢慢进行，但它们终将到来。彼得后书 3:4 提出了一个问题，为什么主所威胁的审判如此缓慢？答案是：“主耽延，不愿有一人沉沦，乃愿人人都悔改。但主的日子要像贼来到。”这与之前所说的话相符，祂对我们忍耐，不愿有一人沉沦。因此，神恩典的敌人无法为他们的错误教义找到任何依据。

But the Lord has other judgments that come not slowly but swiftly, and upon four feet as it were. And the Lord's Word, it uses three comparisons to show this swiftness of the Lord's judgments. This text that we have read says that they come with eagle's wings, and this is the king of all flying fowls, and comes with a clap upon the prey thereof. So do the judgments of God upon His enemies sometimes. The second word that is said for that is written, 1 Thess. 5:3, destruction shall come upon the wicked as pains upon a woman in travail. So is it with those who are wicked men. When they think least of destruction to come upon them, and when are preaching peace to themselves, and are bigging their castles upon high that they think no evil shall come near them, then the wrath and anger of God it breaks out upon them and destroys them. The third comparison for showing the swiftness of the coming of the judgment of the wicked, it is in the Prov. 1:27, it is said thereof that their destruction cometh as a whirlwind, and ye know a whirlwind is a thing that comes very suddenly. For presently before it there is a calm, and incontinent after the calm there comes a blast of a whirlwind that blows away all light things where it comes. Even so does the wrath of God when it comes upon the wicked. They see nothing but a calm before, and then after their greatest calm incontinently the whirlwind of the wrath of God comes, and blows them away root and branches.
但主有其他的审判，不是缓慢而是迅速而来，如同四脚兽一样。主的话语使用了三个比喻来展示主的审判之迅速。我们所阅读的经文说，它们如鹰的翅膀一样迅速而来，鹰是所有飞禽之王，它们会突然袭击猎物。神的审判有时也是如此对待祂的敌人。第二个比喻写在帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:3 中，说恶人的毁灭会像产难之痛一样降临。对于那些恶人来说，当他们最不期待毁灭降临时，当他们自我安慰地宣讲和平，高高建造他们认为不会有灾祸临近的城堡时，神的愤怒和忿怒就会突然爆发，将他们毁灭。第三个比喻用于展示恶人审判的迅速来自箴言 1:27，说他们的毁灭如旋风一般来临，而你们知道旋风是一种非常突然的事物。 目前，在它之前有一片宁静，而在宁静之后，会突然来临一阵旋风，将它经过的一切轻物吹散。当上帝的愤怒降临恶人时，也是如此。他们只看到前方的宁静，然后在最大的宁静之后，上帝的愤怒旋风突然来临，将他们连根拔起。

Let our use of this be to learn to make use of the time which God gives unto us, for if the Lord's wrath come after such a manner upon His enemies, it is best for all to be looking their counts in time. Well's them that has all their counts laid and fitted before the Lord come upon them to call them to account. He is a blessed soul who can learn wisdom from the foolishness of the five sleeping virgins, and so escapes the wrath of God that comes upon the wicked in the world. O, but that be a sorrowful saying which that man in the gospel says, "Soul, take thy rest, for thou hast enough laid up for many years. Fool!"—is that well said?—"this night thy soul shall be taken from thee, and then whose shall all these things be?" The very time when he is proclaiming peace and ease to himself, aye, when thou art proclaiming rest every way to thyself, it may be that even then the Lord shall send a messenger to take thy soul from you as was done to Him. And what will all thy full barns and thy renewed confidence in the world that thou lippened so meikle unto, do to you then? Well's them who are prepared again the Lord come to call upon them. They fear not His call when it comes. What if the Lord shall be pleased to send a trial upon this land, and upon us of this congregation who think they shall be most able to stand out against any trial? None shall be able to stand out against the trial as these who can say in effect that there is no new event come upon them but that which formerly they looked might be, and were preparing themselves for the same; who can say there they resolved to be content, and they are content to quit husband, wife, children, life, lands, and rents, and all for their Lord and for His cause? And so let every one take pains to read over the count of their old sins—the night-drinker for his drunkenness, the blasphemer of God's name for his blasphemy, and such as were anyways art and part bringing in a new worship in the Kirk of God in this land, who consented unto the five articles of Perth, &c., and be humbled before God for them. If ye would have a lap of Christ's garment to cover you in the ill-day, if ye would be safe when the Lord comes against the sinners of Zion as an eagle, count for your old sins and be humbled for them and ye shall be safe.
让我们利用这个机会学会利用上帝赐予我们的时间，因为如果主的愤怒以这样的方式降临在他的敌人身上，对所有人来说最好的就是及时检查自己的行为。那些在主来临之前已经准备好并适应了自己的行为的人是有福的。能够从五个沉睡的童女的愚蠢中学到智慧，并因此逃脱了上帝对世界上恶人的愤怒的人是有福的。哦，但是那个在福音书中说的话真是令人悲伤，“灵魂啊，安心吧，因为你已经为多年存下了足够的东西。傻瓜！”-这样说好吗？-“今夜你的灵魂将被夺去，那么这一切将归谁所有？”就在他向自己宣告和平和安逸的时候，是的，当你向自己宣告全面的休息时，也许正是那时候主会派遣一个使者来夺走你的灵魂，就像他所经历的那样。那时你所有的满满的谷仓和你对这个世界的重新信心，对你来说又有什么用呢？那些在主来临时已经准备好的人是有福的。当呼唤来临时，他们不害怕。 如果主愿意在这片土地上试炼我们，试炼我们这个教会中认为自己最能抵挡任何试炼的人，那该怎么办呢？没有人能够抵挡这场试炼，只有那些能够说实际上没有新的事件降临在他们身上，只有他们曾经预料到并为之做好准备的人；他们能够说他们决心满足于现状，他们愿意为了主和主的事业而放弃丈夫、妻子、孩子、生命、土地和租金。因此，让每个人努力回顾自己旧日的罪孽——酒鬼要为他的酗酒，亵渎上帝之名的人要为他的亵渎，以及那些在这片土地上以任何方式引入新的敬拜方式的人，他们同意了佩思的五项条款等等，都要在上帝面前谦卑自己。如果你想要基督的衣襟在那个不幸的日子里保护你，如果你想要在主像鹰一样来对付锡安的罪人时得到安全，那就为你的旧罪负责并为之谦卑，你将会得到安全。

Another thing that we have to mark in this comparison is, What is it that leads the eagle to come against the prey? Nothing else but the smell of the prey. What was it, think ye, that led Assyria to come against the people of God when they came? Was it the glory of God? No; it was nothing else but the love of the world and the things thereof, without any respect to God's glory. Our Saviour Christ says, Matt. 24:28: "Where the carcases are, thither will the eagles resort." Wherever there is a breakfast for the eagles, they will be there. Even so, wherever the enemies of the Kirk of God may get their vantage against the same, they will be there. It is a plain instinct of nature that leads the eagles to the prey, and hunger is enough to them to make them seek where the prey is. And the thing that leads the enemies of the Kirk of God to come against the Kirk is nothing else but the malice they have against the Kirk and the love of blood. They have such a greedy desire after it. And the Lord's Spirit tells of Nebuchadnezzar that was drunk with the blood of His people, and that he coveted after the same. We may thank the Lord for this that we know what it is that leads on the enemies of the Kirk to come against His Kirk, that it is not the Lord nor His glory. Is the end that they have before them, think ye, the Lord or His glory? No, no! say what they will. They will say the Divine Service-book which our enemies stand for this day, as one of them imprudently has said of it, that it is a Divine book, and that there is more sound divinity therein nor in all the extemporal prayers of all the ministers, both in our neighbour land and in this land also. But let them say what they will, it is nothing but themselves and the filling of their fat bellies and the pleasures of the world which they have been and are still seeking. It is a foolish thing for the enemies of the grace of God to say that man's free will it is a thing indifferent to choose or to refuse anything as it pleases, whether it be good or ill. Is the eagle's hunger a thing indifferent for the eagle to seek to have it stayed or not? No; it is natural for it to seek to have it stayed by the prey. They say there be three things that show this that the will of man is a thing indifferent. First, they say there is in man a thing which they call indifference to do good or to do ill at his pleasure. Second, they say that there is a conscience within those who are enemies to God as well as these have a conscience who are in favour with Him; but that conscience will not keep them in if so be they want grace. Third, they say they have the awe of the Lord in His Word to keep them from sin, and that will be a restraint to them. But there are other three which we may set against these, which are also in every man by nature, that sets them a work to do as ill from their conception. First, there is the habit of natural corruption, that leads them to commit sin; for natural corruption, as they say, is not like a pirate, that comes out of the harbour, and it is a thing indifferent for it to go east or to go west, and so they go where they think they may best find their prey. Nay, natural corruption is not a thing indifferent, but it leads every man captive to the law of sin. Second, there is in every man the habit of acquired corruption, beside the natural corruption which is in all by nature. He has more sin added to that sin wherein he was born, and that leads him on to commit sin. Third, is an individual induration that is come upon wicked men, whereby God has tied them in His righteous judgment to sin and given them over to their own wicked heart, that whether they will or not by reason of that individual induration that is come upon them they maun sin. Well's them that has their will guided by the grace of God, and not by another thing. See what it is that makes ye to stand for the cause of God, whether it be because there are thousands and multitudes upon Christ's side of it, and it would be hard with thee if thou dost otherways? That is a wrong motive, and it will not miss to fail thee if there come any trial. But that is a gracious freewill that resolves to stand in defence of the cause of God, and to stand by the same albeit there were no more upon Christ's side of it, that albeit all others should turn their backs upon Him, yet they will stand with Christ where He is.
在这个比较中，我们还必须注意的另一件事是，是什么引导鹰来攻击猎物？除了猎物的气味之外，没有其他东西。当亚述人来攻击上帝的子民时，你们认为是什么引导他们来的？是上帝的荣耀吗？不，除了对上帝的荣耀毫无尊重之外，他们对世界和世俗之物的爱别无他物。我们的救主基督在马太福音 24:28 中说：“尸首在哪里，鹰也聚集在那里。”无论哪里有鹰的早餐，它们都会出现。同样，无论上帝的教会的敌人在哪里找到对抗教会的机会，他们都会出现。这是一种纯粹的本能，引导鹰去捕食，而饥饿足以让它们寻找猎物所在的地方。而引导上帝的教会的敌人来攻击教会的事情，除了他们对教会的恶意和对鲜血的热爱之外，别无他物。他们对此有着贪婪的渴望。主的灵告诉我们，尼布甲尼撒曾经醉心于神的子民的鲜血，并且他渴望得到同样的东西。 我们可以感谢上帝，因为我们知道是什么导致教堂的敌人来攻击他的教堂，那不是上帝，也不是他的荣耀。他们面前的目标是什么，你们认为是上帝还是他的荣耀？不，不是！无论他们说什么。他们会说我们的敌人今天所坚持的神圣礼拜书是一本神圣的书，其中包含的神学比邻国和本国所有牧师的即兴祷告更为正统。但无论他们说什么，那只不过是他们自己、填饱他们的肚子和追求世俗享乐的借口。敌对上帝的恩典的人说人的自由意志是一件无关紧要的事，可以随意选择或拒绝任何事物，无论是好是坏。像鹰的饥饿对于鹰来说是一件无关紧要的事吗？不，它天性使然地寻求通过捕食来满足饥饿。他们说有三件事可以证明人的意志是一件无关紧要的事。 首先，他们说人内心有一种被称为随心所欲地做好事或坏事的冷漠态度。其次，他们说那些与上帝为敌的人内心也有良心，就像那些得到上帝喜爱的人一样；但是如果他们没有恩典，良心就无法约束他们。第三，他们说他们通过上帝的话语对他们的敬畏会使他们远离罪恶，这将对他们起到约束作用。但是我们可以对这些观点提出另外三个观点，这些观点在每个人的本性中也存在，使他们从一开始就做坏事。首先，有一种天生的腐败习性引导他们犯罪；因为天生的腐败习性不像海盗，它不会从港口出发，它对于向东还是向西出发是无所谓的，所以它们会去他们认为能找到猎物的地方。不，天生的腐败习性并不是一件无关紧要的事，而是让每个人都被罪恶的法律所束缚。其次，除了每个人天生的腐败习性外，每个人还有一种习得的腐败习性。 他的罪孽更加累积，导致他继续犯罪。第三，是一种个体的顽固，降临在邪恶的人身上，上帝以公正的审判将他们束缚在罪恶中，并将他们交给自己邪恶的心，无论他们愿意与否，由于这种个体的顽固，他们必须犯罪。那些由上帝的恩典引导意愿的人是有福的，而不是受其他事物的引导。看看是什么让你为了上帝的事业而站立，是因为基督方面有成千上万的人，如果你做其他选择会很困难吗？这是一个错误的动机，如果遇到任何考验，它将不会辜负你。但那是一个恩典的自由意志，决心为上帝的事业辩护，并且即使基督方面没有更多人支持，即使其他人都背弃了他，他们仍然会与基督站在一起。

What is the quarrel that this eagle has against the house of the Lord, and against His covenanted people, for it would be thought, Who should be free of straik if so be that the Lord's people be not free of it? No; by the contrar, you know it is said, "Judgment must begin at the house of God;" and, Ezek. 9:1, where those six men are sent out with slaughter weapons in their hands to slay all in the city save only those that were marked by the man with pennar inkhorn, even Christ, they are commanded to begin at the Lord's sanctuary. Whenever wrath is a dealing, professors that have gone on in a wrong course they shall be sure to get the first dint of it. And so think not with yourselves that a profession will save you when the ill days [come]. Now there be three ills in a bare profession that will rather hasten wrath upon men nor keep it off.
这只老鹰对主的殿和祂立约的子民有何不满，人们会认为，如果主的子民不受苦难的话，谁会免于受到打击呢？不，相反地，你们知道有人说过，“审判必从神的家起首。”以西结书 9:1 中，那六个手持屠杀武器的人被派出去杀死城中的所有人，只留下那些被用羽毛笔标记的人，即基督，他们被命令从主的圣所开始。每当愤怒降临时，那些走错路的信徒们必定会首当其冲。所以不要自以为一个信仰会在困难来临时拯救你们。现在，一个空洞的信仰中有三个弊端，它们只会加速愤怒降临，而不会阻止它。

First. Where there is a profession of religion there is more light, nor where there is not a profession; at least, there should be more light, and that makes the wrath to come sooner, and to light fiercer and hotter upon those who have it, nor upon those who have no profession at all. The more profession and the greater light thou hast, if so be that thou go against the same, thou shalt get the more straikes, and the greater wrath shall light upon you. Of all the enemies [he] that is an house enemy, ye know he is the worst enemy. A minister that goes with a gown upon him, and bears a Bible about with him, if so be that he be false, he is the worst enemy that the Kirk of Christ has. You know who it was that sold Christ our Lord. Even Judas who was one of His disciples, and when he was betraying Him he seemed to be very kind to Him, for even then he would kiss Him, and our Lord says to him, "Friend, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" and it is very ordinary to be so. The worst enemies that the Kirk of Christ has in our neighbour kingdom are those that are called the heads of the Kirk, and the reverend fathers in God, Canterbury, and those of that kind. Those are the greatest enemies that Christ and our Father and His have, and it is they who betray Him and His cause.
首先，信仰的表达会带来更多的光明，而没有信仰的地方则没有；至少，应该有更多的光明，这会使愤怒更早地降临，对那些有信仰的人来说，愤怒会更猛烈、更炽热，而对那些没有信仰的人则不会如此。你越是有信仰，越是有更大的光明，如果你违背了信仰，你将受到更多的打击，更大的愤怒将降临在你身上。在所有的敌人中，家里的敌人是最坏的敌人，你们知道他是最坏的敌人。一个穿着长袍、随身携带圣经的牧师，如果他是虚伪的，他就是基督教堂最坏的敌人。你们知道是谁出卖了我们的主耶稣基督。就是犹大，他是耶稣的门徒之一，当他背叛耶稣的时候，他对他似乎非常友好，因为那时他甚至亲吻了他，我们的主对他说：“朋友，你用亲吻出卖人子吗？”这种情况非常普遍。基督教堂在我们邻国的最坏的敌人是那些被称为教会领袖和尊敬的神父，坎特伯雷的那些人等等。 那些是基督、我们的父亲和祂的最大敌人，他们背叛了祂和祂的事业。

Another ill that comes of a profession is; ye know the Spirit of God in His word uses to reckon from a profession; Amos 3:2: "You only have I known of all the families in the earth: therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities;" "I made you My chosen people beyond all others, and therefore I will not let you gang unpunished." The Lord cannot endure a people who have a profession of religion to sin against Him as others do. A lord or a laird dow not endure a thrisle to be in his garden, but gars pluck it up by the roots, and cast it over the dike. He cares not to let many thrisles stand in the mountain, but for a thrisle in his garden he dow not endure that. Those who give out themselves to be the Lord's beloved people, and yet are barren of any good fruits, and there be a sore judgment in the world it shall light upon such.
职业带来的另一个弊端是，你们知道上帝的话语中的圣灵常常从一个职业开始计算；阿摩司书 3:2：“我只认识你们中间的人，所以我要因你们的罪惩罚你们。”“我选择了你们作为我的子民，超过其他所有人，因此我不会让你们逍遥法外。”主不能容忍一个有宗教信仰的人民像其他人一样违背他的意愿。一个领主或者地主不会容忍花园里有蓟草，而是会将其连根拔起，扔过篱墙。他不在乎山上有多少蓟草，但在自己的花园里，他不能容忍有蓟草存在。那些自称是主所爱的子民，却没有任何善果的人，当世上有严厉的审判时，这样的人将受到惩罚。

A third ill that comes of a profession is; we trow that a profession makes black sins to become white sins. No; it is not so. David's adultery is adultery as well as the adultery of the greatest reprobate that is; albeit his adultery be tane away, and theirs is to be kept to the fore against them, yet in themselves they are one. The enemies of the grace of God they put a calumny upon us in this, when they say that we say, "God hates not the sin of the elect." No; we say, and affirm it, that the Lord He hates their sin; but withal, He hates not their persons but loves them, and for temporal judgments, albeit they miss spiritual and eternal judgments, they shall not miss them who are guilty of any sin or goes against the Lord's covenant, or seem to be for it, and are not so in heart. Though they were never so dear to God, even as dear as Coniah, as it is said, Jer. 22:24: "As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon My right hand, yet would I pluck thee hence; and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life," &c. And so of all the sore judgments that come upon any people, it shall come upon them who profess the Lord and religion, and are not an honour to their profession. I am sure this is Scotland's note. Some it may be will be ready to say, "I am sure the Lord will defend me, seeing I am a covenanter, and it is God's covenant." No; but if there be a waled straik for any, if thou be not a heart-covenanter, it shall light upon you. The Lord has a judgment prepared for you, albeit thou shouldst never go unto the fields because thou hast no more but a name and a profession thereof. Woe's them that know no more of religion but only the bare name of it!
职业的第三个弊端是，我们认为职业使黑暗的罪恶变成了白色的罪恶。不，事实并非如此。大卫的通奸与最大的恶棍的通奸一样，尽管他的通奸被除去，而他们的通奸将被保留以对付他们，但在本质上它们是一样的。那些敌视上帝的恩典的人在这方面对我们进行了诽谤，他们说我们说：“上帝不恨选民的罪恶。”不，我们说并坚称，主确实恨他们的罪恶；但同时，他不恨他们的人，反而爱他们，并且对于临时的审判，尽管他们逃脱了属灵和永恒的审判，但那些犯有任何罪恶、违背主的约定、或表面上是这样但内心并非如此的人，他们将不会逃脱审判。即使他们对上帝非常亲爱，就像耶利米书 22:24 所说的那样：“主说：我指着我的永生起誓，即使约雅敬的儿子约雅斤是我右手上带戒指的杰出人物，我也必将你从这里拔出来，交在寻索你命的人手中。” 所有降临在任何民族身上的痛苦审判，都将降临在那些信奉主和宗教却不荣耀他们的信仰的人身上。我确信这是苏格兰的特点。有些人可能会说，“我确信主会保护我，因为我是一个盟约者，这是上帝的盟约。”不，但如果有人被选中受罚，如果你不是一个真心的盟约者，那么这个惩罚将降临在你身上。主已经为你准备了一个审判，即使你从未去过战场，因为你只有一个名字和一个信仰的表面。那些只知道宗教名字而不了解更多的人真可悲！

The prophet goes on in the next verse to tell what a people the people of Israel were, and what they shall do under their trouble. Israel shall say unto me, "My God, we know Thee;" "Thou art our God, and we know it that Thou art our God." This is an objection to what has been said before; shall Assyria come against the Kirk of God as an eagle? No; it may not be so, for we will tell Him that He is our God, and we are His people, and therefore we will cry unto Him in our distress and trouble. There are three things contained in this prayer. First, that Israel in their distress they will cry. Second, that in their distress they will cry, "My God." Third, they will cry, "My God, we know Thee."
先知在下一节继续讲述以色列人是什么样的人，以及在困境中他们将会做什么。以色列将对我说：“我的上帝，我们认识你；你是我们的上帝，我们知道你是我们的上帝。”这是对之前所说的一个反驳；亚述岂能像鹰一样来攻击上帝的教会？不，不可能，因为我们将告诉他，他是我们的上帝，我们是他的子民，因此我们将在困厄中向他呼求。这个祈祷中包含了三件事。首先，以色列在困厄中将呼求。其次，在困厄中他们将呼求：“我的上帝。”第三，他们将呼求：“我的上帝，我们认识你。”

First: That they will cry to God under their distress and trouble; it teaches us this far that hypocrites when they are under the hand of God they are all very holy folks then. In Judges 10:10, and in divers other parts, it is said of the predecessors of thir same people, in their distress they cried unto the Lord, and acknowledged they had sinned against Him; Jer. 2:27, in prosperity people turned their back upon God, "and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us." This is an ordinary way that we use when we can do no better, then we cry unto the Lord for help and deliverance; Psa. 78:34: "When he slew them, they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer." When the vengeance of God was lying sore and heavy upon them, they cried unto the Lord, "Lord, save us." When anything ailes hypocrites they will cry fast to Christ then. O! but there be many who will be content to winter Christ that cannot be content to summer Him also. When worldly men see the hand of God to be upon them; O! but they will seem to be holy and to be devout then. But whenever the hand of God is tane off them again, incontinent they return unto their old ways. This should make us to examine bed holiness, and holiness that comes by reason of crosses very well. For there are many that in their sickness, and when they are under the hand of God any way, they will cry fast for the minister then, and seem to be sorry for their former ill-spent time, and will promise very fair if God will spare them then they shall be better servants to Him in all time coming; and yet when time is granted to them they will return after that to be as ill every way as ever they were before. There are three things that we would try of our holiness in such a case. First: We would try whether it be our own holiness and ease, or if it be God Himself that makes us to cry to Him, and to humble ourselves. Well's that soul that humbles itself under the mighty hand of God, and is brought home to himself by its troubles. Second: In trouble compare thir two together, whether you think it better to be guilty, or if ye think it best to be miserable; if you had rather choose misery before you choose guiltiness; and if ye be more for sin committed than ye are for the misery that come upon you because of sin. There are three things that we look not to in our afflictions. First: For the present our punishment or the afflictions of any, they are not grace. Affliction may well restrain the act of pride for the present, but it cannot restrain the habit thereof. As in Ahab and in Cain when punishment was upon them, the act of pride it was restrained indeed, but the habit thereof was not restrained. Second: We would consider that all the crosses in the world they will do no good unto any, if so be they be not blessed unto us by the cross of Christ. No; they will rather make us worse if He bless them not. The Lord He complains of His people, Amos 8, that the more He struck and plagued them the more they ran away from Him. Third: We would remember that affliction of itself is not grace at all, albeit it be a means whereby the Lord works grace in the hearts of His own children, and makes them pliable for it. Fire, ye know, changes not the nature of metals, to make one metal of another; it may well make them hot and soft, yet for all that it cannot make iron gold. Even so affliction cannot make the devil's iron to become God's gold; it may well make it some softer. And so we had need to try whether our afflictions they be blessed of God or not; and we had need to try our holiness then. There are many who make a form to pray to God now, who have their son in the camp, or their husband, that, it may be, never made an errand to pray to God before, and yet for all that has a crooked heart within them. It is not an easy thing to come rightly to Christ. It is no marvel, nor the enemies of God's grace say it is an easy thing to come to Christ and to believe, because they know nothing of it; but it is not easier than that which is spoken of, John 12:32: "When I am lifted up, I shall draw all men unto Me." It is a pull of God's arm that maun do our turn to draw us to Him, and not all the afflictions and calamities in the world. Oh, that the Lord will be pleased to bless our public trials in this land, and that He would let all see that it is not good bourding with the Lord now at this time, when the Lord is taking away the husband from the wife, the father from the children, the child from the parents, the friend from the friends, the minister from the flock, &c. It is time for us to lift up ourselves in prayer to God, now beseeching Him that He would make His hand to work more and more for us. Well is the soul that comes under the hand of God. Hos. 5:15 it is said, "In their affliction they will seek Me early." Well's that soul that seeks home to God by its afflictions. There is a blessed word spoken (Hos. 2:6), when the Kirk is running away from God and there is a hedge of thorns set in her way that she cannot win away from Him; when she is following her other lovers and cannot overtake them, she says, "I will go and return to my first love, for then it was better with me nor now." Well waured trouble and affliction that come upon any soul when it comes home to the Lord, and all the dross thereof is tane away, and when a people are brought home, as it is spoken (Jer. 50:5) of Israel and Judah. "Come, and let us join ourselves in a perpetual covenant with the Lord, never to be forgotten." That is a blessed trouble for evermore that leads us home nearer to our Lord. Now the Lord Himself, who is able to do this unto us, draw us nearer unto Himself by all the crosses and afflictions that come upon us. And to this Lord who can do this for us, to the Son of God, Christ Jesus, to His Father and our Father, and the Spirit of grace, be everlasting praise and glory.—Amen.
首先：他们在困厄和痛苦中向上帝哭泣；这教导我们，伪君子在上帝的手下时都是非常圣洁的人。在士师记 10:10 和其他一些地方，关于这些人的前辈，也是在困厄中他们向上帝哭求，并承认他们犯了罪；耶利米书 2:27，在繁荣时期，人们背弃了上帝，“不向上帝转脸，但在困难时期，他们会说：起来，拯救我们。”这是我们在无法做得更好时常用的方法，我们向上帝呼求帮助和拯救；诗篇 78:34：“他们被杀时，就寻求他，清早求问他。他们追念神是他们的磐石，至高的神是他们的救赎主。”当上帝的惩罚沉重地压在他们身上时，他们向上帝哭求：“主啊，拯救我们。”当伪君子有任何困扰时，他们会迅速向基督哭泣。哦！但有很多人愿意在冬天接纳基督，却不能在夏天也接纳他。当世俗的人看到上帝的手降临在他们身上时，哦！他们会似乎变得圣洁和虔诚。 但是每当上帝的手离开他们时，他们立即回到他们的旧路上。这应该让我们好好检查一下床上的圣洁，以及因十字架而来的圣洁。因为有很多人在生病时，或者在任何情况下都在上帝的手下，他们会迅速为牧师哭泣，似乎为他们以前虚度的时光感到懊悔，并且会承诺如果上帝能够饶恕他们，他们将来会成为更好的仆人。然而，当他们被给予时间后，他们会回到以前的样子，变得和以前一样糟糕。在这种情况下，我们需要尝试我们的圣洁有三件事。首先：我们需要尝试一下，这是我们自己的圣洁和安逸，还是上帝自己让我们向他哭泣，谦卑自己。那个在上帝的大能手下谦卑自己，并因困境而回归自己的灵魂是有福的。 其次：在比较这两者时，你认为是犯罪更好，还是认为痛苦更好；如果你宁愿选择痛苦而不选择有罪，如果你对犯罪所带来的痛苦更加在意。在我们的苦难中，有三件事我们不会考虑。首先：目前的惩罚或任何苦难都不是恩典。苦难可以暂时抑制骄傲的行为，但不能抑制其习惯。就像亚哈和该隐，在他们受到惩罚时，骄傲的行为确实被抑制了，但其习惯并没有被抑制。其次：我们要考虑到，世界上所有的苦难，如果不经过基督的十字架祝福，对任何人都没有好处。不，如果祂不祝福，它们只会让我们变得更糟。主在阿摩司书 8 章抱怨祂的子民，祂越是打击和惩罚他们，他们就越是远离祂。第三：我们要记住，苦难本身并不是恩典，尽管它是主通过苦难在祂儿女的心中运行恩典并使他们顺从的一种方式。 火，你知道，不能改变金属的本质，使一种金属变成另一种金属；它可能会使它们变得炽热和柔软，但即使如此，它也不能使铁变成金。同样，苦难不能使魔鬼的铁变成上帝的金；它可能会使它变得柔软一些。因此，我们需要试验我们的苦难是否是上帝赐福的，我们也需要试验我们的圣洁。现在有很多人虽然表面上向上帝祈祷，但他们的儿子或丈夫可能从未向上帝祈祷过，但他们内心却扭曲。正确地来到基督并不容易。不足为奇，上帝的恩典的敌人说来到基督并相信是一件容易的事，因为他们对此一无所知；但它并不比约翰福音 12:32 所说的更容易：“我被举起来的时候，我要把众人都吸引到我这里来。”是上帝的手臂拉我们到他面前，而不是世界上的一切苦难和灾难。 哦，愿主乐意祝福我们在这片土地上的公众试炼，愿祂让所有人看到，现在与主开玩笑是不好的时机，因为主正在夺走丈夫与妻子的关系，父亲与孩子的关系，孩子与父母的关系，朋友与朋友的关系，牧师与群羊的关系等等。现在是我们举起祷告向上帝祈求的时候了，恳求祂让祂的手为我们更多地工作。那灵魂是有福的，它接受了上帝的手。何西阿书 5:15 说：“他们在急难中必早早寻求我。”那灵魂是有福的，它通过苦难寻求回归上帝。当教会远离上帝，有一道荆棘篱笆阻挡她离开时，有一句美妙的话（何西阿书 2:6）：“我要回到我的初爱那里去，因为那时我比现在更好。”当任何灵魂回归主的时候，遭遇的困扰和苦难是有价值的，其中所有的杂质都被带走了，就像以色列和犹大（耶利米书 50:5）被带回家一样。 来吧，让我们与主建立永恒的盟约，永不被遗忘。这是一种永远幸福的困扰，让我们更接近主。愿能够这样对待我们的主，通过所有降临在我们身上的十字架和苦难，使我们更加亲近祂。愿荣耀归于能够为我们做到这一切的主，归于上帝之子耶稣基督，归于祂的父和我们的父，以及恩典之灵，直到永远。阿门。

The Weeping Mary at the Sepulchre
墓穴中的哭泣的玛丽

"For as yet they knew not the scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him."—JOHN 20:9–13.
因为他们还不知道圣经上说他必须从死里复活。门徒们又回到自己的家里去了。但马利亚站在坟墓外面哭泣。她哭泣的时候，低头往坟墓里看，见有两个穿白衣的天使，坐在耶稣曾躺过的地方，一个在头部，一个在脚部。天使对她说：“妇人，你为什么哭泣？”她回答说：“因为他们把我的主带走了，我不知道他们把他放在哪里。”—约翰福音 20:9-13。

IN these passages of our Lord's Word, beloved in Him, we have first set down the earthly witnesses that came to the grave to seek our Lord after He was risen from the dead. And they be of two sorts. The first sort of them are public men in a public charge, Peter and John, the Lord's disciples; and how they sought Christ, and what speed they came in seeking Him! The second sort of persons are private persons coming to seek our Lord, Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had before casten seven devils. And good reason that such think meikle of our Lord, who have gotten renewed souls, or any good thing from Him. Then we have the fruit that follows the apostles' seeking of our Lord. They go their ways home again and find Him not. Again you have the fruit of this woman's seeking of Him. She will not give over her seeking Him, albeit she cannot find Him at the first. Indeed it is a blessed thing for a poor soul to wait on still at Christ's door till they get Him, albeit they should die there, waiting for Him. And in her waiting for Him, first of all she meets with the angels. And after she was comforted of them, telling her that He was risen from the dead, and was rebuked of them for her weeping and seeking Him there, she leaves them and goes on to seek Him. And she meets with Christ Himself, and speaks to Him, but she miskens Him as many times the children of God are speaking to Him, and He is speaking to them again, and yet they misken Him. She supposes Him to be the gardener, and speers if he had carried Him away, and where he had laid Him that she might know where He was. And then our Lord discovers Himself unto her by a short preaching that He made as our Lord. He is evermore kent by His word, and when she hears Him speak she turns herself to Him, and she being willing to embrace Him she is forbidden to do it at that time. He would not have her to think so meikle of her bodily presence at that time, because there is a better presence coming when He is ascended to His Father. Only she is commanded to tell the Lord's disciples of that which she had seen, and so she is made the first preacher of Christ's rising from the dead.
在我们主的话语中，亲爱的人们，我们首先记录了那些在耶稣从死里复活后来到坟墓寻找他的地上的见证人。他们分为两类。第一类是公众人物，担任公职的彼得和约翰，主的门徒；他们是如何寻找基督，以及他们寻找他的速度！第二类是私人，他们来寻找我们的主，其中包括曾经被他赶出七个魔鬼的马利亚·玛大利纳。对于那些得到重生的灵魂或从他那里得到任何好处的人来说，这是理所当然的。然后我们有使徒寻找我们的主所带来的果实。他们回家去，却找不到他。再来看看这个女人寻找他的果实。她不会放弃寻找他，尽管一开始找不到他。事实上，对于一个贫穷的灵魂来说，在基督的门口等待，直到他们得到他，即使他们在那里等待而死，也是一件有福的事。在她等待他的过程中，首先她遇见了天使。 在她得到他们的安慰后，告诉她耶稣已经从死里复活，他们责备她哭泣和寻找他，她离开他们继续寻找他。她遇见了基督自己，并与他交谈，但像上帝的子民一样，她多次误认他，他再次与他们交谈，但他们仍然误认他。她以为他是园丁，问他是否把他带走了，他把他放在哪里，这样她就知道他在哪里。然后，我们的主通过一次简短的讲道向她显露了自己，就像我们的主一样。他总是通过他的话被认出来，当她听到他说话时，她转身面向他，她愿意拥抱他，但在那个时候被禁止这样做。他不希望她在那个时候过分关注她的肉体存在，因为当他升天到他的父那里时，会有更好的存在。只是她被命令告诉主的门徒她所看到的事情，所以她成为了基督从死里复活的第一个传道者。

First: We observe one thing in the general, that concerns the estate of our Kirk at this time. Herod and Pilate, and Jew and Gentile, they have all joined themselves together at this time to do the worst they can to Christ our Lord, and yet, when they have done all that they can, they cannot mend themselves. For now they had buried Him to hold Him down, and yet for all that that mends them not. The worst that the enemies of the Kirk can do to the Kirk is to put her to death, and yet when they think they have gotten that done, it will not do their turn when all is done. For wherever our Lord's bride be, albeit she were even in the grave, she maun rise again, and in a triumph over her enemies. Let our Lord and His Kirk be where they will, He and His Kirk and cause, albeit they were dead, they maun live the third day again, as Christ Himself did, according to that triumphant and glorious word which He spake (Rev. 1:17, 18): "Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." When John had seen His glory, and fell down dead because he was afraid thereof, He says that to him. There is news to comfort the Kirk of God, and to comfort all those who doubt whether our Lord will tyne the battle that He has against His enemies or not. No; He will make good that word that He speaks there of Himself: "I was dead, but I am alive; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." Fra a dead man cannot do the turn, He will let it be seen that a living man can do it. We need not to doubt of it, but the enemies of Christ they thought that they were quit of Him now, that He would cumber them no more; but it is not so for all that yet, for He shall live when all is done, for all the ill they have done to Him. And within these few years our adversaries, they thought with themselves that long or now they should have been quit of our cumber, and that this gospel should [have] been clean borne down long or now. But with their leave Christ is letting us see this day that He will not have it to be so, that He will have that gospel which they thought to bear down so far, to come to some perfection again. So is the Kirk brought in, speaking in Hosea's prophecy (6:2): "After two days thou wilt revive us again, and the third day we shall live." This gospel it maun live, whoever they be who are against it, for the bearing down thereof, and the end of it maun be glory to Christ, and so those who are upon His side of it. Now, to say nothing of the race that Peter and John had in going to Christ's grave, it is said the other disciple he outran Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. John is he who is called the other disciple, and he outran Peter. As it is among the children of God, all of them have not a like speed. Some of them get a sight of Christ before others ever get a sight of Him. Christ has some into His Kirk that are old and experienced with His ways, and so they run fast in the same; and He has others also, who are His children and belong to Him, who are young ones, and cannot run so fast. But whoever they be who have the life of God in them, and so are walking on towards Him, they shall, either first or last, meet with Him without doubt.
首先：我们总体上观察到一件事，与我们教堂的状况有关。希律和彼拉多，犹太人和外邦人，他们都在这个时候联合起来，尽他们最坏的努力对付我们的主基督，然而，即使他们尽了全力，也无法改变自己。因为现在他们已经把他埋葬起来，想要压制他，然而即使如此，他们也无法改变。教堂的敌人能对教堂做的最坏的事情就是杀死她，然而当他们认为他们已经做到了这一点时，最终却无济于事。因为无论我们的主的新娘在哪里，即使她甚至在坟墓里，她也必须再次复活，并且在敌人面前获得胜利。无论我们的主和他的教堂在哪里，他和他的教堂和事业，即使他们已经死了，他们也必须再次复活，就像基督自己所做的那样，根据他所说的那个胜利和荣耀的话（启示录 1:17,18）：“不要害怕，我是首先的，我是末后的，我是活着的，曾经死过，看哪，我活着，直到永远。”当约翰看到他的荣耀，并因为害怕而倒下死了，他对他说了这些话。 有好消息来安慰上帝的教会，也安慰那些怀疑我们的主是否会赢得与敌人的战斗的人。不，他会实现他自己所说的话：“我曾经死了，但我现在活着；看哪，我永远活着。”一个死人无法完成这个任务，他将让人们看到一个活着的人可以做到。我们不需要怀疑，但基督的敌人认为他们现在已经摆脱了他，他不会再给他们添麻烦；但事实并非如此，因为无论他们对他做了多少坏事，他都将活着。在过去的几年里，我们的对手认为他们早晚会摆脱我们的困扰，这福音早就应该被打倒了。但是，基督让我们看到，他不希望事情发展成这样，他希望他们认为已经打倒的福音再次完善起来。所以，教会引用何西阿书（6:2）中的预言说：“过两天，你会使我们复兴，第三天我们将活着。”这福音必须活着，无论反对它的人是谁，因为它的消亡和终结必将荣耀归于基督，以及那些站在基督一边的人。现在，不论彼得和约翰去基督坟墓的比赛如何，据说另一个门徒比彼得跑得快，先到了坟墓。约翰就是那个被称为另一个门徒的人，他比彼得跑得快。在神的儿女中，他们并不都有同样的速度。有些人在其他人看到基督之前就看到了他。基督带领一些老练、经验丰富的人进入他的教会，所以他们在同一条道路上跑得很快；他也有其他属于他的孩子，他们是年轻人，跑得不那么快。但无论他们是谁，只要他们有神的生命，并朝着他前进，他们无疑会与他相遇，不论是先还是后。

He which came first went into the sepulchre and saw, and he believed. He might [have] believed that Christ was risen by that which he had heard, but he believed not till he saw. Many a time had the Lord said to them that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinners, and must suffer many things of them; that He must die and be buried, but the third day He shall rise again; but notwithstanding of all that He had said, John believed not till he had seen tokens that He had risen from the dead. However it be, yet this is sure, that it is good for every one to use the means that God has appointed for attaining to the knowledge of any thing. For John gat this meikle good by using the means at this time and coming to the grave—that he was assured that Christ was risen. Who was there ever that made a race for Christ but gat some good by their seeking after Him? Seek ye and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. Zacchæus, he had a longing desire to see Christ, and because he was low of stature, and the throng was great, he ran before the multitude, and clamb up upon a tree to see Him; and ye have heard what good come of that, as there comes aye good of seeking Christ rightly: He says, "Come down, Zacchæus, this day is salvation come to thy house." He will not fail, but He will make that word good which He has spoken Himself, "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Could we be earnest in seeking our Lord—and I am sure ye know that this is a seeking time now, and never was there more need to be seeking at the hands of God—as the Lord lives, I durst promise it in His name, if we would seek Him we should see the salvation of the Lord. And so, albeit ill news should come unto us, let us not be discouraged for the same. But let us rest upon this, and put our confidence in the same, that our Lord is to be found of them who seek Him; and He has given signs thereof already unto us, and will do so hitherto if we will seek unto Him.
他先来到坟墓里看见了，他相信了。他可能通过听到的消息相信基督已经复活，但直到他亲眼看见才相信。主曾多次对他们说，人子必须被交在罪人手中，受许多苦，必须死亡并被埋葬，但第三天必然复活；尽管主这样说了，约翰直到看见他从死里复活的迹象才相信。无论如何，这是肯定的，每个人都应该使用神指定的方法来获得任何事物的知识。约翰通过使用这种方法并来到坟墓，得到了很大的好处——他确信基督已经复活。有谁曾经为基督而奔跑，却没有从寻求中得到好处呢？你们寻找，就必寻见；你们敲门，就必给你们开门。 撒该，他渴望见到基督，因为他个子矮小，人群拥挤，他在人群前面跑去，爬上一棵树来看他；你们已经听说过那件好事，因为寻求基督是有好处的：他说：“撒该，快下来，今天我要到你家里来。”他必定不会辜负自己所说的话：“你们祈求，就给你们；寻找，就寻见；叩门，就给你们开门。”如果我们真诚地寻求我们的主——我相信你们知道现在正是寻求的时候，我们更需要寻求上帝的帮助——我敢以他的名义保证，如果我们寻求他，我们必能看到主的救恩。所以，即使有坏消息传来，我们也不要气馁。相反，让我们依靠这一点，并对此抱有信心，我们的主会被那些寻求他的人找到；他已经给我们显了迹，如果我们继续寻求他，他将继续这样做。

For as yet they knew not the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead. The rest of the disciples, they believed not these Scriptures that foretold of Christ's resurrection from the dead. Can it be possible that there can be a scholar in Christ's school that has not learned his lesson that Christ taught him? Can it be that any who has heard Christ Himself make so many preachings of His resurrection, that they believe not for all that? Aye, ye may see the proof of it here. The doctrine that arises from this it is clear, that it is not the means, nor hearing Christ as a man preach out of His own mouth, that will do the turn to bring us in to God, and to make us understand things spiritual. Preaching, indeed, is God's mean that He has appointed for that end, and the way that He ordains for bringing in souls to Him. But when all is done, it is not the only mean of bringing us to Him. The special thing is that which is spoken by our Saviour Himself (John 3:8), that wind that bloweth where it listeth, and no man knoweth whence it cometh or whither it goeth. We may preach unto you until our head riveand our breasts burst; aye, we may preach unto you until doom's day, and yet that will not do the turn unless the inward calling of the Spirit be joined therewith. For an outward sound to the ear is one thing, and Christ's loosing all knots and removing all impediments another thing. Christ says Himself while He was in the flesh (John 6:44), "No man can come unto Me unless the Father draw him." Christ is speaking in that place to them who had the outward means, and yet He says, it is no strange thing that they come not unto Him, albeit they have the means, because they want the Father's draught to draw them to Him. The scribes they heard Christ ofttime preach, and yet for all that they consented to the slaying of the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). Christ is preached there both to the Jew and to the Gentile, and yet for all that to the Jew He is a stumbling-block, and to the Grecian the preaching of Christ is foolishness. We have meikle for us when the Lord's word is preached to pray to Him that He would join His Spirit and His wind with His word. Ay, all means that can be used by ourselves or by others are nothing without that be joined. It is in vain for us to rise early and to lie down late, and to eat the bread of sorrow all the day, if the Lord give not the assistance of His Spirit to the means that we use.
因为他们还不知道圣经上说他必须从死里复活。其他的门徒，他们不相信那些预言基督从死里复活的经文。难道在基督的学校里会有一个学者没有学到基督教给他的功课吗？难道有人听过基督亲自讲述他复活的许多道理，却仍然不相信吗？是的，你可以在这里看到证据。从这里得出的教义很清楚，不是手段，也不是听基督亲自讲道，能使我们接近上帝，使我们理解属灵的事物。讲道确实是上帝为此目的指定的手段，也是他为使灵魂归向他而规定的途径。但是，当一切都结束时，它并不是唯一使我们接近上帝的手段。特别的是，我们的救主自己所说的（约翰福音 3:8），那随风而来，无人知道它从哪里来，往哪里去的风。 我们可以对你们讲道直到头裂开，胸膛爆裂；是的，我们可以对你们讲道直到世界末日，但除非与内心的圣灵呼召相结合，否则这一切都无济于事。因为对耳朵的外在声音是一回事，而基督解开一切困扰、消除一切障碍是另一回事。基督在肉身时曾说过（约翰福音 6:44）：“若不是父所引导，没有人能到我这里来。”基督在那里对那些拥有外在条件的人说，他们不来到他这里并不奇怪，尽管他们有条件，因为他们缺乏父的引导。文士们经常听到基督讲道，但尽管如此，他们还是同意杀害荣耀之主（哥林多前书 2:8）。基督在那里向犹太人和希腊人传道，但尽管如此，对于犹太人来说，他是绊脚石，对于希腊人来说，基督的传道是愚拙的。当主的话传讲时，我们有很多事情要做，要祷告求主将他的圣灵和风与他的话语相结合。是的，我们自己或他人所使用的一切方法，如果没有这种结合，都是无济于事的。 如果主不赐予我们所使用的方法以他的灵的帮助，我们早起晚睡，整日吃着忧伤的面包也是徒劳的。

And again, we may learn from this that arms of men are not the thing that will save us, if so be that the Lord Himself watch not over the camp. God keeps evermore the issue and the event of all things into His own hand. And this serves to teach us not to trust in means of any sort whether it be inward or outward matters, we should not lippen in man, nor in weapons, nor any second causes whatsoever, but only in the Lord Himself, that is the only strength of His people. And so learn to overlook second causes when you look that way, and look no lower nor heaven, to Him who sits there and guides and overrules all battles in the world and all things else, and will let it be seen in the end salvation, salvation, even His salvation to all them who trust in Him.
再次，我们可以从中学到，如果主自己不看守营地，人的武器不能拯救我们。上帝将一切事物的结果和结局都掌握在自己手中。这教导我们不要依靠任何手段，无论是内在的还是外在的事物，我们不应该依赖人，武器或任何其他次要原因，而只应依靠主自己，他是他的子民唯一的力量。因此，当你朝那个方向看时，学会忽略次要原因，不要抬头看天，而是看向那位坐在那里引导和支配世界上所有战斗和其他一切事物的主，并且最终会让人看到拯救，拯救，即他的拯救，给所有信靠他的人。

What gars that it is not said, "They believed not Christ," but they "believed not the Scriptures" concerning this point? For there is no part of Scripture so clear as the Lord Himself when He is preaching with His own blessed mouth concerning that article of the resurrection from the dead, albeit it is true the five books of Moses and other Scriptures spake also of this article.
为什么说：“他们不信基督”，而不是说“他们不信关于这一点的经文”？因为圣经中没有任何部分比主亲口所传讲的关于死人复活的教义更清楚，尽管摩西的五卷书和其他经文也提到了这一教义。

The reason of this is to teach us that Christ and the Scriptures they have but one tongue, and they who believe not the Scriptures they believe not Christ. It is not the sound of Christ's trumpet that many who profess to be preachers blow, but a sound from themselves and from men. This tells us what is Scripture and what is no[t] Scripture. That only is Scripture and no other that agrees with the will of the Son of God, and is according to His will revealed to us in His Word. And again, that is not Scripture, and so not to be believed or practised, which is not according to the Word of God. And so we may see that ceremonies and inventions of men they are but a dumb Bible, and a ground that none should follow for their salvation. If we have no other ground for our faith but only this, that the Pope, or the Kirk, has said such a thing, or the great learned doctors have said it, and therefore we believe it. As the poor men yonder over in the north, they have been deceived by believing what grave-like men spake to them, and men who gat the name of learning. That is a blind guide to follow, and will lead us in the mire. But these that are indeed the called and the elect of God, they can discover the voice of Christ from the voice of men, and they only will follow Christ's voice, and will follow no other, whatever they be.
这是为了教导我们基督和圣经只有一种语言，不相信圣经的人也不相信基督。很多号称传道人吹响的并非基督吹响的号角，而是自己和人间的声音。这告诉我们什么是圣经，什么不是。只有那些与上帝之子的旨意一致、按着上帝话语向我们启示的规定才是圣经，其他东西不是，因此不应该被信仰或实践。所以，我们可以看到，人的仪式和发明只是一本哑巴的《圣经》，是没有人应该依赖救赎的依据。如果我们除了这一点没有其他的信仰基础，即罗马教皇或教会说了这样的话，或是那些博学的医生们说了，所以我们才相信的话，那就像那些在北方的可怜人一样，他们被信仰那些充满威严的人和获得学术称号的人所欺骗。这是一种盲目的跟随，会把我们引入泥潭。 但那些确实是上帝所呼召和拣选的人，他们能够从人的声音中辨识出基督的声音，只会跟随基督的声音，不会跟随其他任何声音，无论它们是什么。

Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. They were oversoon tired of seeking, for they might have waited on as well as the poor woman did. But God has our seeking of Christ, and all our supernatural works of that kind, into His own hand. We believe, pray, repent, seek after Christ and His Spirit, praise, hear, read aright, &c., as long as Christ holds us by the hand, but we do it no longer. A stone that is up into the air is out of its own element, and so long as it has an impediment it will stay there. But take away the impediment that holds the stone from the ground, incontinent it falls to it again. Even so is it with us. When we are employed about these spiritual duties we are out of our natural element; and if the Lord take away His hand from the strongest of His children, a woman will go beyond them in doing good duties. Thank God for any good thing that thou hast, and that thou art kept in a good estate. They never kent Christ's help well who put man in such a tutor's hand as free-will, to be kept by it; who say that Christ has conquershed salvation to all, and when He has conquershed it, He puts it in the hand of free-will to be disposed of as it pleases, to keep or not to keep it. This is to make Christ a fool merchant, and not to take accompt whether it be misspent or not; but Christ is not so. He knows what shall become of all whom He has bought. You know it is evermore the happiness of the weaker to depend upon the stronger. So it is the happiness of the poor soul to depend upon Christ and upon free grace. The happiness of the ship stands in that to have a good pilot; the happiness of the lost weak sheep depends on a good shepherd to seek it in again, and to keep it from the enemies thereof; the happiness of the weak, witless orphans depends in a good, wise tutor. Even so the happiness of lost and tint souls depend on this, to lippen to Christ and His strength for their salvation, and not to such a changing tutor as their free-will is.
然后门徒又回到了自己的家。他们对寻找已经感到厌倦，因为他们本可以像那个可怜的妇人一样等待。但是上帝将我们对基督的寻求和所有超自然的工作都交到了自己手中。只要基督牵引着我们，我们就会相信、祈祷、悔改、追求基督和他的圣灵、赞美、听从、正确阅读等等，但我们不会再继续下去。一块被抛到空中的石头已经离开了自己的元素，只要有阻碍它下落的东西，它就会停在那里。但是一旦去除了阻碍石头回到地面的东西，它立刻又会掉下来。我们也是如此。当我们从事这些属灵的职责时，我们离开了我们的本性；如果主从他最坚强的儿女手中收回他的手，一个妇人会在履行善行方面超过他们。感谢上帝赐予你的任何美好之物，以及保持你处于良好状态。 他们从未真正理解基督的帮助，因为他们把人交给了自由意志这样一个导师的手中，说基督已经征服了所有的救恩，当他征服了它时，他把它放在自由意志的手中，由它自行决定是否保留。这是把基督当成一个愚蠢的商人，不管救恩是否被浪费。但基督并非如此。他知道他所买下的一切将会发生什么。你知道，对于弱者来说，依赖更强者是幸福的。因此，对于贫穷的灵魂来说，依赖基督和自由恩典是幸福的。船的幸福在于有一个好的船长；迷失的羊的幸福在于有一个好的牧羊人去寻找它，并保护它免受敌人的伤害；无知的孤儿的幸福在于有一个好的、聪明的导师。同样，迷失和失落的灵魂的幸福在于依靠基督和他的力量来得到救恩，而不是依靠他们的自由意志这样一个变化无常的导师。

But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. Here is a strange thing to think on. The Lord's own disciples they ran away from seeking of Him. One of them that had said, "If all should forsake Thee, yet shall I never forsake Thee;" and yet here is a woman more forward, and more constant in seeking Christ nor he is, for all his fair profession. It is not fair words and a golden profession that will take a soul to heaven, and will make us to seek Christ rightly. We are all meikle oblist to saving grace in our seeking Christ. Here is a woman more forward in seeking Christ nor all His eleven disciples are. Because she gat not her errand that she was seeking, she could not get Christ, and therefore she will not leave, nor give over, but will wait on and seek Him. A soul that is in love with Christ, they never get their errand till they get Christ Himself. Ye that are seeking Christ, never give over seeking till ye meet with Him, for they shall at last meet with Him who lie at His door, seeking, as this woman did, who say, "I shall lie still at Thy door, let me die there if Thou likest, and albeit it should come to that, I shall die, or I go away and meet not with Him." Ye may know the ardent desire of a soul after Christ can be satisfied with nothing but Himself.
但是玛丽站在坟墓外哭泣。这是一个奇怪的事情。主的门徒们都逃离了寻找他的行列。其中一个曾经说过：“即使所有人都离弃你，我也永远不会离弃你。”然而，这里有一个比他更积极、更坚定地寻找基督的女人，尽管他表面上很虔诚。美丽的言辞和金色的信仰并不能带领灵魂进入天堂，也不能使我们正确地寻求基督。在寻找基督的过程中，我们都要感谢拯救的恩典。这里有一个比所有十一个门徒都更积极地寻找基督的女人。因为她没有得到她所寻求的东西，她无法得到基督，所以她不会离开，也不会放弃，而是会等待并继续寻找他。一个对基督充满爱意的灵魂，直到得到基督本人，才能得到他们的目标。你们寻求基督的人，永远不要放弃寻找，直到与他相遇，因为那些躺在他门外寻求的人，最终会与他相遇，就像这个女人一样，她说：“我将一直躺在你的门外，如果你愿意，让我在那里死去，即使到了那个地步，我也宁愿死去，也不愿离开而不与他相遇。”你可能知道一个灵魂对基督的热切渴望只能通过他自己来满足。

We use to say the thing that one longs for is the thing they maun have, and no other thing will satisfy them. A man that is hungry, and longing for meat, he maun have meat, and meat only, or else he is not satisfied, albeit he get some other thing. A man that is in prison and longs to be free, nothing will satisfy him but liberty. Even so it is with this woman at this time; albeit the disciples were with her, yet nothing can comfort her till she get her lovely Lord whom she was seeking. Learn that lesson of spiritual importunity, never to give over seeking of Christ when once ye have begun to it. Blessed are they that ware their time this way, in seeking Christ.
我们常说一个人渴望的东西就是他们必须拥有的东西，其他任何东西都无法满足他们。一个饥饿并渴望肉食的人，他必须得到肉食，只有肉食才能使他满足，即使他得到其他东西也不行。一个被囚禁并渴望自由的人，只有自由才能使他满足。就像现在这个女人一样，即使门徒们和她在一起，但除非她得到她所寻找的可爱的主，否则没有任何东西能够安慰她。学会这个有关属灵坚持不懈的教训，一旦你开始寻求基督，就永远不要放弃。那些以这种方式度过时间寻求基督的人是有福的。

Mary stayed there weeping for want of Him, and yet looking into the grave to see if He were there. That is a good and blessed desire, and sorrow that is backed with doing. That is heaven's sorrow indeed that is backedwith doing and using the means. There are two things said of Jacob (Hos. 12:4), that he wept and wrestled in prayer with God. What is the matter of a dumb sorrow for the want of Christ? But that is a right sorrow for want of Christ that is joined with using the means to get Him. As it is in Solomon's Song 3:3, the spouse is wanting Christ there; she uses all means to get Him again. She goes to the watchmen, and says to them, "Watchmen, saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" She goes round about the city, and to the daughters of Jerusalem, and charges them. That proves her sorrow to be a right sorrow for the want of Christ. And ye know what sort of tears the Scripture says Christ had (Heb. 5:7). He shed tears while He was in His flesh, and withal He offered up prayers and strong cries to Him who was able to save Him, and was heard in that He feared. And that is the grief and sorrow that will only hold the feet when men are sorrowful for want of Christ, and withal use the means to get Him; and not only has a raw wish for Christ, and will not want a morning nor a night's sleep to meet with Him. That sorrow that is so is but a vain sorrow, and will do no good. What followed upon this?
玛丽因为渴望他而在那里哭泣，同时低头看坟墓，看他是否在那里。这是一个好的和有福的愿望，悲伤是有行动支持的。那确实是天堂的悲伤，是有行动和使用手段的。关于雅各布有两件事被提到（何西阿书 12:4），他哭泣并与上帝争战祷告。对于渴望基督的哑然悲伤有什么问题吗？但是，对于渴望基督的正确悲伤是与使用手段来得到他相结合的。正如所罗门的歌 3:3 所说，新娘渴望基督在那里；她使用一切手段再次得到他。她去找守望者，对他们说：“守望者们，你们看见我心爱的人吗？”她绕着城市走，去找耶路撒冷的女儿们，并责备她们。这证明了她因渴望基督而产生的悲伤是正确的。你们知道圣经说基督有什么样的眼泪（希伯来书 5:7）。他在肉体中流泪，同时向那能拯救他的主献上祷告和强烈的呼喊，因他的敬畏而蒙应允。 这是当人们因缺乏基督而感到悲伤时，只有持续努力寻求基督的方法，才能真正解除悲伤和忧伤。而仅仅对基督抱有一种朴素的愿望，却不愿为与祂相遇而放弃早晨或晚上的睡眠，这种悲伤是徒劳的，没有任何好处。接下来会发生什么呢？

She saw two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. What needs this guard to be here now when the Lord is risen from the dead? They stay here to be witnesses of Christ's resurrection, and to preach the same to this woman and to the disciples. And Matthew, he has a circumstance of this preaching of the angels that John has not. "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" Why are ye papists, to seek Christ at the holy grave now when He is risen? You may see that the work of man's redemption it is a very glorious and a very honourable work, for the angels in all the parts thereof are appointed to attend Christ and to wait. When He is born they maun speak to Joseph and His mother to flee for His safety, they foretell His birth, when they are to return with Him again they tell them, and when He was in the garden the angels are appointed to wait upon Him, to dight the bloody sweat off His face. And now, when He is in the grave, they are set to be a guard to His blessed and glorious body, and to preach of His resurrection. When He shall come again at the last day to judge the quick and the dead, He shall come with innumerable multitudes of angels—to let us see that the work of our salvation it is a very honourable work; and the angels they wait well upon it, and upon us. Even like a loving brother, who has his brother lying sick: O but he will run many errands for him in the time of his sickness, and will make all the house ado to get him well and at ease. Even so do the angels to us. They run many errands for us, and O but they are glad of our welfare; and (Heb. 1:10) it is said the angels are ministering spirits for the good of the heirs of salvation. Count ye little or meikle of your salvation as ye will, yet it is the angels' great task that they are employed about. They are appointed to wait on Christ, when is about the working thereof, both in His birth, in His agony, in His burial, in His ascending to heaven, and shall attend Him in His coming again to judge the quick and the dead. The Lord has them sent out to all the airts of the world to bring in His elect ones. Woe to ye who think little of salvation, fra the Lord employs such honourable messengers about the same. Alas! the work of our salvation is little thought upon by many. Twenty—a hundred thoughts will come in men's heads fra morn to night. And scarce have we one thought of this great work at any time. And what think ye shall become of them who are so careless of the work of the salvation of mankind whereof the angels are so careful?
她看见两位穿白衣的天使坐在那里，一位在头部，另一位在脚边，就是耶稣的身体曾躺过的地方。主已经从死里复活了，为什么还需要守卫呢？他们留在这里是要见证基督的复活，并向这位女子和门徒传扬这个消息。马太记载了关于天使传扬的情况，约翰没有。“你们为什么在死人中找活人呢？”你们是天主教徒，为何现在还去圣墓寻找已经复活的基督呢？你们可以看到人类救赎的工作是非常光荣和荣耀的，因为天使被委派在其中各个阶段侍奉基督，等待着。当他诞生的时候，他们必须告诉约瑟和他的母亲逃命，他们预言他的诞生，当他们再次和他返回时，他们告诉他们，当他在园中时，天使被委派侍奉他，擦他脸上的血汗。现在，当他在坟墓中时，他们被安排成为他的身体的卫兵，并传扬他的复活。 当他在末日再次来临审判生者和死者时，他将带着无数的天使群来，让我们看到我们的救赎工作是非常尊贵的工作；天使们会很好地照顾它，照顾我们。就像一个充满爱心的兄弟，他的兄弟生病了：哦，他会在病中为他跑很多腿，会让整个家庭为他康复和舒适而忙碌。天使们对我们也是这样。他们为我们跑很多腿，哦，他们为我们的福祉感到高兴；正如希伯来书 1:10 所说，天使是为了拯救的继承人的利益而服侍的灵。无论你对你的救赎看得多么重要，对天使来说，这是他们所从事的伟大任务。他们被指派在基督工作时等候，无论是在他的诞生、在他的苦难、在他的埋葬、在他升天，还是在他再次来临审判生者和死者时。主派他们到世界各地去招募他的选民。哀哉，你们对救赎看得如此微不足道，因为主派出如此尊贵的使者来从事这项工作。唉！ 许多人很少关注我们的救赎工作。人们从早到晚会有二十到一百个念头。而我们却很少想到这项重大工作。你们认为对人类救赎工作如此漫不经心的人会得到什么结局，而天使对此却如此关切？

Thir witnesses, they were clad in white. The angels, they have not our common country clothes, but they are like heaven in their apparel; to teach all those who are looking to be heirs of heaven to be clad like their country. The angels, they are clad with glory and with majesty, and therefore a sight of them will make a sinner to fall to the ground dead. If we think to be heirs of God in Christ, let us not be like the rest of the corrupt world. The apostle, he has a word for this (Rom. 12:2): "Be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed in the spirit of your mind." When ye are drunkensome, and swearers, and break the Lord's day, as the rest of the world does, that proves you to be of the world, and not to have your affections up above. If ye would prove yourselves to be heirs of heaven, strive to be like your father, and like your country, and wear the livery of the house which is holiness: "Holiness becomes Thy house, O Lord." Mind the things that are above.
他们是白衣见证人。天使们没有我们常见的乡村服装，但他们的衣着如同天堂，教导所有渴望成为天堂继承人的人要像他们的国家一样打扮。天使们身披荣耀和威严，因此看到他们会使罪人倒地死去。如果我们想成为基督里上帝的继承人，就不要像腐败的世界一样。使徒对此有话说（罗马书 12:2）：“不要与世界相同，却要在心意更新而变化。”当你们像其他世界的人一样酗酒、咒骂和破坏主日，这证明你们属于世界，而不是心思超越世俗。如果你们想证明自己是天堂的继承人，努力像你们的父亲和国家一样，并穿上圣洁的家庭制服：“圣洁适合你的殿宇，主啊。”心思要放在上面的事物上。

And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? This would seem to be a needless question to propose to her, for she might [have] said, "I have tint my Saviour; who can blame me to weep? who can reprove me for it, seeing I want my Lord? But there is something in this question that is unseen, that is the reason wherefore they ask it, and this is it: "Your salvation is now finished, and the devils are casten out of you, and so what gars you weep now?" Our Lord would tell us by this, that ofttimes we weep when we have cause to rejoice. She should have said, "This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will be glad and rejoice in it." "This is a day when a decreet is passed in heaven in your favours, that the lost seed of Adam is redeemed; and thou also art in the decree of redemption among the rest, therefore thou should not weep." O that we could learn to accommodate our affections, and all that is in us, to God; to weep when He weeps, and to rejoice when He rejoices. And when our Lord is without in the fields, it is not time for us then to laugh, and to rejoice, and to be feasting. It is a time matter for mourning, now when our Lord is out into the fields, and when His armies are out, and are in scarcity. And yet we trust that our Lord is keeping a day for us of this land, wherein we shall say, "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it."
他们对她说：“女人，你为什么哭泣？”这似乎是一个不必要的问题，因为她本可以说：“我失去了我的救主，谁能责怪我哭泣？谁能因此责备我，因为我失去了我的主？但是这个问题中有一些看不见的东西，这就是他们问的原因，这就是：“你的救恩已经完成，魔鬼已经从你身上赶出去了，那么现在你为什么哭泣？”我们的主通过这个告诉我们，往往我们在有理由欢喜的时候却哭泣。她本应该说：“这是耶和华所造的日子，我们要在其中欢喜快乐。”“这是一个在天上为你们通过的法令的日子，亚当的失落后裔得到了救赎；而你也在救赎的法令中，所以你不应该哭泣。”哦，但愿我们能学会将我们的情感和我们的一切都归于上帝；当祂哭泣时，我们也哭泣；当祂欢喜时，我们也欢喜。当我们的主在田野中时，此时不是我们欢笑、欢喜和宴会的时候。 这是一个悲伤的时刻，如今我们的主出去到田野，他的军队出去，并且缺乏。然而我们相信我们的主会为我们留下这片土地的一个日子，我们会说：“这是耶和华所定的日子，我们在其中要高兴快乐。”"

Whom seekest thou? This question is speered at her to make her hunger to be the greater, for the greatest hunger that any has for Christ they may, aye, be more hungry for Him. And so learn to rap out all your desires and affections for Christ, not only love Him, but be sick of love for Him. That is more than ordinary love to be like to die for love of Him. And so all your desires and longing for Christ, strive to make them more, ay, till you come to that which the spouse has; "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell Him that I am sick of love. I charge you, as ye will answer to God, that ye tell Christ I am sick of love for want of Him," and till ye come to heaven to sing songs of Him eternally.
你寻找谁？这个问题是问她的，让她更渴望，因为任何人对基督的渴望都可能更加渴望。所以学会表达对基督的所有渴望和感情，不仅仅是爱他，而是对他的爱痴迷不已。这不仅仅是普通的爱，而是愿意为他而死的爱。所以你对基督的所有渴望和向往，努力让它们更多，直到你拥有像新娘一样的爱：“我嘱咐你们，耶路撒冷的众女子，若遇见我的良人，要告诉他我因爱而生病。我嘱咐你们，你们要对基督说，我因为没有他而病得要死。”直到你来到天堂永远歌颂他。

"They have tane away my Lord, and I wat not where they have laid Him." This is her apology that she uses for justifying of herself in her weeping, "Why may not I weep, who once had Christ, and now I want Him?" That is a sorrow that may be avowed before God and before the world, to be sorrowful for the want of Christ. There are some who are sorrowful, and it is a shame to hear of it, the cause thereof not being good. Sorrow for want of my bairns, for want of my husband; sorrow for the loss of something of the world, or giving out something for Christ, &c.; that is a shameful sorrow that cannot be avowed. But that is an honest sorrow that comes from the want of Christ. Look that ye ware all your affections that way as ye may avow them, and avow the cause of them before God and man. That is a sorrow that may be avowed that a soul has for want of Christ.
他们把我的主带走了，我不知道他们把他放在哪里。这是她为自己的哭泣辩解的借口，“为什么我不能哭泣呢？我曾经拥有基督，现在我却失去了他。”这是一种可以在上帝和世人面前公开承认的悲伤，为了渴望基督而感到悲伤。有些人感到悲伤，但听到这种悲伤的原因却是可耻的。为了孩子的缺失而悲伤，为了丈夫的缺失而悲伤；为了失去世俗的某些东西，或者为了基督而放弃某些东西而悲伤等等；这是一种无法公开承认的可耻的悲伤。但是，一个灵魂因为渴望基督而感到的悲伤是诚实的。确保你将所有的感情都投入到那个方向上，以便你可以公开承认它们，并在上帝和人面前承认它们的原因。一个灵魂因为渴望基督而感到的悲伤是可以公开承认的。

What is the matter and cause of her sorrow?
她的悲伤是什么原因和起因？

"They have taken away my Lord, and I wat not where they have laid Him." He is out of my sight, and yet He is my Lord for all that; He is dead, and yet He is my Lord; for that she says, "They have taken Him away, and wat not where they have laid Him," is as meikle as if she doubted yet of His resurrection. And a little after she says to Christ Himself, supposing Him to be the gardener, "Sir, if thou hast borne Him away, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away." "I will think Him a sweet burden to come upon my back for all the pounds weight of spices that are about Him."
他们把我的主带走了，我不知道他们把他放在哪里。他离开了我的视线，但他仍然是我的主；他已经死了，但他仍然是我的主；因为她说，“他们把他带走了，我不知道他们把他放在哪里”，就好像她还怀疑他是否复活。不久之后，她对着被她误认为园丁的基督说：“先生，如果你把他带走了，告诉我你把他放在哪里，我会把他带走。”“我会觉得他是一个甜蜜的负担，即使他身上有几磅的香料。”

The doctrine is clear. To the children of God, lost Christ is their Christ when all is done. In Cant. 5 the Lord's party, the Kirk of Christ, is there sleeping in her bed, and Christ, her husband, standing at the outside of the door knocking, and she says, "I slept, but my heart waked; it is the voice of my beloved." Thy beloved, and, yet for all that, He is out of thy sight. Let the believer's Christ be where He will, yet He is theirs. If they were in hell and He up in heaven, the believer will say, "He is my Christ, albeit Christ should cast me off, and not count me to be His, yet He is mine." So does David's word as the type, and Christ's word as the antitype, testify, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He is a forsaking Lord, and yet He is their Lord when all is done. Ay, the believer will say, "He is my Lord, albeit He forsake me, and I will come to Him." Then true faith when it has the back at the wall will claim to Christ, and count Him to belong to them. And that is a very good mark of faith, that when one is setting Christ a speering on all airts, and cannot get Him for no seeking, yet to count Him to be their Christ. This is the thing that the devil would fain be in hands with, to make you to doubt that He is your Christ or your Lord. This was the temptation wherewith he assaulted Christ our Lord. "If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from the pinnacle of the temple," &c. All that the devil would be at in his temptations is to make us doubt that Christ is ours. But never give it over when all is done, but evermore take Christ for thine.
教义是清楚的。对于上帝的子民来说，失落的基督就是他们的基督，一切都结束了。在《雅歌》第 5 章中，主的一方，基督的教会，正在她的床上睡觉，而她的丈夫基督站在门外敲门，她说：“我睡着了，但我的心醒了；这是我心爱的声音。”你的心爱的人，然而，尽管如此，他却不在你的视线范围内。无论信徒的基督在哪里，他都是他们的。即使他们在地狱，他在天堂，信徒也会说：“他是我的基督，即使基督抛弃我，不认我为他的，他仍然是我的。”大卫的话作为预表，基督的话作为实际，都证明了这一点：“我的神，我的神，你为什么离弃我？”他是一个离弃的主，然而当一切结束时，他仍然是他们的主。是的，信徒会说：“他是我的主，即使他抛弃我，我也会去找他。”因此，真正的信仰在面临困境时会向基督要求，并认为他属于他们。这是信仰的一个非常好的标志，即当一个人在各个方向上寻找基督，却无法找到他时，仍然认为他是他们的基督。 这是魔鬼渴望与之接触的东西，让你怀疑他是否是你的基督或主。这是他攻击我们的主耶稣的诱惑。“如果你是神的儿子，就从殿顶上跳下来”，等等。魔鬼在诱惑中所追求的就是让我们怀疑基督是否属于我们。但无论如何，永远要接受基督为你的。

And, oh, that this land would believe this now, that He is our God, and the God of this land. Then suppose that our armies were put to the worst that are now out into the fields—as we trust in God it shall not be—but albeit it should be so, I say, yet seeing He is Scotland's Lord, if so be that we will wait upon Him, and trust in Him and in His salvation, it shall be found that it is not a vain thing to do so, but that He shall grant us His salvation who trust in Him. And to this Lord, &c.
哦，愿这片土地现在相信这一点，即祂是我们的上帝，也是这片土地的上帝。假设我们的军队在战场上遭受了最坏的情况——我们相信上帝不会让这种情况发生——但即使如此，我要说，既然祂是苏格兰的主，只要我们等候祂，信靠祂和祂的救恩，我们会发现这样做并不是徒劳的，祂会赐予我们信靠祂的人祂的救恩。向这位主，等等。

The Spouse's Longing for Christ
配偶对基督的渴望

"I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake; I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer."—SONG OF SOLOMON 5:3–6.
我脱下了我的外套，我该如何穿上它？我洗了我的脚，我该如何弄脏它们？我心爱的人把手伸进门孔，我的内脏为他而动。我起身去给我的爱人开门；我的手滴着没药，我的手指上有甜美的没药香，沾在锁的把手上。我给我的爱人开了门；但我的爱人已经离开了，他走了：当他说话时，我的灵魂失去了力量；我寻找他，但找不到他；我呼唤他，但他没有回答我。——《雅歌》5:3-6。

"I HAVE put off my coat." This is the spouse's answer full of Christ. Like one gone to bed, and having washen his feet, as the custom was in these hot countries, because of sweat after travel. As the friend answereth (Luke 11:7), "Trouble me not; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed." This shows while we are asleep, and bedded with our sweet pleasures, Christ's sweet words, "My sister, my love, my dove," His holy and dear head, frozen with cold, cannot move her to open and let Him in. While the temptation is up and upon horseback, and takes us on the right nick, and finds us on a ground of sinning with hot blood, we can hardly stand on our feet and resist, or hold out. The prophets rose early in the morning, and sat late up, and spake to Israel to return from their ill ways; yet Israel hearkened not (Jer. 26:5), for idolatry had taken them on the right nick, and jumped with their ease (ver. 18). David was not himself in commanding to number the people, for Joab, otherwise a bad man, had better light nor David, a man after God's own heart, for he was against the numbering of the people. But the devil stood up, and took David at the right side, when his pride was swollen over the banks (1 Chron. 21:1). Job's friends, finding him in a fit of distemper, sometimes through vehemency of his pain, caused him to sclent a little off the line. The devil, winnowing Peter, came upon his right side to put him upon the denying of his Lord when he was upon a cold blood in the fear of his life.
我脱下了外套。这是配偶充满基督的回答。就像一个上床睡觉的人，洗了脚，因为在这些炎热的国家，旅行后会出汗。就像朋友回答（路加福音 11:7）：“不要打扰我，门已经关上了，我的孩子们和我一起在床上。”这表明当我们沉睡时，与甜蜜的快乐一起上床，基督甜美的话语，“我的姐妹，我的爱人，我的鸽子”，他圣洁而亲爱的头，冻得发僵，不能动摇她打开门让他进来。当诱惑上马并找到我们在犯罪的地方时，我们几乎无法站稳脚步抵抗或坚持下去。先知们清晨起床，晚上坐着，对以色列人说要回头离开他们的邪恶之道；然而以色列人没有听从（耶利米书 26:5），因为他们陷入了拜偶像的陷阱，与他们的安逸相契合（节 18）。大卫在指挥人口普查时不是自己，因为约押，一个坏人，比大卫更明智，大卫是神心中的人，他反对人口普查。 但魔鬼站起来，从大卫的右边接过他，当他的骄傲超过了界限（《历代志上》21:1）。约伯的朋友们发现他在病痛中有时会有些失控，因为疼痛的剧烈，使他有些偏离正道。魔鬼在筛选彼得时，从他的右边接近，让他在冷静的情况下否认自己的主，因为他害怕自己的生命。

There be four reasons of this:
这有四个原因

The first is common—a withdrawing of God's working grace; for, if the dam grow dry or ebb, the mill stands. Psa. 30:7: "Thou didst hide thy face"—now the horse is saddled—"and I was troubled." So, then, unbelief makes a road. When free-will holds the bridle, up goes the rider's heels, and he feels his own weight; and so it cannot but be, for obedience is not a web of our making.
第一种情况是常见的，即上帝的恩典撤离；因为如果水坝干涸或退潮，磨坊就会停止运转。诗篇 30:7：“你掩面，我就惊惶。”所以，不信仰开辟了一条道路。当自由意志握住缰绳时，骑手的脚跟就会抬起，他感受到自己的重量；这是不可避免的，因为顺从不是我们自己编织的网。

2. The temptation in this case is many stone weight, heavier than our shoulders dow bear. Pride, lust, laziness, and security are the meikle water, the saints are the short-legged horse, and down they go. God gives the devil liberty to break many a weak back. Be humble and fear. He knew us full well when He bade us pray, "Lord, lead us not into temptation."
在这种情况下的诱惑是沉重的，比我们的肩膀更重。骄傲、欲望、懒惰和安逸是汹涌的水流，圣人们是短腿的马，它们都会倒下。上帝给了魔鬼自由去压垮许多软弱的背脊。要谦卑并且畏惧。当他命令我们祈祷“主啊，不要引导我们入诱惑”的时候，他非常了解我们。

3. There be two herbs that grow quickly in our souls in summer weather—security and pride. Humility is a strange flower; it grows best in winter weather, and under storms of affliction. When security and pride and other neighbour-like weeds are rank and up, the temptation has us in the nick. Then if ye would be kept from the temptation's black hour, swell not in pride, turn not lazy in the use of good means. If you do, look for a temptation, as God's lance to make a hole and let out the wind.
夏天的时候，我们心灵中会迅速生长出两种草药——安全感和自豪感。谦卑是一朵奇特的花；它在冬天的天气和苦难的风暴下生长得最好。当安全感、自豪感和其他类似的杂草繁茂生长时，诱惑就会在关键时刻降临。如果你想避免诱惑的黑暗时刻，就不要沾沾自喜，不要懒散地使用好的方法。如果你这样做了，就要预料到诱惑会像上帝的长矛一样刺破你，让风逃逸出来。

4. Light is turned blunt and wants an edge, and then the temptation of a hot bed will prevail to hold Christ at the wrong side of the door. For here I provoke to your experience to discern two nicks you will be on. In the one, the temptation goes home without its errand; in the other, ye are taken, at a preaching, communion, a renewed glance of the face of Christ, at the death of a friend, or under a sharp rod. At such a time the temptation comes, and your light is like a new sharp knife. There is much steel into it, and the light shall cut the temptation in the weft at the first wipe. Let that light be a quarter of a year beside you, and it turns rusty and blunt, and loses the edge; and then let the devil come, my friend, say you, and I will foot his boul. The temptation comes on; and by and by without a host it is made welcome and the light stands by looking on like a dead witness, and says nothing.
光变得迟钝，渴望一把刀锋，然后诱惑会占上风，将基督留在错误的一边门外。因此，我挑战你的经验，去辨别你将会处于两种境地。在其中一种情况下，诱惑没有达到目的而离开；在另一种情况下，你会在传道、圣餐、重新瞥见基督的面容、朋友去世或遭受严厉的惩罚时被诱惑。在这样的时刻，诱惑来临，你的光就像一把新的锋利刀。它里面有很多钢，光会在第一次擦拭时将诱惑切断。让那束光陪伴你一个季度，它就会变得生锈和迟钝，失去了刀锋；然后让魔鬼来吧，我的朋友，你会说，我会踩住他的脖子。诱惑来了；不久之后，它没有了主人，却被欢迎进来，而光则像一个死人证人一样站在一旁，无动于衷，一言不发。

It were a good use of this doctrine to observe the right stots of your soul, to sharp blunted light, to beware of pride and security, and eye well often the case of your heart. Learn to know the gate to the bottom of it. Plumb often, and see how many fathom deep it is. When the heart is up on the devil's nick, now, now take yourselves quickly, guide well, wale your steps, fear and quake, cry to your rock, put your blunt light to the grinding-stone again.
这个教义的好处是观察你的灵魂的正确状态，磨尖钝的光，提防骄傲和安全感，并经常关注你心灵的情况。学会了解它的底部的门。经常测量，看看它有多深。当心灵陷入魔鬼的陷阱时，现在，现在迅速采取行动，引导好自己，选择好自己的步伐，害怕和颤抖，向你的磐石呼喊，再次将你钝的光磨尖。

"How shall I put it on?" This she says, as thinking it impossible and unreasonable, as Joseph said to his mistress (Gen. 39:9), "How can I do this." There is a dispute here with chiding. "Is not this," would she say, "an unreasonable suit of my well-beloved to bid me fyle my feet, lose my sweet pleasures, go naked in the winter night? Is He not a cumbersome Christ, are not His commandments untimeous, might He not have knocked ere the sun went down, ere I went to bed? It is strange this Christ of mine must have service betwixt midnight and cockcrow, when all other folks are at rest."
“我该怎么穿上它？”她这样说，仿佛认为这是不可能和不合理的，就像约瑟对他的主人说的那样（创世记 39:9），“我怎么能做到这一点。”这里有一个争论和责备。她可能会说：“我亲爱的要求我弄脏我的脚，失去我甜蜜的享受，在寒冷的冬夜赤身裸体，这不是一个不合理的要求吗？难道他不是一个累赘的基督，他的命令不是不合时宜的吗？他不可以在太阳落山之前敲门吗？在我上床之前？奇怪的是，我的基督必须在午夜和鸡鸣之间得到服务，而其他人都在休息。”

We see there be some dainty white and thin-skinned temptations, yea, holy-like, reason-like, and velvet sins, so well favoured to us that they seem to prove Christ to be an unnatural, savage, cumbersome guest, as wild as Turk or Jew. Such reasons will say: "I dow not hold up Christ's cumbersome yeas and nays. He will flay the skin off poor nature." For some temptations are of base metal, made of clay, yea they are wholly gross and round spun and ill-litted (Ezek. 13:10). The prophets slew souls that should have lived, for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread. But ordinarily Satan has strong and well-spun reasons on his side; and the chief one that makes great din is the world for the world's pleasure, profit, a hot soft bed, well perfumed, daintily made. The devil has drawn the curtains, ushed the house, and kept the chamber quiet that ye may take your headful of sleep; and all these are set against Christ, to hold Him out. No marvel then the hot bed prevails with the spouse. For a mess of pottage prevailed with Esau as a good one. "What? I am hungry; I may not die; you will tell me of the dignity of my birthright, a type of heaven. But answer me this question, Let the birthright go play itself while hungry and famishing Esau breakfasts." This is strong with the whore against God and the seventh commandment. Prov. 7:17, 18: "The bed is trim and decked; we will get our fill of love; the good man is from home." The robber has his logic on his finger ends. It is not to seek against God and the eighth commandment. Prov. 1:13: "We shall find all precious substance; we shall fill ourselves with spoil." You know that it is a notable token of sanctified light when men are deaf at all reasons that are against Christ and His word. The flesh cries out, "What fyle my feet, lose my place, leave my hot bed for I wot not what?" If the Lord's spirit is in you, answer, "What, fyle my conscience? Better boolie in my bed, quit my true peace, and lose my Christ." A reason from gold would not be a golden one to Paul; seeing for Christ, all were loss and dirt and dung to Him. The disciples' nets and their lines and their fish-hooks were not worth a straw when Christ said, "Follow Me." Thou who art teddered to thy delights, when Christ comes by and cries, "Follow Me," if then thou canst break thy tether like a rotten straw rope, and gallop after Him, thou hast clear eyes and seest well.
我们看到有一些精致的白色和薄皮的诱惑，是的，像圣洁一样，像理性一样，像天鹅绒一样的罪恶，对我们来说如此美好，以至于它们似乎证明基督是一个不自然、野蛮、笨重的客人，像土耳其人或犹太人一样野蛮。这样的理由会说：“我不认同基督那些繁琐的肯定和否定。他会把可怜的本性剥皮。”因为有些诱惑是由低贱的金属制成的，由泥土制成，是完全粗糙和圆滚滚的，不适合的（以西结书 13:10）。先知们为了一把大麦和一块面包杀死了本应该活着的灵魂。但通常撒旦有强大而精心编织的理由；而且最主要的一个理由是为了世界的快乐、利益，一个热情而柔软的床，香气扑鼻，精心制作。魔鬼拉上了窗帘，打扫了房子，保持了房间的安静，让你可以安心入睡；所有这些都是为了阻止基督进来。难怪热情的床能够打动新娘。一碗红豆汤使以扫屈服，看起来是一种好东西。“什么？我饿了；我不能死；你会告诉我我的身份的尊贵，这是天堂的象征。” 但是回答我这个问题，让长子权自己玩耍，而饥饿和饥荒的以扫吃早餐。”这是妓女对上帝和第七诫的强烈反对。箴言 7:17, 18：“床已经整理好了，我们将满足我们对爱的渴望；好人不在家。”强盗对他的逻辑了如指掌。这不是反对上帝和第八诫。箴言 1:13：“我们将找到一切宝贵的财富；我们将填满自己的战利品。”你知道，当人们对基督和他的话语的反对理由都听不见时，这是圣洁光明的显著标志。肉体呼喊着，“为什么弄脏我的脚，失去我的位置，离开我的热床，我不知道为什么？”如果主的灵在你里面，回答说，“什么，弄脏我的良心？宁愿在我的床上打滚，放弃我的真正平安，失去我的基督。”对保罗来说，黄金的理由对他来说并不是一个金色的理由；因为对基督来说，一切都是损失和粪土。门徒们的渔网、渔线和鱼钩在基督说“跟从我”的时候一文不值。当基督经过并呼喊“跟随我”的时候，你这个被束缚在欢乐中的人，如果你能像烂稻草绳一样打破束缚，跟随着他奔驰，那么你就有清晰的眼睛，看得很清楚。

But here is a question that were worthy the loosing, What makes this so hard to us, to go but the breadth of the house barefooted to let in Christ? Certainly the reasons are these.
但这里有一个值得思考的问题，为什么对我们来说，赤脚走过房子的宽度来迎接基督是如此困难？毫无疑问，原因如下。

1. Our light is corrupt and looks awry, and with a gleed eye upon Christ, and it looks with many eyes to the world. Hence when Christ knocketh it says, first, He cannot come here. Second: I doubt if it be Christ that knocketh, because I wish it were not He. Third: I must live. Fourth: I dow not suffer. Fifth: This and this will befal me if I do it. Sixth: If I would let Him in, then my lusts would get no quarters with Him. My will, my affections, and He would never give one jot. They would flee upon each other. Nay, men's lusts are up where eyes should be, and their eyes down at their feet.
我们的光明被腐败和歪曲，目光瞥向基督，同时也向世界投以多重目光。因此，当基督敲门时，它首先说，他不能来这里。第二：我怀疑是不是基督在敲门，因为我希望不是他。第三：我必须活下去。第四：我不会受苦。第五：如果我这样做，这个和那个将会发生在我身上。第六：如果我让他进来，那么我的欲望就无法与他共存。我的意愿，我的感情，他永远不会妥协。它们会互相冲突。不，人们的欲望在应该有眼睛的地方上升，而他们的眼睛却低垂在脚下。

2. This is like the first. The devil has litted the world and the pleasures of it. Thirty pieces cast a scad of golden glance upon Judas. His light said, "Sorrow, make care, howbeit the Pharisees had my hungry Master, so be it I had a purse for my part of Him." Colours, and the purple skin of things, and not the things themselves, cross our eye.
这就像第一个一样。魔鬼点亮了世界和其中的欢乐。三十块银币在犹大身上投下了一道金色的光芒。他的光芒说：“悲伤，小心，尽管法利赛人拥有了我饥饿的主人，但我有一个属于我的钱袋。”颜色和事物的紫色皮肤，而不是事物本身，穿越我们的眼睛。

3. Our heart and our affections hold us still in our hot sheets, that we dow not rise to let Christ in. Yea, hardness of heart, the worst believer, and the toughest disputer in the world, carveth all, and when we come to choose what to do, then we speer counsel. Again, what sayest thou, lust? what is your will and vote? honour, ease, &c.?—tell me. Shall I let him in? and then we hear not the other side till amen. O but beloved, there is a thing they call "Try all things," and look again and fear always, so needful here that they would pull the covering off all things, and let you see all things, whose skin is black, and whose is white.
我们的心和情感让我们仍然留在我们的炽热床上，以致我们不起身让基督进来。是的，心硬如石头，是世上最坚定的信徒，最顽固的谈论者，都会崇拜一切，当我们来选择该做什么时，我们会询问建议。再者，你说说，欲望，你有什么意愿和投票？尊荣，安逸，等等？告诉我。我该让他进来吗？然后我们不再听另一面的声音，直到最后。“哦，亲爱的，有一件事叫做“尝试一切”，并且再次审视并永远畏惧，所以在这里是如此必要，以至于他们将所有事物的遮盖物都撕下来，让你看到所有事物，看看谁的皮肤是黑的，谁的是白的。

"How can I? how can I, spouse?" thou askest, "how can I arise? how can I put on my coat?" I will tell thee how thou canst. Stir thy legs and arms, raise thy frozen fingers. It is strange to make a question how a whole strong man not bound can rise out of his bed! Stir ye, and cast the covering and bed-clothes off, and come to the floor. If men would suffer their light to play fair play, and think judiciously and spiritually on the world, and the delights of it, which is their soft bed, they might open to Christ. Men are but sleeping on a bed of ice. It will melt with the heat of God's anger, and they, and their night sheets, and the bed will swim, nay, men have reason to tire of this bed, both short and narrow. Luke 12:20: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be taken from you;" 1 Cor. 7:31: "The fashion of this world passeth away." Is not this a short bed? Fools cannot get down their feet.
“我怎么能呢？我怎么能呢，伴侣？”你问道，“我怎么能起床？我怎么能穿上外套？”我告诉你怎么做。动一动你的腿和胳膊，抬起冻僵的手指。一个完整而强壮的人怎么能问如何从床上起来呢？动起来，把被子和床单扔掉，站到地板上来。如果人们愿意让他们的内心光明正大地发挥作用，理智而有灵性地思考这个世界及其乐趣，也就是他们柔软的床，他们就可以向基督敞开心扉。人们只是在一张冰床上睡觉。它将会在上帝愤怒的热量下融化，他们和他们的夜被子以及床都会漂浮起来，不，人们有理由对这张床感到厌倦，因为它又短又窄。路加福音 12:20：“无知的人哪，今夜必要你的灵魂。”哥林多前书 7:31：“因为这世界的样子将要过去。”这难道不是一张短床吗？愚昧的人无法把脚放下去。

2. Is it not often hard, and so hard that Ahitophel, a king's counsellor, who could not but have a well-made bed, could not sleep a wink in it? he leaped over the bedstock, and hanged himself, and slipped down to hell.
2. 这不常常是困难的吗？困难到连亚希多弗这样的国王谋士也睡不着觉吗？他跳过床架，上吊自杀，跌入地狱。

3. Yea, cold, cold lie they, the clothes fall all over the bedstock, when (Jer. 14) nobles cannot get a drink of water. Nebuchadnezzar, with many kingdoms, is driven from them all, and from among men, to eat grass with the oxen (Dan. 4:33). Here narrow sheets and a cold bed.
是的，冷，冷的谎言，衣服都掉在床上，当贵族们无法喝到水时（耶利米书 14 章）。尼布甲尼撒王，带着许多王国，被驱逐出其中的所有王国，也被驱逐出人类之中，与牛一起吃草（但以理书 4:33）。这里只有狭窄的床单和冷冰冰的床。

4. These who have been snoring and sleeping here are pulled out of their sheets by the Lord, and they leave foul sheets behind them. Job 20:6: Though the hypocrite's "excellency mounteth to heaven"—a fair and well-made bed—"yet he shall perish for ever, as his own dung" (ver. 7). Are not these foul foldings? "The memory of the wicked shall rot" (Prov. 10:7). When he is gone his name shall stink. It were good then that all who sleep in this bed would waken and rise, and seek rest to their souls, else God shall send three sharp toothed hands—the devil, death, and judgment—to pull them over the bedstock. And when (2 Pet. 3) the earth and works therein shall be burned with fire, these who lie hottest, and softest, and sleep sound, shall, even they, their bedclothes, and bed straw, shall all be set on fire, and the bed will be burnt to ashes.
这些一直在这里打鼾和睡觉的人被主拽出床单，他们留下了肮脏的床单。约伯记 20:6：虽然伪君子的“崇高达到天堂”——一张漂亮而精心制作的床——“但他将永远灭亡，如同自己的粪便”（第 7 节）。这些不是肮脏的折叠吗？“恶人的名字必要朽烂”（箴言 10:7）。当他离去时，他的名声将臭气熏天。那么，睡在这张床上的人最好醒来起身，寻求灵魂的安息，否则上帝将派遣三只锋利的手——魔鬼、死亡和审判——将他们从床上拉下来。当（彼得后书 3）地球和其中的一切都被火焚烧时，那些最热、最柔软、睡得最香的人，连他们的床单和床草都将被点燃，床将化为灰烬。

"My beloved put in his hand." That is, with the outward ministry of the word. He put in His hand—it is His Spirit (Acts 11:21; Ezek. 3:13; Luke 11:20)—in the hole of my heart, to make a wider hole. I confess this putting of Christ's hand in the key-hole of the heart is better felt nor told. But it is this: when Christ sent His voice and tongue through the door, it did not [do] the turn, and therefore He caused His hand to follow His tongue. He gave with the hand of His Spirit such a dunt, until bed, and house, and all did shake, and the door fell on the floor. Who knows not this who knows Christ's working—that when Christ speaks, His Spirit will make in the heart a stirring and such a glowing, that they will find His soft hand rubbing their cold heart? And when a key and lock are rusted, we rub oil upon the rusty part. When Christ cometh, He finds the wards, sprents go in and out at will, and He takes will and heart and affections in His hand, and scours them with His file. Phil. 3:12: "I am apprehended of Christ Jesus;" Luke 24:32: "Did not our hearts burn, burn within us, while He spoke;" Cant. 2:4: "He brought me to His banqueting-house." This was a pull of Christ, taking her by the shoulders, and bringing her into the king's pantry. Hence here be two actions.
我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我��上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里，我心上的钥孔里这是基督的拉扯，他抓住她的肩膀，把她带进了国王的食品储藏室。因此，这里有两个动作。

One of the word, painting out with alluring and soul delighting words, Christ's fair white and ruddy face; this is a moral yoke.
其中一个词，用迷人而令人心灵愉悦的词语描绘出基督公正的白色和红润的面庞；这是一种道德的束缚。

And withal there is a real action of the hand of the Spirit in all His ten fingers working upon the lock, and setting, engraving, and stamping Christ in deep letters upon the soul. As when a fish is taken there are two actions, the bait alluring and beguiling the fish with hope of meat. This is like the working of the word which is Christ's bait; but when He wins us to dry land, then, when the fish is hooked, there is a real action of the fisher, drawing and hauling the fish to land; it leaping and flightering and wrestling while it bleeds with the hook. And this answereth to the Holy Spirit's powerful hauling and drawing of the soul in all the affections, that the soul feeleth joy, comfort, delight, desire, longing, believing, nibbling, and biting Christ's bait.
与此同时，圣灵的手以十个手指的真实行动，作用于锁上，将基督深深地刻在灵魂上。就像捕鱼时有两个动作，饵诱使鱼希望得到食物。这就像是基督的话语的作用；但当祂将我们带到陆地上时，当鱼被钩住时，渔夫会真实地拉扯鱼，将其拖上岸；鱼会跳跃、挣扎，而且带着钩子流血。这对应着圣灵在所有情感中有力地拉扯和吸引灵魂，使灵魂感受到喜悦、安慰、快乐、渴望、相信、咬合和咬住基督的饵。

The use is; Because there are odd times, we should take Christ at the right stot. When His hand is thrusting itself down upon our heart you should thrust your hand on above it, and thrust His stamp and His burning iron even down to the bone, that there may be great letters left behind, and all your life after you may bear Christ's marks. Till such a time, you shall never get such fair quarters or such odd conditions of Christ. Therefore make a double knot, neglect not to work with Christ, and set out all the sails of your soul, and write up the time, and this shall help your doubtings afterwards, and shall be a fair seal of your election. It must be a great guiltiness to smore Christ's fire, and cast water on it, by other bye-thoughts, refusing to take Christ's ball at the stot, and strike the iron while it is hot, in the means of praying, reading, conferring, and telling to the daughters of Jerusalem your love-sickness for Christ. But we silly, narrow, and ebb-hearted creatures have not a hand to receive Christ's sweetmeats. We are like the bairn when his father gives him a hearty handful of sweetmeats, his little hand and short fingers let the half of them slip from him and skail upon the ground. Our little fingers skail the comforts of Christ, and we lose (1) comfort, (2) confirmation of our charters, and (3) we lose the increase of faith.
使用是因为有奇怪的时候，我们应该在正确的时机接受基督。当祂的手向我们的心脏伸出时，你应该将你的手伸到它上面，并将祂的印记和炽热的铁甚至压到骨头上，这样才会留下巨大的字母，你的一生之后你可能会承载基督的标记。在那之前，你永远不会得到如此美好的条件或如此奇怪的基督。因此，打个双结，不要忽视与基督一起工作，并展开你灵魂的所有帆，记录时间，这将帮助你以后的疑虑，并成为你选举的一个美好印记。对基督的火焰进行扑灭，用其他杂念将水泼在上面，拒绝在适当的时机接受基督的球，并在祷告、阅读、交流和向耶路撒冷的女儿们述说你对基督的爱病，这必然是一种巨大的罪过。但是我们愚蠢、狭隘和心胸狭窄的人没有接受基督的甜食的手。 当父亲给他一把甜食时，我们就像一个孩子，他的小手和短指头让其中一半从他手中滑落到地上。我们的小手指滑落了基督的安慰，我们失去了（1）安慰，（2）对我们特权的确认，以及（3）我们失去了信仰的增长。

"My bowels were moved for him." This is the moving and rumbling of a sorrowful and broken heart and true repentance, that Christ stood while His head took cold, as Isa. 16:11: "My bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab; "Jer. 4:19: "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at the very heart; my heart maketh a rumbling sound." She would say, "My heart and bowels within me are turned upside down." My soul said, "Woe is me, that my beloved Christ stood the cold winter night at the doors of my heart with His wet head and His frozen hair. O lazy wretch that I am, who could not arise and let Him in." We see in true repentance there is meikle sorrow: (Luke 7) one woman furnished as many tears as washed Christ's feet. No scant of sorrow there. Ezek. 7:16: "But they that escape of them shall escape, and they shall be on the mountains like doves in the valley, all of them mourning, every one for their iniquity." Hos. 11:11: "They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a bird out of the land of Assyria," while they, repenting, follow after the Lord. Zech. 12:10: "They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only begotten son, and they shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." Jer. 31:19: "After that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh." Ephraim bemoaning himself, did this as one very sorry for offending the Lord.
"我的肠子为他而动了。" 这是一个悲伤和破碎的心灵以及真正的悔改所带来的动人和隆隆声，基督站在那里，他的头发冻僵了，正如以赛亚书 16:11 所说：“我的肠子为摩押而响起来。” 耶利米书 4:19：“我的肠子，我的肠子！我非常痛苦；我心脏发出隆隆声。” 她会说：“我的心和肠子在我内部翻转了。” 我的灵魂说：“唉，我心爱的基督在寒冷的冬夜站在我心门前，他的头发湿透了，冻僵了。哦，懒惰的我，竟然不能起来让他进来。” 我们看到真正的悔改中有很多的悲伤：（路加福音 7 章）有一个妇人流下的眼泪足以洗净基督的脚。那里没有悲伤的缺乏。以西结书 7:16：“但那些逃脱的人必逃脱，他们必在山上像山谷中的鸽子一样，为他们的罪孽而悲哀。” 何西阿书 11:11：“他们必战战兢兢地从埃及飞来，又像从亚述地飞来的鸟一样。” 当他们悔改并追随主时。 12:10: "他们将为他哀悼，如同为独生子哀悼，他们将因他而痛苦，如同为长子而痛苦。" 耶利米书 31:19: "在我受教之后，我击打了我的大腿。" 以法莲为自己悲叹，像一个非常为得罪上主而懊悔的人这样做。

This reproveth those who know as much of what turned bowels for the loss of Christ means as they know a great burgh town up beyond the moon. They had never wet cheeks nor a woe heart for Christ. They say it not in words, but they think it in heart: "If Christ go by me, and be lordly, I will live without Him. If the gospel leave us, we will get the old law again, and the good old sonsie world." To their comfort, then, be it said, who have a woe heart for Christ's wet and frozen head, and would put in His frozen hair in their bosom, and thaw His head, they have an undoubted mark of Christ's love, and sister and undefiled one.
这指责那些对于基督之死的损失一无所知的人，就像他们对月亮上的一个大城镇一样。他们从未为基督流过泪，也没有为他而痛心。他们没有用言语说出来，但他们在心里想着：“如果基督经过我身边，高高在上，我将不需要他。如果福音离开我们，我们将重新回到旧约法律和美好的世界。”对于那些为基督湿透和冻僵的头感到痛心，并愿意将他的冻僵的头发放在自己的怀中，使其解冻的人来说，他们拥有基督的爱的确凿标志，是他的姐妹和纯洁无瑕的人。

But what is the measure of sorrow required in those who have turned bowels for holding out of Christ? I answer, this is indeed a needful question, because many deceive themselves here, and many have sorrow who cannot climb so high as to turned bowels for holding out of Christ, and for neglecting of Christ's call. Hence—
但是对于那些已经转身远离基督而需要感到懊悔的人，究竟应该感到多少悲伤呢？我回答说，这确实是一个必要的问题，因为很多人在这里欺骗了自己，而且有很多人因为无法达到转身远离基督而感到懊悔，因此忽视了基督的呼唤。

1. Beware your sorrow be not too little, or ill-bottomed for fear of strokes, not for love toward Him whom you have offended. The devil can come upon an Ahab with a crack of sorrow like the shot of a child's paper gun, yet it was not humbling sorrow. True sorrow so humbleth a man as—
当心你的悲伤不要太少，或者基于害怕受罚而产生，而不是出于对你冒犯的人的爱。魔鬼可以用像孩子的纸枪一样的悲伤之击来袭击亚哈，但那并不是谦卑的悲伤。真正的悲伤会使人谦卑如...

(1) He dare not play the wanton, and ride the carrie, in sinning as before, as Ahab did.
他不敢放纵自己，像亚哈那样在罪恶中肆意妄为，骑着战车。

(2) True sorrow that humbles, sets the party in a purpose to creep into Christ, howbeit He should ding out his harns, as the woman with the bloody issue feared and trembling came to Christ.
（2）真正的悲伤使人谦卑，使人有意愿去接近基督，即使他可能会像那个患血漏病的妇人一样害怕颤抖地去找基督。

(3) The hole made in the heart is only for sin, and this breeds a loathing of ourselves (Ezek. 20:43): "And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loath yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed."
（3）心中的洞只是为了罪恶而存在，这导致我们对自己感到厌恶（以西结书 20:43）：“那时，你们必追念你们的行径和你们一切所作的，就因你们一切的恶行厌恶自己。”

(4) True sorrow seeks after the Lord, as here the Church rises and cries after her well-beloved; and these whom Peter converted (Acts 2:37) were pricked in their hearts, and were at "Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?"
（4）真正的悲伤寻求主，正如教会在这里起身呼喊她所爱的；彼得使他们悔改（使徒行传 2:37），他们心中被刺伤，问道：“诸位弟兄，我们当怎样行才能得救？”

2. Some think they do right if they sorrow out of measure for sin, and take their pennyworth of themselves. But God seeks no more of you but as much as to toom your souls of pride, that Christ may come in with His full vessel to fill it. Do not think to buy God's kindness with tears, as if sorrow were a fat feast to God; for some here go so far on as they will overscore and give God a lucky measure, and an inch to the ell, one to the hundred, as the hearty merchant who delighteth to be called "a good fellow." Nay—
有些人认为，如果因为犯罪而过度悲伤并对自己进行反省，那么他们是正确的。但是，上帝只是要求你摆脱骄傲，让基督用他丰满的器皿来填满你的灵魂。不要认为通过悲伤来买通上帝的亲切，好像哀痛对上帝来说是一种肥美的盛宴；因为有些人会过度哀痛并尝试用一英寸来规定一码，这就像那些喜欢被称为“好伙计”的热心商人一样。不要这么做。

(1) Look when you come near to the edge of the brae to a gaping hell. Hold your hand—it is now time to rainzie about your heart.
当你走近山坡边缘时，看到一个张开的地狱。握紧你的手，现在是时候审视你的内心了。

(2) When you find any smell of the Lord's blood and merits, it is time to look up and smile for joy.
当你发现主的血和功德的气味时，是时候抬头微笑欢喜了。

(3) When the desire and hunger for Christ are nipping and sad, speer about for a Saviour. The evil of much mourning is that, first, it is rank papistry. God thinks not a penance of your tears good cheer. You see not that you give suck now to merits. Second: it will make way now to pride. When the water goes out of the bag, wind comes in. When many tears go out, a windy conceit comes in: "I am sure God cannot but be pleased now. He is in my debt now."
当对基督的渴望和饥饿变得刺骨和悲伤时，寻找一个救主。过多的悲伤的邪恶之处在于，首先，它是纯粹的罗马天主教主义。上帝并不认为你的眼泪是好的快乐。你没有意识到你现在正在哺育功德。其次：它会为骄傲铺平道路。当水从袋子里流出时，风就会进来。当许多眼泪流出时，就会有一种自负的想法：“我敢肯定上帝现在一定很高兴。他现在欠我。”

So in seeking cooling humility, Satan slips in their neive a hot coal of pride. Men see not that God will hold back an ounce or two of sorrow that you may sorrow because you have not sorrowed enough. If wind came in, it would breed a new boil. Third: it is Satan's gate to despair, and he leads us on in Christ's way to his own lodging, for he himself is a despairing and trembling devil.
所以在寻求冷静的谦卑时，撒旦在他们天真的心中悄悄地放入了一颗骄傲的热炭。人们没有看到，上帝会留下一两分的悲伤，让你因为你没有经历足够的悲伤而感到悲伤。如果风吹进来，它会滋生新的疮痈。第三点：这是撒旦通往绝望的门，他引导我们走在基督的道路上，到达他自己的住所，因为他自己是一个绝望和颤抖的魔鬼。

But a doubt here seemeth to stand in our way. Sorrow for Christ ariseth from our love to Christ; and as much as we love Him, as much should we sorrow for the losing of Him. We owe Him love with all the heart and in the highest degree, and therefore we owe Him sorrow of that same mould.
但是这里有一个疑问似乎阻碍了我们。对基督的悲伤源于我们对基督的爱；我们对他的爱有多深，我们对失去他的悲伤就应该有多深。我们应该全心全意地爱他，以最高的程度，因此我们也应该以同样的方式悲伤。

Answer. The argument would conclude strongly if Christ were altogether lost to the saints; but the saints have always a hank in their own hands. Second: howbeit sorrow for Christ's absence spring from a love of Him, yet it follows not that love and sorrow should be in alike length and breadth. Joy and love in extremity are commanded because there is no danger in overjoying. Neither is there danger that love for length and breadth rax itself out of joint, and strain a sinew. But there is danger in over-sorrowing, because despair dwells upon the march with sorrow; and so a friend and a foe are neighbours in town-row together.
答案。如果基督完全失去了圣徒，那么这个论点将得出强烈的结论；但圣徒总是手握一根绳索。其次：虽然对基督的离别之痛源于对祂的爱，但爱和悲伤不必在长度和宽度上相等。极度的喜悦和爱是被命令的，因为过度喜悦没有危险。而爱的长度和宽度过度则会扭伤自己，拉伸筋骨。但过度悲伤是有危险的，因为绝望与悲伤同行；所以一个朋友和一个敌人在城市中是邻居。

3. I will conclude with this needful watchword, that we take heed to our high-tuned affections. They are often ravelled through other. When we sorrow extremely for Christ's wet head, it is much if faith fall not a sound, and if joy grow not lean and withered, because sorrow is fat and rank. Again, when the promise comes in and shoulders out mourning, and a blink of His new revealed face, then I will readily borrow a dispensation and sorrow no more, and there, I am fanked and ravelled, ere I be aware, upon security. It is here as when a bairn's little hand holds two meikle apples—as the one comes in his loof, the other drops down upon the ground.
3. 我将以这个必要的警句作结，我们要谨慎对待我们高度调谐的情感。它们经常被其他事物纠缠。当我们为基督湿漉漉的头发极度悲伤时，如果信仰没有受到冲击，如果喜乐没有变得消瘦而枯萎，那就太好了，因为悲伤是肥胖而猖獗的。再者，当应许进来并排挤了哀悼，当祂新揭示的面容一闪而过时，我将欣然借用一份豁免，不再悲伤，然后，我就会在毫不知觉的情况下，陷入困境和纠缠。这就像一个孩子的小手拿着两个大苹果一样——一个在他的手掌里，另一个掉在地上。

"I rose up to open to my beloved." Inward grief brings out the spouse's seeking of Christ. Why rose she not to open while He spake, and knocked sweetly, and cried, "Open, my sister, my love, my dove?" Here are words to have moved a heart of stone, and no question they moved her with sense in the meantime; but faith was weak. Hence when Christ was away from the door, and she deserted, she makes her to obedience, for obedience is quicker and more powerful under faith, and hunger, and absence, than under feeling and presence. Feeling, or motions at the word heard, will make us soft, foggie and lazy; sweir faith makes us sharp, laborious, and puts us to a doing. In faith, in a manner, we feed Christ. In feeling and presence we feed ourselves. In feeling we take in; in faith we give out; and sense ofttimes makes us idle. While the bairn eateth an apple the book is laid by. But whether the spouse had feeling while Christ spake and knocked or not, yet the doctrine holdeth when Christ leaveth off to speak in His word, and when to our feeling He is absent, we are often very humble in doing and seeking Him. When Christ is either not answering or giving rough answers, the woman of Canaan is then busiest, crying and again crying to Christ, following on, worshipping on her knees, disputing the matter hotly with Christ by force of reason to carry away her desires. So His Kirk (Cant. 3), having lost Him, rises, seeks, and, better seeks in the streets, in the open gates, and, about the walls: "Watchman, good watchman, saw ye him whom my soul loveth?" And so was Mary Magdalene when her Lord was lost. What a din she made with watery eyes. She saith, "Angels, saw ye Him?" "Gardener, sir, have ye carried Him away?" "Grave, hast thou Him?" We, like fools, can complain, "He is away." Fye! "Now all is gone." Fye! Now say ye, "He is away. What will I do?" and ye cry black hunger. But if ye be carefully seeking Him, you are fatter now nor when ye were doated and feasted with His presence.
我起来为我所爱的人开门。内心的悲伤引发了配偶对基督的寻求。当他说话、轻轻敲门并喊道：“我的妹妹，我的爱人，我的鸽子，开门吧！”时，她为什么不起来开门呢？这些话足以感动一颗石头的心，毫无疑问，它们在那时感动了她的心灵；但信心薄弱。因此，当基督离开门口，她被遗弃时，她依然顺从，因为在信心、饥饿和离别的情况下，顺从更快、更有力，而在感觉和存在的情况下，顺从较慢。感觉或听到的话语会使我们变得软弱、迷糊和懒散；而坚定的信心使我们变得敏锐、勤奋，并促使我们行动。在信心中，我们以某种方式供养基督。在感觉和存在中，我们供养自己。在感觉中，我们吸收；在信心中，我们付出；而感觉往往使我们懒散。当孩子吃苹果时，书被放在一边。但无论配偶在基督说话和敲门时是否有感觉，当基督停止在他的话语中说话，当我们感觉不到他的存在时，我们常常在行动和寻求他时非常谦卑。 当基督要么不回答，要么回答粗鲁时，迦南的妇人最忙碌，不断地哭泣，跟随着基督，跪拜着，通过理性的力量与基督激烈争论，以实现她的愿望。所以他的教堂（雅歌 3 章），失去了他，起身寻找，在街上，开放的门口，和墙壁周围更加努力地寻找：“守望者，好守望者，你看见我心爱的人吗？”玛丽亚·玛达肋纳也是如此，当她的主人失踪时。她用湿润的眼睛制造了多么大的喧闹。她说：“天使们，你们看见他吗？”“园丁先生，你把他带走了吗？”“坟墓，你有他吗？”我们像傻瓜一样抱怨，“他走了。”噢！“现在一切都没了。”噢！现在你们说，“他走了。我该怎么办？”你们哭泣着黑暗的饥饿。但是如果你们仔细寻找他，你们现在比当你们沉迷于他的存在并享受他的时候更加丰满。

"I rose up to open." After a refusal of Christ the conscience of the child of God begins to overcast. She had given a short and a dry answer. Now she is woe at the answer she gave Him, and her hot bed cannot keep her. After the saints and Christ are aside, and have broken a straw, I defy you to bide ten days from Him. After you have given Christ a rough and cankered refusal, there is a knot in the conscience that you dow not bide all this time under a refusal of Christ. The conscience has been saying, "Fye upon you, where is love now, where pity, when Christ standeth cold and frozen at the door, and thou wilt not let Him in?" Thus all the time while He knocked was a long thorn or great pricking stob sticking in her conscience. There will, I grant, sometimes be much deadness in the saints after sin, and a purpose to take the play a day or two longer. But ordinarily after sin there is a pulled ear, and God's Spirit crying, "Wrong; come home again." In wicked men after sin there is no scant of false peace, and their heart says heartily, "So be it," and "amen" to all that they have done. After Jezebel had killed innocent Naboth, she said to her husband (1 Kings 21:15): "Arise, go take possession of the vineyard which Naboth the Jezreelite refused to give thee for money." This she spoke with an edge, and took a hearty mouthful of it. She would say, "I have taught Naboth good manners, what it is to be a good neighbour to his prince, and to buy and sell with his king. He would not give his vineyard for money, now take it for nothing." Here is Jezebel's "so be it," and her seal, "well done," put to the murder. When the rulers have crucified Christ, and a stone is above Him in the grave, they say to Pilate, "Sir, we remember this deceiver said while He was alive He would rise again the third day;" calling the slain Man when He is lying under a cold stone "a deceiver." They say they rue not a hair all that is done. I deny not, but sometimes wicked men after sin will halt and clinch like a crazy, tired horse after a long journey. Their conscience, as it were, bearing up a leg, not daring to set down both its feet heartily to the ground. But this is not from an ilka day's disposition, but from some holiday notion and a sudden awakening. But a Cain will go asleep again, and leave God and his sick conscience both behind him, and go and build a city. Then try how your conscience dow bear with an outcast with Christ. If you be halting home over to Christ, and looking a greedy and hungry-like look again; if there be a gnawing in the conscience to look home again, because in Satan's bounds, you are out of your own element, you take not with the country nor with the air, home you must be, it is a good token. It is not to be worse thought of that the lazy flesh will say, "Rise not yet to open to Christ. It is too early. It is long to-day. (2) It is a cold night. (3) It is an unreasonable suit. (4) It is an untimeous and hard charge. (5) Give Him not a naysay, but put off awhile, you have no scant of days before you." Howbeit the flesh has all these, yet if ye see through these shifts, and can find nothing but thorns in your way until you return to your first husband again (Hos. 2:7), you will to the gate again, and Christ and you will, without fail, meet again.
我起来开门.” 基督受到拒绝后，神的儿女的良心开始变得昏沉。她给了一个短而干燥的回答。现在她为自己给了他那个回答而痛心疾首，她的热床无法使她躺下。在信徒和基督旁边，甚至断了一根稻草后，我敢打赌你不能忍受十天远离他。当你粗鲁地拒绝基督，并且有一个困扰的良心时，你不能在这段时间里忍受拒绝基督的痛苦。良心一直在说：“唉，你这是哪里的爱，哪里的怜悯，当基督在门外冷冰冰的，而你却不让他进来？”因此，在他敲门的时候，她的良心里一直有一个长长的荆刺或巨大的尖刺。我承认，在犯罪后，圣徒们有时会变得十分麻木，并且会有一种继续玩耍一两天的意愿。但通常在犯罪之后，会有一种受到警告的感觉，上帝的灵在呼喊，“错了；回家吧。” 在恶人犯罪后，他们不会缺乏虚假的平安，他们的心真诚地说：“如此便好”，并且对他们所做的一切表示“阿们”。 在耶洗别杀害无辜的拿伯的之后，她对她的丈夫说（列王纪上 21:15）：“起来，去占有拿伯人耶斯列人的葡萄园，他不愿意卖给你。”她说这话时带着刺，然后大口地吃了一些。她想说：“我教会了拿伯好的礼仪，教他如何成为对他的王子好邻居，如何与他的国王买卖。他不愿意用钱卖掉他的葡萄园，现在白白地拿走它。”这就是耶洗别的“愿如此”，以及她对谋杀的认可。“当统治者钉死基督，他在坟墓里被一块石头压住时，他们对彼拉多说：“先生，我们记得这个骗子在他活着的时候说他会在第三天复活。”他们把躺在冰冷的石头下的被杀之人称为“骗子”。他们说他们对所做的一切都不后悔。我不否认，但有时恶人犯罪后会像一匹疯狂、疲惫的马在长途旅行后蹒跚而行。他们的良心，仿佛抬起一条腿，不敢真心地把两只脚放在地上。但这不是每天的性情，而是来自某种假日的想法和突然的觉醒。 但是，该隐又会再次入睡，把上帝和他病态的良心都抛在身后，去建造一座城市。然后试试看你的良心能否容忍一个与基督一同被放逐的人。如果你犹豫不决地回到基督那里，再次贪婪地张望；如果良心中有一种渴望回家的痛苦，因为你在撒旦的范围之外，你不适应这个国家，也不适应这个环境，那么你必须回家，这是一个好的迹象。不要对懒惰的肉体的想法感到更糟糕，它会说：“不要起来向基督敞开大门。现在还太早了。今天还很长。这是一个寒冷的夜晚。这是一个不合理的请求。这是一个不合时宜和艰难的指责。不要拒绝他，只是暂时推迟一下，你还有很多日子。”尽管肉体会有这些想法，但如果你看穿这些借口，发现在回到你的第一个丈夫那里之前，你的路上只有荆棘（何西阿书 2:7），你会再次走向门口，你和基督必定会再次相遇。

"My hands dropped with myrrh." In the Hebrew, passing myrrh, current myrrh, that is for excellency, passeth well among many merchants.
我的手滴满了没药。在希伯来语中，经过的没药，现在的没药，那是为了卓越，很好地流传在许多商人之间。

"Upon the handles of the lock." That is, the Lord left the smell of His words that flowed from His sweet lips (Cant. 5:13). As well smelled as myrrh whereof the holy oil of the sanctuary was made (Exod. 30:23). And not only that, but a smell of the effectual working of His grace was left upon the lock of my heart, my will, and consent, which made my hands, that is, my actions, to smell sweetly. We see when Christ is gone Himself He leaves a sweet disposition of obedience behind Him that will do His turn. His grace rubbed and scoured the lock, and made it gleg and easy to open. Christ's fingers wherever they come leave drops of grace behind them. If He go away Himself He leaves a pawn behind Him. Where Christ walketh ye may discern the print of His feet behind Him. After a full sea, and the tide has gone in again, at the utmost point of the coast, the sea has left a white score of foam to tell the sea came to this point, and no further. Luke 24:32, "Did not our hearts burn within us, while He talked with us by the way?" Christ can come by you suddenly in a blast of a whirlwind, in a preaching, and cast in a coal at the window of your soul, and leave it smoking, and slip His way? And He can shoot an arrow of love even to the feathers, and post away Himself, and say, "Pack you out. Here is a bone for you to gnaw on." And with all this He Himself in the joy of His presence is close away only He has left some token, either the gnawing worm of red-wood hunger that is like to eat in at the one side and out at the other, or some work of believing, or of godly sorrow behind Him. Then ye are far in the wrong to Christ who tie Christ and His graces to the running of a sand-glass, and the time of preaching, and eating, and drinking. He can work by His hand when He is absent Himself, and preaching is sowing time, and sowing and harvest, yea, sowing time and growing time, are not aye together. Offend not, storm not, because aye when He knocketh He makes not open doors. Thank God for the smell of Christ when ye cannot get Himself. O say ye, "I had rather have Himself nor the smell of Him." Who can blame you? I know you had rather have twenty thousand crowns of gold as two crowns only. But you get no more for the time. Be thankful and wait on and steward well what you get.
"在锁的把手上。"也就是说，主留下了从他甜美的嘴唇流出的话语的气味（雅歌 5:13）。就像圣所的圣膏油所制成的没药一样香（出埃及记 30:23）。不仅如此，他恩典的有效作用也留在了我心灵的锁上，我的意愿和同意，使我的行动闻起来香甜。我们看到，当基督离开时，他留下了一种甜美的顺从心态，愿意为他效劳。他的恩典擦拭并清洗了锁，使其变得灵活和容易打开。基督的手指无论到哪里，都会留下恩典的痕迹。如果他自己离开，他会留下一个抵押品。当基督走过的地方，你可以看到他的脚印。在满潮之后，当潮水再次退去时，在海岸的最远处，海水留下了一条白色的泡沫痕迹，告诉人们海水到达了这个点，不再前进。路加福音 24:32，“我们在路上与他说话的时候，心岂不是火热的吗？”基督可以突然以旋风般的速度经过你，在一次传道中，向你的灵魂窗户投入一颗煤炭，让它冒烟，然后悄然离去。 他甚至能够把一支爱的箭射到羽毛上，并走开自己，说：“走开吧，这里有一根骨头给你啃。”即使如此，在他所在的喜乐中，他自己也只是离开了一些记号，要么是像吃掉一侧并从另一侧出来的红木饥饿的啃食虫，要么是信仰的工作，或者是悔改的工作。那么，你们对基督和他的恩典把基督和他的恩典捆绑在一个沙漏的流逝，讲道，吃喝的时间里是错的。他即使在不在身旁也能用他的手来工作，讲道是播种的时间，播种和收获，是不总是同时的。不要冒犯，不要嘲笑，因为即使他敲门也不总是开门。感谢上帝，当你无法得到他本人时，那基督的气味也是好的。哦，你们可以说，“我宁愿拥有他本人而不是他的气味。”谁能责怪你呢？我知道你宁愿拥有两枚皇冠的黄金，而不是二十万枚。但你在这段时间里得不到更多。感恩，等待，并好好地管理你所得到的。

"I opened to my beloved; but my well beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone." Upon sorrow for not opening follows a further degree of repentance for not opening. But when it is done to her great sorrow He is away, and has withdrawn Himself. This ordinarily follows our refusing to let Christ in that He go His way, and this is sad news. Now take up your hot bed, your lazy sinews, your tender feet, you dought not, for cold fyle your feet, and now you have lost your Lord. See then how far you wrong your Lord under desertions. We can complain and lay all the blame on Him and say, "O unkind Christ." Nay, but lay all the blame on thyself, and say, "Unkind fool that I am, who held Him at the door while His head was wet and frozen." He knocked, and ye would not let Him in. Well warred you knock and He hold you out.
我向我所爱的人敞开了心扉，但我的至爱已经离开了，不见了。对于没有敞开心扉而感到悲伤之后，还有进一步的悔过。但当这样做时，她非常伤心，因为祂已经离开了，自己退却了。这通常是因为我们拒绝让基督进入，让祂走自己的路，这是个悲伤的消息。现在拿起你的热床，你懒散的筋骨，你娇嫩的脚，你不敢，因为冷风冻住了你的脚，现在你失去了你的主。看看你在荒漠中是如何冤枉你的主。我们可以抱怨并将所有的责任归咎于祂，说：“哦，不友善的基督。”不，将所有的责任归咎于你自己，说：“我是个不友善的傻瓜，在祂的头发湿透冻僵的时候，我把祂拦在门外。”祂敲门，你却不让祂进来。你敲门，祂却把你拒之门外。

Use. Then take your pennyworths of Christ while you have Him. We sit our market, and lose our Lord in the throng, and we cry wrong on Him instead of ourselves. By refusing to let Christ in we incur three great ills.
使用。趁你还有他时，拿取你应得的基督。我们坐在市场上，却在人群中失去了我们的主，我们责怪他而不是自己。拒绝让基督进入我们的心灵，我们遭受了三大灾祸。

1. We are pyned with hungry desires, and we draw at word and sacraments as a hungry bairn sucking dry breasts, and Christ will not let a mouthful of milk down His breasts. This is because we took not our tide of Christ. As Hos. 5:6, "They shall go with their herds to sacrifice, to seek the Lord, and shall not find Him, for they dealt treacherously against the Lord."
我们被饥渴的欲望所困扰，我们像一个饥饿的婴儿吮吸干枯的乳房一样依赖着话语和圣礼，但基督不会让一口奶流下来。这是因为我们没有按时接受基督。就像何西阿书 5:6 所说：“他们要带牛群去寻求耶和华，却寻不见，因为他已经离弃了他们。”

2. We lose increase of faith, joy, peace, and much grace, for we do think that Christ knocketh at our door toom handed, and that when He comes in He brings nothing with Him. Nay, this were to judge Christ scarce worthy of His room.
我们失去了信心、喜乐、平安和许多恩典，因为我们认为基督敲我们的门时手是空的，当祂进来时也没有带任何东西。不，这是对基督的评判，几乎认为祂不值得拥有自己的位置。

3. We lose in special manner joy and comfort. Sorrow and challenges fill the heart. When the husband is dead and buried let the wife see his coat, it shall cause her heart to bleed afresh for sorrow. The memory of the Lord's crying at the door, "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove," and your obstinate refusing to let Him in is the coat of absent and buried Christ. The thought of His loving face you once saw, of His sweet tongue you once heard, is the very bleeding of a holed and wounded soul pierced through with sorrow.
我们以特殊的方式失去了快乐和安慰。悲伤和挑战充满了心灵。当丈夫去世并埋葬后，让妻子看到他的外套，这将使她的心再次因悲伤而流血。主在门口哭喊的记忆，“我的姐妹，我的爱人，我的鸽子，给我开门”，以及你固执地拒绝让他进来，就是缺席和埋葬的基督的外套。想起你曾经看到过他慈爱的面容，听到过他甜美的声音，就是一个被悲伤刺穿的受伤灵魂的流血。

"My soul went out of me" [Authorized Version, "My soul failed"]. (As Gen. 39:18.) Or, My soul fainted; I fell in a sound because of His speering. But how did she fall in a swoon when He spake? for when He knocked and spake she gave Him a haglie answer, that she would not go the breadth of the house, barefooted, to let Him in. This I take to be the sore and fainting heart she had in hearing Christ's last rap at the door, and His last angry word, like that word of Christ to His sleepy disciples (Matt. 26:45): "Sleep on now, take your rest: sleep your fill, I will go seek My lodging where I best may." And withal remembering His loving words, and remembering her dear Saviour and husband, meaned His dear head in the cold, raw, and stormy air in the night. This brought on a sound, that her soul for sorrow was gone out of her. We see, when the saints remember Christ's sweet promises and fair offers, and, withal, their unbelief and disobedience, it is a sting of conscience and a worm going to the bone, that makes a bleeding heart, and that makes a sound. This, then, is a deep, hot, bleeding wound of conscience, remembering how her Lord spake, and how she refused His offer, for conscience is the two feet of the soul. When the conscience is dashed against a stone and gets a broken leg, the soul halteth, and this is painful and causes a sound. Men know not what danger there is in cutting some master vein that is seated either upon heart or liver, and yet a little chap there may bring on present death. Conscience is the master vein of the soul, and is threaded upon the life of the new birth. Draw blood in this vein by sending Christ away without His errand, and it is a hundred to one that the vein bleed not to death, and the sorrow be excessive even to bring sounding; and in a swooning, man is betwixt life and death. This sickness and swooning are a little matter to beholders. It is easy to stand on the shore and see the swimmer in danger of drowning, wrestling with the floods. But faith has been now at over giving in the Church. Faith and sense are tough in such cases. For the first word of a troubled conscience is, "He is away;" and faith can say, "Liar! he is not away." Sense says, as Psalm 77, "He has forgotten to be merciful;" and faith saith, "Thou liest! this is my infirmity." This should teach us to dote and handle very kindly a tender conscience, and to be loath either to break a wheel of it by some great guiltiness, or to draw blood of it by security, impenitence, neglect of a fair offer. We may soon, with a reckless or sudden chap, call out a lith in the conscience; but none in heaven or earth can stem the blood but Christ Jesus only. If, unseen Christ had not holden up the Kirk's head in her sound, it had been her death.
我的灵魂离开了我（授权版本中译为“我的灵魂消失了”）。 （参见创世记 39:18。）或者，我的灵魂昏倒了；因为他的言语，我晕倒了。但是，当他敲门并说话时，她是如何昏倒的呢？因为当他敲门并说话时，她给了他一个粗鲁的回答，说她不愿意赤脚走过整个房子去让他进来。我认为这是她在听到基督最后一次敲门和他最后一句愤怒的话时所感到的痛苦和昏厥的心情，就像基督对他昏昏欲睡的门徒说的那句话（马太福音 26:45）：“现在你们可以睡觉吧，好好休息吧，我要去找一个最好的地方住下。”同时，她记得他慈爱的话语，记得她亲爱的救主和丈夫，在寒冷、湿冷和风雨交加的夜晚，他的头颅暴露在寒冷的空气中。这导致了一声响动，她的灵魂因悲伤而离开了她。我们看到，当圣徒们记得基督甜美的应许和美好的提议时，以及他们的不信和不顺从时，这是一种良心的刺痛和一种钻入骨髓的虫子，使心灵流血，发出声音。 这是一个深刻、炽热、流血的良心伤口，记得她的主如何说话，她如何拒绝他的提议，因为良心是灵魂的两只脚。当良心撞到石头上，腿骨折断时，灵魂就会跛行，这是痛苦的，会发出声音。人们不知道在心脏或肝脏上切割一些主要的静脉会有多大的危险，然而一个小小的伤口可能会导致即时死亡。良心是灵魂的主要静脉，与新生命的生活相连。如果没有完成基督的使命而让他离开，就在这条静脉中抽血，有百分之百的可能静脉会流血致死，悲伤会过度到发出声音；在昏厥中，人处于生死之间。对于旁观者来说，这种病痛和昏厥只是小事。站在岸边看到游泳者在溺水的危险中与洪水搏斗是容易的。但是信仰现在在教会中已经屈服了。在这种情况下，信仰和感觉都很坚强。对于一个困扰的良心来说，第一个词是“他走了”；而信仰可以说，“撒谎者！他没有走。”感觉说，如诗篇 77 所说，“他忘记了怜悯；”而信心说，“你撒谎！这是我的软弱。”这应该教导我们要疼爱和善待一个脆弱的良心，并且不愿意通过一些严重的罪恶来破坏它的正常运转，或者通过安全感、无悔、对一个公平的机会的忽视来伤害它。我们可以很快地通过鲁莽或突然的打击，在良心中造成伤害；但在天上或地上，只有基督耶稣才能止住流血。如果看不见的基督没有扶持教会的头，她就会死亡。

"I sought Him, but I found Him not; I called on Him, but He answered me not" [Authorized Version, "I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but He gave me no answer"]. Then under desertion we should seek. Christ is gone His gates now, yet the Kirk lays Him a speering. Peter, after his denial the third day, came to the grave to speer for his Master Christ. The forlorn son, after a long outcast, yet looks home over again, and he thinks him of his father's house. So in Hos. 14:2 the fallen Kirk is bidden go home again, and take words with her and say, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." So also Jer. 31:18, 19. Ephraim, chastised and put out of his father's house, is weeping, and with watery eyes looking home over and crying, "Turn me, and I shall be turned." When the saints are put out of God's house they resolve never to take unto another shift, but lie about God's house, and dree about His door, and greet and weep and howl, at door and window, until God rue upon them and call them in. When wicked men are put from God, they are like the servant put from service that seeks a new master; or like the ship-broken man who, seeing the ship going in pieces and ready to sink, resolves to quit it, and take him to swimming, purposing to make arms and legs serve him for a ship. I love it not when men put from God could resolve to seek about for a new master, and when Christ seems a broken ship they take them to swimming to seek another rock.
我寻找了他，但没有找到；我呼唤他，但他没有回答我。然后在被遗弃的时候，我们应该寻找。基督已经离开了他的门，但教堂仍然在寻找他。彼得在第三天否认耶稣后，来到坟墓寻找他的主基督。那个被遗弃的儿子，在长时间的流浪后，又回到家中，他想起了他父亲的家。所以在何西阿书 14:2 中，堕落的教堂被命令回家，并带上话语说：“除去一切罪孽，悦纳我们。”耶利米书 31:18, 19 也是如此。被责罚并被赶出父亲的家的以法莲，正在哭泣，用湿润的眼睛望着家，呼喊着：“使我回转，我就回转。”当圣徒被赶出上帝的家时，他们决心永远不再寻找其他的出路，而是在上帝的家周围徘徊，为他的门而哭泣，哀号，直到上帝怜悯他们，召他们进来。 当邪恶的人被远离上帝时，他们就像被解雇的仆人寻找新主人一样；或者像船破碎的人，看到船即将沉没，决定离开它，自己游泳，打算用手臂和腿代替船。我不喜欢那些离弃上帝的人决定寻找新主人，当基督似乎是一艘破船时，他们选择游泳寻找另一个岩石。

But here are two doubts: God will not be mine, how can I be His? Answer: Faith will bid you halve the covenant here, and say, "Lord, howbeit Thou wilt not be my Father, yet I will evermore be Thy son;" "howbeit Thou wilt not be my God, yet I will evermore be one of Thy covenanted people." We must learn to hang by little under outcasts. He is a blessed man whom God cannot slay, and a happy man whom his Father dow not forsake. (2) I have sinned. Shall I go home again in my guiltiness? Answer: There is but one of two ways. Let me reason with such as saith it is a death for a guilty man to go home to God. Now I will give but not grant you it is death, but it is a greater death to bide away. There are fire and water before you. One of them ye are chased to run to—either to the water or to the fire. Of two deaths that you cannot choose but one of them must end you. Take the little death, and pass the meikle death. To bide from God after an outcast, is fire and the great death. Eschew that to creep near Christ's bleeding wounds. Howbeit Christ should slay you to speak to your mind—howbeit it be death, it is but water, not fire; the little death, not the great death.
但是这里有两个疑问：上帝不会属于我，我怎么能属于他呢？答案是：信仰会让你在这里分割契约，并说：“主啊，虽然你不愿意成为我的父亲，但我将永远成为你的儿子；虽然你不愿意成为我的上帝，但我将永远成为你立约的子民之一。”我们必须学会依附于被遗弃的人。那个上帝无法杀死的人是有福的，那个他的父亲不会抛弃的人是幸福的。（2）我犯了罪。我应该带着罪恶回家吗？答案是：只有两种方式。让我与那些说犯罪者回到上帝面前是死亡的人辩论。现在我只给你但不承认，这是死亡，但留下来是更大的死亡。你面前有火和水。你被追逐着要跑向其中之一-要么是水，要么是火。你不能选择两种死亡中的一种，但其中之一必定会结束你。选择小小的死亡，经历大大的死亡。在被遗弃后远离上帝，那是火和巨大的死亡。避免那样，靠近基督流血的伤口。即使基督要杀死你来与你交谈-即使它是死亡，它只是水，而不是火；小小的死亡，而不是大大的死亡。

2. When all is done, it is life, and only life, to go to God after an outcast. Fear not, He will not slay you. Fools! that slandered Christ and called Him a man-slayer. The devil lies falsely, for Christ is a sinner saver.
当一切都结束时，只有生命，只有生命，才能去找上帝，即使是一个被遗弃者。不要害怕，他不会杀死你。愚蠢的人！诽谤基督，称他为杀人者。魔鬼撒谎了，因为基督是拯救罪人的。

"I sought Him, but I found Him not." A fearful and heavy temptation, as Lam. 3:8: "When I shout, He shutteth out my prayer." Where His promise now? Prov. 8:17: "Those that seek Me early shall find Me." Isa. 65:24: "And it shall come to pass, before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." And now here seeking and not finding, and calling and not answering. We may say here there is meikle betwixt market days. This doctrine is preached daily true to the saints. Let experience be the pulpit. When Christ prayed the same things thrice over (and "O My Father, if it be possible, remove this cup," it was this unco world with Christ), the first two times to His soul's feeling He got but a dumb answer. In this doctrine there is more need to comfort men than to prove it true. The ground would be redd, and all answered that possibly can be said. And—
“我寻找他，但没有找到。”这是一种可怕而沉重的诱惑，如哀歌 3:8 所说：“我呼求的时候，他封闭我的祷告。”他的应许在哪里？箴言 8:17：“寻找我的，必定找到我。”以赛亚书 65:24：“他们还没有求告，我就应允；他们还在说话的时候，我就听见。”现在在这里寻找却找不到，呼求却得不到回应。我们可以说在这里市场日之间有很大的差距。这个教义对圣徒来说每天都是真实的。让经验成为讲坛。当基督三次祈祷同样的事情（“我的父啊，若是可能，求你叫这杯离开我。”这是基督与这个世界的关系），前两次对他的灵魂感觉而言，他只得到了一个哑巴的回答。在这个教义中，安慰人比证明它的真实性更为重要。地面会变得红，所有可能的回答都已经被回答了。

First: God will tempt His own promise, as we think. Will not the promise look hungry like then? But there is no hunger at the heart of it. A worm will gnaw and nibble at the root of a plant, and cause it [to] lower to the one side, and droop and change colour; yet it liveth and wants not sap at the root. This same is yet clear, Our Lord will tempt His own word of promise, as we think, and yet the promise bruiks life. "In Isaac shall thy seed be called" (Rom. 9). A word of promise yet (Gen. 22:1, 2): "Abraham," says the Lord, "slay thy son Isaac, whom thou lovest." There is a worm at the root of the promise. The promise lowereth to the one side. This is a sore cross cavil to Abraham's faith. So Luke 21:18: "Not a hair of your head shall fall," says our Lord to His disciples. Yet Acts 12:2: "Herod vexeth the church," and James his hair and head both are stricken off, and fall upon the ground. There was another cross langel to the apostles' faith. Christ says the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Kirk; yet His Kirk is now as it was long since, and saying (as Jer. 8:20): "The harvest is past, and the summer is ended, and we are not saved." The Lord stands looking on, and beholds fair play, and we are killed all the day long. Is not here in our seeming a withered and dry promise? What is then to be done here? I answer: Let faith lean not only upon a tottering promise (for if God's promise fall, no great matter, howbeit thy bit bridle faith fall also), but also let thy faith lean upon the very temptation as upon an ordinary and special work of God. When God's honour is impawned in saving His Kirk, He will come and loose His pawn; and when ye have foughten your fill, and your faith is at the latter swaek, He can then come and say, "Poor body! stand thou by, and dry the blood off you, and look on Me, and I will fight My part here." All the several objections are answered.
首先：上帝会试探自己的承诺，就像我们所想的那样。这个承诺会不会像当时一样饥饿呢？但它的内心并没有饥饿。一只虫子会啃噬植物的根部，使其向一侧倾斜，枯萎并改变颜色；然而它仍然生存着，根部并不缺乏汁液。同样，我们的主会试探自己的应许之言，就像我们所想的那样，然而这个承诺仍然保持着生命。“你的后裔要称为以撒”（罗马书 9 章）。一个应许之言（创世记 22:1,2）：“亚伯拉罕，”主说，“你要把你所爱的儿子以撒宰了。”这个承诺的根部有一只虫子。这个承诺向一侧倾斜。这对亚伯拉罕的信心来说是一个严重的考验。所以路加福音 21:18：“连你们的头发也不会掉下来，”我们的主对门徒们说。然而使徒行传 12:2：“希律苦害教会，”雅各的头发和头都被割去，掉在地上。这对使徒们的信心来说是另一个十字架。基督说地狱的门不能胜过他的教会；然而他的教会现在和很久以前一样，说（耶利米书 8:20）：“收割的时候过去了，夏天已经结束，我们还没有得救。”主站在一旁观看，目睹公平竞争，而我们却整日被杀。在我们的表面上，难道不是一种枯萎和干燥的承诺吗？那么在这里该怎么办呢？我回答说：让信仰不仅仅依赖于一个摇摇欲坠的承诺（因为如果上帝的承诺倒下了，那也没什么大不了的，尽管你的信仰也会跟着倒下），而且让你的信仰像对待上帝的普通和特殊工作一样依赖于诱惑。当上帝的荣耀被抵押在拯救他的教堂上时，他会来解除他的抵押；当你战斗到满意，你的信仰到了最后的时刻，他可以来说：“可怜的人！你站在一边，擦干你的血，看着我，我会在这里为你战斗。”所有的异议都得到了回答。

Objection 1. I am like to let my grips go, and my weakness is giving over.
反对意见 1：我可能会放弃控制，我的弱点是屈服。

Answer. Faith is not faith if it yield to carnal fears. Faith should be like the good wrestler who laid on his back yet keeps his grip. Like a man that is drowned with a bush in his hand, if you die here, die with a promise in your fist, and Christ in your arms; and how weak your flesh is, as spiritually wilful should your faith byde by the mark.
回答。如果信仰屈服于肉体的恐惧，那就不是真正的信仰。信仰应该像一位优秀的摔跤手，即使躺在地上，仍然保持着紧握的姿势。就像一个手中拿着灌木丛的人被淹死一样，如果你要在这里死去，就要手握着一个承诺，怀抱着基督；无论你的肉体多么脆弱，你的信仰也应该坚守在这个标志上。

Objection 2. Where is Omnipotence so long when I cry with a dry throat and pained breast, and am not heard?
反对意见 2：当我干咳和胸口疼痛地呼喊时，全能的力量在哪里？为什么我没有被听到？

Answer. Omnipotence is in God, and no elsewhere. Be sure not aye at a call to claw your scabbed back. Neither is it Omnipotence's part to flatter you, or, as a pick-thank servant ready waiting on, to say "aye" and "nay" to your "yeas" and "nays." In a word, Omnipotence is at hand to save you when God will, not to humour your impatience as you will. We see not our hasty missing of God's power is not so much faith as the yooking scab of our impatience.
回答。全能在上帝中，无处可寻。务必不要总是呼唤去抓你那长满疮痍的背部。全能也不会奉承你，或者像一个谄媚的仆人一样随时等候，对你的“是”和“否”说“是”和“否”。总之，全能在上帝愿意时会来拯救你，而不是迎合你的不耐烦。我们看到，我们匆忙错过上帝的力量，不是因为信仰不足，而是因为我们不耐烦的刺痛。

Objection 3. Nay,—but I believe; I am sure I believe, and my very faith is not answered.
反对意见 3。不，我相信；我确信自己相信，而我的信仰并没有得到回应。

Answer. I am far from putting you from assurance of faith, and I am sure it is so. But hasted humours and faith riding both in one race, posting together, our dazzled eyes will take the one for the other. He that believes makes no haste. Faith will knock seven times at God's door, and still wait on. You would have at first in your neive what you seek, else you will not play. That faith of yours has soon done with it. A doubt may be made of a hastered faith that it looks like the prophet's cake unturned, and so raw on the one side. Therefore see that it be not a hot, sudden humour; for God has promised to answer your faith, but not your humour; your patient request, but not your hasty command; your submissive desire, but not your wild, fiery passion.
回答。我远非要剥夺你对信仰的确信，我确信事情是这样的。但是匆忙的情绪和信仰一起奔跑，我们眼花缭乱地将它们混为一谈。相信的人不会匆忙。信仰会敲上帝的门七次，仍然等待。你希望一开始就得到你所追求的，否则你就不会参与。你的信仰很快就结束了。对于匆忙的信仰，可以怀疑它是否像先知的未翻面的蛋糕一样生硬，一面还是生的。因此，请确保它不是一种热烈、突然的情绪；因为上帝应许回应你的信仰，但不是你的情绪；回应你的耐心请求，而不是你的急躁命令；回应你的顺从愿望，而不是你的狂野、炽热的激情。

Objection 4. Then you would put me from all assurance that I believe, because I dow not wait?
反对意见 4.那么你会让我失去所有的信心，因为我没有等待吗？

Answer. Far be it from me; but that faith that ye think faith, in as far as it is so hot-spurred that it will either have a present answer or nothing, it is not faith as ye think. Howbeit it be with faith as smoke is beside fire, but it is not fire. Impatience beside faith is smoke, not fire. Discern, therefore, the one from the other.
回答。远离我吧；但是你们认为的信仰，只要它是如此热切，要么得到即时回应，要么什么都没有，那不是你们所想的信仰。虽然信仰就像烟雾离开火一样，但它并不是火。不耐烦与信仰相比只是烟雾，不是火。因此，要分辨出二者的区别。

Objection 5. My not seeing or feeling God filling my hand, breaks my faith in pieces. Would He let me see He were coming, I would delay.
反对意见 5. 我没有看到或感受到上帝充满我的手，这让我的信仰破碎。如果他让我看到他来了，我会拖延。

Answer. Friend, ye may go to your watch, for (Heb. 11:1) "faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen," and faith doth cast an anchor in the night where it sees neither brim nor bottom. Faith is content with a fair unseen God's venture, and you, a man, may weep and say (Isa. 8:17): "I will wait upon the Lord that hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him."
答案。朋友，你可以去看你的手表，因为（希伯来书 11:1）“信就是所望之事的实底，是未见之事的确据。”信心在黑夜中投下锚，看不见边缘和底部。信心满足于一个看不见的上帝的冒险，而你，一个人，可以哭泣并说（以赛亚书 8:17）：“我要等候那掩面不顾雅各家的耶和华，我要仰望他。”

Objection 6. It is hard to see and believe.
反对意见 6. 很难看到和相信。

Answer. Then ye say nothing but it is hard to believe, for faith believeth God's bare word with a pair of covered eyes. Secondly, yet ye have the light of the promises, and that is as good as Christ Himself. When it is told a wife, after seven years' absence of her husband, "I saw him: this and this he was doing: he said he would come home by and by to his wife:" this is a next best thing to the poor woman until he come home himself; and believing her husband will not lie, she sets down her stake there in a piece of patience until he come. Hab. 2:3: "For the vision is for an appointed time, but in the end it shall speak and shall not lie; though it tarry, yet wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."
回答。然后你们说的只是很难相信，因为信仰是用一双闭着眼睛相信上帝的裸露话语。其次，你们拥有应许的光，那和基督本身一样好。当有人告诉一个妻子，她的丈夫离开七年后，"我见到他了：他正在做这个和那个：他说他马上回家见妻子"，这对于这个可怜的女人来说是最好的事情，直到他亲自回家；相信她的丈夫不会撒谎，她就在那里耐心地等待，坚定地相信他会回来。哈巴谷书 2:3："因为这默示有一定的日期，快要应验，并不虚谎；虽然迟延，还要等候，因为必然临到，不再迟延。"

Objection 7. It is a wearisome, toilsome, and dreary life that He keeps me in, to hold in His hand and cause me to wait on with little joy, no feeling, and skant and want of old kisses.
反对 7. 他让我过着一种疲惫、劳累和沉闷的生活，让我在他手中等待，没有多少快乐，没有感觉，也缺乏以往的亲吻。

Answer. Measure the life by the profitableness of it, and by the sweetness of your submission to God's wise dispensation, and not by your wearying. Little matter ye want sweetness if your faith be on its journey to God. If the traveller be going home, the less matter he be wet to the skin.
回答。以生命的盈利能力和对上帝智慧安排的顺从之甜美来衡量生命，而不是以你的疲惫来衡量。如果你的信仰正朝着上帝的道路前进，那么甜美的程度就不那么重要了。如果旅行者正回家，那么他被淋湿到皮肤也没什么关系。

Objection 8. I want comfort in calling and getting no answer.
反对意见 8. 我希望在打电话时得到安慰，却没有得到回答。

Answer. Faith may be without comfort, and offend ye because ye cannot get aye an apple to play the bairn with when ye would. Let it be your comfort that for God's cause, and in a humble submitting of your spirit to an absent Christ, ye can want comfort. He shall get his wombful of comfort that can want comfort, that God may be honoured with his believing and on waiting.
回答。信仰可能没有安慰，并且会冒犯你，因为你不能随时得到一个苹果来给孩子玩。让你的安慰是，为了上帝的缘故，以及谦卑地将你的灵魂屈服给一个不在场的基督，你可以忍受没有安慰。那些能够忍受没有安慰的人将得到满满的安慰，这样上帝就能因他们的信仰和等待而受到尊崇。

Objection 9. I would believe in the dark, and wink and believe, if I had comfort.
反对意见 9. 如果我有安慰，我会相信黑暗，眨眼睛并相信。

Answer. And little thanks to you to swim when Christ holds up your chin. The greatest praise to your faith, the greatest honour to Christ that can be, is when faith walketh upon fewest legs, neither feeling nor joy, nor comfort, nor experience, nor sight, but only this one: He is faithful who has promised; so said my beloved Christ, and I will believe.
回答。感谢你在基督托起你的下巴时游泳。对你的信仰给予最大的赞美，对基督来说也是最大的荣耀，当信仰只依靠这一个：应许者是忠信的，而不依赖感觉、喜悦、安慰、经验或视觉时，如此说道我心爱的基督，我将相信。

Objection 10. Nay, I see of purpose God holds me off, and shifts me from day to day.
反对 10. 不，我看到上帝有意让我远离，并且每天都在推迟我。

Answer. I grant you, and He well avows that He suspends the subscribing of your bill; for His delay is the seeking of your further kindness, faith, patience, &c. He knows that it is true, "soon had, soon gotten, soon forgotten;" soon heard of Christ, and soon unkind to Christ. A dear coft from Christ is well locked up.
答案。我同意你的请求，他也承认他暂停签署你的账单；因为他的延迟是为了寻求你更多的善意、信仰、耐心等等。他知道这是真的，“得得快，忘得快”；很快听到基督的消息，也很快对基督不友善。从基督那里得到的宝贵东西是值得好好保管的。

Objection 11. Nay, but His delays are plain judgments, and bode anger.
反对 11. 不，但是他的拖延是明显的审判，并预示着愤怒。

Answer. Your mind, in my mind, is in a night dream. Expone His delays right, and ye ought to thank God for them. The longer leisure an earthly prince [give] to a poor complaining subject to tell his errand over again and over again, the greater is he obliged to the patience of the prince. When God is delaying you that ye may pray again, He is like a father saying to his bairn, "Hold up your head, my bairn; speak loud and tell it over again. I heard not what my bairn said." Cant. 2:14: "My dove that dwelleth in the clefts of the rock, cause me to hear thy voice."
回答。你的思绪，在我的思绪中，正处于一个夜晚的梦境中。阐明他的延迟是正确的，你应该为此感谢上帝。地上的王子越是给一个可怜的抱怨的臣民更多的闲暇来一遍又一遍地讲述他的使命，他就越应该感谢王子的耐心。当上帝拖延你，让你再次祈祷时，他就像一个父亲对他的孩子说：“抬起你的头，我的孩子；大声说出来，再一次告诉我。我没有听到我的孩子说什么。”雅歌 2:14：“我的鸽子，住在岩穴中的裂缝里，让我听到你的声音。”

Objection 12. When He delays, I wonder where He is all this time. I fear He come not at all.
异议 12。当他迟迟不来，我想知道他都在哪里，我担心他根本不会来。

Answer. Where He is where He is not, even coming to tryst with your faith's last sob, and purposeth ye shall not die through His lingering. But in waiting till He come, beware ye believe He will never come.
回答。无论祂在哪里，祂都不在的地方，甚至来到与你信仰最后的呜咽相会，祂的目的是你不会因祂的迟延而死去。但在等待祂的到来时，要小心你不要相信祂永远不会来。

Objection 13. It were great glory to God, and a great confirmation to my faith, that He is a ready help at hand, and heard my prayers at the first call.
反对 13. 对上帝来说，这将是巨大的荣耀，也是对我的信仰的巨大确认，他是一个随时准备帮助的存在，并在我第一次呼唤时就听到了我的祈祷。

Answer. Nay, but His glory is your onwaiting for the trial of your faith and patience and love. When He has gotten this, and is first served, then ye shall be much served in His deliverance of you. But when ye pretend God's glory, and that ye should be served, you are gaping for your own ease, and that ye yourself should be first served in a present deliverance, and no reason but He be first served.
回答。不，但祂的荣耀是你等待信心、耐心和爱的考验。当祂得到这些，并且首先被服侍时，祂将在拯救你们方面大有作为。但当你们假装追求神的荣耀，并且认为你们应该被服侍时，你们只是渴望自己的舒适，希望自己在当前的拯救中首先被服侍，而没有理由祂应该首先被服侍。

The only principal use of all is that we be charitable of our Lord when He answereth not at the first. Love thinks no ill. Far less should it think ill of God. Faith should be long-breathed and not soon tired, and lie believing and praying till the grey hairs. Well betideth all God's on-waiters. They get their errand with meikle joy. The devil takes the word out of Christ's mouth to unbelievers, and saith, "He will not come;" and they take a false answer from Christ. What! shall I wait any longer upon the Lord? And so their faith falls in two in the waft. Wait upon Christ's answer. If it be not an answer of mercy, wait on still, for there is a better one coming from Christ—to Whom, with the Father and Holy Ghost, be glory, praise, and honour, for ever and ever.—Amen.
所有的主要用途就是当主不立即回答时，我们要对主慈悲。爱不思恶。更不应该对上帝心生恶念。信心应该持久，不轻易疲倦，坚信并祈祷直到白发苍苍。上帝的等候者是有福的。他们以巨大的喜悦完成他们的使命。魔鬼从基督口中夺走话语给不信者，并说：“他不会来。”他们从基督那里得到了一个错误的答案。什么！我还要再等待主吗？这样他们的信心就分裂成两半了。等待基督的回答。如果不是一个怜悯的回答，仍然等待，因为还有一个更好的回答来自基督——愿荣耀、赞美和尊荣归于父、子和圣灵，直到永远。阿门。

The Church Seeking her Lord
寻找她的主的教会

"The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us? My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand."—SONG OF SOLOMON 5:7–10.
城中巡逻的守卫找到了我，他们打我，伤了我；城墙的守护者夺走了我的面纱。我要求你们，耶路撒冷的女儿们，如果你们找到我的爱人，请告诉他，我因爱而生病。你的爱人与其他人相比有何不同，妇女中最美丽的你啊？你为何如此嘱咐我们？我的爱人白皙红润，是万人之上的首领。

IN this text we have two things. 1. What befell the Kirk in seeking of her Lord—the watchman gave her straiks. 2. What speeches fell out betwixt her and her fellow friends. And there is a dialogue betwixt them. 1. The Church not finding Christ Himself to her desire, layeth a charge on her companions to take her blessing and her hearty commendations to Him whenever they meet (ver. 7). 2. They upon the occasion of the vehemency of her charge not so spiritually affected as need were, answer, What a walie beloved is this? What din is that ye make to charge us so peremptorily about your Christ? Have you a Christ of your own? Whereof is your Christ made that you charge us this way? And (ver. 9) the Church's stomach arising that her Lord should be despised, falls out in a higher commendation of Him to the end of the chapter in all His proportions.
在这段文字中，我们有两件事情。1. 寻找她的主的过程中，教堂遭受了守望者的责打。2. 她和她的朋友之间发生了什么对话。他们之间有一个对话。1. 教堂没有找到她所期望的基督，因此命令她的同伴在他们相遇时向他带去她的祝福和真诚的推荐（第 7 节）。2. 由于她的命令过于强烈，她的同伴没有像需要的那样受到属灵的影响，回答说，这是一个多么可爱的爱人啊！你为什么要这样强硬地命令我们关于你的基督？你有自己的基督吗？你的基督是由什么做成的，你要这样命令我们？在第 9 节中，教堂对她的主被蔑视感到愤怒，从而在本章的最后一部分对他进行了更高的赞美，展示了他的各个方面。

"The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me"—with their tongue (Jer. 18:18); wounded me, and drew blood of me (Luke 20:12). No doubt she asked of the watchmen, as chap. 3:3: "Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" But they not only refused to tell her, but they wounded her conscience with reproachful words, and persecuted her. We see in the way of seeking lost Christ there are persecutions and troubles. I think Christ is even like dear over-sea wares. Men hazard both life and goods to sea for them, and (Matt. 13) He is the pearl that men must buy with the loss of all they have. The woman with the bloody issue gat a thrust in the throng, thrusting in through a multitude to be at Him; and the two blind men crying, for ilk one of them had a pair of blind eyes, gat rebukes of the disciples. We may know, first, we shall never get Satan's goodwill to come to Christ, and therefore he professeth he will wait the gate for us. Second, sufferings and persecutions are in the way to Christ. This is a piece of old rent that lies to Christ's house. He suffered Himself ere He went into glory. Let them put on courage who seek Christ. Let them resolve to take cuffs, blae-straiks, and bloody wounds, in the seeking of Christ and the professing of His name. "If any man will be My disciple, let him take up his cross and follow Me." We will not get this changed. The cross is upon Christ's back. It follows Him and backs Him. Sufferings are hard, and we love to lodge in a whole skin, yet we would seek Christ and profess Him, and jouk about to beguile the cross of Christ, and play it a slip; and we think to slip to heaven another way, and therefore men study the art of wiliness now to hide their profession. Nay, that this is not straight dealing and fair play ye must fill the field and throw honestly and fairly, and be marked as one that follows the Lamb wheresoever He goeth.
“巡逻城市的警卫发现了我，他们用舌头击打了我”（耶利米书 18:18）；他们伤害了我，并让我流血（路加福音 20:12）。毫无疑问，她像第三章第三节所说的一样，问了巡逻者：“你们看见我的爱人了吗？”但他们不仅拒绝告诉她，而且用责备的话伤害了她的良心，并迫害了她。我们可以看到在寻找失落的基督的道路上，会遇到迫害和困难。我认为，基督就像珍贵的海外商品一样。人们为它们不惜冒生命和财产之险（马太福音 13 章），而他就是人们必须用失去所有东西来购买的珍珠。患血漏症的妇人挤进人群中一下子挨了殴打，为了到他那里去。两个瞎眼的人大喊大叫，因为他们每个人都有一双瞎眼，所以受到门徒们的责备。我们可以知道，首先，我们永远不会得到撒旦的欢心来追随基督，因此他宣称他将等待我们的门。其次，在接近基督的道路上会有苦难和迫害。这是留给基督家的一块旧租地。他自己在荣耀之前也受了苦。那些寻求基督的人要振作起来。 让他们决心承受手铐、伤痕和流血的伤口，为了寻求基督并宣扬祂的名字。“若有人要跟从我，就当舍己，背起他的十字架来跟从我。”我们不能改变这一点。十字架在基督的背上。它跟随着祂，支持着祂。苦难是艰辛的，我们喜欢保全自己的完整皮肤，然而我们仍然要寻求基督并宣扬祂，绕过基督的十字架，玩弄花招；我们以为可以通过其他方式进入天堂，因此人们现在研究狡猾的艺术来隐藏他们的信仰。不，这不是正直和公平的行为，你们必须充满勇气地、诚实地投入战斗，并被标记为跟随羔羊无论往哪里去的人。

"The watchmen." Christ's governors are sometimes Christ's persecutors. Scribes and Pharisees and high priests were always against Christ and His disciples. Paul found the rulers of the Jews always against him and the gospel, wherever they had any hand or authority. And Christ told His disciples (Luke 21:12), "Ye shall be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake." The leaders of the people have been their persecutors. Ezekiel 34:4: "With force and cruelty have ye ruled;" verse 18: "They made the people to eat trodden on grass, and they gave them foul water to drink."
"守望者们。" 基督的统治者有时会成为基督的迫害者。文士、法利赛人和大祭司总是反对基督和他的门徒。保罗发现犹太人的统治者无论在哪里，只要他们有任何权力或权威，都会反对他和福音。而基督告诉他的门徒（路加福音 21:12）：“你们要为我的名被带到君王和官长面前。”人民的领导者一直是他们的迫害者。以西结书 34:4：“你们用强暴和残忍辖制他们；”第 18 节：“他们使百姓吃被践踏的草，给他们喝浑浊的水。”

But ye will say: Seeing God has laid a great burden upon rulers, especially upon watchmen, why may not the people lay the same burden on them and commit our souls to them? Nay, but we must know God is Lord of the decree of reprobation, and for His own glorious ends gives some over to corrupt teachers, and yet we sin in selling our conscience to their doctrine. But there is (1) something to be said here for people, (2) something for watchmen.
但你们会说：既然上帝给统治者，尤其是守望者，加上了重大的负担，为什么人民不能将同样的负担加在他们身上，并将我们的灵魂托付给他们呢？不，我们必须知道上帝是拒绝的决定的主宰，并为了祂自己荣耀的目的，将一些人交给腐败的教师，然而我们在将我们的良心出卖给他们的教义时犯了罪。但是，这里有一些话要说给人民听，还有一些话要说给守望者听。

1. Something for people. There be here two extremities.
有些东西是为人们准备的。这里有两个极端。

Pride giveth too little, and slavish consciences give too much, to watchmen. Therefore let their feet be pleasant that publish good tidings. Rulers are tutors to Christ's bairns that are minors. Therefore let rulers get all their own, for pride against them stots off them upon God; and when their laws are unjust we owe to them an upholding of the majesty, dignity, credit, and honour which God has given them. Therefore so to disobey unjust laws as that we take at the majesty and face of rulers is unlawful, seeing we are willed to honour the king (1 Pet. 2:17; Eccles. 10:20). So all comes to this, that troublers of the peace of the kirk or commonwealth condemned (Rom. 12:18; Heb. 12:14), and discrediting authority in the very act of refusing obedience to the unjust decrees, is unlawful. Again, the patience of an ass in any man that has a conscience is unlawful. People here stand still without a halter in their head while rulers lay a load of dirt upon them, and their best devotion here resolves in "God forgive our teachers if they lead us wrong, for we know no better." If the watchmen forbid or command, and load your conscience under the pain of straiks, he is but an ill market man who would give much for such people's part of their inheritance. Men forget that we watchmen can put a toom spoon in a bairn's mouth, and cry, "The Church rulers! authority, authority! the law, the law!" as if the Bible were long ago burned. But know ye not that watchmen in Christ's matters can totter; yea, the chair and the pulpit can reel; and therefore if your light be your Scripture, God help you. I will not give much for your faith, for our faith often sits door-neighbour with the world, and the world prisoneth light. Go over sea to Rome and learn this. In the doctrine of the law of nature, of the Godhead, of two natures in Christ, for the most part they are sound, for this truth has little trafficking with the world's fatness. But because Purgatory (denied by a famous Papist to have any just claim to truth by any patent in Scripture) doth lie in the world's fat arm, gain, giving milk and suck to it, therefore this chamber in hell is stiffly maintained, because this lie is a ship that bringeth home much gold, and one dying will toom his purse to ease his conscience. Therefore when the command of rulers has ease, honour, the world and the fatness of the earth on the one side, and on the other there is nothing but losses and sufferings, the question speaks clearly the world's side is thief-like and to be suspected. And this is too ordinary in rulers, as also in us all by nature, to seek the truth as the wanton child doth his book, wishing he may not find it, and fearing the finding of his book cost him the loss of his pastime. Would men in the fear of God dig for wisdom as for gold, they would find it. But as if men forsaw the less light the more false peace, they take as much of conscience as makes for them, and no more. And when light of conscience cries on them too fast they wish it wanted the tongue, and in their heart pray a sorrow to the well-shod tongue of an enlightened conscience.
骄傲给予的太少，奴隶般的良心给予的太多，给守望者。因此，让传播好消息的人的脚步愉快。统治者是基督的未成年子女的导师。因此，让统治者得到他们自己的一切，因为骄傲使他们远离上帝；当他们的法律不公正时，我们应该维护上帝赋予他们的威严、尊严、信誉和荣誉。因此，违抗不公正的法律，同时侮辱统治者的威严和面子是不合法的，因为我们被要求尊敬国王（彼得前书 2:17；传道书 10:20）。所以一切归结为这一点，扰乱教堂或共和国的和平的人被谴责（罗马书 12:18；希伯来书 12:14），在拒绝服从不公正的法令的行为中贬低权威是不合法的。再者，任何有良心的人都不能像驴一样忍耐。在这里，人们在没有束缚的情况下站在原地，而统治者却给他们加上一堆污垢，他们最好的奉献是“上帝原谅我们的教师如果他们引导我们错误，因为我们不知道更好的。”如果看门人禁止或命令，并以惩罚的痛苦负担你的良心，那么愿意为这些人的遗产付出很多的人只是一个糟糕的市场人。人们忘记了我们看门人可以把一个空勺子放在一个孩子的嘴里，并大喊：“教会的统治者！权威，权威！法律，法律！”好像圣经早已被烧毁。但难道你们不知道，在基督的事务中，看门人也会摇摇欲坠；是的，椅子和讲坛也会摇晃；因此，如果你的光是你的圣经，愿上帝帮助你。我不会为你的信仰付出太多，因为我们的信仰经常与世界为伍，而世界则禁锢了光明。去罗马海外学习这一点吧。在自然法律、神格、基督的两个本性的教义中，大部分都是正确的，因为这个真理与世界的肥沃很少有交易。 但因为炼狱（被著名天主教徒否认在圣经中拥有任何真理的正当主张）位于世界的肥胖之臂中，赢利，给予它乳汁和哺养，因此地狱中的这个房间被坚决维护，因为这个谎言是一艘带回大量黄金的船，一个垂死之人会掏空钱包以减轻良心的负担。因此，当统治者的命令一方面带来轻松，荣誉，世界和丰饶的土地，另一方面只有损失和痛苦时，问题明确显示出世界一方是像小偷般的，并应予以怀疑。统治者中这种情况太普遍了，我们所有人天性也如此，寻求真理就像顽皮的孩子对待书本一样，希望找不到它，并害怕找到书本会让他失去消遣。如果人们如同寻找金子一样去追求智慧，他们将能找到。但仿佛人们预见到越少的光亮就能带来更多的虚假和平，他们只抓住了对他们有利的良心，而不再多了。当良心的光亮响亮地呼唤他们时，他们渴望它没有语言，而内心则祈求一个为良心所启蒙的有教养的舌头带来悲哀。

"The keepers of the wall took away my vail from me." Either they took away the scarf that covered her face, or her vail, or kerchief that did cover her head, which was both an ornament (Isa. 3:23) and a sign of subjection of the wife to her husband (1 Cor. 11:7); for because (Ezek. 23:25) they took away the vail from lewd women, as a token they were harlots, whereas the vail is a sign of modesty. It is clear the rulers beat the Kirk from obedience to her Lord, and called her a harlot, heretical, and schismatical, and covered her with a vail of traditions. In Solomon's days rulers have been playing and encroaching upon the woman's vail and her subjection to Christ, her husband in hearing, and obeying his voice only; and this is again decorous and modesty to pull the poor woman's vail off her head and send her out barefaced and bareheaded among the enemies to be laughen at and mocked. This has come in rulers and tutors under pretence they owe obedience and subjection to the watchmen. Because watchmen think they get not in commanding too much (whereas Christ allows them in commanding only the chair of sent servants, straitly bound with a written commission from the Lord), therefore they make a hole in the poor woman's vail, or they pull the kerchief off her head, and busk her with a vail of human traditions, a vail of fig-leaves, not a kerchief of Christ's fine linen. This is pride in men of eminent place in the Kirk; and pride is an ill and cumbersome neighbour beside Christ. It is always going over the line, and not content with its own side, and thinking its own bounds strait and narrow. It will be over the march in Christ's hained pasture. It is a curse in the law to remove our neighbour's landmark, and take in a piece of Christ's furrow. Watchmen have power and authority here, and it cannot be denied but they are often like the man who shearing away the hair, that he cuts both quick hide and flesh. Rulers, in cutting off hair and exercising what power Christ has given them, they too oft cut Christ's quick hide and come in upon the flesh with their knife, meddling with the woman's kerchief and vail, which only should be of His busking, for it is His own kingly power to govern His Kirk and to busk her as He pleases. When men take upon them to do it they cut the quick flesh; and therefore our Lord had good cause to say (Psa. 2:10), "Be wise, be instructed ye judges of the earth; guide well; look to your tackling;" but the mischief is, honour is an apple so sweet that Balaam will stem the spirit of prophesying, howbeit the form should nip in pieces. To come to the purpose, and men's honour and their unbounded appetite to be at the chair of it and to keep it has often made a wide hole in the kirk wall, and such a slap in the Confession of Faith as an idol as great as a kirk has come into Christ's house. Men would fain be at this to clip in length and breadth the woman's vail, to make it as meet for policy as a strait coat for a woman's body until it pain her, and she pains it until the seam skaileth and loupeth out. The woman's vail is most seemly when rulers suffer it to keep the just quantity and length and breadth of the Lord's pattern on the Mount, and it is the wife's part to stick by the vail and put on no other. Better lose her tutors than her husband.
守墙者夺走了我的面纱。他们可能夺走了遮盖她脸部的围巾，或者她的面纱，或者遮盖她头部的头巾，这既是一种装饰（以赛亚书 3:23），也是妻子对丈夫的顺从的标志（哥林多前书 11:7）；因为（以西结书 23:25）他们夺走了淫妇的面纱，作为她们是妓女的标志，而面纱是一种谦虚的象征。很明显，统治者打击教会，使她违背对主的顺从，并称她为妓女、异端和分裂者，并用传统的面纱掩盖她。在所罗门的时代，统治者一直在玩弄和侵犯妇女的面纱和对基督的顺从，她在听从和仅听从他的声音；这是不合适和谦虚的，将可怜的妇女的面纱从她的头上拿下来，让她赤面和赤头面对敌人，被嘲笑和嘲弄。这是在统治者和导师的借口下进行的，他们声称他们对守望者有顺从和服从的责任。 因为守望者认为他们不应该过多地指挥（然而基督只允许他们指挥作为仆人的椅子，严格遵守主的书面授权），所以他们在可怜的女人的面纱上打了一个洞，或者把头巾从她的头上拿走，用人的传统的面纱，无花果叶的面纱，而不是基督精美亚麻的头巾。这是教堂中地位显赫的人的骄傲；骄傲是与基督相邻的不好的和累赘的邻居。它总是越过界限，不满足于自己的一方，并认为自己的界限狭窄。它会越过基督保护的牧场的边界。在法律中，移动邻居的地界是一种诅咒，是占据了基督的一块田地。守望者在这里有权力和权威，不可否认他们经常像那个剪掉头发的人一样，既剪到了活皮又剪到了肉。 统治者们，在剪掉头发并行使基督赋予他们的权力时，他们经常割伤基督敏感的皮肤，用刀切入肉体，干涉女人的头巾和面纱，而这些只应该是基督的装饰，因为按照他的意愿，他有权统治他的教会并装饰她。当人们自行承担这个责任时，他们割伤了敏感的肉体；因此，我们的主有充分的理由说（诗篇 2:10）：“你们应当聪明，受教训，地上的审判官；要明智，要受教训。”但问题是，荣耀是如此甜美的苹果，巴兰会阻止预言的灵，即使形式会被撕碎。为了达到目的，人们的荣耀和他们无限的欲望成为其中的主角，并且保持它经常在教堂的墙上留下一个大洞，以及在信仰告白中留下一个与教堂一样大的偶像进入基督的家。人们渴望剪裁女人的面纱的长度和宽度，使其适合政策，就像紧身衣一样，直到她感到疼痛，她也使它感到疼痛，直到缝线松开。 当统治者允许女人保持上帝在山上的公正数量、长度和宽度的模样时，女人的面纱是最合适的，而妻子的责任是坚守面纱，不戴其他的。宁愿失去她的导师也不愿失去她的丈夫。

"From me." The Church gat this ill turn of the watchmen because she held her Lord at the door. For this cause, because (Lam. 1:8, 10) "Jerusalem had grievously sinned.… The adversary hath spread out his hands on all her pleasant things (and so also upon her vail); for she hath seen that the heathen hath entered into her sanctuary, when Thou didst command that they should not enter into Thy congregation." The Kirk of God gets carnal lords to rule over her, and gods of wood and of stone to serve every day and night—Jer. 16:13; and verse 11, "Because your fathers have forsaken Me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and served them and worshipped them." We can complain of our Lord's absence and of His unkindness, and of cruel watchmen, and we are only to be blamed. We made the broust ourselves, and we can lay the blame of spoiled drink upon God. Would we keep good quarters with Christ, we should get pastors according to Christ's own heart. People under blind shepherds should rather then cry out against themselves who are wandering sheep, than against their shepherds who cause them to err. A repenting man is more angry at his own heart that consented to sin than he is at the devil who did tempt him to sin. There is oft too much crying out against rulers who have not always hap to steer the rudder of the ship cannily, and too little godly sorrow for our sins, that procure that "leopards and lions shall watch over our cities" (see Hosea 13:7, and Jer. 5:6).
“来自我。”教会因为她将她的主守在门口而遭受了守望者的这种不幸。因为这个原因，因为（耶哥拉米哀歌 1:8, 10）“耶路撒冷犯了严重的罪...敌人已经伸手触摸她所有的美好之物（也包括她的面纱）；因为她看见异教徒进入她的圣所，当你命令他们不得进入你的会众时。”上帝的教会让肉体的主宰统治她，并且每天每夜侍奉木头和石头的偶像-耶利米书 16:13；以及第 11 节，“因为你们的祖先离弃了我，耶和华说，他们随从别神，事奉他们，敬拜他们。”我们可以抱怨主的缺席和他的冷漠，以及残酷的守望者，但我们只能责怪自己。我们自己制造了麦芽，我们可以将坏酒的责任归咎于上帝。如果我们想与基督保持良好的关系，我们应该得到合乎基督心意的牧师。在盲目的牧人的带领下的人们应该责怪自己是迷失的羊，而不是责怪导致他们迷失的牧人。 一个悔过的人对自己同意犯罪的内心比对引诱他犯罪的魔鬼更愤怒。我们常常对那些并非总能巧妙操纵船舵的统治者大声抱怨，却对我们的罪孽所带来的“豹子和狮子将守护我们的城市”（见何西阿书 13:7 和耶利米书 5:6）缺乏虔诚的悔过之情。

"I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem." The Church with much ado hath escaped the hands of the watchmen, and finding small and very cold comfort from them, and no news about her beloved, turns her to followers and companions, and conferring with them to tell her well-beloved that she is sick of love for Christ.
我要求你们，耶路撒冷的女儿们。教会费了很大劲才逃脱了守望者的手，却从他们那里得到了微小而非常冷淡的安慰，也没有关于她所爱的人的消息，于是她转向追随者和伴侣们，与他们商议，告诉她深爱基督的人，她因为对基督的爱而病倒了。

This teaches what duty the saints owe one to another, to love one another (1 Thess. 4:9), and to teach one another (Col. 3:16); "Exhort one another daily" (Heb. 3:13); "Provoke one another to love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together" (Heb. 10:24, 25); and among themselves to speak that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers (Eph. 4:29), having speech always with grace seasoned with salt (Col. 4:6). This God commanded: "Say to your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ru-hamah. Plead with your mother, plead." This charge is given to every one of the faithful to plead with the apostates of their time. And Mal. 3:16, "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and a book of remembrance was written before Him." Our Lord thinks so meikle of the sweet and comfortable speeches among the faithful ones, that He lays to His ear and hears it, and writes it up in a book; and Zech. 8:21: "And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I will go also." This speaketh and crieth aloud against those who confine all exercise of God's worship within the walls of the kirk, making all their worship holiday worship, using godliness for holiday as they do their Sabbath clothes. But Abraham had religion within his house. He taught his children sitting and walking in his house, and in the field, lying down at night, and rising up in the morning; and Philemon had a kirk at his house. Are not ministers Christ's stewards? and who knows not the bairns may possibly not be disposed to eat at the set time of the ordinary meal, and in the public ministry, for the Word's working and Spirit's working are not always confined to the hour of the sand-glass, neither is the Spirit tied to a pulpit, and a gown, and a minister's tongue. Shall we then think Christ's house is so narrowly holden and his pantry so scant that He will not allow a four hours' drink upon His bairns or a piece between meals? Shall not hungry bairns get no more nor public allowances in church assemblies? Nay, our Lord allows His bairns to carry home to their houses grapes and apples off the tree of life, and eat at home. For many coals make a great fire, and private Christians will rub one another's memory and their cold hearts; and often what ministers cannot do in public, God's Spirit with private helps will do it at home. It is seen when a great doctor of physic has given over the man, an old wife has come in after him, and wrought the cure, and made the man sound whole. This doctrine should be right understood, for it warrants not the conventicles and unwarrantable meetings of Separatists and Brownists, who despise public meetings, and make a kirk in private houses of their own. They learn not this from Christ, who honours the Pharisees' preaching sitting in Moses' chair with His own presence, and commanded others so to do; howbeit they had leaven in their doctrine. We will not get a church of clean paper and of new velvet as Separatists and Anabaptists would have, and it is a fearful sin to make a rent and a hole in Christ's mystical body because there is a spot in it; and this place will not help the conventicles of Separatists, for the Church here has conferred publicly with the watchmen, as chapter 3:3. She so honoured the public means that she said, "Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?"
这教导圣徒彼此应尽的责任，彼此相爱（帖前 4:9），彼此教导（歌罗西书 3:16）；“每天彼此劝勉”（希伯来书 3:13）；“彼此激发爱心和善行，不可停止聚会”（希伯来书 10:24, 25）；彼此说善言以建立，使听者得到恩典（以弗所书 4:29），言语常常带着恩典和盐调味（歌罗西书 4:6）。这是上帝所命令的：“对你的弟兄说，你是我民；对你的姐妹说，你蒙怜悯。与你的母亲争辩，争辩吧。”这个责任是赋予每一个信徒的，要与他们时代的背道者争辩。玛拉基书 3:16 说：“那些敬畏耶和华的彼此谈论，耶和华侧耳而听，有记念册在他面前。”我们的主看重信徒之间甜蜜舒适的言语，他倾听并将其记载在册子上；撒迦利亚书 8:21 说：“一座城的居民要去见另一座城的居民，说：‘我们要快去恳求耶和华，寻求万军之耶和华；我也要去。’这是对那些将上帝崇拜的一切活动局限在教堂墙内的人的强烈谴责，他们将所有的崇拜都当作节日崇拜，像对待安息日的衣物一样对待虔诚。但亚伯拉罕在他的家中有宗教。他在家里教导他的孩子，坐着走着，在田野里，晚上躺下，早上起床；而腓利门在他的家里有一座教堂。难道牧师不是基督的管家吗？谁不知道孩子们可能不愿意在规定的时间吃饭，在公共事务中，因为上帝的话语和圣灵的工作并不总是局限于沙漏的时间，圣灵也不受讲坛、法衣和牧师的舌头的束缚。那么我们难道认为基督的家是如此狭窄，他的食品储藏室如此匮乏，以至于他不允许他的孩子们在饭间喝四个小时的饮料或者吃点心吗？饥饿的孩子们在教堂集会中难道不能得到比公共津贴更多的东西吗？不，我们的主允许他的孩子们把生命树上的葡萄和苹果带回家，在家里吃。 对于许多煤炭可以燃起熊熊烈火，私人基督徒会激发彼此的记忆和冷漠的心灵；而且经常有些牧师在公众场合无法做到的事情，神的灵通过私人的帮助在家中完成。就像一个大医生放弃治疗一个人后，一个老妇人进来治愈了他，使他完全康复。这个教义应该被正确理解，因为它并不支持分离主义者和布朗派的非法集会和私人聚会，他们蔑视公众集会，在自己的私人住所建立教堂。他们没有从基督那里学到这一点，基督尊重法利赛人在摩西的椅子上讲道，并亲自在场，命令其他人也这样做；尽管他们的教义有酵母。我们不会得到一个像分离主义者和重洗派所希望的纯净纸和新丝绒的教堂，因为在基督的神秘身体中有一个污点而在其中制造裂痕和洞穴是一种可怕的罪过；这个地方也不会支持分离主义者的秘密会议，因为教会在这里公开与守望者商议，正如第 3 章 3 节所述。她如此尊重公众的方式，以至于她说：“你们看见我心爱的吗？"

"Tell Him that I am sick of love." This is a broken, fiery, and passionate kind of speech, wherein she lays a charge upon her companions that they would in their prayers to God show Christ her errand, and take her hearty commendations and blessing to Christ because for the present she cannot get Himself. In a desertion anything is good meat to a hungry soul. When the Church had Christ, and was near to Him, there being a thin door only betwixt Him and her, she counted little of Him, and would not fyle her feet to let Him [in]. To a full soul even the honeycomb is loathsome. But now, having lost Christ, with a great desire she is content to get one that will carry her commendations to Him. Hunger for Christ is good cheer, and a good feast. Experience may confirm this doctrine, for sometimes a kiss of Christ's mask when ye cannot get His bare face is a full dinner. When David is at home the worship of God and His tabernacle is not so sweet, when he may have the best rowme in it. But in Psalm 84 he would be content with all his heart of the swallows' rowme in the bowers of the house, and then a psalm was sweetmeat. But when he yoked with Bathsheba both the tabernacle and Psalms dreed of cold, and were laid up to a full sea. Compare here faith and sense together, and you will find sense prouder nor faith. Sense will have nothing except it find an open door to go into God, and faith will be content to busk and to look in through the key-hole to see but the half of Christ's face or one of His ruddy cheeks. The Kirk's sense is at this—Cant. 1:2: "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth." That is a piece of pride to rest with nothing as content but the Lord's bare face, His breath, and a kiss. But (Luke 7) a poor woman is content to kiss His feet. "Set Me as a seal upon thy heart," says the Kirk (Cant. 8:6). Sense there will be in no place except at the board-head, and the first mess and the hand in the plate with Christ. But the woman of Canaan's hungry faith is glad to lie under the table with the dogs, and to eat the crumbs that fall from His table. Thomas his sense has not except he see Christ and put his finger in the print of the nails and his hands in the hole of His side. The silly hungry woman with the bloody issue will be content to touch the hem of His garment. Servants' bread is good cheer to the home-coming forlorn son. It was once another world when bairns' bread was no delicacy to him. This reproves doated lovers, who when they have full wallets and abundance of Christ's love and their armful of Him, misregards Christ, and makes small reckoning to anger Him, and set not by His presence because wealth causes wit to waver. Such spoiled bairns in a wealthy world let wisdom's good meat spoil and sour. And when that world is away they would be glad of the licking of Christ's trencher. O, but humble hunger will think meikle of half a smile and half a kiss of Christ. And the reasons are these:
告诉他，我对爱已经感到厌倦。这是一种破碎、炽热和充满激情的言辞，她要求她的同伴们在向上帝祈祷时，将她的使命告诉基督，并向基督转达她真诚的祝福，因为她目前无法亲自见到基督。在被遗弃的时候，任何东西对于一个饥饿的灵魂来说都是好的食物。当教会拥有基督并且离他很近时，只有一扇薄薄的门隔开他们，她并不看重他，也不愿意弄脏自己的脚来让他进来。对于一个饱足的灵魂来说，甚至蜂蜜蜂房也是令人讨厌的。但是现在，失去了基督的她，非常渴望能找到一个人将她的祝福带给他。对基督的渴望是一种美好的享受和盛宴。经验可以证实这个教义，因为有时候，在无法亲自见到基督的情况下，与他的面对面相比，与他的面具亲吻就是一顿丰盛的晚餐。当大卫在家时，敬拜上帝和他的帐幕并不那么甜美，因为他可以在其中拥有最好的位置。但在诗篇 84 中，他愿意全心全意地接受在房屋的树荫下与燕子共处，那时一首诗篇就成了美味的点心。 但当他与巴实巴结合时，帐幕和诗篇都感到寒冷，被封存到一个满满的海洋。将信仰和感官放在一起比较，你会发现感官比信仰更自豪。感官除非找到一个通向上帝的敞开之门，否则什么都不要；而信仰则满足于打扮自己，透过钥匙孔看到基督的半张脸或者他红润的脸颊。教堂的感官在这里是这样的——雅歌 1:2：“愿他用口亲我。”这是一种骄傲，只满足于主的赤裸面容、他的气息和一个吻。但是（路加福音 7 章），一个贫穷的妇人满足于亲吻他的脚。“将我如印记放在你的心上，”教堂说（雅歌 8:6）。感官只会在餐桌的首位，第一道菜和与基督一起放在盘子里的手上出现。但迦南的妇人饥渴的信仰乐意躺在桌子下与狗一起，吃从他桌子上掉下来的碎屑。多马的感官除非看见基督并把手指放在钉痕上，手放在他肋旁的洞里，否则不会相信。而那个患血漏的可怜妇人满足于触摸他衣服的衣边。 仆人的面包是给归来的孤独儿子的美好款待。曾经，孩子们的面包对他来说并不是一种美味。这是对那些沉迷于爱情的人的谴责，当他们钱包鼓鼓，拥有基督的丰盈爱和他的怀抱时，却忽视了基督，对激怒他毫不在意，因为财富使智慧动摇。在这个富裕的世界里，这样被宠坏的孩子们让智慧的美食变质发酸。而当那个世界消失时，他们会渴望舔舐基督的盘子。哦，但谦卑的饥饿会对基督的微笑和亲吻的一半倍感重要。原因如下：

1. Desertion and absence of Christ is a great scourge to pride and security. When we have Christ at will and access, presence, sense, and liberty, ere we are aware we turn wanton and secure, and count little of Christ's sweet tongue and His lovely knocks. It is even so here. Beggars dow not bear wealth, Christ's lordly beggars, His full spoiled and doited louns, find the ground of their stomach then. And because you are too full and know not well wherefore the well serveth you till it go dry, it is the wisdom of Christ that ye go over hungry grass, and seek after the half blinks that ye counted little of before, and eat sweetly the last year's leavings, and be glad of Christ's mouldy bread.
离弃和离开基督对骄傲和安全是一种巨大的祸害。当我们随心所欲地接近基督，感受到祂的存在、感觉和自由时，我们会不知不觉地变得放纵和安逸，对基督甜美的言语和祂可爱的敲门不再重视。在这里也是如此。乞丐们不会承受财富，基督的贵族乞丐，祂的完全被掠夺和愚蠢的人们，会找到他们的胃口。因为你们太饱了，不知道井为什么为你们服务，直到它干涸，这是基督的智慧，让你们走过饥草，寻找之前你们不重视的微弱的光芒，甜美地吃掉去年剩下的食物，为基督发霉的面包而高兴。

2. Humility is never well-fed, and fat till sense grow traiked and lean, and then when sense is traiked and lean, and like to starve in a famine, spiritual humility (to speak so) gets cheeks, and grows fat, under desertion, while hunger makes a wide mouth: then comes David's "How long, Lord?" (Psa. 5)
谦卑从不被满足，直到感觉变得疲惫而消瘦，然后当感觉疲惫而消瘦，几乎要在饥荒中挨饿时，属灵的谦卑（这样说）变得丰满，在被遗弃时变得肥胖，而饥饿使嘴巴张得大大的：然后就出现了大卫的“主啊，你要到几时呢？”（诗篇 5）

"I am sick of love"—or, as the Hebrew word beareth, "weak through love." That is, feeling wrath and the curse of the land, and wanting the sense of His pardoning love. I am sick through longing to have reconciliation and forgiveness, as is exponed well in Isa. 33:24: "The inhabitant shall not say I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." So is it in this song at chap. 2:5; at Matt. 9:12: "They that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick." He means Saviour-sick for the physician Christ; and, Psa. 103:2, 3: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases." This is her pained conscience saying: "I am pained, I am in a fever, the health, constitution, and frame of the life of my soul is troubled because I want Jesus." To take the thing up that aileth the Kirk now we must know that it is not the bairn's truant sickness, nor the loun ill that aileth the Kirk, for there is pain and sorrow in this sickness: "My soul panteth after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" (Psa. 42:1, 2.) "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." When the heart panteth and the flesh has a tongue to cry, David was not at himself. It is with the saint's longing for Christ as when a woman's husband has been long over sea; every ship she sees makes her both blith and sad, for hope deferred is a breaking of the bones. The first sight is half joy, but with pain, when all the passengers land and her husband is not there, then her heart breaketh. Every one that knocketh at the door makes her both blith and sad when she sees it is another, she sighs and says: "Alas! it is not my love." In this Saviour-sickness the soul in the word and sacrament waiteth for Christ. When it is not He, oh! then the heart is woe: "I missed Him and I got Him not." Second: As in other sickness so here, meat and drink do the sick man little good, and sleep can he not. The sick man now has no mind of sleep; his absence holds her waking. Word, sacraments, reading, prayer, conferring, have no taste. They feed not. The soul is ill-like and sick, until Christ come Himself, with a drink of cold fountain water of the well that runneth out from the sanctuary from under the throne of God and the Lamb (Rev. 22) The poor soul gets never a kindly cool of love fever. Third: In this sickness there is fear of wrath, a fire in the soul, and a sort of unbelief and fear He come not, for hunger is hard of faith. When hunger and faith run together hunger is speediest of foot, and out-runneth faith. Old Jacob hearing this that his son Joseph liveth, he believeth not, for his heart fainted (Gen. 45:26). Yet he would fain have had it true, but desire made such a wide mouth and racked itself so far until faith took the cramp. It is as we say, "What good news! Alas! I fear they be not true," and say to a sick soul burnt up with God's wrath, "Be blith, Christ is coming;" he will let out a look with a watery eye, and death, earth hunger. "Alas! I fear it be not He, I would so fain have it Him. I dow not believe it. Fear fills my heart, and that fear is a pain of the fever."
我对爱厌倦了——或者说，根据希伯来语的含义，是“因爱而虚弱”。也就是说，感受到愤怒和地上的诅咒，渴望感受到他宽恕的爱。我因渴望和解与宽恕而感到不舒服，正如以赛亚书 33:24 中所解释的那样：“其中的居民必不再说：‘我病了’；其中的百姓必蒙赦免他们的罪。”在这首歌中也是如此，如马太福音 9:12 所说：“康健的人用不着医生，有病的人才用得着。”他指的是为了基督这位医生而病得要命；还有诗篇 103:2, 3：“我的心哪，你要称颂耶和华，不可忘记他的一切恩惠。他赦免你的一切罪孽，医治你的一切疾病。”这是她痛苦的良心在说：“我痛苦，我发烧，我灵魂的健康、构造和生命的状态都因为我需要耶稣而困扰不安。”要理解现在困扰教会的问题，我们必须知道，这不是儿童的逃学病，也不是懒汉的病，因为这种病是痛苦和悲伤的：“我的心渴慕神，就是永生神。我几时得朝见神呢？”（诗篇 42:1, 2）我的灵魂渴望，甚至因主的院子而昏厥：我的心和我的肉体呼喊着活着的神。当心灵渴望，肉体有舌头呼喊时，大卫不是自己。圣徒对基督的渴望就像一个女人的丈夫长时间在海外；她看到每一艘船都让她既快乐又悲伤，因为希望拖延是骨头的折断。第一次看到是半喜悦，但伴随着痛苦，当所有乘客都下船而她的丈夫不在时，她的心就碎了。每个敲门的人都让她既快乐又悲伤，当她看到不是她的爱人时，她叹息着说：“唉！这不是我的爱人。”在这种对救主的病痛中，灵魂在圣言和圣餐中等待基督。当不是他时，哦！那么心就痛苦：“我错过了他，我没有得到他。”其次：就像其他疾病一样，在这里，食物和饮料对病人几乎没有好处，他也无法入睡。病人现在没有入睡的心思；他的离去让她保持清醒。圣言、圣餐、阅读、祈祷、交流都没有滋味。它们不能滋养。 灵魂病态而不健康，直到基督亲自来临，带着从神和羔羊的宝座下流出的圣殿冷泉水（启示录 22 章）。可怜的灵魂从未得到一丝仁慈的爱之热。第三点：在这种病态中，有对忿怒的恐惧，灵魂中有一团火，一种不信和害怕祂不来的恐惧，因为饥饿很难相信。当饥饿和信仰并驾齐驱时，饥饿是最快的，超过了信仰。雅各听到他的儿子约瑟还活着，他不相信，因为他的心灰心丧气（创世记 45:26）。然而，他很想让它成真，但欲望张开了如此大的嘴巴，扭曲了自己，直到信仰抽筋。就像我们说的，“好消息！唉！恐怕它们不是真的。”对一个被上帝的愤怒烧毁的灵魂说：“高兴起来，基督要来了。”他会用湿润的眼睛投来一瞥，死亡，地狱的饥饿。“唉！我害怕那不是祂，我多么希望是祂。我不敢相信。恐惧充满了我的心，这种恐惧就是发烧的痛苦。"

But is it not a dangerous case, may you say, to be thus sick? Answer: As Christ said in another sense, so may we here: "This sickness is not unto death, but to the glory of God," for there are speaking and crying tokens of life here. And, first, this sickness has a fair long tail. It is drawing Christ down out of heaven to the broad side of the poor soul that is Christ-sick. Christ comes always to the cooling of the fever. Nay, He is always in the house, howbeit the person in the fever know Him not; He is at the sick man's bedside preparing drugs and washing herbs for him. He is looking on. Her groans and her sighs are of my well-beloved Christ, my dear husband, and His groans and His sighs, howbeit not heard by her, answer hers behind the curtain. Oh! for my dear bride, the Lamb's wife. And—
但是你可能会说，这样生病不是很危险吗？回答：正如基督在另一个意义上所说的那样，我们也可以这样说：“这种病不是致死的，而是为了上帝的荣耀。”因为这里有生命的言语和哭泣的迹象。首先，这种病有一个漫长的尾巴。它将基督从天堂带到了那个患有基督病的可怜灵魂的身边。基督总是来降温的。不，他总是在房子里，尽管发烧的人不认识他；他在病人的床前准备药物和洗草药给他。他在注视着。她的呻吟和叹息是我心爱的基督，我亲爱的丈夫，他的呻吟和叹息，虽然她听不到，但在帷幕后回应着她的。哦！为了我亲爱的新娘，羔羊的妻子。

Second: There is here another good token, a sweet impatience in this love-sickness. Every hour for absent Christ is a day, every day a year. "And oh!" says the soul, "Saw ye Him.… Oh! He is long in coming. He goes slowly. Oh! run, well-beloved like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains."
其次：这里还有一个好的迹象，这种爱病中有一种甜蜜的焦虑。每一小时对于不在身边的基督来说都像一天，每一天都像一年。“哦！”灵魂说，“你们看见了他吗……哦！他来得太慢了。他走得很慢。哦！像鹿或年轻的雄鹿一样快跑吧，我所爱的人，跑上山去。”

Third: This one sympton of a Saviour-fever is also that there is a deadly sorrow until He come again. The harp of joy [is] laid by and hanged up until Christ come again and put in tune.
第三点：救世主热的另一个症状是，直到祂再来之前，会有一种致命的悲伤。喜乐的琴弦被搁置起来，挂起来，直到基督再来并调好琴弦。

Fourth: All this time there is a fire of love to Christ in the heart, and His absence is like a fan to cause it to burn faster.
第四点：在这段时间里，心中有对基督的爱火，而他的离去就像一把扇子，使它燃烧得更快。

Fifth: The special prevalent mark that proveth it will end well is hunger and thirst for Christ, and a rude working hunger, and hunger that has hands and feet, and it is the only choice token of life.
第五点：证明一切将会好转的特殊普遍标志是对基督的饥渴和渴望，一种粗糙的工作饥饿，一种有手有脚的饥饿，它是生命的唯一选择标志。

But a question may be asked here in this sickness. That there is here a heart fainting and hunger for Christ, pronounced by Christ to be a mark of those whom God shall fill (Matt. 5:6); yet the hungry soul will not accept of this mark; and because he has the mark of hunger rather reasoneth the contrary, he is none of God's? Answer: Because extreme hunger would so fain believe that often out of desire to have it true that Christ cometh, it unbelieveth, as is said before.
但在这种疾病中可能会有一个问题。这里有一个渴望基督的心灵，基督宣称这是上帝要充满的人的标志（马太福音 5:6）；然而，这个饥饿的灵魂不愿接受这个标志；因为他有饥饿的标志，所以他反而推理相反，他不是上帝的人？回答：因为极度的饥饿会如此渴望相信，以至于出于渴望成真，它会不相信，正如前面所说的。

Second. Hunger is of kin and blood to want, and is of its own nature a toom, empty thing, and thereupon the man thinketh he wanteth all.
其次，饥饿与需求有着亲缘关系，本质上是一种空虚的东西，因此人们会认为自己需要一切。

Third. God disposes it to be so because hunger is given to man that he should not rest upon it, but seek meat. But we may learn how to spain our desires, even to send them out in love-sickness for Christ. If the pulses of many souls in our time were graiped, they would be found not sick of love, but sick of lust. Some have, alas! sickness for their neighbour's vineyard, others Haman's sickness after he led Mordecai through the streets, sick of court because his honour got a scad. This age is full of sick men, fevers are rife, every man seeks for this world.
第三，上帝安排如此是因为饥饿是赐予人类的，使他们不得安宁，而要寻找食物。但我们可以学会如何控制欲望，甚至将其转化为对基督的痴迷。如果我们能够触摸到许多人的灵魂的脉搏，我们会发现他们并非因为爱而生病，而是因为欲望而生病。有些人，唉！他们对邻居的葡萄园生病，还有些人像哈曼一样，引领摩尔底买穿过街道后，因为他的荣誉受到了伤害而生病。这个时代充满了病人，热病盛行，每个人都在追求这个世界。

If ye find my beloved what shall ye tell Him [Authorized Version, "If ye find my Beloved that ye tell Him"]. The Church must find Christ ere she can tell Him. It is only a found Christ we must pray to. If we start Him not, and snapper not on Him where He is, we cannot pray to Him. This condemns those who tell Christ's news and they never find Him. They pray and speak to Christ, and they never meet with Him. They must then be dumb prayers; and so they are. When men get not access at all, they but cast away prayers in the air. He that prays in one measure or other, must win in to the King's chamber of presence, and to the feet of King Jesus' chair of state: "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:2).
如果你们找到了我的爱人，你们要告诉他什么。教会必须先找到基督，然后才能告诉他。我们只能向已经找到的基督祈祷。如果我们没有找到他，没有在他所在的地方停留，我们就无法向他祈祷。这谴责那些传达基督消息却从未找到他的人。他们祈祷并与基督交谈，却从未与他相遇。他们的祈祷必然是哑巴的；事实上也确实如此。当人们无法进入，他们只是将祈祷扔向空中。无论以何种方式祈祷，我们都必须进入国王的宫殿，到达耶稣国王宝座前的脚下：“我们借着他，因信得进入现在所站立的这恩典中”（罗马书 5:2）。

Objection: Oh! I pray often, and I think I have not found Him. Are all these prayers then lost? Answer: All find not Christ in a like measure, yet little faith is faith, and every weight of gold is gold, a mool as a mountain of gold. Second: If you have found yourself in prayer, you may soon find Him. If you get but in prayer the sense of a pair of blind eyes, and a dead heart, it is a degree of finding Him. Third: Know there be three degrees of those that find Christ. First: Your Lord gives you sometimes but the beggar's welcome, a closed door, and liberty to set your mouth to the hole of Christ's lock, and cry through that ye find Him, when ye find but the very hole of Christ's lock. Second: Sometimes the half-door is casten up, howbeit your weak arms dow not cast up the door to the wall; and this is more than the first, and here they lie whining and scraping at His doors with some degree of motion and liberty, wrestling with an unbelieving heart. Third: Sometimes you find the whole door casten up, and your bridegroom taking an hearty armful of you, which is possibly a feast by the common.
反对：哦！我经常祈祷，但我觉得我还没有找到他。这些祈祷都白费了吗？答：并非所有人都能同样程度上找到基督，但小小的信仰也是信仰，每一丝黄金都是黄金，就像山一样的黄金砂。第二：如果你在祈祷中找到了自己，很快你也可能会找到他。即使你在祈祷中只感到一双盲目的眼睛和一颗死去的心，这也是找到他的一种程度。第三：要知道有三种寻找基督的程度。第一：您的主有时可能只是给您乞丐似的欢迎，一扇关闭的门，和自由将您的嘴唇放到基督的锁孔上并通过呼喊，即使您只是找到了基督的锁孔。第二：有时可能开了一半的门，虽然您的手臂太弱无法把门推开，但这已经比第一种情况更好了，他们在那里呜咽着、在门前挠抓、并有一些动作和自由，和不信的心搏斗。第三：有时您会发现整扇门都被打开了，您的新郎会用坚定的双臂把您抱住，这很可能是一场盛宴。

Any of these are a finding of Him. Only beware of fashionable and dead prayers coming from custom, not from conscience. One of the marks whereof, is that men cast in their bill to Christ, and never ask whether it be heard or not. Then ere ye go away, leave a loud, last knock, and observe what God sayeth, and always so pray as that you instantly urge the answer of your bill.
这些都是他的发现。只要小心时髦和死板的祈祷，它们只是出于习俗，而不是出于良心。其中一个标志是，人们向基督投入他们的请求，却从不问是否被听到。然后，在你离开之前，留下一个响亮的、最后的敲门声，观察上帝说了什么，并且始终如此祈祷，以便你立即迫切地追求你的请求的答案。

Objection: Then when I cannot find Christ, shall I not bide aback, and pray none till I find Him?
反对：那么当我找不到基督时，我不会退缩，也不会停止祈祷，直到找到祂

Answer: This is a deep one of Satan, that some men will not come to Christ until they be so busked that there is not a wrong pin upon them. Nay, it is best to go to Christ with ragged and rent clothes. Necessity cannot blush. Young children rive two or three books ere they learn one. Better spill a prayer or two and fumble at it, as be deluded of Satan to wait until your heart be on a good blood. Nay, a cold man must walk and stir himself until he be hot. Prayer is like God's file to stir a rusty heart; blowing helpeth a cold fire, and by moving, working, and stirring upon the new birth, the heart will grow warm. To stay from praying until the heart say, "Now, God, now I am prepared," is the way to lose what ye have, but not to find more. Be doing though weakly. If there be something of yours and something of Christ's, He will accept of His own, and pardon yours freely and fully.
答案：这是撒旦的一个深奥之处，有些人在他们身上没有一根别针时才会来到基督面前。不，最好是穿着破烂的衣服去找基督。需要不会害羞。年幼的孩子在学会一本书之前可能会撕破两三本。宁可祈祷几次失败，也不要被撒旦欺骗，等到你的心情好转再来。不，一个冷漠的人必须行动起来，直到他变得热情起来。祈祷就像上帝的锉刀，可以激发生锈的心灵；吹气可以帮助冷火，通过运动、工作和激发新生命，心灵会变得温暖。等到心灵说：“现在，上帝，现在我准备好了”，再开始祈祷，这是失去你已经拥有的东西的方式，而不是找到更多。即使虚弱，也要去行动。如果有你的东西和基督的东西，他会接受他自己的，并且完全宽恕你的。

"If ye find my beloved." Then Christ is a seeking, and [is] lost in the Kirk's feeling, yet notwithstanding is her well-beloved, as ver. 1. Christ standeth without at the wrong side of the door, yet is her well-beloved. Nay, the covenant standeth if ye were in hell and He in heaven at the right hand of the Father, yet He is my Lord and my God. We see want of present possession of Christ depriveth not the saints' right and just claims to Him. A man year and day our king's rebel loses his life-rent of present possession, yet the heritage is his and his heirs. He loses the use, but not the right. A nobleman having three houses to dwell in, the king for his fault confines him for all his life within one of them. His confinement forfaults the use of the other two, but his right remaineth. So right doth it fare with the saints; they, being Christ's outlaws for some offence, do often lose a very life-rent of spiritual joy and comforts, and so are Christ's confined rebels, and they lose joy, comfort, and present access, liberty, feelings, love blenks; Christ in His felt presence being under a wadset to them; yet faith all this time will not deny They will say, "My Lord, my Saviour, my well-beloved;" Isa. 49:14: "Zion said, My God hath forsaken me." Well, Zion, think on of that! "Thy God," and yet He has forsaken you that is thy God and not thy God. Your tongue makes you a liar. But here under the fore-faultery the claim standeth still. Jonah 2:4: "Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight." I said, whilk I? "Even I roving, dreaming, Jonah said." God said it not, for Jonah's claim, right, and title to God stood still. They are fools, then, who hang up all the rights of their salvation upon a felt presence; a loose, rotten pin. Money lent out upon bank is a man's proper goods, howbeit not in his coffer. Christ to the saints is sometimes lent-out money, yet is He yours. You see the furnace making for you, and finding Christ behind the wall you learn to swim, howbeit a wombful of feeling be not at hand to hold up your head. Dauted bairns, you must learn to go your alone, howbeit your mild nurse Jesus be not at the bairn's back to hold you by the two shoulders. If you can do this and keep your assurance, howbeit hell and wrath were in the shell of your heart yet Christ and heaven are in the yolk of it.
如果你找到了我的爱人。那么基督是在寻找中，并且在教堂的感觉中迷失了，然而尽管如此，他仍然是她心爱的人，就像第 1 节所说的那样。基督站在门的错误一侧，然而他仍然是她心爱的人。不，即使你在地狱，他在天堂，站在父神的右手边，他仍然是我的主和我的神。我们看到，对基督的现在没有拥有并不剥夺圣徒对他的权利和正当要求。一个人一年一天地作为国王的叛逆者失去了他对现在的拥有权，然而遗产是他和他的继承人的。他失去了使用权，但没有失去权利。一个贵族有三座房子可以居住，国王因他的过错将他终身限制在其中一座里。他因过错而失去了使用其他两座的权利，但他的权利仍然存在。 圣徒们的处境与此相同；他们因某种过错而成为基督的逃犯，常常失去了属灵的喜乐和安慰，因此成为基督的被限制的叛逆者，失去了喜乐、安慰、现在的接近、自由、感受和爱的闪烁；基督在他们感受到他的同在时，对他们来说是一种抵押。然而，信心在这段时间里不会否认。他们会说：“我的主，我的救主，我所亲爱的。”以赛亚书 49:14：“锡安说：‘耶和华离弃了我。’”好吧，锡安，想一想这个！“你的神”，然而他却离弃了你，他是你的神，也不是你的神。你的舌头让你成为了一个说谎者。但在这个预先放弃权利的情况下，要求仍然存在。约拿书 2:4：“我说：‘我从你眼前虽被赶出，我仍要仰望你的圣殿。’”我说的是哪一个？“流浪、做梦的约拿说。”神没有这样说，因为约拿对神的要求、权利和称号仍然存在。那些把救恩的一切权利都寄托在感受到的同在上的人是愚蠢的；这是一个松散、腐烂的销子。借出去的钱是一个人的财产，尽管不在他的保险箱里。对圣徒来说，基督有时是借出去的钱，但他仍然是你的。 你看到炉子为你制造，当你在墙后找到基督时，你学会了游泳，尽管没有足够的情感来支撑你的头部。胆怯的孩子们，你们必须学会独自前行，尽管你们温和的保姆耶稣不在孩子的背后用双肩扶着你们。如果你能做到这一点并保持你的信心，尽管地狱和愤怒在你心中的壳里，基督和天堂仍在其中的蛋黄里。

"What is thy beloved more than another beloved?" The companions of the kirk being somewhat carnal and not well acquainted with love-sickness as the Church is, giveth her a sore check, for the Kirk spake with feeling, and took an hearty mouthful of it in charging of her well-beloved. And therefore the companions of the Church double the question, and they say, "Have you any beloved of the new cut. Whereof is your Christ made more than other Christs? There is fell2 great din of your beloved. What needs all this? You are fell hot in the chase that you come on with adjurations and charges. I would not have you overfine. Be like neighbour and other. Neighbour-like in holiness is very good." We see in as far as we are carnal we dow3 not bide heat and forwardness in religion. We love still a moderation in God's matters. We need not think but the old world thought Noah too holy and too just. He will make a great vessel on dry land far from the sea, and he will have all the world but seven moe and himself drowned for sin. Noah in all the world, and none like him; he is the only man. You know Jeroboam in bringing in the golden calf in 1 Kings 12:28: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem to worship. Behold thy gods, O Israel! which brought you up out of the land of Egypt." He would say: "It cannot be denied but it is God's law to go up to Jerusalem to worshipping, but, saving his own wisdom, it is a strait one, it is too much and more nor necessity. If God be worshipped I doubt not but the place where is indifferent. Therefore it is not good to be fiery and lay too sore a burden upon the people, to pain ourselves to take the young ones, the male children, thrice a year up to Jerusalem." Therefore Jeroboam with a piece of desertion would slack the girth. There is a thing now in religion that they call discretion and a wise moderation. This is the only safeway. Let cold, politic, canny2 men go before you, and follow them and dance ye as they pipe, and that is now sure work. "He is old enough, ask himself," say the parents of the blind man. They thought the rulers burdened their discretion with a tempting question, and therefore they would not take the tale ere it came to them. "I love Christ," says the middoway man or the half-lan man, "but I would not make a blowing horn of my religion. They shall never know upon what side I am. Fye! fye! for wisdom to this age. I hope I am as good a Protestant as any of them. I hope I have a soul to keep, but ill mot4 I thrive if I endure too great preciseness, and that men should start at a strae and carry so kittle6 stomachs, and they will not do as neighbours and others do, having forgotten what common people say, 'Too holy was hanged.' I would not have men's consciences too small spun. A conscience of small linen and cambric dow not, for the thread will soon break. It is good to be holy, but not over8 holy." It can hardly be thought but such men as seek this way, and they live as they speak, believe that God's law is too high a tuned lute, and therefore let moderation slack the string. When David says (Psa. 16:4), "The idols' drink offering of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names in my lips;" such men would judge David had precise lips who would not name an idol. This mid-course Christ blamed. People thought they might come to heaven, and there was no necessity to be so holy as Scribes and Pharisees. But Christ said: "Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."
"你的爱人与其他爱人相比有何不同？"教堂的伙伴们有些肉欲，对于爱情的病态并不熟悉，因此对教堂进行了严厉的批评，因为教堂表达了真情，并对她深爱的人提出了指责。因此，教堂的伙伴们重复了这个问题，并说：“你有没有新的爱人？你的基督与其他基督有何不同？你的爱人引起了很大的喧闹。这一切都有什么必要吗？你在追求中非常热情，以至于使用誓言和指责。我不希望你过于苛求。像邻居和其他人一样。在圣洁方面像邻居一样是非常好的。”我们看到，只要我们是肉体的，我们就无法忍受宗教中的热情和积极性。我们仍然喜欢在上帝的事务中保持适度。我们不必认为，古代的世界认为挪亚太圣洁、太公正了。他会在干地上建造一艘巨大的船，远离海洋，他会让全世界除了他自己和七个人之外的所有人都因为罪恶而淹死。在全世界中，只有挪亚一个人，没有人能与他相比；他是唯一的人。 你知道《列王纪上》12:28 中的耶罗波安带进金牛犊的事情：“以色列人哪，这金牛犊是领你们出埃及地的神，看哪，这就是领你们离开埃及地的神。”他会说：“不可否认，按照上帝的律法，上耶路撒冷朝拜是必须的，但是，除非他自己的智慧，这是一条狭窄的路，太过于繁重，超出了必要。如果上帝受到崇拜，我毫不怀疑地认为地点并不重要。因此，对人民施加过重的负担，为了带着年轻人、男孩子每年三次上耶路撒冷，这是不好的。”因此，耶罗波安以一种背离的方式放松了束缚。现在在宗教中有一种被称为谨慎和明智的适度。这是唯一的安全之道。让冷静、精明的人先行，跟随他们，随着他们的节奏舞蹈，这是现在的稳妥之举。“他已经够大了，问他自己，”盲人的父母这样说。他们认为统治者用一个诱人的问题限制了他们的谨慎，因此他们不愿意在消息传到他们之前接受这个故事。 “我爱基督，”中间的人或半路人说，“但我不会把我的宗教变成吹号角。他们永远不会知道我站在哪一边。唉！唉！对于这个时代的智慧来说真是可悲。我希望我是和他们中的任何一个一样好的新教徒。我希望我有一个要保护的灵魂，但如果我过于严谨，我就不会繁荣，人们会对一根稻草反应过度，并且他们不会像邻居和其他人那样做，已经忘记了普通人说的话，‘太圣洁的人会被绞死。’我不希望人们的良心太过狭窄。小亚麻和法兰绒的良心是不行的，因为线很快就会断。成为圣洁是好的，但不要过于圣洁。”可以想象，追求这种方式的人，如果他们生活方式与他们的言论一致，会认为上帝的律法是一个音调太高的琴，因此要让温和放松琴弦。当大卫说（诗篇 16:4），“我不会献上偶像的血祭，也不会在我的嘴唇上提起他们的名字；”这样的人会认为大卫有严谨的嘴唇，因为他不愿意提到偶像。基督批评了这种中间立场。人们认为他们可以进入天堂，没有必要像文士和法利赛人那样圣洁。 但基督说：“你们的义若不胜于文士和法利赛人的义，断不能进天国。”"

Men are gone so far that atheists have taken this course as to think, not to swear, drink, and not to follow the ordinary chambering and wantonness of the time, is to be precise so as lewdness is no moderation. Nay, I wish men were persuaded in the contrary, and would know that Christ's pass to heaven is either go quickly and with all your speed to heaven, or then miss your lodging at night; take even your choice. The old job-trot, the old mid-course, well-a-ways brother, will not do the turn. Therefore no marvel nor2 this world think that the saints have another beloved than the rest of the world has. It is known our divines think not in matters [of] faith much of what Papists say; as learned, as holy as you believe other ways, and we hear this daily, "Others have a soul to keep as well as you." What then? Must not every man be his own herd here? Men think with one stroke of the hammer they have felled a man cold dead to the ground. And yet all they have said is no better nor a rotten argument from excellent logic that is not sure in the dry land, and very dangerous in the sea. Let the pilot say to the passengers, "A better seaman nor1 even I was, or will be, and who loveth life, goods, ship, as well as we do, sailed upon yon rock. Come, I will try my skill to follow him that way." Is not this unhappy sea logic? And conscience in God's matters sailing by another man's compass must then be in danger. It were better ask for truth; then, whither he goeth, truth cannot go in the mire, but men may.
人们已经走得太远了，以至于无神论者已经采取了这种方式，认为不发誓、不喝酒，不追随当时普遍的淫乱行为，就是过于严谨，以至于淫乱没有节制。不，我希望人们相信相反的观点，并且知道，通往天堂的道路要么快速前进，全速前往天堂，要么就会在夜晚失去住处；你可以自己选择。老一套、老一套的中途，哎呀，兄弟，行不通了。因此，不足为奇，这个世界认为圣徒们有另一个所爱，而不同于世界其他人的所爱。众所周知，我们的神学家对天主教徒的言论并不太在意；无论你以其他方式相信他们有多么有学问、多么圣洁，我们每天都听到这样的话，“其他人也有灵魂需要保护。”那又怎样呢？难道每个人都要自己在这里牧养吗？人们以为一锤子下去，就能把一个人打得冷冰冰地倒在地上。然而，他们所说的一切都不比一根烂掉的论据更好，那是一种在干地上不可靠，在海上非常危险的优秀逻辑。 让飞行员对乘客说：“我是一个更好的水手，也不会是，也不会是，而且像我们一样热爱生命、财产和船只的人，他们驶向了那块岩石。来吧，我将尽力跟随他的方式。”这难道不是不幸的海上逻辑吗？在上帝的事务中，良心按照别人的指南针航行，那就必然有危险。最好是寻求真理；然后，无论他去哪里，真理都不会陷入泥潭，但人们可能会。

"More than others." That the companions of the Church ask this question, "What the Kirk's beloved is more than others?" shows they were not so well acquainted with Christ, nor with the fits of spiritual ague and fevers for absent Christ. The Lord has bairns in His house, and Christ's bairns must creep ere they gang. All within the Church have not a like experience of Christ. 1 John 2:13 makes some fathers, some young men, and some little children. There may be two sons of one and the same father, and the one be thirteen years of age, and the other a sucking child that can neither speak, stand, nor walk as yet.
“比其他人更多。”教会的同伴们问这个问题，“教堂所爱的人比其他人更多？”表明他们对基督并不那么了解，也不了解因为基督不在身边而产生的属灵的寒战和发烧。主在祂的家中有孩子，基督的孩子必须爬行才能行走。教会内部的人对基督的经历并不相同。约翰一书 2:13 提到了一些父亲、一些年轻人和一些小孩子。可能有两个同一个父亲的儿子，一个 13 岁，另一个还是个吃奶的婴儿，还不能说话、站立或行走。

The use is, that the aged bear with the infirmities of the younger and weaker, and if a weak one fall and break his leg, the apostle (Gal. 6:1) will have those that are spiritual to put the broken leg in joint again with the spirit of meekness. Love should bind up softly and tenderly. Spelk the broken bones. Who are in this carriage toward men to keep these rules?
使用的目的是，老年人要忍受年轻和虚弱者的不足，如果一个虚弱者摔倒并摔断了腿，使徒（加拉太书 6:1）要求那些属灵的人以温柔的精神将断腿重新接合。爱应该温柔地包扎。修复断骨。谁能在对待人类时遵守这些规则呢？

First: The wilful and proud Pharisee is not to be borne with in obstinacy. No man owes his tongue to lick his neighbour's running boils.
首先：任性而骄傲的法利赛人的固执是不能容忍的。没有人有义务舔自己邻居流脓的疮。

Second: It is rashness to break up a window in any man's soul, and fly upon his conscience at the first. Let God sit judge there.
第二点：在任何人的灵魂中打破窗户，并在一开始就对他的良心进行指责是鲁莽的。让上帝在那里坐法官。

Third: In Church controversies, in a great wood of sundry controversies anent matters of faith, we should attentively go by the thorny bushes, and walk so with men who worship one and the same God with us, albeit they err in some things from the truth as we put on a compassionate mind towards them. Know Christ will send no man to hell for errors coyning from mere weakness.
第三点：在教会争议中，在各种关于信仰问题的复杂争议的茂密森林中，我们应该谨慎地穿过多刺的灌木丛，并与与我们一样崇拜同一位上帝的人一起行走，尽管他们在某些事情上与真理有所偏差，我们应该对他们怀有同情之心。要知道，基督不会因为纯粹的软弱而将人送入地狱。

Fourth: We are to look as well to that which men have as to that which they want. We look always to the blind and bloody side of a man, and to men's cloudy part. Men would say, "Turn the leaf and cast up the other page, and look upon the enlightened part of the man and his moon side." We are like the fly that cannot sit down upon the whole skin, but with eyes, smell, and tongue, we fall down upon the sore boil at the first.
第四点：我们要关注人们拥有的和他们想要的。我们总是看向一个人的盲目和血腥的一面，以及人们的混乱部分。人们会说：“翻开另一页，看看人的开明一面和他的月亮一面。”我们就像一只无法停留在整个皮肤上的苍蝇，但我们用眼睛、嗅觉和舌头，第一时间就落在疮疤上。

Fifth: Let them be wicked men, we are then not only to look what they want, but what possibly the grace of God may give them. Fish playing in the sea to-day, for aught we know, may be ordained for Christ's hook the morn.
第五点：让他们成为邪恶的人，我们不仅要看他们想要什么，还要看上帝的恩典可能给予他们什么。鱼在海中嬉戏，我们不知道，也许明天就会被安排为基督的鱼钩。

Sixth: A common fault in us all that we look to sick men with pity, and not to sinful men with pity. Christ wept for Jerusalem, and yet Jerusalem slew Him. Samuel wept for Saul and envies him not, howbeit he had taken his office over his head. Pity in place of grudging, thankfulness for what Christ has given us, a humbling fear for what justice has denied them, would turn our spirits if we considered the matter right.
第六点：我们所有人都有一个共同的错误，我们对生病的人表示怜悯，而对犯罪的人却不表示怜悯。基督为耶路撒冷哭泣，然而耶路撒冷却杀害了他。撒母耳为扫罗哭泣，却不嫉妒他，尽管他已经取代了扫罗的职位。如果我们正确地考虑这个问题，用怜悯代替嫉妒，对基督给予我们的感恩，对正义剥夺他们的事情感到谦卑的恐惧，将改变我们的心灵。

Seventh: The judge not perversely wicked claimeth the largest share of every subject's love and charity. Thou barkest at him and smitest him with thy tongue, but little knowest thou he sits in the cleaving of a windy mountain. Four temptations from all the four airts come on him every day. Thou art on the shore and he is in the raging sea. And this is one of Solomon's ills, the poor man can lie in his cothouse. Under David and Solomon the music went not unpleasant to all men's ears. Many eyes are on government, and to many it seems to crook and bear a leg; but men are ready to give authority more judgment nor2 mercy.
第七：邪恶的法官要求每个人的爱和善意。你对他咆哮并用舌头打击他，但你并不知道他坐在一个多风的山洞里。每天有来自四个方向的四种诱惑。你在岸上，而他在汹涌的海中。这是所罗门的困境之一，穷人可以躺在他的小屋里。在大卫和所罗门统治时期，音乐对所有人的耳朵都不令人不悦。很多人关注政府，对很多人来说，政府似乎是弯曲和屈服的；但人们更愿意给予权威更多的判断而不是怜悯。

Eighth: All men have holes and wants, but here is the matter. Some men have a crooked toe, and yet it is not seen; and some a crooked nose, and that is soon seen; because some carrieth the blot on their face they are soon seen and spitted at. You pity your own crooked toe and offendeth at your brother's crooked nose. You pity yourself, and summon your love home to lick all your own sore. Lend charity and love to others, and send some of it from home to love and pity others, and so much the more because fire will be under much ashes, and if the man be good gold will you cast him off because he wants some grains, or because his King's stamp is clipped in the edge, and it wants half a letter? Christ will pay the skaith, and take him in His own treasure, whom you have casten out of your heart; and beware of that when God is taking in you are casting out. That is to be feared. In a word, where there are weak and strong in a Kirk, every man should have a back and saddle in readiness to bear in love his brother over the water. Our Lord Jesus will not cast away a bruised reed, or deny a poor, weak bairn of his kindred and blood, because he has a little crook or halt. Neither should we cast away any but in love. "Wait on, pity, help, and be thankful for what our Lord has given us.
第八点：所有人都有缺陷和需求，但问题在于，有些人有一个弯曲的脚趾，却看不见；有些人有一个弯曲的鼻子，却很容易被看到；因为有些人脸上有瑕疵，所以很容易被看到和嘲笑。你可怜自己的弯曲脚趾，却对你兄弟的弯曲鼻子生气。你可怜自己，把你的爱带回家去舔舐你自己的伤口。借给别人慈善和爱，把一些爱从家里送出去，去爱和怜悯别人，尤其是因为火会在许多灰烬下燃烧，如果一个人是好金子，你会因为它缺少一些颗粒，或者因为它的国王印章在边缘被剪掉了一半字母而抛弃它吗？基督会承担损失，并把他收入自己的宝库，而你却把他从你的心中赶走；当上帝接纳你时，要小心你在抛弃别人。这是值得担心的。总之，在教堂里有弱者和强者的地方，每个人都应该准备好背和鞍，以爱心承载他的兄弟过河。我们的主耶稣不会抛弃一个受伤的芦苇，也不会因为他有一点弯曲或跛行而拒绝一个贫穷、软弱的孩子，因为他与他们有亲缘关系和血缘关系。 我们也不应该抛弃任何人，只有爱可以做到。"等待、怜悯、帮助，并对我们的主所赐予的一切心存感激。

"That thou so chargest us" [Authorized Version, "That thou dost so charge us"]. The adjurations of the Kirk sick of love are to naturally disposed daughters of Jerusalem, [as if] uncouth things and miracles. "O what means the woman," say they, "to come on with fiery cannon yell? We have seen many holy folks before, but we saw never the like of her who cometh on with cursing and oaths to bid us speak to Christ for her." We see in as far as we are carnal, we are ignorant of God's true wisdom and God's way of spiritual love and fever in the conscience of His own children. Paul heareth this of Festus, "Too much learning hath made you mad." And so did they to Christ. Others say, "Why hear you Him? He is mad." 1 Cor. 1:25: "But the foolishness of God is wiser than men." That which men call foolishness and stark daffing in God, is wisdom above all worldly wisdom, and they think God's saints silly gouks,3 and God's bodies climbing crow-nests, and they wot not what they are seeking. "Honest man," say they, "he means well, but he has no wit. There are bees in his head." And in so far as men are natural they can put Christ till an assize, and hold a justice court upon the power of godliness, and give out a doom that holiness is plain fancy. Howbeit nature had now to be God's scholar, yet it will needs put a book in God's hand and be His master, and teach God a lesson. Jehu and his companions call one of God's prophets a mad fellow (2 Kings 9:11). And what was Jeroboam's natural estimation of obedience to God's law? 1 Kings 12:26, 27: "And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me." Does not here [the] head of wit speak a fool's tale? God had said that by obedience to God his throne should be established (1 Kings 11:38). He says in plain language, "If I be holy I shall never do well. If the people worship God as He has commanded in His word, then farewell good policy. I and my new honours shall shoot short." Any man that has nature in him let him take up his cross and follow Christ, and when it comes to obedience with a hazard or seen danger, his wisdom shall say, "Take heed what you do. Look ere you loup. You resolve well, but you walk upon coals covered with ashes. You spit further nor you will loup, and these that obey Christ because natural reason leads them, they obey natural wisdom, and not Christ." In God's matters men had need to take heed to their natural wisdom else it will lead them in the briars. When God calleth you either to do or to suffer, hear no voice but one, even Christ's own word; for our wisdom has a rank smell. Go at leisure, pity yourself, see to your own standing. Christ sayeth (Matt, 11), "Wisdom is justified of her children." Then God's wisdom is condemned of His own bastards. They can call God's wisdom rash folly. The ill-step bairn will never speak good of its stepmother. Worldly minded men are not wisdom's full gotten bairns, and therefore they speak ill of their mother; but the full gotten and lawful sons of God's wisdom speak good of their mother, and follow her footsteps. It is not good to obey God upon conditions, and the condition comes home to his door. "Carnal wisdom, shall I do it?" This wisdom is the devil's wife, and will lord it out against Christ; but it does always dance as the ill world pipeth, and thinks it folly and ill manners to be out of tune and fall out with the multitude and come to daggers, as Christ did with the Scribes and Pharisees, and court, and time, and the doctrine of the elders. Oh! learn to deny yourselves, and be in tune, and keep measures with Christ Jesus. A good conscience is a good, soft, well-made bed. He is wise enough who is wise to salvation, and has saved his own soul, and shall hear God's "Well done, good servant." What is well done must be wisely done. Goodness cannot be a fool.
“你如此指责我们”[授权版本，“你如此指责我们”]。充满爱的教堂的祈祷是对自然倾向的耶路撒冷的女儿们的恳求，就像是奇怪的事情和奇迹一样。“哦，这个女人是什么意思？”他们说，“她带着火炮的呐喊过来是什么意思？我们以前见过很多圣洁的人，但从来没有见过像她这样的人，她带着咒骂和誓言来要求我们为她与基督交谈。”我们看到，只要我们是肉体的，我们就对上帝真正的智慧和上帝在自己儿女的良心中的属灵爱和热情一无所知。保罗听到非斯都这样说：“你太多学问使你发疯。”他们也这样对待基督。其他人说：“你为什么听他？他疯了。”哥林多前书 1:25：“神的愚拙比人智慧还要聪明。”人们称之为愚蠢和愚蠢的事在上帝看来是超越一切世俗智慧的智慧，他们认为上帝的圣徒是愚蠢的傻瓜，上帝的身体是攀爬乌鸦巢的人，他们不知道他们在寻找什么。“诚实的人，”他们说，“他的意图是好的，但他没有智慧。他的脑袋里有蜜蜂。”就人的本性而言，他们可以将基督置于审判之中，并对虔诚的力量进行审判，并宣布圣洁只是一种幻想。然而，尽管本性现在必须成为上帝的学生，但它仍然想要把一本书放在上帝的手中，并成为上帝的主人，教训上帝一课。耶户和他的同伴称上帝的一个先知为疯子（列王纪下 9:11）。而耶罗波安对顺从上帝的律法的自然评价又是什么呢？列王纪上 12:26,27：“耶罗波安心里说：现在这国必归于大卫家了。这百姓若上耶路撒冷去，在耶和华的殿里献祭，他们的心必归向他们的主，就是犹大王利宏，把我杀了。”这里难道不是聪明人说傻话吗？上帝曾说，通过顺从上帝，他的王位将得以确立（列王纪上 11:38）。他明确地说：“如果我圣洁，我将永远不会做好事。如果人们按照上帝在他的话语中所吩咐的来崇拜上帝，那么再见了好政策。我和我的新荣耀将会失败。”任何有天性的人都应拿起他的十字架跟随基督，当涉及顺从时，智慧会警告你。听从基督是因为天性的理智引导而不是基督。在神的事上，我们需要留意天性的智慧，否则我们会走入荆棘。当神呼召你去做或去受时，只听从基督的话；因为我们的智慧有股臭味。只有神智的合法子民才会称赞它。世俗的人才不是智慧得道的子民，所以他们才会诋毁它。但是神智得道的合法子民称赞它，并跟随神智的脚步。 遵从上帝的条件并不好，条件会回到他的门上。 "肉体的智慧，我应该这样做吗？" 这种智慧是魔鬼的妻子，会反对基督；但它总是随着邪恶的世界的节拍跳舞，并认为与众不同、与大众争吵是愚蠢和不礼貌的，就像基督与文士和法利赛人、宫廷、时间和长老的教义发生争执一样。哦！学会否定自己，与基督耶稣保持和谐，并与之保持一致。良心好像一张好的、柔软的、做得好的床。明智的人是明智到得救的程度，他拯救了自己的灵魂，并将听到上帝的“好样的，好仆人”。好的事情必须明智地做。善良不能是愚蠢的。

"My beloved is white and ruddy." The Kirk with an edge of words takes Christ's part. "My beloved, my beloved," I would you wist what you say when you speak of my beloved. I scorn He be made fellows with any [one, be] he in heaven or earth. One thing is here worthy in the Kirk.
我心爱的是白色和红润的。教堂用言辞的锋芒支持基督。我心爱的，我心爱的，我希望你知道当你谈论我的心爱时你在说什么。我鄙视他与任何人成为伙伴，无论他在天堂还是地球上。教堂中有一件值得称道的事情。

First: That hearing Christ laid in an uneven balance, she starts quickly and takes the temptation presently by the nose, and with a long speech sets Christ even up presently in the skies, and dings speedily, with force of words, her companions out of an opinion that Christ has any mortal match. This is right, not to let the temptation go on. We should not let men away with it when they would put a ruffle upon Christ Jesus. Nay, true grace will borrow strength from a tentation,2 as Paul, seeing idolatry at Athens, and God put out of His room, he grew hotter nor4 he was before, like a horse that cannot endure the spur. So when Christ says (John 6) to His disciples, upon occasion that Capernaum had played turncoat, and left Him, "And will ye also leave Me?" Peter answereth with a piece of stomach: "Leave thee, Lord! To whom shall we go?" Leave you! Whither then? To the devil. The disciples (Acts 4) were charged to speak no more in the name of Jesus. Peter and John draw out a strong one against that. They will not leave it so, but speer, "Whether it be righteous to obey God or man, judge ye." This speaks right against such as will hear Christ ill-spoken of, and will hang their head and let a reproach, lighting upon Him that died for them, blow over their shoulder, and misken that there is a good friend ill-spoken of. Nay, ye cannot be fiery enough when Christ gets a tout; when the black-mouthed dogs in the world bark against that well-given stranger Christ, there should be a staff in your mouth. Now the curse of God be on them that love not my well-beloved. You hold with your own; ilk one takes part with his own country. A man will speak for his own father, brother, bairn, wife, or friend he will plead for; but not a word in favour of his own Christ. He will go his own errands and speak his own business to his prince, but not a word for Christ. Christ has tongue enough, let Him speak for Himself. Well, well, nobles of Scotland! I dare not say; so be ye served when your eye-strings break and your life is come to your lip; but God forgive you. And what better are they who will stand at Christ's back and see His head broken in His cause, in His members, in His Church, and not party their well-beloved, and never say it is ill done. True zeal makes a quarrel of a wrong done to Christ, and He gets too many wrongs now; and He is like the man that has many kin and few friends. Many now are with Christ, and few for Christ. He is worn out of friendship in the world.
首先：对于基督的听证会，她迅速开始，并立即抓住了诱惑，用长篇演讲立即将基督置于天空中，并用言辞的力量迅速将她的同伴们从认为基督有任何凡人对手的观点中驱逐出去。这是正确的，不应该让诱惑继续下去。当他们试图对基督耶稣进行侮辱时，我们不应该让他们逍遥法外。不，真正的恩典会从诱惑中借力量，就像保罗在雅典看到偶像崇拜和上帝被赶出他的位置时，他变得比以前更加激动，就像一匹无法忍受马刺的马一样。所以当基督对他的门徒说（约翰福音 6 章），在迦百农背叛了他并离开他的时候，“你们也要离开我吗？”彼得带着一种愤怒的情绪回答：“离开你，主！我们要去哪里？”离开你！那去哪里呢？去见魔鬼。门徒们（使徒行传 4 章）被禁止再以耶稣的名讲话。彼得和约翰对此进行了强烈的反击。他们不会就此罢休，而是询问：“听从上帝还是人，这是公正的，你们来判断吧。这话直指那些听到对基督恶语相加的人，并低头使对曾为他们而死的耻辱掠过肩头，否认他们的良友是被恶语相加。不，当基督受伤害时，你们不该感到愤怒不已; 当世界上那些满嘴恶言的狗对这个善待的陌生人——基督发出怒吠，你们应当站出来。愿上帝咒诅不爱我的良友的人。你们支持自己的人; 每个人都会支持自己的国家。一个人会为自己的父亲、兄弟、孩子、妻子或朋友辩护; 但不会为自己的基督说一句好话。他会为自己办事，向他的王子陈述自己的事务，但不会为基督说一句话。基督有足够的舌头，让他为自己说话。好吧，苏格兰的贵族们！我不敢说; 当你的眼睛断裂，你的生命即将结束时，愿上帝原谅你。那些站在基督身后，看着他为他的事业受伤，为他的成员、他的教会受伤的人有何好处，却永不支持他的良友，也从不说这是错事。 真正的热情会因对基督的冤屈而引发争端，而他现在受到了太多的冤屈；他就像一个有很多亲戚但很少朋友的人。现在有很多人跟随基督，但为基督而站在一边的人很少。他在世界上的友谊已经耗尽了。

"White and ruddy" is the best temperature, and strongest and most lively constitution of a man, and seemeth to note his Godhead—white, pure, innocent, holy—as (Dan. 7:9) He appears in the vision all white as snow and as pure wool; and in His glory His face shineth as the sun, and His raiment white as light (Matt. 17:2); in Him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). And read the Hebrew Adam, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), flesh and blood with us (Heb. 2:14). This shows that Christ is the beautifullest and fairest among the sons of men (Psa. 45:2). Fair things delight us much, and perfect white and perfect red make a beautiful person. Beauty be a great conqueror of love, and will take a castle in the heart. We love fair things, as fair sun, fair moon, fair roses, lilies, men, women, &c. But put out all the beauty of the creatures in one; they are all but caff and sand to fair-faced Jesus. I had far rather have one look of fair-faced Jesus as have all the world, and ten worlds, with sevenfold more beauty than they have. See Isa. 63:1: "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength?" The Kirk, wondering at Christ's beauty to see Him go so manly-like, says, "O, who is yon goes so manly and so sonsy-like? He is a lucky-like3 person." It would rejoice one's heart to see Him go in the greatness of His strength. Is not yon fair, glorious Jesus, in red scarlet, having all His clothes dyed in blood? And the answer is made, "It is I, even I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." John 1:14: "He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, as the glory of the only-begotten Son"—like the heir of a great king. His beauty is answerable to all that is said here (Col. 1:15–19; Rev. 1:13–16, and 10:1–3, 19:11–13). If any fair thing allure your heart, and fair, lovely Jesus do it not, ye must be lordly, and ill to please.
"白皙红润"是男人最好的体温，也是最强壮和最有活力的体质，似乎预示着他的神性——白色，纯洁，无辜，圣洁——如同（但以理书 7:9）中的异象中，他全身洁白如雪，如同纯净的羊毛；在他的荣耀中，他的脸面照耀如同太阳，衣服洁白如光（马太福音 17:2）；在他里面，神的丰满居住着（歌罗西书 2:9）。而且，读到希伯来语的亚当，末后的亚当（哥林多前书 15:45），与我们有血有肉（希伯来书 2:14）。这表明基督是众人中最美丽、最公正的（诗篇 45:2）。美好的事物让我们感到愉悦，完美的白色和完美的红色使一个人变得美丽。美丽是爱的伟大征服者，会在心中占据一座城堡。我们喜欢美丽的事物，如美丽的太阳、美丽的月亮、美丽的玫瑰、百合、男人、女人等等。但把所有创造物的美丽都放在一起，它们只是对比于面容美丽的耶稣而言的渣滓和沙土。我宁愿看一眼面容美丽的耶稣，也不愿拥有全世界，甚至十个世界，比它们更美丽七倍的一切。参见以赛亚书 63:1：“这从以东的波斯拉来，穿红衣服，装扮华美，能力广大，大步行走的是谁呢？” 这个穿着华丽的人，以他的力量之伟大而行进，是谁呢？教堂惊叹于基督的美丽，看着他如此男子汉般地行走，说：“哦，那个如此男子汉般又如此可爱的人是谁呢？他是一个幸运的人。”看到他以他的力量之伟大而行走，会让人心中欢喜。那个美丽、荣耀的耶稣，不是穿着红色朱红色的衣服，他的衣服都染满了血吗？回答是：“是我，就是我以公义说话，有能力拯救。”约翰福音 1:14：“道成了肉身，住在我们中间，我们也看见了他的荣光，正如独生子的荣光”——像一个伟大国王的继承人。他的美丽与这里所说的一切相称（歌罗西书 1:15-19；启示录 1:13-16，10:1-3，19:11-13）。如果有任何美好的事物吸引你的心，而美丽可爱的耶稣却没有吸引你，那么你必须是高傲的，难以取悦。

You make a good use of this doctrine if you take Him with all His forms and fairness as your husband whom you love, as your Master whom you fear and serve, as your King and Lord whom you obey, as your Shepherd and Guide whom you follow. And for all His beauty, He is not proud, nor lordly; He will match with black ones. Surely Christ's beauty helps to marry Him. He is always white, ruddy, and most when He wooeth. I marvel not that He seem black and dun to some men who get a sight of Christ but2 in Satan's dark glass (for there be two sights and representations of Christ); and in that He is all black, for He comes upon men's wrong side with His beauty.
如果你将祂以祂所有的形式和美丽作为你所爱的丈夫，作为你所敬畏和侍奉的主人，作为你所服从的国王和主宰，作为你所追随的牧羊人和向导，那么你就能很好地运用这个教义。尽管祂美丽动人，但祂并不傲慢，也不高高在上；祂会与黑暗的人携手。当然，基督的美丽有助于与祂结合。祂总是白皙红润，尤其在求婚时更是如此。我不奇怪，对于那些只在撒旦的黑暗镜子中看到基督的人来说，祂似乎是黑暗和晦暗的（因为有两种对基督的看法和表现）；而在那种情况下，祂是全黑的，因为祂以祂的美丽出现在人们错误的一面。

First: Natural men, without faith, with only natural eyes, see Him, and they see but Mary's son—not Christ white and ruddy; they see not the King in His beauty, nor in His holiday clothes.
首先：没有信仰的自然人，只凭肉眼看到祂，他们只看到玛丽的儿子，而不是白皙红润的基督；他们看不到祂荣耀的君王形象，也看不到祂节日的盛装。

Second: Some see Him in His law of commandments, commanding hard things to flesh and blood—to deny themselves, to enter in at the strait gate which leads to life. Men would love Christ's beauty if He only shined with light and love; but His light commandeth, accuseth, summoneth, challenges, condemns, and this makes Christ both gray and black-skinned. Men should love light as well because it commandeth and convinceth as because it shineth as light; and should break the devil's glass, and learn out of love to obey; and then Christ's yoke would be easy, and then you would say, "O, fair Jesus! O lovely, white, and ruddy Jesus!"
其次：有些人在祂的诫命中看到祂，这些诫命要求血肉之躯去做艰难的事情——否认自己，进入通往生命之门的窄门。如果基督只是以光明和爱的形象闪耀，人们会喜爱祂的美丽；但祂的光明命令、指责、召唤、挑战、定罪，这使得基督既灰暗又黑皮肤。人们应该同样因为光明的命令和说服而爱光明，而不仅仅因为它闪耀如光；应该打破魔鬼的镜子，并从爱中学会顺服；那样基督的轭就会轻松，你会说：“哦，美丽的耶稣！哦，可爱的、白皙的、红润的耶稣！”

Third: Man looketh to His cross; and this is Christ's black skin and His black dool clothes. Isa. 52:14: "As many were astonished at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." Then to many He cannot be white and ruddy, if He have under His sufferings a marred and a holed face, blue and black, and all bleared with strokes. These that cannot rejoice in Christ's cross, and think it exceeding joy when they fall in divers temptations, as in their crosses they have communion with Jesus, they see only but Christ's outer half, and start aback at His marred visage; but faith here shall look Christ within; He is well lined within, even under sufferings.
第三点：人们注视他的十字架；这是基督黑色的皮肤和黑色的衣服。以赛亚书 52:14：“许多人惊异你，因为你的样子比世人更加毁损，你的形容比人子（原文作：“众人”）的子孙更加扭曲。”因此，对很多人来说，如果他在受苦时面容扭曲、有伤痕、蓝黑色、被打得伤痕累累，他就不能是白色和红润的。那些不能因基督的十字架而欢欣，也不能像在十字架中与耶稣有交通那样在不同的试炼中感到极度的喜悦的人，只看到基督的外表，他们会因他受损的面容而惊讶退缩。但是，在这里的信仰将会看到基督的内在美；甚至在受苦时，他也内在美满。

"The armour-bearer among ten thousands." In the Hebrew it is, Bannerer above ten thousand. The banner, or standard, is a war-like thing. He that carries it is the chief of the thousands that follow him. So Judah (Numb. 2:2, 3) was the tribe that was chief standard-bearer; and out of this tree Christ sprang (Heb. 7:14), who is the lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5). He standeth for an "ensign of the people" (Isa. 11:10); Him the armies and thousands in heaven follow (Rev. 19:6, 14); He ruleth over the Gentiles (Rom. 15:12). Put white and ruddy, which betoken health and strength, with this, that "He is the standard-bearer," then we see that Christ is a strong, active soldier, and the prettiest man of His hands in all the company. Bring ten thousand—that is, many—yea all the armies in heaven and earth together, and Christ is the fairest, prettiest, bravest, and ablest man among them all. One look of Jesus is worth them all. So speak of all Christ's virtues, this is among the first of them, that He is a tried man of war; for who but He fought the Lord's battles, and fought it out with the curse of the law, with sin, with the devil, with death, with hell, and goes with many crowns on His head to conquer. He His alone has laid many a pretty soldier on the broad of his back. But this description bodeth2 that Christ will have ado with His strength; nay, ay, while there is a devil, ay, until he be bound and cast into the lake of brimstone, and locked up, Christ will have but the fighter's life. Christ and the ten thousand, His brave bairn-tyme4 at His back—God bless them all—must fight. It would even do a man good, and rejoice his heart to see Jesus fight. It sets Him to fence and wale His sword. But take Christ at His best, He has the soldier's life; therefore, all you that come to take or leave, you must come upon these terms—either to do or to die; either to fight with your standard-bearer, or lie down and be slain. "O," say you, "suffering is a hard life. Will Christ and His Kirk never get rest?" Certainly little until they be at home together. It was never otherways with Christ. He was aye6 oftener in the camp, watching, than in a soft bed sleeping; and therefore, as you who would follow Him, rise up off the hearthstone and from the fireside, and to the camp with you! Put on your shoes and all your armour—blood, the blood, the cross of Christ, for you to your dying day until you be at home! It is proclaimed at our King's Market-cross, in Jesus' name, red war betwixt you and three—the devil, the world, and sin. But Christ bears the colours; He is well worthy of that place. He ventures foremost with white and red, God and the Kirk's colours and their arms. Silly, tempted, wounded, crossed soldier, look up to the standard-bearer, Ensigner Jesus, in red and white! Take courage and buy a heart from Christ. "O, but," you will say, "Jesus is often in His cause, and members put to the worse, and His colours slapped2 with cannon bullets." Answer: Nay; but God sews the holes in Christ's standard again, and we may certainly say two things of Christ—
“万人中的护甲执事。”在希伯来语中，是指万人之上的旗手。旗帜是一种战争的象征。执旗的人是领导他们的千人队伍的首领。所以犹大（民数记 2:2, 3）是首领旗手的支派；基督就是从这个支派而出的（希伯来书 7:14），他是犹大支派的狮子（启示录 5:5）。他是“万民的旗帜”（以赛亚书 11:10）；天上的军队和千万人都跟随他（启示录 19:6, 14）；他统治着外邦人（罗马书 15:12）。将健康和力量的象征白色和红色与“他是旗手”的事实结合起来，我们可以看到基督是一个强壮、积极的战士，是所有人中最英俊、最漂亮的人。即使带来万人，也就是许多人，甚至是天上地下所有的军队，基督仍然是最美丽、最漂亮、最勇敢、最有能力的人。耶稣的一个眼神胜过他们所有人。 所以说到基督的所有美德，这是其中之一，他是一个经过考验的战士；因为除了他，谁还与上帝的战斗作战，与律法的诅咒、罪恶、魔鬼、死亡和地狱作战，并带着许多冠冕去征服。只有他一个人把许多勇敢的士兵打倒在地。但这个描述预示着基督将与他的力量争斗；不，是的，只要还有魔鬼存在，直到他被捆绑并投入硫磺湖中，被锁起来，基督就只能过战士的生活。基督和他的一万个勇敢的儿子们，上帝保佑他们所有人，必须战斗。看到耶稣战斗，会让人感到愉悦，让他挥舞并选择他的剑。但接受基督的最好状态，他有战士的生活；因此，所有来者要么去做，要么去死；要么与你们的旗手一起战斗，要么躺下被杀。你们可能会说，“受苦是一种艰难的生活。基督和他的教会永远不会得到休息吗？”当然，直到他们在一起回家，他们才能得到休息。基督从来没有别的选择。 他经常在营地里观察，而不是在柔软的床上睡觉；因此，作为跟随他的人，你们要离开炉边和火炉，去营地吧！穿上你们的鞋子和所有的盔甲——基督的十字架之血，直到你们离世回家！在我们国王的市场十字路口，以耶稣的名义，宣布你们与三者之间的红色战争——魔鬼、世界和罪恶。但基督扛起了旗帜；他是那个位置的当之无愧者。他带着白色和红色，上帝和教堂的颜色和他们的武器，勇往直前。愚蠢、受诱惑、受伤、受难的士兵啊，抬头看着旗手，耶稣，他穿着红色和白色！勇敢起来，向基督买一个心。"哦，但是，"你会说，"耶稣经常在他的事业中，成员们处于劣势，他的旗帜被炮弹击中。答案：不；但上帝再次缝合了基督的旗帜上的洞，我们可以肯定地说基督有两个特点-

First: This text makes Him white and ruddy, and so strong, lively, able. Our Captain is not sickly; He is able of person to fight, to watch, and ward, and not take sickness. Neither cannon bullet, arrow, nor spear will go through His corset of proof. He is God, and not man only; the strength of Israel, and He wearies not.
首先：这段文字描绘了他白皙红润的肤色，以及他的强壮、活力和能力。我们的队长并不虚弱；他有能力战斗、守卫，不会生病。无论是炮弹、箭矢还是长矛，都无法穿透他坚固的胸甲。他是上帝，不仅仅是人；他是以色列的力量，他不会疲倦。

Second: I dare lay a wager He will win yet; and when it comes to the last onset, He will make bloody brooks; the ark will be sent home again, and glory shall dwell in our land. Christ will mow down His enemies, and loose the belt of the rulers of the earth that are against Him. When Christ puts His finger in the loop, both belt and sword will fall from them; and how will they then fight? In Rev. 17:14: "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called chosen and faithful." And in end, when Christ and we shall lay down our swords together in heaven's entry, and put on our crowns of glory and our king's robes, Christ shall be all in all. To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be dominion and glory for ever.—Amen.
其次：我敢打赌他最终会获胜；当最后一次冲锋开始时，他将使血流成河；方舟将再次被送回家，荣耀将居住在我们的土地上。基督将击倒他的敌人，解开那些反对他的地上统治者的腰带。当基督把手指放在腰带上时，腰带和剑都会从他们身上掉下来；那时他们将如何战斗呢？在启示录 17:14 中说：“这些人要同羔羊争战，羔羊必胜过他们，因为他是万主之主，万王之王，同着他的是蒙召被选、有忠心的。”最后，当基督和我们一起在天堂的入口处放下剑，戴上荣耀的冠冕和国王的袍服时，基督将成为一切。愿荣耀和权能归于父、子和圣灵，直到永远。阿门。

The Deliverance of the Kirk of God
上帝的教堂的拯救

"In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten."—JEREMIAH 50:4, 5.
在那些日子里，耶和华说，以色列的子民和犹大的子民将一同前来，哭泣着寻求耶和华他们的神。他们将面朝锡安，询问前往的路，说：“来吧，让我们与耶和华结成永远不会被遗忘的约。”—耶利米书 50:4, 5.

IN this Scripture, beloved in our Lord, we have a prophecy of the fall of Babylon, the golden city. And in it we have a description of the full and final wrath that shall light upon all the enemies of Sion, and the enemies of all them who have such a bill to give in to the Lord's court as the Kirk has in this chapter. "The violence done to Me and to My flesh be upon the inhabitants of Babylon." There is a violence done to the Kirk of God by Babylon, and their complaint is put in before the Lord; and the complaint is heard by Him, and there is a prophecy given out here before the people of Israel be carried away to their captivity, for this prophecy is given out in the time while they were in the way of carrying away captive. And the Lord here He gives out a prophecy—first, of the ruin of Babylon; and, secondly, He has another prophecy here of the deliverance of Jerusalem. Now to take the words as they lie in order. (1) The time of the deliverance is set down: "At that time and in these days saith the Lord." (2) We have the parties that are delivered: these of Israel and the ten tribes, and with them the children of Judah. (3) We have the union and sweet fellowship of a divided Kirk and the people of God who before could not join with either: "The children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together." They were separate from others for many years, because the ten tribes they had desertion from the true religion, as that is the thing that makes a separation among people; and, upon the other hand, there is nothing that is such a needle to sew people together as when people join all together in the truth of God—when we have all one Lord, and faith, and baptism, and hope, and inheritance, &c. The (4) particular is, What shall be the thankfulness when they are delivered from their captivity? And this is set down unto us in many particulars. The first is, they shall take a journey from Babylon towards Zion. Second: We have the manner how they go to Zion—they shall go weeping while they are going there. Third: The errand wherefore they shall go to Zion, shall be to seek the Lord their God. Fourth: They shall speer the way to Zion, and while they are speering it, their faces shall be towards the same. And then, lastly, while they are thus going to Zion together, there is a conference between them, and, in their conference, they resolve both of them upon this: "Come, and let us join ourselves in a perpetual covenant to the Lord that shall not be forgotten."
在这段经文中，我们亲爱的主内的人们，我们得到了有关巴比伦这座黄金之城的倒塌的预言。在其中，我们描述了将降临在锡安的一切敌人以及所有那些在这一章中向主的法庭提交了这样一份诉状的人们身上的完全而最终的愤怒。“对我和对我的肉体所行的暴力，归于巴比伦的居民。”巴比伦对上帝的教会施加了暴力，他们的抱怨被提交到主面前；主听到了他们的抱怨，并在以色列人被掳到囚禁之前，就在他们被掳掠的过程中，发出了这个预言。在这里，主先是预言了巴比伦的毁灭，然后又预言了耶路撒冷的拯救。现在按照顺序来看这些话。（1）拯救的时间被确定下来：“在那时，在这些日子里，耶和华说。”（2）我们知道了被拯救的人：以色列人和十个支派，以及犹大的子孙。 （3）我们有着分裂的教堂和以前无法加入其中的上帝子民的联合和甜蜜的交往：“以色列的子民和犹大的子民要一同归来。”他们与其他人分离了很多年，因为十个支派背弃了真正的宗教，这是导致人们分离的原因；另一方面，没有什么比人们在上帝的真理中团结一致更能将人们紧密地联系在一起——当我们都有同一个主、信仰、洗礼、盼望和产业等。 （4）具体的是，当他们从囚禁中被解救出来时，他们将会有怎样的感激之情？这在许多方面都为我们所记载。首先，他们将从巴比伦出发前往锡安。其次，我们知道他们前往锡安的方式——他们在前往的过程中将会哭泣。第三，他们前往锡安的目的是寻求他们的上帝。第四，他们将询问前往锡安的路，而在询问的过程中，他们的脸将朝向同一个方向。 然后，最后，当他们一起前往锡安时，他们之间进行了一次会议，在会议中，他们都决定：“来吧，让我们与上帝结成永恒的盟约，永不被遗忘。”"

Now for the first, To wit—The time when the Lord will deliver His people from their captivity and bondage. Look unto the time when this prophecy is given out, and that is. They are not well come to Babylon at this time, and yet there is a triumph promised even before they be sent away. And there is in this chapter a prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, and that is for the heartening of the people of God, who were carried thither; and before utter misery and desolation come upon them, there is a prophecy of their delivery and of the destruction of their enemies.
现在首先，即是指主将解救祂的子民脱离囚禁和奴役的时刻。看看这个预言发布的时间，那就是。他们此时还没有到达巴比伦，然而在他们被遣散之前就有一个胜利的应许。在这章中还有一个有关巴比伦毁灭的预言，这是为了鼓舞被掳到那里的上帝子民，以及在他们遭受彻底的苦难和荒凉之前，有一个关于他们获得解救和敌人毁灭的预言。

The first doctrine arising from this point is, The Kirk of God never sooner enters in any trouble, but they have the Lord's backband given unto them that they shall be brought out of it again; and they have law burrows and caution of the Lord that death, hell, and all sort of trouble shall not do at them to destroy them (Psa. 16:10). When our Lord Christ is put to that strait that they get Him put dead into the grave, that any would think He is gone now for evermore, He has it backed with that promise: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in grave, neither wilt thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption." Blyth may that subject be to go into prison who beforehand has his king's pardon and assurance that he shall not die into the prison. And the Kirk and children of God, they have this meikle for them when they go under any strait or trouble, or, as it were, to prison, that they shall not die into that prison, but Christ shall bring them safe out of it again. And there are two special reasons wherefore this is that the children of God, albeit they be under trouble, yet they succumb not under the same.
上帝的教会永远不会陷入困境，因为他们有上帝支持他们的保证，他们将再次被拯救；上帝向他们提供了保证，死亡、地狱以及任何痛苦都不能摧毁他们（诗篇 16:10）。当我们的主基督被逼至死后埋入坟墓时，任何人都会认为他永远消失了，但是有这样的承诺支持他：“因为你必不将我的灵魂撇在阴间，也不叫你的圣者见朽坏”。所以，预先得到国王的赦免和保证的人，坐入监狱将会感到愉悦，因为他们得知自己不会在监狱中死去。上帝的教会和子民，在任何困难或受到牢狱般的困扰时，都会得到这样的保证，他们不会在困境中死去，而基督会安全地将他们带出来。有两个特殊的原因，使上帝的子民，虽然面临痛苦，却不臣服于其中。

The one is, If there be anything in the world that sees over the water, it is faith, and so it sees over beyond the trouble, and therefore succumbs not under it; as ye see it is said (Mic. 7:8): "Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy: when I shall fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me." There is a stout look of faith looking over to the other side of the trouble, and taking the answer before the answer come, and gathering faith that all shall be well, albeit, for the present, it stand hard with them. The 118th Psalm, it was penned when the servant of God was in very great trouble; and yet in it he promises to himself in the Lord's name: "I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord." There faith on the one side, and yet looking to the other shore and believing life in death. And he believes salvation when all is black about, and that foul winter will turn in a fair, clear summer. He believes, and the Kirk of God in trouble believes, that He that will come, will come, and shall not tarry, believing this, that none shall die in prison who look out at the window of their prison to God. And this, indeed, should hearten us, and make us not to cast down our hearts for any appearance of ill that yet we see, although they were greater than they are. But this I speak only to the children of God, who when they are in trouble, or it is in coming on them, they can send letters to their friends, as faith does, and say, "I shall live, and not die, and declare the works of the Lord."
如果世界上有什么东西能透过水面看到对岸，那就是信仰，它能看到困境的彼岸，因此不会屈服于困境；正如经上所说：“我的仇敌啊，不要向我夸耀；我虽跌倒，却要起来；我虽坐在黑暗里，耶和华却作我的光。”信仰坚定地注视着困境的另一边，提前得到答案，并坚信一切都会好起来，尽管目前情况很艰难。第 118 篇诗是在神的仆人遭遇巨大困境时写的；然而他在其中以主的名义对自己作出承诺：“我必不至于死，必要存活，好宣扬耶和华的作为。”信仰一方面存在，同时又注视着对岸，相信在死亡中有生命。他相信在一切黑暗中都有救恩，那肮脏的冬天将会变成美好、明朗的夏天。他相信，神的教会在困境中相信，那将要来的必定会来，不会耽搁，相信那些从监狱窗户向上帝望去的人不会死在监狱中。 这确实应该让我们振奋起来，不要因为我们看到的任何不好的迹象而沮丧，即使它们比现在更严重。但我只对上帝的子民说这些话，当他们遇到困难或困难即将降临时，他们可以像信仰一样给朋友写信，说：“我将活着，不会死亡，并宣扬主的作为。”"

Another reason of this promise of delivery beforehand is by reason of that fair promise made to the Kirk and people of God, that the waters shall not drown them, the fire shall not burn them, nor the flame kindle upon them—a promise made that even death itself, which has so awesome a grip, and so strait, yet it shall not slay them, as our Saviour says (John 11:26): "He that believeth in Me shall never see death." And having such promises as these, it is no wonder that good news He preached to the Kirk beforehand that their King and their Lord lives, and so His salvation is near to them who wait on Him.
这提前允诺交付的另一个原因是为了履行对教会和上帝子民的公平承诺，即水不至淹没他们，火不至烧伤他们，烈火不至点燃他们——这是一份许诺，即使是那么强大、那么严酷的死亡也不能夺走他们的性命，正如我们的救主所说(约翰福音 11:26):“凡活着信我的人必永远不见死。”拥有这样的承诺，难怪他提前向教会传递了这个好消息：他们的君王和主活着，等候他的人近在咫尺。

Now the second thing we observe upon the time, it is said "in these days." What days were these? Days wherein the vengeance of the Lord lights upon Babylon and upon the enemies of the Kirk. Then Israel and Judah shall come back to their own land to seek the Lord and to join in a covenant with Him.
现在我们对时间的第二个观察是说“在这些日子里”。这些日子是什么日子？这是上帝的复仇降临巴比伦和教堂的敌人的日子。那时以色列和犹大将回到自己的土地，寻求上帝并与祂立约。

So that the second doctrine is this, that the fall of the enemies of the Kirk of God, and the rising of the fallen Kirk, these go together; for the enemies and we laugh not together, and weep not together, but when we weep they laugh, and when we laugh they weep. When the Lord drowns Pharaoh and his chariots and all his army in the midst of the Red Sea, then Moses and the people of God they are set safe upon the shore to sing of the praises of the Lord. When the land of Canaan spews out the inhabitants thereof, as a foul stomach spews out the meat that is in it that troubles it, then the Lord He plants His people into the land, and as it is in Psalm 42:4, the Lord has a safe house to keep His children in, while there is a pit digged for the wicked (Psalm 94:13). When Haman's cup is full, and he is at the top of the ladder in his court, that he must fall down again, then Mordecai and the people of God they must be delivered. It is even here as it is in war. When a sojour has watched out his glass, and has bidden the night and the cold, when his glass is gone, another is put in his place, and he is sent to his warm bed. Even so is it here. When the people of God get rest, then the enemies of God they fall, and these go aye together, the rest of the people of God, and the trouble of the wicked. And therefore a word of terror to those who are the enemies of the Kirk of God. You, who are enemies to the Kirk of God, laugh as ye will before noon, I will assure you there will be a change afternoon. I would not have your next day in another life, and be in your case afterdays, for all the world. Albeit they have a fair-like blink in the morning, yet it is but beguiling, for they will have a foul afternoon of it. Sorrow and indignation will come upon them. And therefore, I beseech you, eat none of their dainties, nor take no part with them, for the Lord laughs at them, as it is Psa. 37:13: He laughs at the wicked, for He sees their end afar off; He knows what will be the end of all their good cheer and all their merry days. And therefore woe is that man who has no more, but only a part of the laughter of the wicked, for that is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot, that is but a blaze and away. This looks very much like us and our time, that wicked men and the enemies of the Lord, they must come into the rowme of the Kirk of God and His people, who before were in distress and calamity, and yet He will perform that word (Jer. 20:12, and Isa. 10:12). When the Lord has performed His work in Zion, then He will fall to and punish the stout heart of the king of Babylon. When the Lord has humbled His Kirk, and done His work with His fire there, then the wicked they must fall on it and be consumed thereby, that we may know that it is good for the children of God to wait upon Him. And that is the second part of the use, that faith and hope are evermore waiting for good at God's hand and for daylight. We never heard of any who waited upon the Lord, but at last they might say: "This poor man cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him, and delivered him out of all his troubles."
所以第二个信条就是，上帝的教会的敌人的倒台和教会的复兴是相连的；因为敌人和我们不会同声笑，也不会同声哭，但当我们哭的时候，他们笑，当我们笑的时候，他们哭。当主淹没法老和他的战车以及所有的军队在红海中间的时候，摩西和上帝的子民安全地站在岸边歌颂主的赞美。当迦南之地将其居民吐出，就像一个恶心的胃将困扰它的食物吐出一样，那么主就把祂的子民种在这片土地里，正如诗篇 42:4 所写，主有一个安全的居所来保护祂的子民，同时为恶人挖了一个坑（诗篇 94:13）。当哈曼的杯满了，他在宫廷的顶上，必须再次跌落时，摩尔德凯和上帝的子民必须得到拯救。这甚至就像在战争中一样。当驻兵盯着他的望远镜，挨过了黑夜和寒冷，当他的望远镜用完的时候，就会有另一个顶替他的位置，他就会被送去温暖的床上。就是这样。 当上帝的子民得到休息时，上帝的敌人就会倒下，这两者是同时发生的，上帝的子民得到休息，邪恶者遭受困扰。因此，对于那些敌视上帝教会的人来说，这是一个恐怖的话语。你们，那些敌视上帝教会的人，在中午之前尽管笑吧，我向你们保证，下午会有变化。我不愿意在另一个生命中度过你们的明天，并在以后的日子里处于你们的境地，即使他们在早晨有一种美丽的闪光，但那只是一种欺骗，因为他们将会度过一个糟糕的下午。悲伤和愤怒将降临在他们身上。因此，我恳求你们，不要享用他们的美食，也不要与他们一同参与，因为上帝嘲笑他们，正如诗篇 37:13 所说：他嘲笑恶人，因为他看到他们的结局在远处；他知道所有他们的美食和欢乐日子的结局将会是什么。因此，那个只能得到恶人笑声一部分的人是可悲的，因为那只是锅下荆棘的噼啪声，只是一闪而过。 这看起来非常像我们和我们的时代，那些邪恶的人和主的敌人，他们必须进入上帝的教堂和祂的子民的行列，他们之前曾经遭受困厄和灾难，然而祂将实现那话（耶 20:12 和以赛亚书 10:12）。当主在锡安完成祂的工作时，祂将开始惩罚巴比伦王的刚愎自用之心。当主使祂的教堂谦卑，并在那里用祂的火完成祂的工作时，那些邪恶的人必须倒在其中并被消灭，以便我们知道等候上帝对祂的儿女是有益的。这是使用的第二部分，即信心和盼望永远等候上帝的恩典和光明。我们从未听说过有人等候主，但最终不能说：“这困苦的人向主呼求，主应允他，救他脱离一切苦难。”"

Again, thirdly, that the delivery of the Kirk of God is not for the present, but "in those days and at that time." We learn here, that there are none who wait upon God but they must frest Him, and as men frest well so God pays well that which is frested. It is not salvation in hand, but an onwaiting life that the Kirk of God has while they are here. And this is to meet with a doubt and a knot that thir people could not loose for the present. They might say, for all that the Lord says of the destruction of Babylon, yet we are there captives, albeit the wrath of God be pronounced against them, yet the sparks thereof have come upon us. And we have sore drink of that cup, and, for the present, we have sad days; for the temple of the Lord is burnt, our princes are hanged, our priests massacred, and we ourselves are carried away captive from mount Zion. How shall this then be that Babylon shall be destroyed and we restored? The Lord answers this, that the deliverance is coming, but it would not come until that day that He had appointed for it. To teach the Kirk of God to give God that mickle—as alas! He gets over little of that kind of us—that He will do for His own people at length, though not for the present, and to look to that word in Psalm 25:22, that the Lord will redeem Israel out of all his troubles, and Psalm 62:5: "My soul wait thou only upon the Lord, for my expectation is from Him," even to make God's omnipotence the object of their faith and of their hope, and learn to wait upon God only. "I would do that," says some, "but I have nothing in hand." But we must remember that all their stock is in God's hand who hope rightly in Him; for if they had anything in hand, it were not hope, as it is, Rom. 8:24: "Hope that is seen is not hope." But the thing which one sees not is properly the thing that he hopes for. And so the less we have in hand we have the greater reason of hope. That no man may be troubled with this, I have nothing for the present; but in such a case learn to believe in God, and then ye have the more. How many rich men are there in the world who have no more but only pieces of paper for all that they have, and yet men will account them rich, albeit there be not two pence in their purse. The hoper and on-waiter upon God is this way rich, yet all his sums are in God's hands, who pays His annuals well, so that His annuals they are better than the world's principal sum.
再者，第三点是，上帝的拯救并非即刻发生，而是在“那些日子和那个时候”。我们从这里得知，只有等候上帝的人才能得到祂的恩赐，正如人们等候得好，上帝也会给予好的回报。这不是手中的救赎，而是上帝的教会在此期间的等待生活。这是为了解决一个疑问和难题，这些人目前无法解开。他们可能会说，尽管上帝对巴比伦的毁灭有所预言，但我们仍然是那里的俘虏，尽管上帝的愤怒已经降临在他们身上，但我们也受到了其影响。我们喝了那杯苦酒，目前我们过着悲伤的日子；因为主的殿已经被焚毁，我们的王子被绞死，我们的祭司被屠杀，我们自己被从锡安山掳走。那么，巴比伦将如何被摧毁，我们将如何得到恢复呢？主回答说，拯救即将到来，但直到祂为此指定的那一天才会到来。这是为了教导上帝的教会将那么多的事情交给上帝——唉！ 他对我们这种人的事情不太在意，他最终会为自己的子民做些事情，尽管现在还没有，要看诗篇 25:22 中的话，耶和华必救赎以色列脱离一切患难，以及诗篇 62:5 中的话：“我的心哪，你当默默无声，专等候神，因为我的盼望是从他而来。”甚至要把上帝的全能作为他们信心和希望的对象，并学会只等候上帝。“有人说，我愿意这样做，但我手头没有什么。”但我们必须记住，所有正确仰望上帝的人的财富都在上帝手中；因为如果他们手头有什么，那就不是希望，正如罗马书 8:24 所说：“所看见的，何必再盼望呢？”而那人所看不见的，才是他真正希望的。所以我们手头越少，我们就越有希望。世界上有多少富人只有一些纸片，却被人们认为是富有，尽管他们的钱包里没有两便士。 那些仰望上帝并等待上帝的人是如此富有，然而他们所有的财富都在上帝手中，上帝会很好地支付他们的年度收益，以至于他们的年度收益比世界的本金更好。

A third objection: "I have waited long for deliverance but it cometh not." The text answers, "At that time and in these days," to teach us to set no time to the Lord the creator of time, for His time is always best, and as it is Hab. 2:3, "Albeit it tarry, wait for it; for it will surely come;" and as it is 2 Peter 3:9, speaking of the Lord's general coming to judgment, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness," &c. The Kirk says that the Lord is long in coming, and slack of His promise; but He says He is no slack as men count slackness, but will come and will show mercy to His people and deliver them. As meikle then as we frest God as meikle faith and hope indeed have we. He that will go to heaven and have nothing at all in hand, his faith and his hope are strongest; he that believes in Him when he sees not, but believes in the mirk, that is likest faith. Let no man then call godliness fancy, or say, "What have the children of God for the present? They have moe weary hearts here nor the kye of Bashan, and moe tears nor they who laugh and rejoice in the world." Let it be so, yet it is an unseen heaven and happiness which the children of God believe. And, indeed, the thing that is seen is not believed. If they saw heaven they could not be said to believe it. As the man that sees Rome, he cannot say that he hears only of it but by report. But believe life, and what is said of it without any more, and that is true faith. To say I believe in God, and I love Him, albeit I never saw Him, as the Apostle Peter speaks, "Whom not having seen, yet ye believe with joy unspeakable and glorious." And ye know the Lord's word He spake to Thomas, "Blessed are they which have not seen, and yet have believed." Blessed are they, blessed are they who believe when they see nothing but contrary appearances; who will die, and yet will hope and wait for the salvation of God, and were at that, as it is in Psalm 23:4: "Albeit I should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yet will I fear none ill." When a man is under the shadow of a tree he is near it then, so when a man is within the shadow of death, that is, to be near death, it is faith then to believe in God.
第三个反对意见：“我已经等待了很久，但救赎还未到来。”文本回答说：“在那个时候和这些日子里”，教导我们不要给上帝这位时间的创造者设定时间，因为他的时间总是最好的，正如哈巴谷书 2:3 所说：“虽然迟延，你当等候，因为必定临到。”还有彼得后书 3:9 所说的，关于主的普遍审判的到来：“主所应许的尚未成就，有人以为他是耽延，其实不是耽延。”教会说主来的时候很久，他的应许迟延；但他说他不像人们认为的那样迟延，他会来并向他的子民施恩并拯救他们。因此，我们对上帝的信心和希望越大，我们就越信靠他。那些想去天堂却一无所有的人，他们的信心和希望最坚定；那些在看不见的情况下相信他，相信黑暗中的他，那是最像信心的。所以，不要有人称敬虔为幻想，或者说：“神的儿女现在有什么呢？他们在这里比巴珊的牛更疲倦，比世界上的人更多眼泪。”让它如此吧，然而这是上帝的儿女们所相信的一个看不见的天堂和幸福。实际上，所见之物是不被相信的。如果他们看见了天堂，就不能说他们相信它。就像一个看见罗马的人，他不能说他只是通过报道听说过它。但是相信生命，相信关于它的陈述而没有更多的东西，那就是真正的信仰。说我相信上帝，我爱他，尽管我从未见过他，正如使徒彼得所说的，“你们虽然没有见过他，却是信他，有说不出来、满有荣光的喜乐。”你们也知道主对托马斯说的话，“没有看见而信的有福了。”他们是有福的，他们是有福的，当他们看不到任何相反的迹象时仍然相信；他们愿意死亡，却仍然希望并等待上帝的拯救，正如诗篇 23:4 所说：“我虽然行过死荫的幽谷，也不怕遭害。”当一个人处在树荫下时，他就靠近树了，所以当一个人处在死亡的阴影之中，也就是接近死亡时，相信上帝就是信仰。

Now the second particular in the text is, the parties that are delivered, and these are Israel and Judah. Israel that was hardly handled by proud Assyria, that was the rod of the Lord's anger and indignation, as ye may read Isaiah 10:5; and poor Judah that was carried away captive to Chaldæa by that proud tyrant who was the hammer of the devil to beat them. What nation would have said that ever they should be a kingdom?—the one of them being in Assyria, and the other of them in Chaldæa, the temple burnt, their city sacked, the land spoiled, and more, the anger and indignation of God lying upon His people; where we learn this shortly—he is in a weak estate whom the Lord cannot help; he is near death whom He will not quicken. Fatherless! and will not the Lord be a Father to you? Comfortless! and will not the Lord comfort you? Let Israel and Judah be in as hard and miserable a case as they will, the Lord, who is the help of the poor and needy, He will deliver them.
现在，文本中的第二个特点是，被提及的国家是以色列和犹大。以色列曾受到傲慢的亚述的严厉对待，亚述是上主愤怒和愤慨的工具，你可以在以赛亚书 10:5 中阅读到这一点；而可怜的犹大则被那个傲慢的暴君掳到迦勒底，他是魔鬼的锤子，用来打击他们。有哪个国家会说他们会成为一个王国呢？其中一个在亚述，另一个在迦勒底，圣殿被焚毁，城市被洗劫，土地被掠夺，更重要的是，上帝的愤怒和愤慨降临在他的子民身上；我们从中学到的是，那些主无法帮助的人是虚弱的；那些主不愿使其复活的人是接近死亡的。没有父亲！难道主不会成为你的父亲吗？没有安慰！难道主不会安慰你吗？让以色列和犹大处于困境和悲惨的境地，无论他们如何，主，贫穷和贫困的帮助者，将拯救他们。

The third particular is the union that is between Israel and Judah at this time. And there is a number of marks of this union. First: That they shall come together to Zion. Second: That they shall serve the Lord together. Third: That they shall speer the way to Zion, weeping. Fourth: That their faces shall be thitherwards while they speer the way to Zion. And, lastly, that they shall all of them have this common resolution: Let us be joined in a perpetual covenant with the Lord, never to be forgotten. So then here the Lord giving unto us a proof that when He sews a Kirk together, that not only people of sundry families, but even people of sundry tribes and of sundry kingdoms, their fellowship shall be seen, and especially in this that they shall worship God together. They shall both have their faces one way, and shall ask the way to Zion together, seek the Lord together. And they shall have a common covenant and band with the Lord, never to be forgotten. Now, whether or no was this ever historically true that Israel and Judah took such a journey as this towards Zion after such a manner and for such an end, there is no necessity to stand upon it now, because many of thir prophecies they are accomplished in the Messiah. But there is a ground here to prove the lawfulness of that private service and worship that Israel and Judah performed to the Lord together, albeit they were of sundry kingdoms. And before this they were of contrary worship, for Israel was filled with idolatry, had a calf at Dan, and another at Bethel, and corrupted and changed the whole true worship; yet now they come together and say, "Let us join ourselves in a perpetual covenant with the Lord, never to be forgotten." Now that not only they of sundry towns and of sundry families, but even those of sundry kingdoms, may meet together this way, this text will bear; and that they may worship the Lord privately, it will bear that also; for some to come from one politic kingdom to another, and join together this way, for them to come to Zion, and ilk one of them to speer the way at another, and to make a covenant and to have conference amongst themselves: "Let us be joined in a perpetual covenant with the Lord, never to be forgotten." Now in the public worship of God there is no such speeches among private persons: "Let us be joined in a perpetual covenant with the Lord." Neither, as Calvin says, is there in the public worship by words a public spurring up one of another. So, then, this text it will warrant that which all our interpreters and our divines allow, that those who are of diverse kingdoms and diverse families, when they meet together, they may speak one to another, exhort, comfort, instruct, admonish every one another in the mutual duties of the worship of God, ilk one of them lending their shoulder to another before they come to the part where the public worship of God is.
第三个特点是以色列和犹大在这个时候的联合。这个联合有几个标志。首先：他们将聚集在锡安。其次：他们将共同事奉上主。第三：他们将哭泣着寻找通往锡安的道路。第四：他们的脸将朝向锡安，当他们寻找通往锡安的道路时。最后，他们都将有这个共同的决心：让我们与上主结成永久的盟约，永远不会被遗忘。因此，上主在这里向我们证明，当他将教会结合在一起时，不仅是来自不同家庭的人，甚至来自不同部落和不同王国的人，他们的团契将被看到，尤其是他们将一起敬拜上帝。他们将共同朝着一个方向，一起寻求通往锡安的道路，一起寻求上主。他们将与上主有一个共同的盟约和契约，永远不会被遗忘。 现在，无论以色列和犹大是否真的像这样朝着锡安这样的目的进行了这样的旅程，历史上是否真的如此，现在没有必要坚持这一点，因为他们的许多预言在弥赛亚中得以实现。但是，这里有一个理由来证明以色列和犹大一起向主献上的私人仪式和崇拜的合法性，尽管他们来自不同的王国。在此之前，他们的崇拜是相反的，因为以色列充满了偶像崇拜，在但有一只牛犊，在伯特利有另一只牛犊，并且腐化并改变了整个真正的崇拜；然而现在他们聚在一起说：“让我们与主结盟，永不被遗忘。”现在，不仅来自不同城镇和不同家庭的人们，甚至来自不同王国的人们也可以以这种方式相聚，这段文字可以支持这一点；而且，他们可以私下敬拜上帝，这段文字也可以支持这一点；因为有些人从一个政治王国来到另一个王国，以这种方式聚集在一起，他们来到锡安，每个人都向其他人询问道路，并在彼此之间立约并进行交流：“让我们与上帝结成永久的盟约，永不被遗忘。”在公共敬拜上帝的时候，私人之间没有这样的言辞：“让我们与上帝结成永久的盟约。”正如加尔文所说，在公共敬拜中，没有通过言辞公开激励彼此的情况。因此，这段文字将支持我们所有的解释者和神学家所允许的观点，即当来自不同王国和不同家庭的人们聚集在一起时，他们可以相互交谈，劝告，安慰，教导，相互提醒在上帝的敬拜中的相互责任，每个人在参加公共敬拜之前都要互相扶持。

It may be said that this concerns not us meikle, that the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom they shall worship God together, and shall speak good words one to another, that they shall enter in a covenant together, but what is that to us? We are another kirk than they were. And so it concerns not us. But remember what the apostle says, "What is written is written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are fallen." And howbeit this prophecy should never be historically fulfilled in the persons of Israel and Judah, yet it will serve to warrant the children of God on this point, to exhort, instruct, comfort, rebuke, and to speak of those duties that the Lord requires of His children, and of them toward another before they come to the public worship of God. Now for the better understanding of this, the Lord would have private Christians to be considered in a threefold relation. The first is as they are a master of a family. Second, as they are fellow-members of the grace of God. Third, as they are extraordinarily graced of God above others. For the third and last of these, we need not to speak meikle of it; for a private Christian so graced and qualified it has not been found fault with that they write commentaries, and do other things of that kind.
这可能与我们无关，以色列的国度和他们将一同敬拜上帝，彼此说好话，结盟在一起，但这与我们无关。我们是不同于他们的教会。所以这与我们无关。但要记住使徒所说的，“所写的都是为我们教训写的，使我们能在世界的末了，因忍耐和圣经的安慰得着盼望。”虽然这个预言在以色列和犹大的人身上可能永远不会实现，但它将用来证明上帝的儿女在这一点上的权威，来劝勉、教导、安慰、责备，并谈论主对他的儿女的要求，以及他们在公共敬拜上帝之前对彼此的要求。现在为了更好地理解这一点，主要考虑私人基督徒的三重关系。第一，作为一个家庭的主人。第二，作为上帝恩典的共同成员。第三，作为上帝特别恩待的人，超越其他人。 对于这三个中的第三个，我们不需要多说；因为一个受蒙福和合格的私人基督徒，他们写注释和做其他类似的事情是没有被指责的。

And for the first again, the duty of a private Christian as he is a master of a family, that is also far out of controversy, that a Christian as he is the head of a family, and so has the charge of them who are within the same, ought to discharge himself in this. To say nothing of that place (Deut. 6:7) which warrants this point, and of the Lord's commendation of Abraham (Gen. 18:19): "I know that He will command His children and His household after Him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord," &c., and (Exod. 12:26) where the master of the family is commanded when the children shall speer at him what the Passover means, the Lord says, Ye shall tell them it is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. There the master of the family, albeit he be not a minister, nor a public man, has a charge to expone the doctrine of the sacrament of the Passover to his family, Psa. 78:5: "The Lord established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children." So that the fathers they are bound to teach the children, and the rest of those who are in the family. Now under the name of a family, ye know we must expone it according to the fourth command, when that is set down that masters of families should be careful to have those within their families keeping the service of God. Ye know there is set down "the manservant," "the maidservant," "the stranger that is within the gates." So when the charge is laid on masters for their families, it is laid on them for all the members of the family, and for all the strangers that are in the same; for while he is there, he is a fellow and joint-member with the rest of the family. Now all the question is about the duty which the Lord requires of private Christians, as they are fellow-members of the same body one with another; as they are hands, feet, eyes, &c., of the blessed body of Christ. What seeks the Word of God in this case? Hear the Word of God. It is clear also—Lev. 19:17: "Rebuking one another;" Col. 3:16: "To teach and exhort;" Mal. 3:16: "To speak often one to another;" Heb. 3:13: "To exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day." And that is recommended as a special means for preventing hardness of heart; and there are none, I am sure, but they will acknowledge that whatever is recommended as a means to prevent hardness of heart, it is a duty commanded and ordained of God. But so it is that this duty of exhorting one another is recommended as a means for preventing hardness of heart, and therefore it is a duty commanded of God, and so lawful and necessary. And 1 Thess. 5:11: "Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another as ye also do." "Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak."
而且，作为一个私人基督徒，作为一个家庭的主人的责任也是毫无争议的，一个基督徒作为一个家庭的头，负有照顾家庭成员的责任，应该履行这个责任。不提那个支持这一点的地方（申命记 6:7），以及主对亚伯拉罕的赞扬（创世记 18:19）：“我知道他会吩咐他的儿女和他的家属，他们要遵守耶和华的道”，以及（出埃及记 12:26）在那里，家庭的主人被命令当孩子们问他逾越节的意义时，主说，你们告诉他们这是耶和华的逾越节的祭物，他在埃及击杀埃及人并拯救我们的家。在那里，家庭的主人，虽然他不是一位牧师，也不是一位公众人物，但他有责任向家人解释逾越节的教义，诗篇。 主在雅各中建立了一个见证，在以色列中设立了一条律法，祂命令我们的祖先将这些传给他们的子孙，以便后代能够知晓，即将出生的子孙将会兴起并将这些传给他们的子孙。因此，父亲们有责任教导子女，以及家庭中其他成员。现在根据家庭的定义，你们知道我们必须根据第四诫命来解释它，即家庭的主人应该注意让家庭成员保持对上帝的事奉。你们知道有提到“男仆”、“女仆”、“城门内的外人”。所以当主人对家庭负有责任时，他们对家庭中的所有成员以及所有在其中的外人负有责任；因为当他在那里时，他是家庭其他成员的同伴和共同成员。现在所有的问题都是关于主要求私人基督徒的责任，因为他们彼此是同体的成员；他们是基督的身体的手、脚、眼等。 神的话语在这种情况下寻求什么？听神的话语。这也是清楚的——利未记 19:17：“彼此责备。”歌罗西书 3:16：“以教导和劝勉为目的。”玛拉基书 3:16：“彼此谈论。”希伯来书 3:13：“每天彼此劝勉，趁着还有今日。”这被推荐为预防心硬的特殊手段；我确信没有人会否认，任何被推荐作为预防心硬的手段，都是神所命令和设立的责任。然而，劝勉彼此的这个责任被推荐为预防心硬的手段，因此它是神所命令的责任，因此是合法和必要的。帖撒罗尼迦前书 5:11：“所以，你们要彼此劝慰，互相建立，正如你们素常所行的。”“劝戒那些不守规矩的人，安慰灵里软弱的人，扶持软弱的人。”"

Now these places they will not only warrant the master of a family to do so, but also all Christians as they have commerce with others, that they join with others in such a manner, and the moe coals be together the hotter will the fire be. And there is another place not far from this—Psa. 37:30: "The righteous man he speaketh of wisdom and of judgment, and the law of God is in his heart;" and Prov. 10:21: "The lips of the righteous feed many." This is not to be understood of a pastoral feeding, that because one is a righteous man he should go to the pulpit and take the charge of souls upon him; but he feeds many in a private way, and it is a meaning unknown to the text to restrain it that otherways.
现在这些地方不仅仅是家庭主人的责任，而且所有基督徒在与他人交往时，都应该以这种方式与他人合作，煤越多，火越热。还有另一个地方离这里不远——诗篇 37:30：“义人口出智慧，舌上有公平，心中有神的律法。”和箴言 10:21：“义人的嘴教养多人。”这并不是指牧养的意思，即因为一个人是义人，他就应该上讲坛，承担起灵魂的责任；而是他以私人的方式养育许多人，这是文本中未知的含义，不应该限制其它方式。

Anything that can be said against this is, that it is very like the public teaching, that if they may exhort, instruct, comfort, rebuke, admonish, &c., one another, what difference is there between this and the public teaching, except only in the place, that the one is done in public and the other is done in a house. For answer: This is not so much against us as it is against the Scriptures of God, and yet the difference is clear; for every Christian is commanded to exhort, instruct, rebuke, comfort, &c., one another; but for the other it is said, none can preach except he be sent. And so the conclusion of this argument it is as much against the Scriptures of God as against these who defend the lawfulness of this ordinance. And this argument will be as much against these who speak one to one, as against him who speaks one to twenty. And, thirdly, there is very great difference between private exhortation and public preaching; even as when a common sojour gives warning to the army that the enemy is coming on them, and he who is appointed watchman, he gives also warning of the same. Now speer the difference between these warnings. It is clear the one has a calling to it, and authority from the general and the army, to give warning. The other, again, is not so bound. But yet, as he is a part of the army, he is obleist to give warning when he sees them in any danger though not in such a public, and failing therein, he does wrong. And as the difference is between a master, who is clad with public authority for teaching of scholars, and one of the condisciples teaches another on that same lesson that he teaches. Now there is none who will say that either the one usurps the watchman's place or the other the master's charge; but the one does what he does by a special designation for that effect, and the other as he is a member of that body. Again, the one has his place by public authority; and there are two wrongs done when he is disobeyed, one against the Lord's calling and authority, and another against his message and that which he bears. But disobedience to the other is not so great. Again, the public watchman he is ordained to use all means ordinary and possible for the good of people; but the other is only to do in an ordinary way. A private Christian he ought to help others in the way to heaven; but he ought not to make that his study—to study divinity for that effect.
对此的任何批评都是说，这与公共教学非常相似，如果他们可以相互劝告、教导、安慰、责备、劝戒等等，那么这与公共教学有什么区别，除了地点不同，一个在公共场所，另一个在家里。回答是：这不仅仅是针对我们，而是针对上帝的经文，然而区别是明显的；因为每个基督徒都被命令相互劝告、教导、责备、安慰等等；但对于其他人来说，除非他被派遣，否则不能传道。所以，这个论点的结论既违背上帝的经文，也违背那些捍卫这个仪式合法性的人。这个论点对那些一对一交谈的人和对那些一对二十交谈的人同样适用。第三，私人劝告和公开讲道之间有很大的区别；就像一个普通的旅客向军队警告敌人正在接近一样，而被指定的守望者也会发出同样的警告。现在来看看这些警告之间的区别。 很明显，一个人有责任和来自上级和军队的权威来发出警告。另一个人则没有这样的义务。但是，作为军队的一员，他有责任在看到他们处于任何危险中时发出警告，尽管不是公开的，如果他在这方面失败，他就是错的。就像一个被赋予公共权威来教导学生的教师和一个同样教授同一课程的同学之间的区别一样。现在没有人会说其中一个篡夺了守望者的位置，另一个篡夺了教师的职责；而是一个人通过特殊指定来做他所做的事情，另一个人是作为该组织的一员而做的。再者，一个人的位置是通过公共权威来确定的；当他被违抗时，会犯下两个错误，一个是违背上帝的召唤和权威，另一个是违背他的信息和他所传达的内容。但是违抗另一个人并不是那么严重。再者，公共守望者被任命使用一切常规和可能的手段来造福人民；而另一个人只能以常规方式行事。 一个私人基督徒应该帮助他人走向天堂的道路；但他不应该把这作为他的学习目标-为了达到这个目的而学习神学。

Again, another objection is that this is like interpreting of Scripture, and this is a thing that is altogether unlawful for any but for them who are authorized persons. For answer to this: All who know the controversy between us and the Papists, know that Bellarmine he lays this to the charge of the heretics, as he calls us, that they will not have the interpreting of the Scriptures bound to any kind of men as to pastors, but they will have it a thing common to all. And another of no less note than Bellarmine, to wit, Becan, says, while he is reasoning about the Scriptures: "Wherefore would the Lord have the Scriptures to be obscure, but only because He would have the order of pastors and teachers and doctors and people to be kept and observed." And in his 1 tom. quest. 10, he makes that question, "To whom belongs the interpreting of the Scriptures?" And answers, "Only to the Kirk, that is, only to Kirkmen." But this is our judgment in this point, that the power of interpreting the Scriptures in public is due to the pastor only and to no other; but for the private spirit of interpretation of the Scriptures it is a thing that belongs not only to pastors, but also to all Christians. And this is not a thing that is only my device, but that which our divines do approve; for Junius says, in the third chapter of his book, these: "We will not have interpreting the Scripture bound to particular men, but to be a thing belonging to omnibus fidelibus (all the faithful) in a private way and manner." Trelcatius he says also the like, and also Rivetus. And Luther and Calvin agree unto this while they are exponing that place. They say of ministers their public interpretation of the Scriptures is not to say that none has power of interpreting the Scriptures but Kirkmen, but all have power and yet difference—the private interpretation from the public. And all our divines, they acknowledge thus far; and Rivetus, while he is answering that Jesuit, he says: "There is a twofold interpreting of the Scripture. The first is public only belonging to pastors, a second is private belonging to omnibus fidelibus; and the professors of Leyden they agree unto this also." And yet this is not to put private persons, whosoever they be, in the chair of ministers, but only this—it is impossible for them to believe the Scriptures unless they can apply such Scriptures for rebuking, comforting, instructing, &c., one another, and to reclaim such as are wandering out of the way. Now if this be true, that the word of God thus gives place to exhort one another for comforting one another, rebuking one another, &c., then the meeting of Christians together for that end cannot be unlawful, for there is none who will meet that way but those who are bairns of that same house.
再者，另一个反对意见是这就像对圣经的解释，而这是一件只有被授权的人才能做的事情。对此的回答是：所有了解我们与天主教徒之间争议的人都知道，贝拉明指责我们这些异端，他说他们不愿意将对圣经的解释限制在某种人身上，比如牧师，而是希望它成为一种共同的事情。还有一个与贝拉明同样有名的人，即贝坎，他在谈论圣经时说：“主为什么要让圣经变得晦涩，难道不仅仅是因为祂希望保持和遵守牧师、教师、医生和信徒的秩序吗？”在他的第一卷第 10 题中，他提出了这个问题：“谁有权解释圣经？”并回答说：“只有教会，也就是只有教会人士。”但在这一点上，我们的判断是，公开解释圣经的权力只属于牧师，而不属于其他人；但对于私人解释圣经的灵感，不仅仅属于牧师，也属于所有基督徒。 这不仅仅是我的观点，而是我们的神学家所认同的观点；因为尤尼乌斯在他的书的第三章中说道：“我们不希望将对圣经的解释局限于特定的人，而是应该属于所有信徒的私人事务。” 特雷卡提乌斯也说了类似的话，还有里维特斯。而路德和加尔文在解释那个地方时也同意这一观点。他们说，牧师们对圣经的公开解释并不意味着只有教会人士才有权解释圣经，而是所有人都有权力，只是私人解释与公开解释有所不同。我们所有的神学家都承认到这个程度；而里维特斯在回应那个耶稣会士时说：“对圣经的解释有两种方式。第一种是公开的，只属于牧师们；第二种是私人的，属于所有信徒；而莱顿大学的教授们也同意这一观点。”然而，这并不是要让私人个体，无论是谁，坐在部长的位置上，而只是这样——除非他们能够运用圣经来相互责备、安慰、教导等等，以及挽回那些偏离正道的人，否则他们无法相信圣经。现在，如果这是真的，即神的话语让人们相互劝勉、安慰、责备等等，那么基督徒为了这个目的而聚集在一起是不违法的，因为只有那些属于同一家庭的人才会以这种方式聚会。

Again, it is objected that this rebuking, comforting, instructing, &c., is but only of one to one, and no further. But if ye will compare this form of speaking with the original, both in Greek and Hebrew language, and ye will find that it comes very far short of their mind who say so. If ye will look for the Greek language (Rom. 13), you will find the apostle says there: "Owe nothing to any man but love one to one." Now will any think that the law of God will bind one to love only and no moe; or rather does it not bind us to love all these who are called our neighbour? And Gal. 5:13 the apostle says, "Serve one another in love." The meaning of that place is not that only one man should serve another man, but the law of God it binds moe. And sicklike, "Bear ye burdens one of another." Is that only meant of one man? The Word of God will carry it towards all men in so far as a good conscience will permit; and James 5:16: "Pray one for another, and confess your faults one to another." The meaning there is for all the members of Christ's body, so that the Word of God it will not bear us to this, that it is only one to one this duty belongs.
有人反对说，这种责备、安慰、教导等方式只是一对一的，没有更广泛的应用。但如果你将这种说话方式与希腊语和希伯来语的原文进行比较，你会发现这种说法与他们所说的远远不符。如果你查看希腊语（罗马书 13 章），你会发现使徒在那里说：“除了以爱相待，不要欠任何人债。” 现在有人会认为上帝的律法只约束一个人去爱，而不是爱所有被称为我们邻居的人吗？在加拉太书 5:13，使徒说：“你们藉着爱彼此服侍。” 这段话的意思并不是只有一个人应该为另一个人服务，而上帝的律法约束更多的人。同样，“你们要彼此担当重担。” 这只是针对一个人吗？上帝的话语将指引我们向所有人，只要良心允许。雅各书 5:16 说：“你们要彼此认罪，互相代求，使你们得医治。”那里的意思是指基督身体的所有成员，所以，上帝的话语不会让我们认为这种责任只是一对一的。

And then, if ye will come to the Old Testament, ye will find the word not so strict. As Gen. 42:21: "And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul," &c. The word is that every one of them spake to his brother. The text there is about Joseph's brethren. When they saw the hand of God upon them they spake thus. Now will any think that this was one to one, or rather not every one of them to another; and 2 Kings 6 we will find the like also. There was a whole army there, and will any man believe that one of them only spake at once, speaking such a word as they do?—there so that this is nothing else but a subterfuge and a way of escaping. And so they will find no face for this, that this duty it should be only of one to one.
然后，如果你去看旧约，你会发现这个词并不那么严格。就像创世记 42:21 所说：“他们彼此说：‘我们实在有罪，害了我们兄弟，看见他灵魂的困苦，他恳求我们，我们却不肯听。”等等。这个词是他们每个人对他的兄弟说的。这段经文是关于约瑟的兄弟们。当他们看到上帝的手在他们身上时，他们就这样说。现在有人会认为这是一对一的吗，或者更确切地说，不是他们每个人对另一个人说的吗？在列王记下 6 章，我们也会找到类似的情况。那里有一整支军队，有人会相信他们中只有一个人说话，说出他们所说的这样的话吗？所以这只是一种逃避和逃避责任的手段。所以他们找不到理由，认为这个责任只能是一对一的。

A second objection is, that anything that is done in this, it must be done but by way of occasion, for it is not a direct command that we should be about any such thing, and have set time and place for the same, but only as it is occasioned by the way.
第二个反对意见是，凡是在这方面做的事情，都必须只是在适当的时机进行，因为这并不是一个直接的命令，要求我们做任何这样的事情，并且为相同的事情设定了时间和地点，而只是在恰当的时机发生。

Answer. Anything is called occasional that is occasioned by us and by our blindness and ignorance, and this way the preaching of the word is a thing occasional, and a worthy divine, Rollock, he said this, and so in this sense men might carceir public preaching.
答案。任何事情都被称为偶然，是由我们和我们的盲目和无知引起的，因此，宣讲神的话语也是一种偶然的事情，一位有价值的神学家罗洛克曾说过这样的话，所以从这个意义上说，人们可能很少参加公开宣讲。

Again, secondly, the meaning is, Ye shall not intend such a thing, but what ye do therein ye shall do it by your intention. And certainly, that cannot be a fair way, as the philosopher could say. They failed in this who said, Men should do anything that is good by their intention. And they who write of moral philosophy, they say thus far, that a good action is the better that it be intended, and where a good action is [not] done by the intention it is so much the worse.
其次，意思是，你们不应该打算做这种事情，但在其中所做的事情都要通过你们的意愿去做。当然，那并不是一个公平的方式，正如哲学家所说的。那些说，人们应该通过意图做任何好事的人是错了。写道道德哲学的人说到这种程度时，一个好行为因为意图而更好，如果一个好行为不是通过意图完成的话，那就更糟糕。

A third objection is that it is not lawful to appoint such a set time, and a set place for such actions. Certainly if it was lawful for Job's friends to meet together to comfort him, then this was not unlawful, neither that they made a meeting to come together for that effect. I believe that that place says that both the time and the place were appointed beforehand; and is the action the worse of it? No, certainly; for if the ordinance of God be lawful, then the fore-setting of time and place for the same cannot make it unlawful, except they will put religious worship to be used in an unlawful time and place. As to preach upon a day of man's invention to make it holy, that must not be. But for the other part, again, the appointing of time and place for a religious action makes it not worse but rather better. And we should beware of that, to distinguish in these things where the law of God distinguishes not. If it be lawful for a man to pray in private, there is none who will say that for him to appoint six hours in the morning, and such a house [to] pray in at that time, makes his prayer unlawful; and sicklike for preaching in the week time, will that make it unlawful to appoint Tuesday and Thursday for preaching?
第三个反对意见是指指定特定的时间和地点进行这样的行动是不合法的。当然，如果约伯的朋友们聚在一起安慰他是合法的，那么他们为此目的而举行会议也是合法的。我相信，那个地方说的是时间和地点都是事先约定的；这样做有什么不好吗？当然没有；因为如果上帝的命令是合法的，那么为同样的事情预定时间和地点并不能使其非法，除非他们将宗教崇拜用于非法的时间和地点。至于在人为发明的日子上讲道以使其成为圣日，那是不可以的。但是对于另一方面，再次指定时间和地点进行宗教行为并不会使其变得更糟，而是更好。我们应该小心，在这些事情上不要区分上帝的法律没有区分的地方。 如果一个人在私下祈祷是合法的，没有人会说他在早上安排六个小时的时间，在那个时候在一个房子里祈祷会使他的祈祷变得不合法；同样，如果在工作日进行讲道，那么在周二和周四安排讲道会使它变得不合法吗？

Another objection is about the number of those who may together discharge this duty. Say they, "If two or three or some moe may meet together for such an exercise, then why may not as well three hundred or a whole congregation meet that way?"
另一个反对意见是关于可能共同履行这一职责的人数。他们说：“如果两个人或三个人或更多人可以一起进行这样的活动，那么为什么不能有三百人或整个教会以同样的方式聚会呢？”

That is an objection soon answered. Solomon he might have houses to dwell in, but he might not exceed in the number of his houses. So Christians, they may thus meet in a private way. But if numbers of them meet together, then it is not a private worship, but a public. A man is bound to give to the poor, but he is not tied to give all that he has to them; that is superfluity and ostentation.
那是一个很快就能回答的异议。所罗门可能有房子居住，但他不能超过房子的数量。所以基督徒们可以以这种私人方式聚会。但如果他们聚集在一起的人数很多，那就不是私人崇拜，而是公众崇拜。一个人有义务给予穷人，但他不必把所有的财产都给他们；那是多余和炫耀。

The last objection is: "All that is yet said," say they, "will not authorize a manner of conference that has been used by some, that two or three private Christians should meet together, and that every one of them should pray about." I believe there be none against this. But they say there is no warrant for three or four persons to pray per vices at one time. And the argument they use is this: say they, "What ever point of worship wants either promise, practice, or command of God, that is an unlawful point of worship. But so it is, that praying thus per vices is a point of worship that wants practice, promise, or precept, and therefore it is unlawful. But I would answer this with retortion to them who object, the same praying privately is not commanded, and is therefore unlawful to pray in private. No man will say that, I believe. And, again, if it be a thing lawful to preach, will that make it unlawful that one preach after another? A third reason is, because all the public actions of the worshippers of God, they are this way ordered by the public worshippers, even so are the private actions of his worship by the private worshippers. If this were retorted to us: "What Scripture have we for that in our public worship, to have first prayer, then singing of Psalms, then prayer, then preaching, then prayer, then singing, &c.," I believe no man would think it needful to give particular Scripture for that, for it belongs to the office-bearers in the house of God to order these things. So if it be lawful for one to pray in private with another, why may not as well one pray after another? And we will find preaching thus allowed (1 Cor. 14:31, and Acts 15). Peter begins, and then Barnabas, and Paul, and then James. So that all this proves clear enough that there is no necessity of objecting against this point of worship, providing that all things be done in the right manner, as the Word of God allows.
最后一个反对意见是：“他们说，所有已经说过的话都不能证明一种被一些人使用的会谈方式的合法性，即两三个私人基督徒聚在一起，每个人都祈祷。”我相信没有人反对这一点。但他们说没有权威让三四个人同时轮流祈祷。他们使用的论据是：他们说，“任何一种崇拜方式，如果缺乏上帝的应许、实践或命令，那就是非法的崇拜方式。然而，轮流祈祷正是一种缺乏实践、应许或规定的崇拜方式，因此是非法的。”但我想用反驳的方式回答他们，即私下祈祷也没有被命令，因此在私下祈祷也是非法的。我相信没有人会这样说。而且，如果传道是合法的，那么一个接一个地传道会变得非法吗？第三个理由是，因为上帝的崇拜者的所有公众行动都是由公众崇拜者按照这种方式安排的，同样，他的崇拜者的私人行动也是由私人崇拜者安排的。 如果有人对我们反驳说：“在我们的公共崇拜中，先祷告，然后唱诗篇，再祷告，然后讲道，再祷告，再唱歌等等，我们有什么圣经支持呢？”我相信没有人会认为有必要为此提供特定的圣经经文，因为这是上帝家中的执事们来安排这些事情。所以，如果一个人在私下里与另一个人祷告是合法的，为什么不能一个接一个地祷告呢？我们会发现，讲道也是被允许的（哥林多前书 14:31 和使徒行传 15）。彼得开始讲道，然后巴拿巴、保罗，然后雅各。所以，所有这些都足够清楚地证明，在崇拜的这一点上没有必要提出异议，只要一切都按照上帝的话语所允许的正确方式来进行。

Now a word of the manner of their seeking to Zion. They go weeping to seek the Lord. They weep because they had angered the Lord, and weep for the desolation of the holy city, and truly a work of reformation it requires weeping. And it should not have so meikle rejoicing and so meikle security joined therewith. And it looks the liker a judgment, that so few are drawn to repentance by this work of reformation, for the former breach of our covenant and our turning away from the Lord. The work of reformation should draw us to this, as the harlot wife who has been put out from her husband for her harlotry, when she is brought home again to her provoked husband, and he delivers to her again the keys of the house. If she be honest, it grieves her and makes her heart to melt, that she should have provoked such a loving husband. Even so, when the Lord has dealt so graciously with us after our falling away from Him, should there be so many dry cheeks among us as there are? It is not honest like. But withal—
现在说说他们寻求锡安的方式。他们流泪寻求主。他们流泪是因为他们惹恼了主，为圣城的荒凉而流泪，确实，改革的工作需要流泪。它不应该有那么多的欢乐和安全感。这看起来更像是一个审判，因为这个改革的工作只有很少的人因此而悔改，为了我们违背盟约和背离主。改革的工作应该把我们带到这里，就像妓女妻子因为她的淫乱而被丈夫赶出家门，当她再次回到她被激怒的丈夫身边，他再次把家门的钥匙交给她。如果她是诚实的，她会感到悲伤，她的心会融化，因为她惹恼了这样一个爱她的丈夫。同样，当主在我们背离他之后如此恩待我们，为什么我们中间会有那么多干涸的脸颊呢？这不是诚实的。但同时-

"They speeredthe way to Zion." All the tears in the world without this, they are but like to Esau's tears, for he resolved in the days of mourning to kill his brother; and like Judas's tears of desperation. But these are better tears that are spoken of Acts 20:19, when the apostle was there leaving the Ephesians to serve the Lord, with many tears and temptations. It is nothing to weep for sin for a time, but to have their faces towards Zion, and asking the way to it, and to weep, that is more. That is an excellent stance their face has. While they are serving the Lord, and wat not where to find Him, yet they have their faces towards Him. There is nothing more easily describes the seekers of Zion and of the Lord than their right look. They know not the way to Zion, and yet they have their face there away, and so speer the way thereto.
他们询问通往锡安的道路。世界上所有的眼泪，如果没有这个，就像以扫的眼泪一样，因为他在哀悼的日子里决定杀死他的兄弟；就像犹大绝望的眼泪一样。但是这些眼泪更好，正如使徒行传 20:19 所说的，当使徒离开以弗所去事奉主时，他们含泪离别，经历了许多试炼。为罪而哭泣一时并不算什么，但是朝着锡安，询问通往锡安的道路，并且哭泣，这更重要。他们的面容是卓越的。当他们事奉主，不知道如何找到祂时，他们的面容朝向祂。没有什么比他们正确的目光更能描述寻求锡安和主的人。他们不知道通往锡安的道路，但他们的面容朝向那里，因此他们询问通往那里的道路。

There are three excellent looks spoken of in the Word of God: Psa. 69:3: "My eyes fail while I wait for God;" and David's comparison that he uses—"As the eyes of the watchmen wait for the morning, so wait we for Thee, O God." And then to wait upon God in the day of trouble, that is an honest look also, that look spoken of Isa. 17:7: "At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel." What day is that spoken of there? That day when the Lord shall visit Zion, and the Kirk shall be left desolate, and there shall be only as it were gleaning grapes in it; even that which is spoken of, Isa. 8:17: "I will wait upon the Lord that hideth His face, and I will look for Him."
神的话语中提到了三种出色的眼神：诗篇 69:3：“我等候神的时候，我的眼睛失明了。”大卫用来比喻的眼神是：“守望者等候天亮的眼睛，我们也等候你，神。”在患难的日子里等候神，也是一种诚实的眼神，以赛亚书 17:7 中提到了这种眼神：“到那日，人必仰望造他们的主，他们的眼目必仰望以色列的圣者。”那里所说的是哪一天呢？就是主要访问锡安的那一天，教堂将被遗弃，其中只剩下像是拾取的葡萄；就像以赛亚书 8:17 所说的那样：“我要等候那掩面不顾雅各家的耶和华，我也要仰望他。”

To look to the Lord when the wind blows motes and sand in your eyes, that is an honest look, and then to look to the kingdom of heaven, and farther nor time into eternity; as it is, Heb. 11:9, Abraham, content to dwell in tents, and to seek no abiding city here, because he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And to have Moses' look in the twenty-sixth verse of that chapter. He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, because he had respect to the recompense of reward. Moses looked higher nor all the courtiers in Pharaoh's court did—beyond time to eternity.
当风吹起尘沙迷住你的眼睛时，向主寻求，这是一个诚实的目光，然后向天国寻求，超越时间进入永恒；正如希伯来书 11:9 所说，亚伯拉罕满足于住在帐篷中，不寻求在此地建立永久的城市，因为他期待着一个有根基的城市，这城市的建造者和创造者是上帝。并且在该章的第 26 节中，他拥有摩西的眼光。他认为基督的羞辱比埃及的财富更宝贵，因为他看重报酬的赏赐。摩西的眼光超越了法老宫廷中的所有人，超越了时间进入永恒。

And a third good look is to look to slain Christ. When the Lord shall refine the house of David, and pour the spirit of supplications upon them, then they shall mourn when they look upon Him whom they have pierced. This condemns all the thrawn looks that sinners in the world have, whatever they be. There is a look, Prov. 21:4, a high look, the Lord cannot endure it. And Prov. 23, for the eyes to behold strange women; and Isa. 56:2, "They all look to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter;" and that look, Ezek. 18:15, that the house of Israel has its eyes toward the mountains and the hills. They look not to the Lord, but to their own gods. The Lord condemns all those who look not to Himself. And that is sure, every man who in faith looks to God and Christ and heaven, he will follow his look. O! that we had hearts and eyes to seek Him, and to look after Him, and to Him who is able to do this for us, to draw our hearts and eyes towards Himself; to that Lord, only wise, eternal, immortal, invisible, to Christ's Father and our Father, and Himself and the Holy Spirit, be all praise, glory, and honour now and for ever.—Amen.
第三个好的观点是注视被杀的基督。当主炼净大卫的家族，并将祈求的灵倾倒在他们身上时，他们看着自己所刺透的人时，他们将哀悼。这谴责了世界上罪人所持有的所有扭曲的眼光，无论它们是什么。有一种眼光，箴言 21:4，高傲的眼光，主是无法忍受的。箴言 23 中，眼睛注视陌生的女人；以赛亚书 56:2，“他们都各自寻求自己的道路，各人从自己的地方谋利；”以及以西结书 18:15 中的那种眼光，以色列家族的眼睛朝向山和丘陵。他们不是注视主，而是注视自己的神。主谴责那些不注视他自己的人。而且可以肯定的是，每个以信心注视上帝、基督和天堂的人，他将追随他的注视。哦！但愿我们有心和眼睛去寻求他，去追随他，去注视那位能够为我们做这一切的他自己，将我们的心和眼睛引向他自己；愿荣耀、赞美和尊荣归于那位唯一的智慧、永恒、不朽、看不见的主，基督的父亲和我们的父亲，以及他自己和圣灵，现在和永远。阿门。

The Kirk's Holy Resolution
柯克的神圣决心

"In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten."—JEREMIAH 1:4, 5.
在那些日子里，耶和华说，以色列的子民和犹大的子民将一同前来，哭泣着寻求耶和华他们的神。他们将面朝锡安，询问前往的路，说：“来吧，让我们与耶和华结为永远不会被遗忘的约。”—耶利米书 1:4, 5.

WE have heard, beloved in our Lord, a holy resolution of two kingdoms, to wit, Israel and Judah, after their deliverance from their captivity, to join themselves together to serve the Lord and His house, where He dwells, to ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherwards, and weeping. And their manner, how they went to seek the Lord—they went weeping. And their weakness when they are in the way—they speer the way because they know it not. And then their encouraging one another into the way; they say, "Come, and let us join ourselves in a perpetual covenant with the Lord, never to be forgotten." Anything of that which was spoken the last day I repeat nothing of it. Only this would be remembered, that the Lord's people of Israel and of Judah, every one of them encourages another to seek the Lord, and they set their shoulders together to help forward His glory, and for their brother's weal, and they come weeping one to another, and they speer the way to Zion with their faces thitherwards.
我们听说了，我们在主里所亲爱的人，以色列和犹大这两个圣洁的国度，在他们脱离囚禁后，决定联合起来事奉主和祂的殿宇，祂的居所，他们面向锡安，含泪祈求前行的道路。他们寻求主的方式是含泪前行。当他们在路上时，他们的软弱表现在他们迷失了方向。然后他们互相鼓励走上这条道路；他们说：“来吧，让我们与主永远结盟，永不忘记。”关于上次所说的内容，我不再重复。只有这一点需要记住，以色列和犹大的主的子民，每个人都鼓励其他人寻求主，他们齐心协力推动祂的荣耀，为了他们兄弟的福祉，他们彼此含泪相向，他们面向锡安追寻前行的道路。

Whilk teaches a lesson that is most necessary for us, and is most worthy of our observation; and that is, that the Spirit of God allows the communion of saints, and that every man be careful for the soul of his brother, that so we have not Cain's answer to give unto the Lord, "Am I my brother's keeper?" And that according to the calling and station the Lord has put us in, we be careful to exhort, instruct, comfort, and admonish one another, to edify one another in our most holy faith.
威尔克教导了我们一个非常必要的教训，也是我们最值得关注的，那就是上帝的圣灵允许圣徒之间的交流，并且每个人都要为他的兄弟的灵魂负责，这样我们就不会像该隐那样回答上帝说：“我岂是我兄弟的看守者？”根据主给予我们的呼召和地位，我们要努力互相劝勉、教导、安慰和警戒，以在我们最圣洁的信仰中建立彼此。

Now what I spake concerning this, I speak nothing thereof again. Only a word of that which I spake concerning the mind of our divines disputing against the Papists and Jesuits in that controversy between us and them about the interpreting of the sacred Scriptures, where they avow this to be a point of Popery, that the gift of interpreting the Scriptures should be only bound to the Kirk and to Kirkmen. Now it is not their meaning, neither is it my meaning, in defending this point, that all private Christians they have warrant from the Lord either to expone the Scriptures in public to the people, or yet to expone them after that manner that ordinarily we take for exponing the Scriptures, and that is to expone them as doctors and professors, or yet as pastors, who may expone the same, and are declared of God to be such as should understand and expone the Scriptures, and raise doctrines, and apply them to the people's use. Neither is this the mind of our divines, or of any in our Kirk, or of those on whom they lay the blame of Separatists. But the mind of our divines and our mind in this is—
关于这个问题，我再也不说了。只是关于我们的神学家在与天主教徒和耶稣会士之间关于解释圣经的争议中所说的一点，他们声称这是天主教的一个观点，即解释圣经的恩赐只应该归于教会和教会人员。现在，他们的意思不是这样，我的意思也不是这样，我们在捍卫这一点时，并不是说所有的私人基督徒都有上帝的授权，要么在公众面前解释圣经，要么以通常我们理解的方式解释圣经，即像医生和教授那样解释，或者像牧师那样解释，他们可以解释圣经，并被上帝宣告为应该理解和解释圣经，并提出教义，并将其应用于人们的生活。我们的神学家和我们在这个问题上的意思是-

First: That the faith of the people of God, in understanding the Scriptures, should not so depend upon the interpretation of Kirkmen, as that they themselves should be altogether ignorant of the sense thereof, for that were indeed to have a blind and implicit faith, and to believe as the Kirk believes. Again—
首先：神的子民在理解圣经时，不应过分依赖教会人士的解释，以至于自己对其意义一无所知，因为那将是盲目和盲从的信仰，相信教会所相信的。再次——

Secondly: That it is not against the Word of God, but agreeable thereto, that private Christians in a private way, they may apply the sense of Scripture to themselves and others, and that meaning that the Spirit of God has in such places of Scripture, and that they may confer, exhort, warn, rebuke, &c., one another. And this is not so meikle exponing of Scripture as it is applying thereof rightly. But we are so far from giving anything which is due to the pastors or doctors who are in the house of God, or of any who are called to that holy function, or minds to follow the same, that we say with the apostle, Heb. 5, "No man taketh this honour unto him except he be called of God for that effect." He ought not to meddle with what belongs to them.
其次：这并不违背上帝的话语，而是与之一致的，私人基督徒可以以私人方式将经文的意义应用于自己和他人，并理解上帝的灵在这些经文中的含义，他们可以相互交流、劝勉、警告、责备等。这并不是对经文的过度解释，而是正确应用经文。但我们远非将应归于上帝的牧师或教师，或者任何被呼召从事这一神圣职责的人，或者有意追随他们的人，我们与使徒一同说：“除非蒙上帝呼召，否则无人自取这尊荣。”他不应该干涉属于他们的事务。

Now the main thing that Israel and Judah shall do while they are in their journey this way—they shall seek the Lord their God, and shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherwards. Now a word of them.
现在以色列和犹大在旅途中的主要任务是寻求他们的上帝，并向锡安的方向询问道路。现在是他们的一句话。

First: It is said that they shall be a company of seekers of God. That is the main thing that takes up the essence and the name of a believer, and a seeker of God, that he seeks the Lord. Now this seeking the Lord, it pre-suppones losing of Him. And having a reference to this losing of Him, God is sought this way, in four considerations. The
首先：据说他们应该是一群寻求上帝的人。这是一个信徒和寻求上帝者的本质和名称所占据的主要事情，他寻求主。现在这寻求主，预设了失去主。并且与这失去主有关，上帝以四个方面被寻求。

First is when the Lord's face is sought. This is when His favour and loving-kindness are sought, which is better than life. So it is said, Psa. 24:6: "This is the generation of them that seek Him, of them that seek Thy face, O God of Jacob." These are the generation of them that seek the Lord's favour. So also Psa. 27:8: "When thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek"—that is the Lord's favour that is there spoken of. Sick-like, Hos. 5:15, "I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek My face: in their affliction they will seek Me early." Our natural condition and the state that we are in, that we have lost a sight of God's face and His favour, should put us to this. These who want should seek the Lord and the sense of His love. They who stand in need thereof should seek His face and loving-kindness, and blessed are they who seek this indeed.
首先是寻求主的面容。这是寻求祂的恩惠和慈爱，比生命更好。所以诗篇 24:6 说：“这是寻求你面的世代，雅各的神啊，求你使你的面向我们发光。”这些人是寻求主恩惠的世代。同样，诗篇 27:8 说：“你说，你们当寻求我的面。那时，我心向你说，耶和华啊，你的面我必寻求。”这里所说的是主的恩惠。像病人一样，何西阿书 5:15 说：“我要回到原处，等他们自觉有罪，寻求我的面。他们在急难的时候必切切寻求我。”我们的自然状态和我们所处的状态是，我们已经失去了对神的面容和祂的恩惠的看见，这应该促使我们这样做。那些需要的人应该寻求主和祂的爱的感觉。那些需要的人应该寻求祂的面容和慈爱，真正寻求这一点的人是有福的。

A second thing that we are to seek under this, is to seek the image of God which we have lost. To seek wisdom, as it is Prov. 2:4, 5: "If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as hid treasures; then thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God;" even to seek that which we lost in Adam at his fall. For as it is, Rom. 3:23, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God;" they have missed that glorious image, as it is well exponed, and therefore it would be sought for again. And this is the Lord's complaint, Jer. 5:1, that there is no man that seeketh the Lord; and it is the charge given unto His people, Zeph. 2:3, "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth;" and Isa. 1:17, "Seek judgment." The people, they should be careful of seeking God, and they ought to seek the image of God, which is true sanctification. And this is the main and essential way of seeking God. Again—
在这一点上，我们要寻求的第二件事是寻找我们所失去的上帝的形象。要寻求智慧，就像箴言 2:4、5 所说：“你若寻求她如寻求银子，搜求她如搜求隐藏的珍宝，你就明白敬畏耶和华，得以认识神。”甚至要寻求亚当堕落时我们所失去的东西。因为正如罗马书 3:23 所说：“因为世人都犯了罪，亏缺了神的荣耀。”他们错过了那荣耀的形象，正如经文所解释的那样，所以应该再次寻求。这是耶和华的怨言，耶利米书 5:1 说没有人寻求耶和华；这是赛番书 2:3 对他的子民所提出的指控：“你们一切谦卑的人，当寻求耶和华。”以赛亚书 1:17 也说：“你们当学习行善，寻求公平。”人民应该小心寻求上帝，他们应该寻求上帝的形象，这就是真正的成圣。这是寻求上帝的主要和基本方式。再次-

Third: We have lost the kingdom of heaven and paradise; and therefore that would be sought. Matt. 6:33: "Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and the righteousness thereof, and then all other things shall be casten unto you." They who profess to seek, and seek not this, they fail in their seeking, and walk not with them of whom it is said, Rom. 2:7, "who by well-doing" purchased a good report unto themselves; nor follow the example of Abraham, Heb. 11:10: "He sought a city which hath a foundation, whose builder and maker is God." And then—
第三点：我们已经失去了天国和乐园；因此，我们应该去寻找。马太福音 6:33：“你们要先求他的国和他的义，这些东西都要加给你们了。”那些声称寻求却没有寻求这个的人，他们在寻求中失败了，也没有与那些通过行善为自己赢得好名声的人同行（罗马书 2:7），也没有效仿亚伯拉罕的榜样（希伯来书 11:10），他寻求的是一个有根基的城，这城的建造者和创造者是上帝。然后——

Lastly: To seek the means of salvation; that is, to seek God. Psa. 119:45: "I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts;" that is, "the thing that I make search for is Thy precepts," which is the way to salvation; and ver. 155, "Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not Thy statutes." It is a note of them who seek not the way to heaven that they seek not the Lord's statutes.
最后：寻求救恩的方法；也就是寻求上帝。诗篇 119:45：“我必行在宽阔之地，因我寻求你的训词。”也就是说，“我寻求的是你的训词”，这是通往救恩之路；还有 155 节：“恶人离弃你的律例，因为他们不寻求你的救恩。”不寻求通往天堂之路的人不寻求主的律例，这是他们的标志。

Now the use of this is, to condemn a multitude of seekers in the world, who albeit they seek God yet they seek not God nor His face, seek not His image, nor are they about the seeking of heaven, nor seek they after His precepts and the means of salvation. There are a number condemned, Phil. 2:21: "All seek their own things, but seek not the things of Christ." How many are there in the world who in their callings seek nothing but to get gold for their god, but cannot say as Christ says, and clears Himself from being guilty of such wickedness: "I serve not Mine own honour, but the honour of Him that sent Me"? The most part seek their own honour and glory, and seek the world, but they seek not God. They seek corn, wine, and oil, but seek not to have the light of the Lord's countenance lifted upon them. And whoever seeks after these things, they shall not find what they seek, or if they find them they shall lose better. It were better to obey that, Isa. 55: "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near," &c.; and certainly whoever has their task to seek the world and the things thereof, they seek not the Lord nor His face, and image, or heaven, or salvation. Oh! if we knew what we have lost, and that we could leave our care of seeking things in the world, and set to to seek God and His face, His image, and heaven, and the precepts and testimonies of the Lord! And, out of all doubt, that is the best seeking in the world, and there is no man but he is seeking, and every man is seeking some good thing. But O! how many are there who come short of that which they should seek, who are seeking lying vanities, and forsaking their own mercy. This is the world's conquersh and their search; "Lord, save us from it."
现在使用这个的目的是，谴责世界上众多的寻求者，虽然他们寻求上帝，但他们并不真正寻求上帝或他的面容，也不寻求他的形象，也不追求天堂，也不追求他的诫命和救赎的途径。有许多人被谴责，腓立比书 2:21：“众人都求自己的事，不求耶稣基督的事。”世界上有多少人在他们的职业中只追求为他们的神获取金钱，但不能像基督那样说，并且使自己免于这种邪恶：“我不是为自己的荣耀而事奉，而是为那差我来的荣耀。”大多数人追求自己的荣耀和光辉，追求世界，但他们不追求上帝。他们追求谷物、酒和油，但不追求上帝的脸面的光照。而且，无论谁追求这些东西，他们都找不到他们所追求的，或者如果他们找到了，他们将失去更好的东西。最好遵守以赛亚书 55 中的话：“当趁耶和华可寻找的时候寻找他，当他相近的时候求告他”，等等；而且无论谁有任务去追求世界及其事物，他们都不追求主，也不追求他的面容、形象、天堂或救赎。 哦！如果我们知道我们失去了什么，能够放下对世俗事物的追求，开始寻求上帝、他的面容、他的形象、天堂以及主的诫命和见证！毫无疑问，这是世界上最好的追求，每个人都在追求，每个人都在追求某种好的东西。但是哦！有多少人没有达到他们应该追求的目标，他们追求虚假的虚荣，抛弃了他们自己的怜悯。这是世界的征服和他们的追求；“主啊，拯救我们脱离它。”"

Second: We have set down unto us, what the people shall seek—"They shall seek the Lord their God." The thing that is called seeking the way to Zion, it is exponed to seek the Lord.
其次：我们已经确定了人们所寻求的事情——“他们将寻求他们的上帝主。”所谓寻求通往锡安之路的事情，实际上是寻求上帝。

And here we have this doctrine arising clearly unto us, that in the means of the worship of God, God Himself is to be sought, and not the means themselves. They are now coming from their captivity, and in their coming, they seek not the dry hill of Zion, or the temple, or the external means of God's worship, but they seek the Lord in these; for that is the fairest flower that grows there. The Lord Himself is better than preaching, or sacraments, or prayer, &c., and all the means of His worship; for all of them serve but only for leading to Him. And therefore none should content themselves in the worship of God until they get God Himself. Look unto Psalm 42:1, 4, and it will show this. The first verse says, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God;" and in the fourth verse, "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God." At this time David was banished from the means of God's worship, and that is his heart-break, and the only thing that he misses at this time was God Himself, and so he missed the means for God. So, also, Psa. 84:2: "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord." Now was that no more but to have a rowme where the sparrows bigged their nests, and the swallows kept their young ones? No. He expones it in the other part of the verse: "My soul crieth out for the living God." So also in Psalm 63, where David was banished into the wilderness—his heart was seeking the Lord, and so was longing for Him as thirsty land does for a shower, and then adds: "That I may see Thy power and glory so as I have seen Thee in Thy sanctuary."
在这里，我们清楚地看到这个教义，即在敬拜上，我们要寻求的是上帝自己，而不是敬拜的方式。他们现在从囚禁中解放出来，在他们的归来中，他们寻求的不是锡安的干山，或者圣殿，或者上帝敬拜的外在方式，而是在这些中寻求主；因为那里有最美丽的花朵。主自己比传道、圣礼、祷告等等，以及所有敬拜的方式都更好；因为它们只是为了引导我们到主的面前。因此，没有人应该满足于敬拜上帝，直到他们得到上帝自己。看看诗篇 42:1、4，它会说明这一点。第一节说：“鹿切慕溪水，我的心切慕你，神。”第四节说：“我想起这些事，我就倾心发出声音，因我曾与众人一同进入神的殿。”这时，大卫被驱逐离开了上帝的敬拜方式，这是他的心碎之处，他在这个时候唯一想念的是上帝自己，所以他为了上帝而错过了敬拜的方式。同样，诗篇也是如此。 84:2：“我的灵魂渴望，甚至昏厥，为了主的院子。”这只是为了有一个地方，麻雀筑巢，燕子养育幼崽吗？不是的。他在诗篇的另一部分解释了这一点：“我的灵魂呼喊活着的神。”同样在诗篇 63 中，大卫被流放到荒野，他的心寻求主，渴望祂，就像干渴的土地渴望雨水一样，然后补充道：“我要看见你的能力和荣耀，如同我在你的圣所中所见到的。”"

Use. In all the means of the worship of God, whether ye have the use of them or want the use of them, seek ever God rather nor the means, whether it be in preaching, praying, hearing, reading, &c. Strive to be in at God Himself. And this is the difference between an hypocrite and a true seeker of God, for the hypocrite he seeks after the means, and no more. That is enough for him if he hear the word, and get the communion, or if he be a preacher, that he preach the same and no more, that he put his hand to a covenant. That contents these who are not true seekers of God. But the true seeker of God he learns to miss Him in the means of His service, and he thinks he has not things well at that time, when he finds not Himself; and, therefore, let us remember that praying, preaching, praising, reading, hearing, even all the means, they are as chariots and torches to carry us to God. But if so be that the Lord Himself be not sought for in the means, then we speer not the way to Zion rightly, and there are thousands in the world who mistake this way, for they seek only Zion and the outward means; and thus they miscarry in the worship of God.
使用。在所有敬拜上帝的方式中，无论你是否使用它们或需要使用它们，都要始终寻求上帝而不是手段，无论是在传道、祷告、听道、阅读等方面。努力亲近上帝自己。这是伪君子和真正寻求上帝者之间的区别，因为伪君子只追求手段，不再追求其他。如果他听到了上帝的话语并参与了圣餐，或者如果他是一位传道者，只要他传讲了这些，他就满足了。这对那些不是真正寻求上帝的人来说已经足够了。但是真正寻求上帝的人会在事奉上帝的手段中寻找上帝的缺席，他认为如果找不到上帝，那个时候事情就不好了；因此，让我们记住，祷告、传道、赞美、阅读、听道，甚至所有手段，都是将我们带到上帝面前的车辆和火炬。但是，如果在这些手段中没有寻求主自己，那么我们就没有正确地寻找通往锡安的道路，世界上有成千上万的人误解了这条道路，因为他们只追求锡安和外在的手段；因此他们在敬拜上帝时失败了。

"They shall seek the Lord their God." He is their God, and yet for all that they are put to seek Him. If He be their God, how is it that they want Him, or what necessity is there of seeking Him, for they have Him already, if He be theirs? Yes; He may be lost, and yet for all that be their God, because they are not in possession of Him, nor have they the sense of His presence, and that being their God is only by covenant, but He is not presently theirs in possession. Even as a man who has a number of houses, and yet he is so confined to such a house to dwell there all his lifetime for some crime committed by him. All the rest of the houses they are his in heritage. He has only lost the possession of them for a time, but he has right to them. Even so is the Kirk of God here tyning access to God, and losing the comfort and joy of the Holy Ghost by sin; and yet for all that, the charter it stands still unviolated anent the decree of election, albeit for the present they dare not take possession thereof.
他们必寻求他们的上主。他是他们的上主，然而尽管如此他们还是要去寻找他。如果他是他们的上主，为什么他们还需要他，或者为什么需要去寻找他，因为如果他是他们的上主，他们已经拥有他了。是的，他可能会失去，然而尽管如此他仍然是他们的上主，因为他们没有拥有他，也没有感受到他的存在，他们之间的关系只是通过契约，但他并不立即属于他们。就像一个人拥有许多房子，但由于他犯了某种罪行，他被限制在其中一所房子里度过一生。其他的房子都是他的继承物。他只是暂时失去了对它们的拥有，但他有权利拥有它们。同样，上帝的教会在这里失去了与上帝的亲近，失去了圣灵的安慰和喜乐，但尽管如此，选民的权益仍然没有受到侵犯，尽管他们目前不敢去占有。

And this answers a case wherein many of the weak children of God are oftentimes, that they dare not apply the promise of God to themselves, or say Thomas's word, "My Lord and my God!" and yet for all that, for the world they dare not say the contrary. This is in effect to brangle their own right, for He is the Lord and He is the portion of His children, albeit they dare not say, "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance." He is their rock and their strong tower, albeit they see it not; He is their Lord and their God, albeit they have not still assurance of the same.
这回答了一个情况，即上帝的许多软弱的子民常常不敢将上帝的应许应用于自己，或者说托马斯的话，“我的主，我的神！”然而，尽管如此，对于世界，他们不敢说相反的话。这实际上是争夺他们自己的权利，因为他是主，他是他的子民的份额，尽管他们不敢说：“耶和华是我产业的份额。”他是他们的磐石和他们的坚固堡垒，尽管他们看不见；他是他们的主和他们的神，尽管他们仍然没有确信。

"With their faces thitherwards." This says that they had a mind to be there. And their asking of the way tells us that they knew not the gate to it.
他们的脸朝那里。这说明他们想去那里。他们询问路的行为告诉我们他们不知道通往那里的门。

Here we may learn, that Christian souls and seekers of God, they will have a great desire and a great affection to be at Him, and yet, for all that, be ignorant of the means and of the way how to win to Him. And we may see that a true heart and honest intention in seeking the Lord, and weakness also, both these may stand together, as Nicodemus—he has a good mind to be at Christ, and yet, for all that, he is ignorant of the point of regeneration. And Mary Magdalene, she sought dead Jesus at the grave. That was weakness in her, and shows her affection to Him. But she should have sought living Jesus. And the apostles they dare not leave Jesus when the Capernaites left Him; and Peter says, in the name of the rest, "Whither shall we go if we leave Thee? for Thou hast the words of eternal life." And yet, for all that, they were not well grounded in the art of Christ's suffering and of Christ's resurrection, as we may see John 20.
在这里，我们可以了解到，基督徒的灵魂和寻求上帝的人，他们会对与上帝在一起有很强烈的渴望和深厚的感情，然而，尽管如此，他们对于如何接近上帝的方法和途径却一无所知。我们可以看到，一个真诚的心和诚实的意图在寻求上帝时，以及脆弱性，这两者可以同时存在，就像尼哥底母一样——他有一个好心愿去找基督，然而，尽管如此，他对重生的要点一无所知。马利亚·玛大利纳寻找死去的耶稣在坟墓里。这是她的软弱之处，也显示了她对耶稣的感情。但她应该寻找活着的耶稣。使徒们不敢离开耶稣，当加利利人离开他时；彼得代表其他人说：“如果我们离开你，我们去哪里呢？因为你有永生的话语。”然而，尽管如此，他们对于基督受难和复活的艺术并不牢固，正如我们在约翰福音 20 章所看到的。

This tells us that many of the children of God who have their faces towards heaven, they have their own ignorance, and know not where to gang. And this should teach all of us to put a difference between weakness and wickedness. God knows the one by the other well enough. These who have an honest purpose to be at God, and know not the way how to win to Him, He will fley none away from Him for that. But He is angry at wickedness, and dow not abide it. But those who would fain be home over at the Lord, although they be weak and know not the way well, those who waken with that thought in the morning, and fall asleep with it at night, who mind the honour and glory of God, albeit otherways there be slips and falls in the way, the Lord He will give mercy, providing there be a habitual intention to seek God. Woe is the man that has his back to heaven, and has a habitual intention to seek the world; for his disease is not weakness, but wickedness. When a man's whole practices are how to get the world, if a man only mind this, and have his back upon Zion, God will not lift such a man when he falls. But if a man have his face towards heaven, albeit his legs be so weak that they will not follow him, yet He who leads the blind by a way that they know not, that breaks not the bruised reed, nor quenches the smoking flax, who deserts not any who minds after Him in truth, He will eye such and not let them fall, but when they fall He will raise them again.
这告诉我们，许多上帝的孩子仰望天堂，却自己愚昧无知，不知何去何从。这应该教导我们要区分软弱和邪恶。上帝非常清楚其中的区别。那些诚实地想要接近上帝，但不知道如何走向祂的人，祂不会因此而赶走任何人。但是祂对邪恶感到愤怒，无法容忍它。但是，那些虽然软弱并且不熟悉道路，但渴望回归主的人，那些早晨想着寻求上帝，晚上困倦时也想着，那些心中怀有敬畏上帝的荣耀和荣耀，尽管在道路上会有失误和失败，只要有一种习惯性的寻求上帝的意图，主将给予怜悯。背对天堂，常想着寻求世界的人真可怜，因为他的问题不是软弱，而是邪恶。当一个人的全部行为都是为了得到世界，如果一个人只注意这个，而将他的背朝锡安，上帝不会在他跌倒时扶起这样的人。 但是，如果一个人的脸朝向天堂，即使他的腿很虚弱，不能跟随他，但是那位引导盲人走他们不知道的道路的人，不打断受伤的芦苇，不熄灭冒烟的灯芯，不抛弃任何真心追随他的人，他会注视这样的人，不让他们跌倒，但是当他们跌倒时，他会再次扶起他们。

Now in their resolution there are two words to be looked to. First, they say "Come." Second, the words of their resolution are set down: "Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten." The first word, "Come," is a word of many men, every one of them encouraging another. "Come, and let us all have one purse," as it is in the Proverbs (1:11, 14). Ilk one puts at another and strengthens the hands of one another in the work. As we have the word, Isa. 2:2: "Many people and nations shall say in the last days, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob," &c. Such a word as is used Cant. 6:1: "Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women, that we may seek Him with thee?" There ilk one of them says they will help another in seeking Him. And I am sure this is a better fellowship nor other "Comes" that are set down in the Word of God. "Come ye," say they (Isa. 56:12), "I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." There the drunkard encouraging the drunkard to drunkenness. And (Gen. 37:19, 20) when Joseph's brethren see him coming, they say, "Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, let us slay him, and cast him into some pit." And every one of them gives wicked counsel to another for taking his life. Such a "Come" as that which is Isa. 41:7: "The carpenter encourageth the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, and every one of them helps another to set up a golden image, and to fasten it that it should not be moved." There is over meikle of this good fellowship used in the world, and this is a woful and miserable pit to catch many souls in when ilk sinner encourages another in ill. O! if the world would take notice of this, that ilk one of them has their "Come" and their fellowship together this way: the drunkard and the worldling have their come. But "Come, and let us join ourselves in a perpetual covenant with the Lord." There is no blessed Brotherhood and fellowship of this kind. Where is this sort of "Come," where ilk one encourages another to set God upon high?
现在在他们的决心中，有两个词需要注意。首先，他们说“来”。其次，他们的决心之词是这样写的：“让我们与主结成永久的盟约，永远不被遗忘。”“来”这个词是众人的话，每个人都在鼓励另一个。“来吧，让我们大家合而为一”，就像箴言中所说的（1:11, 14）。每个人都鼓励另一个，加强彼此的力量。正如以赛亚书中所说：“末后的日子，耶和华殿的山必坚立，超乎诸山，高举过于万岭。万民都要流归这山。”（赛 2:2）。像雅歌中用的那样：“你的良人向何处去了？你的良人转向何处去了？我们好与你同去寻找他。”那里的每一个人都说他们会帮助另一个寻找祂。我肯定这样的交往比圣经其他地方所述的“来”更好。“你们来吧，我将取酒，我们饱饮浓酒，直到今日落尽。” （赛 56:12）。酒徒鼓励酒徒饮酒的地方。 当约瑟的兄弟们看到他走来时，他们说：“看哪，这个作梦的人来了。现在我们来杀了他，把他扔进一个坑里。”他们每个人都给另一个人提供邪恶的建议来夺取他的生命。就像以赛亚书 41:7 中所说的那样：“木匠鼓励金匠，用锤子敲打铁匠，他们每个人都帮助另一个人建立一个金像，并固定它，使其不动。”世界上有很多这样的友谊，这是一个可怕和悲惨的陷阱，当每个罪人都鼓励另一个人做坏事时，会捕捉到许多灵魂。哦！如果世界能注意到这一点，每个人都有他们的“来”，他们以这种方式互相交往：酒鬼和世俗人都有他们的“来”。但是“来吧，让我们与主立下永久的盟约。”没有这种祝福的兄弟会和团契。这种“来”的方式在哪里，每个人都鼓励另一个人将上帝高举起来？

Now what is their resolution? They come not home to Zion to take the play, but when they are come home, they do it that they may be "joined in a perpetual covenant with the Lord, never to be forgotten." That is the end of all deliverances the Lord bestows upon us, that we may serve Him and be joined in a covenant with Him. That is a blessed cross that the end of it is to draw us nearer to God. "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but I have learned to keep thy statutes;" and Luke 1:74, 75: "That He would grant us, that we being redeemed from all our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life." Then the end of deliverance from enemies is that we might serve the Lord in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. And certainly such a deliverance as this is blessed, and there is no man that is lawfully delivered from a cross but he who does so.
现在他们的决心是什么？他们回到锡安不是为了玩乐，而是为了与上帝建立“永远不会被遗忘的契约”。这是上帝赐予我们所有拯救的目的，让我们事奉他并与他建立契约。这是一个祝福的十字架，其目的是让我们更加亲近上帝。“在我受苦之前，我走错了路，但我已经学会遵守你的法度。”（诗篇 119:67）“使我们从敌人手中得救，可以毫无惧怕、在圣洁和公义中，在我们一生的日子里事奉他。”（路加福音 1:74-75）因此，从敌人手中得救的目的是让我们在一生的日子里以圣洁和公义事奉上帝。这样的拯救是有福的，只有那些合法地从十字架上解脱出来的人才能如此。

Wherefore are afflictions called visitations. O! but that is a kindly word, and crosses are so when they are blessed of the Lord. They are visitations. And such crosses and visitations leave drinksilver behind them where they come. When the Lord stells a cannon foranent their pride or worldly-mindedness, &c., and then they are amoving and purposing by His grace to set against it. When the Lord does this to make them deny themselves, and become humble in their own eyes, O but that is sweet. There is a word that expresses this well—Ezek. 16:63: "That thou mayest be confounded and remember, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee." The shame of the cross and the confusion come upon them by their captivity, shall work this in them when they are reconciled to Him. And the like of this word is used Ezek. 20:42, 43: "And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled. And ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye hath committed." And therefore every man speer at his own soul when he has been under any cross what good he gat of them. God brought you unto poverty, and art thou still as proud as ever thou wast? That is a stinking-tailed cross. Has the Lord delivered you from sickness and the gates of death? And art thou delivered therefra and yet art as worldly-minded and as irreligious as ever thou wast? That is a cursed cross that is sealed with the feid of God. And, by the contrary, a soul that is delivered from any cross, and speaks out of the dust and is humbled thereby, that is a blessed and sanctified cross.
为什么苦难被称为神的访问。哦！但那是一个友善的词，当十字架被主祝福时，它们也是如此。它们是神的访问。这样的十字架和访问在它们到来的地方留下了喜悦。当主为了对抗他们的骄傲或世俗心态等而揭示真相时，他们就会行动并决心凭借他的恩典来对抗。当主这样做是为了让他们否认自己，变得谦卑，对自己的眼光感到甜蜜。有一个词很好地表达了这一点-以西结书 16:63：“你必因自己的羞愧抱愧，不再开口，因你一切所行的，我必赦免你。”十字架的羞愧和困惑将在他们与主和解时在他们身上产生这种效果。以西结书 20:42, 43 也使用了类似的词语：“你们就知道我是耶和华，当我领你们进入以色列地的时候，你们要记念你们的行径和一切所作的，自觉因你们一切所行的恶，厌恶自己。”因此，每个人在经历任何困境时都会审视自己的灵魂，看看他们从中得到了什么好处。上帝使你陷入贫困，你还是像以前一样骄傲吗？那是一种恶臭的十字架。主是否使你摆脱了疾病和死亡的威胁？你是否从中解脱出来，但仍然像以前一样追求世俗和不虔诚？那是一个被上帝诅咒的十字架。相反，一个从任何十字架中解脱出来的灵魂，从尘埃中说话并因此而谦卑，那是一个受祝福和成圣的十字架。

"And let us join ourselves in a perpetual covenant with the Lord."
让我们与主建立永恒的盟约。

This tells us that all that are joined in covenant with God He and they are made one. And if ye will look to three things ye will find it to be so.
这告诉我们，与上帝立约的人与祂合而为一。如果你留意三件事，你会发现确实如此。

First: A covenant is a band of friendship, and so they are made one. And certainly that is no small favour that the Potter and the clay should thus enter into covenant; for when the sinner is thus entered in a covenant indeed with the Lord, then they get forgiveness of sins, and getting it makes the Lord and them to be of one spirit.
首先：盟约是友谊的纽带，因此他们成为一体。当然，陶工和泥土如此进入盟约并不是小恩惠；因为当罪人与主真正进入盟约时，他们得到了罪的赦免，而得到赦免使主和他们成为一体。

Second: Being in covenant with God, they have one heart, a heart like God. Ezek. 36:26: "A new heart also will I give unto you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh." The Lord is there speaking of the promises of the new covenant, and the word that is used Ezek. 11:19 is not unlike this same: "And I will give them one heart." It is meant that He will give them a single heart. And it may have this meaning also, that they shall have one heart with the Lord. These who speak of the understanding, they say when one understands a thing, the understanding and the object are knit together; even so is it here. The Lord's spirit and the heart meet, and thus they are made one.
其次：与上帝立约的人拥有一个心灵，一个像上帝一样的心灵。以西结书 36:26：“我也要赐给你们一个新心，将新灵放在你们里面，又从你们的肉体中除掉石心，赐给你们肉心。”这里主说的是新约的应许，以西结书 11:19 中使用的词语与此相似：“我要赐给他们一个心。”这意味着他们将拥有一个统一的心。它也可能有这个意思，他们将与主有一个心。那些谈论理解的人说，当一个人理解一件事情时，理解和对象是紧密结合的；在这里也是如此。主的灵与心灵相遇，从而使它们成为一体。

Lastly: They are made one with the Lord because the tenor of the covenant it runs so: "I will be your God, and ye shall be My people," and Cant. 2:16 the spouse says, "My well-beloved is mine, and I am His." There is a mutual claim and a mutual union between two things here; for the one of them is the possession, and the other is the thing possessed even of them both.
最后：他们与主合而为一，因为盟约的内容如此：“我要作你们的神，你们要作我的子民。”（耶利米书 31:33）而《雅歌》2:16 中，新娘说：“我所爱的是我的，我也是他的。”这里存在着双方的互相索取和互相联合；因为其中一个是拥有者，另一个是被拥有的，两者都是如此。

Now the use of this is: To speak against many covenanters in the land who indeed are anti-covenanters. That soul who is not one with God, and he who makes not God's foes to be his foes, and His friends to be his friends, is not in covenant with Him. He who can hear His name blasphemed, and will not join with them who serve the Lord, but is against them, that man has not truly subscribed the covenant. He has sworn away ceremonies, but he has not sworn away that ceremony of drinking healths; and those who dare ordinarily take the name of God in their mouth, such are anti-covenanters in God's account, and He will reckon them for His foes. And therefore let every one try who has putten his hand to the paper, and sworn and subscribed, that he shall mend his life among other things, and yet his life is so scandalous that it gives offence to others. Remember that he is a heart opposer of the covenant, and so is an enemy to God.
现在的用途是：反对土地上许多确实是反对盟约的盟友。那些与上帝不合一的灵魂，不将上帝的敌人视为自己的敌人，将上帝的朋友视为自己的朋友的人，并不与上帝立约。他能听到上帝的名字被亵渎，却不与事奉主的人站在一起，反而反对他们的人，这个人并没有真正地订立盟约。他发誓放弃了仪式，但并没有发誓放弃喝酒的仪式；那些敢于经常口中提到上帝名字的人，在上帝眼中是反对盟约的人，上帝会将他们视为敌人。因此，让每个人都试试看，看看自己是否已经签署了文件，发誓并订立了盟约，承诺在其他事情中改过自新，然而他的生活如此丑闻，以至于给他人带来了冒犯。请记住，他是盟约的坚决反对者，因此也是上帝的敌人。

Now a word of the perpetuity of the covenant: "Let us be joined in a perpetual covenant with the Lord, never to be forgotten." That is, let us be joined in a covenant that cannot be broken. Is there none of this people who are in covenant with God that can sin against the covenant? and is not a sin against the covenant a breach of it? It is one thing to sin against the covenant, and the mercy of a Mediator, and another thing to break the covenant. All the elect and all believers, they sin against the covenant, but the elect and believers break not the covenant. The breach of the covenant is only proper to godless and wicked men, who are within the compass thereof outwardly. But for these who are within the covenant, they break it not. And the reason of this is—
关于盟约的永恒性，现在来说一句话：“让我们与上主结成永恒的盟约，永不被遗忘。”也就是说，让我们结成一个无法被打破的盟约。这个人民中没有一个与上帝立约的人能够违背盟约吗？违背盟约不就是破坏了它吗？犯罪违背盟约和一个调解者的怜悯是两回事，而破坏盟约又是另一回事。所有的选民和信徒，他们犯罪违背盟约，但选民和信徒并不破坏盟约。破坏盟约只适用于那些不虔敬和邪恶的人，他们只是在外表上处于盟约的范围之内。但对于那些在盟约内的人来说，他们不会破坏它。这是因为……

First: Because of the Lord's eternal election of them, and then because of that habitual grace that is in the child of God. Even as every wrong look that the spouse gives breaks not the band of marriage that is between the husband and her, and puts her not away from any right to her husband's goods and to be partaker of his honour; even so those who are within the covenant of grace, their slips and their faults break not the covenant with God, because of God's eternal election and because of the habit of grace that is in them, that are the bands of the covenant, and that which makes the believer a formal covenanter. Again—
首先：因为主永恒地选中了他们，然后是因为上帝的恩典常在信徒身上。就像配偶给予的每一个错误的目光都不会破坏夫妻之间的婚姻关系，也不会使她失去对丈夫财产的权利和分享他荣耀的资格；同样，那些在恩典约中的人，他们的过失和错误不会因为上帝的永恒选召和在他们身上的恩典习惯而破坏与上帝的约，这些是约的纽带，也是使信徒成为正式立约者的因素。再次——

Secondly: If we will look to both the parts of the covenant, it is eternal; for as God is the one part of the covenant, so God-Man and Man-God is cautioner for the other part thereof. The Mediator Christ being on our side of the covenant, and cautioner for us, it is sure; and there was no doubt of breaking the other side of the covenant. But Christ, He is on both sides of the covenant, for all the promises of the covenant they are made to Christ as He is Mediator. And in Him they are Yea and Amen, and made over to us as it is (2 Cor. 1:20). Now among all the rest of the promises of the covenant this is one, Jer. 32:40: "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me." And our Lord says, "My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." Thir promises they are not fastened upon our free-will, for that indeed is a rotten pin, but they are fastened on Christ Jesus as Mediator of the covenant, and He is also the Principal in the covenant. He is cautioner, undertaking for our part, and it is He who has undertaken: "I will put My fear in their hearts, yet they shall not depart from Me." A
其次：如果我们看一下盟约的两个部分，它是永恒的；因为上帝是盟约的一部分，上帝-人和人-上帝是其另一部分的担保人。调解者基督站在我们这一边的盟约上，并为我们担保，这是确定的；并且没有破坏盟约的另一方面的疑问。但是基督，他同时在盟约的两个方面，因为盟约的所有应许都是给基督作为调解者的。在他里面，这些应许都是肯定和确定的，并且转交给我们，正如经上所说（哥林多后书 1:20）。在所有其他盟约的应许中，这是其中之一，耶利米书 32:40：“我要与他们立永远的约，不再转离他们，好施恩与他们；我也要将敬畏我的心放在他们里面，使他们不离开我。”我们的主说：“我的羊听我的声音，我认识他们，他们也跟随我；我赐给他们永生，他们永不灭亡，谁也不能从我手中把他们夺去。”他们的承诺并不依赖于我们的自由意志，因为那是一根腐烂的销子，而是依赖于基督耶稣作为约束的中保和契约的主要人物。他是担保人，为我们承担责任，他已经承诺：“我要将我的敬畏放在他们的心中，使他们不离开我。”" A

Third reason of the perpetuity of the covenant is because the party in covenant with God is not man and man's free-will, but man graced of God and man standing under the decree of election, and as he is a new creature in Christ and in God. If so be that free-will were our tutor, and we had our heaven in our own keeping, then we would lose all. But because we have Christ for our tutor, and He has our heaven in His hand, therefore the covenant it must be perpetual.
与上帝立约的一方不是人和人的自由意志，而是蒙上帝恩典的人，站在选民的旨意下，作为基督和上帝中的新造之人。如果自由意志是我们的导师，我们自己掌握着天堂，那么我们将失去一切。但因为我们有基督作我们的导师，他手中握有我们的天堂，所以这个约定必须是永久的。

The use of this is, to show us the misery of all those who are not within this covevant, for they are in another covenant, even in a covenant which may be broken. Jer. 31:31, 32; there are two covenants mentioned there; the one whereof is broken, that covenant that He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; and then there is the covenant of grace called the new covenant that cannot be broken. They that are under the first covenant they are worldly men and reprobates, and strangers from God, and what grip has such of heaven, or of salvation, or what assurance of remission of sins? There is no more, but if they can win it have it. But there is no promise made for it, not from the first to the last of the Revelation.
使用这个是为了向我们展示那些不在这个约束之内的人的悲惨，因为他们在另一个可能会被打破的约束之内。耶利米书 31:31, 32 中提到了两个约束；其中一个已经被打破了，那就是当他们从埃及地被带出来时与他们所立的约束；然后还有一个被称为新约束的恩典约束，它是不能被打破的。那些在第一个约束之下的人是世俗的人和被弃绝的人，是与上帝疏离的人，他们对天堂或救赎有什么把握，或者对罪过得到赦免有什么保证呢？没有了，除非他们能够赢得它。但是没有为此作出的承诺，从启示录的开始到结束都没有。

O! but that be a miserable case, He has nothing for salvation but such a word as Israel had, and lost the good of it; and Adam also. But O! how fair is the state of the children of God who have such a strong Lord to be our staff, and such a guide to lead us in the way, [and who] have him to be a Lord to work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. If ye knew what this were, there would be more pains taen to be in covenant this way.
哦！但这是一个可悲的情况，他除了像以色列人一样失去了好处的那个词，没有其他可以拯救他的东西；亚当也是如此。但哦！神的儿女们的状态是多么美好，我们有一个如此强大的主作我们的支持，一个如此出色的引导者带领我们走在正确的道路上，我们有他作为主在我们里面工作，使我们愿意并且能够按照他的喜悦行事。如果你们知道这是什么意思，你们会更加努力地以这种方式与上帝立约。

Learn, not only to be under God as Lawgiver and supreme Judge of the world, for so are the devils and reprobates in the world, but learn to be so in covenant with God as that ye may be assured of your election and of true grace wrought in you. That is an anchor that will not break, but will carry you through in all storms, gloom at you who will. Thou wilt be able then to ride out against all their glooming, and in the strength of the Lord thou shalt be a conqueror, and more than a conqueror through Him that has loved you. To this God, Christ's Father, and our Father, to Himself and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all glory, praise, and honour, for ever and ever. So be it.
学习，不仅要顺从上帝作为世界的立法者和至高的审判者，因为魔鬼和被弃者也是如此，而要学习与上帝立约，以确信你们的选召和在你们内心中所行的真恩。这是一根不会断裂的锚，将带领你们度过一切风暴，无论有谁对你们威胁。那时，你将能够抵挡住他们所有的威胁，凭借主的力量你将成为一个征服者，比那爱你的主更胜一筹。愿荣耀、赞美和尊崇归于基督的父上帝，我们的父，以及圣灵，直到永远。阿门。

The Forlorn Son
失落的儿子

"And he said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living."—LUKE 15:11, 12.
他说：“有一个人有两个儿子，其中较小的儿子对他父亲说：‘父亲，请把属于我的那一份财产给我。’他就把他的财产分给他们。”—路加福音 15:11, 12.

IN this parable, beloved in our Lord, we have to consider these particulars, the meaning of the parable, and then Christ's scope therein. All parables in the Word of God they are no other but only continued similitudes and metaphors illustrating some spiritual thing. In this parable there is a man and a householder spoken of, a father who has two sort of sons. For the meaning of the text, we have to understand, first, what is meant by a house here; second, [who is the father]; and third, what is meant by the two sons.
在这个我们主所喜爱的寓言中，我们必须考虑以下几个要点：寓言的意义，以及基督在其中的目的。上帝的话语中的所有寓言都只是延续的类比和隐喻，用来说明某种属灵的事物。在这个寓言中，提到了一个男人和一个家长，一个有两种儿子的父亲。对于这段经文的意义，我们首先要理解这里所说的家是什么意思；其次，[父亲是谁]；第三，两个儿子的意思是什么。

Now for the first. Ye know it is ordinary for the Lord in His word to resemble His Kirk or the kingdom of grace to a house or a family; for Christ our Lord He holds a house here wherein all the bairns of the house are free to the table, for there is a difference even here between the bairns of the house, and those who are only servants, and goers and comers as it were.
现在首先。你们知道，主在他的话语中常常将他的教会或恩典的国度比作一个家庭或家庭；因为我们的主基督在这里持有一个家，家中的所有孩子都可以自由地来到餐桌前，因为在这里，家中的孩子与那些仅仅是仆人、来去自如的人之间有所区别。

Then, secondly, what is meant by the father? There is greater difficulty in that to know what is meant thereby, because the Word of God it does ordinarily call the first Person of the Trinity, the Father, distinct from the other two persons. And yet there are three good reasons wherefore this is to be understood of Christ, the second person of the Trinity.
然后，第二点，父亲是什么意思？这更难以理解，因为上帝的话通常将三位一体中的第一位称为父亲，与其他两位区分开来。然而，有三个很好的理由说明这应该理解为三位一体中的第二位基督。

First: If we will look unto the scope and drift of the parable, it will say this much to us, for the text tells us that the Scribes and Pharisees murmured at Him saying, "This man receiveth sinners, and He eateth with them," and so they thought He could not be the Messiah and the Saviour of the world, who used such company that haunted among godless and profane persons. Now to take away this scruple and objection, Christ our Lord uses this parable that now we have read, and so labours to let them see how welcome such are to Him, who have been runaways, who have been lewd and lascivious persons, if so be they will come home, and will indeed acknowledge that they have need of Christ. He will show that He has the mind of a father towards such, and welcomes them home again as kindly as the father does his lost bairn, who has spent all that his father gave him to live upon, and, having spent all, repents of his misspending, and comes home again to his father in a submissive and humble manner. Again—
首先：如果我们看一下这个寓言的范围和意图，它会告诉我们这么多，因为经文告诉我们，文士和法利赛人对他抱怨说：“这个人接待罪人，还与他们一起吃饭。”因此，他们认为他不能成为那位与那些游荡在不虔诚和亵渎之人中的人为伍的弥赛亚和世界的救主。为了消除这个疑虑和反对意见，我们的主耶稣基督使用了我们现在所读的这个寓言，并努力让他们看到，只要那些逃亡者，那些放荡和淫乱的人回家，并真正承认他们需要基督，他们对他来说是多么受欢迎。他将展示他对这些人有着父亲般的心意，并像父亲对待他失散的孩子一样热情地欢迎他们回家，这个孩子已经把父亲给他生活费用全部花光了，然后悔过自新，以顺从和谦卑的方式回到父亲身边。再次-

Secondly, to prove that it is Christ that is here meant is clear by this: This parable in substance is all one with the former two parables in this chapter, concerning the lost and wandered sheep, and the lost piece of silver. If a shepherd be careful, having lost a sheep, to seek it in again to the flock, and will receive it in gladly, meikle more will He, who is the Good Shepherd, have a care of those who are His sheep, to seek those who are lost, and welcome them when they come. In John 10:11 Christ says, "I am the Good Shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep." If, then, this parable be one in substance with the other two parables, and these be spoken of Christ, that it is He who loses the groat, and from whom the sheep wanders, and He seeks them in again, and will not rest till He find them, then it cannot be another father who receives a prodigal waster, runaway child, than Christ. And—
其次，证明这里所指的是基督是清楚的：这个寓言在实质上与本章中的前两个寓言相同，关于迷失和流浪的羊和丢失的银币。如果一个牧羊人在丢失一只羊后，小心地寻找并欢迎它回到羊群中，那么更加会有一个好牧人，他会关心那些属于他的羊，寻找那些迷失的羊，并在它们回来时欢迎它们。在约翰福音 10:11 中，基督说：“我是好牧人，好牧人为羊舍命。”因此，如果这个寓言在实质上与其他两个寓言相同，并且这些寓言是关于基督的，那么失去银币的是他，羊迷失了也是他，他寻找它们并且不会停息，直到找到它们，那么接纳一个浪费者、逃跑的孩子的父亲就不能是别人，而只能是基督。

Thirdly, thus to call Christ Father is not against Scripture neither, but is agreeable to divers places therein. And to leave all the rest, and take to this one place it makes it clear Heb. 2:13; it is said there that Christ has many bairns and sons for glory, and therefore having many bairns He must be a father. That is brought out in the words cited out of Isaiah, "Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given Me." And this style it is also given unto Christ, Isa. 9:6: "The Everlasting Father," so that both the scope of the parable itself and of the parable going before, and other places of Scripture clear unto us, that here, by the father, is meant the Son of God.
第三，因此称基督为父并不违背圣经，而且与其中的许多地方相符。且不论其他，只看这一个地方就可以明白，希伯来书 2:13 中说基督有许多儿女，因此有许多儿女的他必然是一个父亲。这是从以赛亚书中引用的话中得出的结论：“看哪，我和神所给我的孩子们。”而这个称呼也被赋予基督，以赛亚书 9:6 中说：“永远的父”，因此，无论是这个寓言本身的意义，还是前面的寓言的意义，以及其他圣经中的地方都清楚地告诉我们，这里所指的父就是上帝的儿子。

Now, the third word is, we are to consider, what is meant by the two sons. The younger son some have taken to be the Kirk of the Gentiles, and the other son to be the Kirk of the Jews. And there is reason for this, because the Kirk of the Jews they had the morning market of Christ, and He made a covenant with them before He made a covenant with us, who are Gentiles. But however it be, the text it will bear further than this. As Christ, He casts none away who come to Him, Jew or Gentile, and repents of their sin's provocations. By the older son we take to be meant all they who live within the visible Kirk, who profess themselves to be Christ's, and yet, in the meantime, they are nothing else but rotten hypocrites. And by the younger son, who craved his portion of goods of his father, and went away having gotten the same and spent it riotously, and then came home and confessed this wandering, is meant any sinner who sees his wanderings and is ladened with sin, and comes to Christ and makes his moan to Him.
现在，第三个词是，我们要考虑的是，两个儿子的意思是什么。有些人认为，年轻的儿子代表外邦人的教会，而另一个儿子代表犹太人的教会。这是有原因的，因为犹太人的教会在基督的早晨市场上，他与他们在与我们外邦人立约之前与他们立约。但无论如何，这段经文的意思不仅仅如此。基督不会拒绝任何来到他面前的人，无论是犹太人还是外邦人，只要他们悔改自己的罪恶。我们认为，年长的儿子指的是那些生活在可见教会内的人，他们自称是基督的人，但与此同时，他们只是腐败的伪君子。而年轻的儿子，他向父亲要求他的一份财产，然后挥霍了它，然后回家承认了自己的迷失，这意味着任何看到自己迷失并背负罪恶的罪人，来到基督面前向他倾诉。

The purpose of the Son of God in this parable is to take away that slander laid against Him, that He could not be the Messiah, because none of the honest people, none of the kirkmen and bishops, none of the clergy, haunt His company; but His ordinary company is debauched, wicked men, that such will no keep company with. Publicans and sinners are His ordinary company, and therefore He cannot be the Messiah. Now our Lord takes upon Him to prove that this same proves Him to be the Messiah, because He makes such welcome when they come to Him.
这个寓言中，上帝之子的目的是消除针对他的诽谤，即他不能成为弥赛亚，因为没有诚实的人、没有教堂人员和主教、没有神职人员与他为伍；而他的常伴是堕落、邪恶的人，这样的人是不会与他为伍的。税吏和罪人是他的常伴，因此他不能成为弥赛亚。现在，我们的主亲自证明这正是他成为弥赛亚的证据，因为他对他们的到来表示欢迎。

Out of this ye may see, then, what has always been the judgment and opinion of natural men of Christ. Ye may see by this that they have always taken their marks of Christ by the moon. "Scribes and Pharisees follow not this man, and therefore He cannot be the Messiah, seeing they countenance Him not." And this is yet the opinion the world has of Christ and the gospel. The kings of the earth, and the clergymen, and universities, and velvet gowns follow not Christ and this way of the gospel, and therefore it cannot be the right way, for if it were the best way such would follow it and countenance.
从这一点上，你可以看到，自然人对基督的判断和看法一直如此。你可以从这里看到，他们总是通过月亮来判断基督。"文士和法利赛人不跟随这个人，所以他不能是弥赛亚，因为他们不支持他。"这仍然是世界对基督和福音的看法。地球上的国王、牧师、大学和丝绒长袍的人不跟随基督和福音的道路，所以这不能是正确的道路，因为如果它是最好的道路，这些人会跟随并支持它。

But this form of reasoning is against Scripture, for the Scripture says: Not many rich, not many wise, not many [noble], not many learned, but the poor, base, and contemptible things of the world are the followers of Christ. Because there are few scarlet clothes and crowned kings at Christ's back, that proves not that He is not Christ and the Saviour of the world; but because He has publicans and sinners to be His followers, that makes Him to look like the Messiah than otherwise He would, albeit the world think not so. For such a Saviour as Christ should always be beside lost sinners. Such a physician as Christ is should be beside sick and diseased persons. And to let the world see that Christ's kingdom it comes not with observation and outward pomp and glory, therefore He would haunt the company of publicans and sinners. Let none then be scared away from Christ as a lordly Saviour, but come in humility to Him, as the woman who had the bloody issue durst not come to speak to Him or to touch His skin, yet she touches the hem of His garment, and that cures her. Such are nearest Christ who are aye complaining of sin, and think themselves to be furthest from Him; for whole folks need not Christ, only those who are sick.
但这种推理方式是违背圣经的，因为圣经说：富人不多，有智慧的不多，有尊贵出身的不多，许多跟随基督的却是世界上贫穷、卑微、被人蔑视之人。因为基督身后并没有很多穿绯红色衣服、戴王冠的人，这并不证明他不是基督和世界的救主；反而，因为他有税吏和罪人跟随他，这比没有更像弥赛亚，尽管世界不这样认为。因为像基督这样的救主应始终与失落的罪人在一起。像基督这样的医生应该在病人身边。并且让世人看到基督的国度不是靠观察、外在的华丽和荣耀而来，因此他会与税吏和罪人为伍。因此，不要被基督看作像一个高高在上的救世主，而要以谦卑的心态来接近他，就像那个患血漏的妇人敢不敢来跟他说话或碰他的皮肤一样，她摸到他 衣服的边沿就被治愈了。 那些最接近基督的人总是抱怨罪恶，并认为自己离祂最远；因为只有那些生病的人才需要基督，而不是所有人。

Now the parable has thir parts in it, shortly: (1) We have the foolish resolution and journey of the younger son, and this is from ver. 11 to the 17th. (2) We have his coming home again, and the grounds and causes thereof, from the 17th verse to the midst of the 20th. And then (3) from the 20th verse, how his father received him when he comes home. O, how heartsome a welcome is there between our Lord and a home-coming sinner. Now this home-coming the Spirit of God sets it down in the rest of the verses. And, first, it is set down how his father received him when he comes home; and, second, how his older brother received him, who should have been blith at his home-coming.
现在这个寓言有三个部分，简要地说：（1）我们有年轻儿子愚蠢的决心和旅程，从第 11 节到第 17 节。（2）我们有他回家的原因和原因，从第 17 节到第 20 节中间。然后（3）从第 20 节开始，他父亲接他回家的方式。哦，我们的主和一个回家的罪人之间有多么令人心悦诚服的欢迎。现在，上帝的灵在其余的经文中记载了这个回家，首先，记载了他父亲接他回家的方式；其次，记载了他的哥哥接他回家的方式，他本应该为他的回家而高兴。

For the father of this forlorn son he sees him afar off, and knows him. Who has a warm heart to a home-coming sinner if Christ have it not? And, seeing him, he ran to meet him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him. There is never a word of quarrelling at all on Christ's part when the forlorn child comes to Him, but causes bring the best robe and put upon him, and put shoes on his feet, and a ring upon his hand, and there is feasting and dancing for his recovery and restoring safe. The fatted calf is killed for him.
对于这个可怜的儿子的父亲，他从远处看到他，认识他。如果基督没有温暖的心迎接回家的罪人，那么谁会有呢？看到他，他跑过去迎接他，扑到他的脖子上亲吻他。当这个可怜的孩子来到基督面前时，基督从不争吵，只是让人拿出最好的长袍给他穿上，给他穿上鞋子，戴上戒指，为他的康复和安全恢复而设宴和跳舞。为他宰杀了肥牛犊。

And then the carriage of the elder brother. He was in the field, and when he comes home he hears meikle mirth in his father's house, and he calls for one of the servants to see what these things meant; and the servant tells the elder son that his younger brother was come home, and his father had killed the fat calf, because he had received him safe and sound. When he hears that his brother was come home, who had spent all his patrimony, and that his father had so received him, he was angry, and would not come in to the house where his repenting brother was, but was angry at him and his father both, and made a quarrel of it to his father. His father came out, and entreated him to come in. "But he, answering, said to his father, Lo, these many years have I served you, neither at any time transgressed I thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." And the Lord is brought in mercifully choosing the elder brother also, for all his hard quarrelling his father for what he did, and saying, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found." The father calls him not to the elder son "my son," but "thy brother," telling he is as sib to him as he is to him. "And thou hast reason to be as glad as I at his coming home." Indeed, it sets our Lord very well to be blyth and glad, and the company of those who are glorious in heaven when a repenting sinner comes home. O, that is the matter of heaven's mirth, albeit others be angry that they are received in the house. This is the sum of the parable.
然后是大哥的马车。他在田地里，当他回家时听到父亲家里有很多欢声笑语，他叫来一个仆人看看这些事情是什么意思；仆人告诉大儿子，他的弟弟回来了，他父亲为他杀了一只肥牛犊，因为他平安归来。当他听说他那花光了所有家产的弟弟回来了，而他的父亲如此接纳了他，他很生气，不愿进入他弟弟悔改的家，而是对他和他的父亲都很生气，并与他父亲争吵。他的父亲出来，劝他进来。“但他回答父亲说，看哪，这么多年来我为你服侍，从未违背过你的命令，你从未给过我一只小山羊，让我和朋友们欢乐。但是，你这个儿子一回来，就把你的财产和妓女一起挥霍了，你却为他杀了肥牛犊。”主人慈悲地选择了大儿子，因为他常为父亲所争执，说：“孩子，你常和我同在，我所有的都是你的。我们宴乐快乐本是理当的，因为你弟弟已经死而复活，失而得。”父亲没有称呼大儿子为“我的儿子”，而是“你的弟弟”，告诉他对他来说和对我来说一样亲。“你对他回家应该和我一样高兴。”救主高兴喜悦地接待悔改的罪人，与天堂的荣耀同在。天堂欢乐的源泉就是这个，尽管有些人因为别人被接待而生气。这就是这个比喻的要旨。

Now in the eleventh verse there is set down: (1) The occasion of the parable. (2) We have the suit of the forlorn son to his father. And (3) We have the father granting the suit of his forlorn son. (1) For the occasion of the parable, "A certain man had two sons." (2) The suit of the forlorn son to his father. "And the younger said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me," as meikle as if he had said: "Father, I am tired of your company, and I would now have my own will, and therefore give me that that is due to me." Woe! to that sinner that gets that which falls [to] him and is his due, for that is hell!
现在在第十一节中，记载了：（1）寓言的场合。（2）我们有一个失落的儿子向父亲提出的请求。而（3）我们有父亲答应了失落的儿子的请求。（1）关于寓言的场合，“有一个人有两个儿子。”（2）失落的儿子向父亲提出的请求。“年轻的儿子对父亲说，父亲，请给我属于我的那一份财产，”就好像他说：“父亲，我厌倦了你的陪伴，我现在想要按照自己的意愿行事，所以请给我属于我的那一份。”哀哉！那个得到属于他的那一份并且是他应得的罪人，那就是地狱！

And then we have the father yielding to his request: "And he divided to him his living." He yields to let the sinner fall upon his own weight, who will not be upholden by Him; that he may know what bottom he is on when he is not upon God. His father says to him, "If ye be tired of me and of my guiding, and will have your portion that falls [to] you, ye shall have your portion, and try what ye will do with your own strength, and with your own wit, and your own guiding;" and he divides his goods, and gives him his portion. And having done, he turns his back upon his father, and his father turns his back upon him, that he may see the odds between his father's house and the forlorn country he gaed to, having left it.
然后，父亲答应了他的请求：“他把产业分给他。”他同意让罪人自己承受后果，不再支持他；这样他就能知道当他离开上帝时，自己处于何种境地。他的父亲对他说：“如果你对我和我的引导感到厌倦，想要你应得的那一份，你可以得到你的那一份，试试你能用自己的力量、智慧和引导做些什么。”于是他分给他财产，给了他他应得的那一份。完成后，他背过身去，他的父亲也背过身去，这样他就能看到他父亲的家和他离开的那个荒凉的国家之间的差距。

Now for the first:
现在首先：

"A certain man had two sons." You see that both thir sons are not of one kind. The one of them is a repenting forlorn son, and the other is a professing son within the house, and no more.
一个人有两个儿子。你看到这两个儿子并不是同一种类型。其中一个是一个悔过的孤独儿子，另一个是家中的宣称儿子，仅此而已。

The doctrine then that rises from this is clear: that the Kirk of God is not a clean house here upon earth, but our Lord has in it the elect and reprobate, gold and dross, vessels of honour and vessels of dishonour. And there is a bed spoken of Luke 17:34: Two lying in a bed, the one is rejected and the other is chosen; two grinding at the mill, the one taken and the other shall be lost; two walking in the field, the one shall be taken and the other shall be lost. The Kirk hereaway is made up of thir two sorts of persons, elect and reprobate. The Kirk is the Lord's barn floor whereon there is both caff and corn. There are some in the Kirk that are believers and sons indeed; others that are only bastards and servants. Two lying in one womb together and one of them chosen and loved, to wit, Jacob, and another of them hated and rejected, namely, Esau. "Before the children were born, or ever they could do good or ill, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau." Two sons in a family together—and one of them the son of a handmaid who may not be the heir, Ishmael; and the other the son of the promise, Isaac. "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Wherefore is it that the Lord compared His Kirk to a draw-net that is cast into the sea, and draws out of it all manner of fishes? All are not chosen who are in the family of the Kirk here; all are not one father's bairns. Indeed though they be in profession, all are not in the right way to heaven who profess to be walking to it. This speaks reproof to two sorts of persons.
这里的教义很明确：上帝的教会并非在地上是一个纯净的家，而是我们的主在其中有选民和被弃者、金子和渣滓、尊贵的器皿和卑贱的器皿。路加福音 17:34 中提到了一张床：两个人躺在一张床上，一个被拒绝，一个被选中；两个人在磨坊中磨面，一个被带走，一个将会失去；两个人在田野中行走，一个将会被带走，一个将会失去。这个教会由这两种人组成，选民和被弃者。教会是主的谷仓，其中既有糠秕又有谷粒。教会中有一些是真正的信徒和儿子；还有一些只是私生子和仆人。两个人在同一个子宫中，其中一个被选择和爱，即雅各；另一个被憎恶和拒绝，即以扫。“孩子们还没有出生，还没有行善或作恶之前，我就爱了雅各，却恨了以扫。”同一个家庭中有两个儿子，其中一个是使女的儿子，不能成为继承人，即以实玛利；另一个是应许之子，即以撒。“你的后裔必称为以撒。”主为何将他的教会比作抛入海里的撒网，从中拖出各类鱼？不是所有在教会里的人都是蒙揀选的；不是所有都是同一个父亲的孩子。事实上，尽管他们信仰，但并非所有宣称走向天堂的人都走在正确的道路上。这指责两类人。

And, first, to those who defile the house of God. Bearest thou up rowme in the house of God and walk not as it becomes the son of such a father, then the Lord He will soup you to the door. The servant abides not in the house, but the son abides therein. There is a day coming when there shall be a separation of those that are now within the visible Kirk here, when those who are indeed and truly sons, and those who are bastards shall sunder. The professor who counts that holiness enough to hear the word, and to take His sacrament as it comes about, they shall be put out of the house; but those who follow the practice and power of religion, who follow Christ in everything shall be kept in as sons, and shall be sons indeed for ever. Second, this speaks also against them who will have a clean Kirk hereaway, against them who separate from a Kirk because there are hypocrites within the same, who will have the visible Kirk here to be made up only of regenerate persons, and will join with no other Kirk to be members thereof. They will have a Kirk here that is all white paper. That is a man in the moon; that is not to be found here till we come to the triumphant Kirk in heaven. It shall indeed [yet] be made up of such only as are clean and white and pure. But the Kirk hereaway maun have sons and servants in it. The Kirk here must have good corn and popple, and the dike of God's providence must be going about both those. And so we are not to look that that barn floor shall be free of caff and popple. Till the Judge come with His last fan in His hand, we are not to look for that here, to see a Kirk free of all errors. That is the Kirk that is spoken of Eph. 5:25, for which Christ gave Himself that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water and the word. But until we be landed in glory there will be within the walls of the visible Kirk, there will be heresies and errors in it, and sinful and wicked persons, there will be Judases in the Kirk whose God is their gain, there will be Diotrepheses in it who love the pre-eminence, and Hermogenes who deny the resurrection from the dead. There must be in the visible Kirk hereaway Scribes and Pharisees, who are heart enemies to the Son of God, and yet the Kirk is not to be separated from because of that.
首先，对于那些亵渎上帝的人。如果你在上帝的殿堂里行事不合宜，不像一个合格的儿子，那么主会把你赶出门外。仆人不会一直留在房子里，但儿子会永远留在里面。有一天，将会有一个分离，将那些现在在这里的可见教堂中的人分开，那些真正是儿子的人和私生子将会分离。那些认为只要听上帝的话并参与圣餐就足够圣洁的教授，他们将被赶出教堂；但那些在实践和力量中追随宗教，追随基督的人将被保留为儿子，并永远成为真正的儿子。其次，这也针对那些希望在这里有一个纯净教堂的人，针对那些因为教堂内有伪君子而与教堂分离的人，他们希望这里的可见教堂只由重生的人组成，并且不愿意加入其他教堂成为其中的成员。他们希望这里的教堂是一张白纸。那是月亮上的人；在这里找不到，直到我们来到天堂中得胜的教堂。 这 Church 也许只由清洁、白色和纯洁的人组成。 但这里的 Church 必须有儿子和仆人。 这里的 Church 必须有好的谷物和 popple，上帝的保护圈必须围绕着这两个。 因此，我们不应该期望谷仓地板上没有杂草和 popple。 直到法官手持最后的风扇出现，我们才能指望在这里看到一座没有错误的 Church。 这是在《以弗所书》5:25 中提到的 Church，基督为它舍己，以使它借着洗净的水和道成圣洁。 但在我们进入功德之地之前，可见的 Church 的墙内将会存在异端和错误，还会有有罪的和邪恶的人，Church 里会有损人利己的犹大，会有爱占首位的底阿太，还有否认死人复活的赫米尼哥的。 这里的可见的 Church 必须有文士和法利赛人，他们是上帝之子的心腹仇敌，但 Church 不应因此而与之分离。

Now the second part of the text is: The younger son his desire to his father. "And the younger son said, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth me." There are no tint words here, but every word is to good purpose.
现在文本的第二部分是：年轻的儿子对父亲表达了他的愿望。“年轻的儿子说：父亲，请给我我应得的那一份财产。” 这里没有多余的词语，每个词都有其用意。

Why is it that he gives him who leaves his father the style of the younger son? It is even to tell us this, that it is a trick of youth for any to leave Christ, that it is an ordinary thing for young ones to tire of God's company, and to long to be at their own tutoring. It lets us see this. I grant neither youth nor old age will bring folks to Christ till He Himself do it. Yet of all the glassy ways that can be wherein we are most ready to fall, that is youth. And the Word of God gives three reasons wherefore it is so.
为什么他给离开父亲的人起了个年轻儿子的称号？这是为了告诉我们，离开基督是年轻人的伎俩，年轻人对上帝的陪伴感到厌倦，渴望自己的指导。这让我们看到了这一点。我承认无论是年轻人还是老年人，都不会自己来到基督面前，只有基督亲自引导才能使他们信仰。然而，在我们最容易跌倒的所有迷人的道路中，青春是其中之一。上帝的话语给出了三个原因，解释了为什么会这样。

First: Because those who are young they have no experience. They are like strangers who are new come to a country; they know not the fashions of the country. He knows not how to behave himself. He knows not the cross of Christ who is young and new begun, and therefore he starts at it. It is no marvel that our Lord make a question of this in Psalm 119:9, "Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way?" Wherefore is it not said, "Wherewith shall a man, or an old man, cleanse his way?" but only telling us this, that it is a question, and hard, for a young man to hold his feet and hear what God says to him.
首先：因为年轻人没有经验。他们就像刚来到一个国家的陌生人一样，不了解这个国家的风俗。他不知道如何行为举止。年轻人刚开始信主，不了解基督的十字架，所以对此感到惊讶。我们的主在诗篇 119:9 中问这个问题并不奇怪：“年轻人当用什么洁净他的行为？”为什么不说“一个人”或者“一个老人”如何洁净自己的行为？只是告诉我们，对于年轻人来说，保持脚步和倾听上帝的话是一个问题，而且很困难。

A second reason is, the soul, while it is in the body, it works by organs, and while the organs are young the soul then it is light; while the lusting youth is strong, it is hard to serve God; while witlessness is bound unto the heart, as ordinarily it is in youth, and the affections are following the temper of the body, and it is strong and vigorous, it is a greater matter to see a man seeking God at such time than afterwards. For fra one begins once to settle himself, then ordinarily the Lord, in old age, He lets them see what they have been doing in their younger years, and they are humbled when they see it. And therefore David, a man according to God's heart, prays, "Lord, remember not the sins of my youth;" and Job says (13:26), because of the bitterness that was upon him, "Thou makest me to possess the sins of my youth."
第二个原因是，灵魂在身体中工作时依靠器官，而当器官年轻时，灵魂也是轻盈的；而当欲望强烈的青年时期，要侍奉上帝就很困难；而当无知束缚在心中，通常是在青年时期，情感会随着身体的状况而变化，而且强大而有活力，看到一个人在这个时候寻求上帝比之后更重要。因为一旦一个人开始安定下来，通常主在老年时会让他们看到他们在年轻时所做的事情，当他们看到时，他们会感到谦卑。因此，大卫，一个合乎上帝心意的人，祈求：“主啊，不要记念我年轻时的罪过。”约伯也说（13:26），因为他身上有苦楚：“你使我拥有我年轻时的罪孽。”

A third reason of this is, there is no time of our age that is meet for God in itself, but the most unmeet time of all is the time of our youth, and yet the Lord lets us see herein that He will refuse none, of whatever age they be, who seek to Him—as young Joseph the Lord accepts of him, and young Daniel the Lord regards his seeking Him, and young David in Saul's court seeking the Lord He is found of him, and young king Josiah, they set themselves to obey the Lord's directions. And it tells us this far, that old age has no lawburrows against damnation more than youth, and temptation may prevail with the one sometimes as well as with the other. When young Joseph will not be tempted by lust, yet old wise Solomon is tempted and overcome thereby. David, when he was young, was not tempted to uncleanness, and yet, notwithstanding growing old and secure, he is tempted by Bathsheba: letting us see this far, that it is grace that holds us up that we fall not, and neither youth nor old age.
这是第三个原因，我们这个时代没有适合上帝的时间，但最不适合的时间是我们的青春时期，然而，主向我们展示了他不会拒绝任何年龄的人寻求他——年轻的约瑟夫蒙主接纳，年轻的但以理蒙主关注他的寻求，年轻的大卫在扫罗的宫廷中寻求主，主向他显现，年轻的约西亚王，他们努力遵守主的指示。这告诉我们，老年与青年相比，并没有更多的法律障碍来阻止堕落，诱惑有时会影响老年人和年轻人。当年轻的约瑟夫不受欲望的诱惑时，老而智慧的所罗门却被诱惑并被征服。大卫年轻时没有受到不洁的诱惑，然而，尽管年老和安逸，他被拔示巴所诱惑：这让我们看到，是恩典支撑着我们，使我们不至于跌倒，而不是青年或老年。

O! that young ones would start to in time to seek the Lord while they are young, that they would begin to make their acquaintance with the Lord and to drink in the knowledge of the Son of God, that they would study to know the sweetness of His love, that they would set to to get their young hearts married on Christ! If they will do so once, give Him their love, and their hearts' love, it shall not be in their power to follow another lover again.
啊！但愿年轻人能及时寻求主，当他们还年轻时，开始结识主，接受上帝之子的知识，努力了解祂的爱的甘甜，努力让他们年轻的心与基督结合！一旦他们这样做了，将他们的爱和心的爱给予祂，就再也无法跟随其他恋人了。

"Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me." There [is] a trim style the prodigal child gives! He calls him "father," yet says he, "albeit thou be my father, let me be my own man."
父亲，给我属于我的那一份财产。这个浪子的说法真是时髦！他称呼他为“父亲”，却说：“虽然你是我的父亲，但让我做自己的主人。”

That he gives this style unto Christ it teaches us this far, that there be many in the visible Church who pretend to have God for their Father, and yet would be away from Him; that there be many who say, "Lord, Lord," that shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many, when they are upon an ill course, they will give God His own name, and profess that they are His sons, and yet for all that it is not so—as Herod, when he was upon the slaying of Christ; and Judas, who betrayed Christ with a kiss. And Absalom, when he is on that purpose to slay his own father, and so to usurp the kingdom, he says that he has a religious vow at Hebron, and he must go there to perform it, whereas he intended no such thing, albeit he pretended so. When Judas was to betray Christ, he gives Him a low back and kisses Him.
他将这种风格赋予基督，这告诉我们一个事实，即在可见教会中有许多人假装有上帝作为他们的父亲，却远离他；有许多人说：“主啊，主啊”，却不能进入天国。许多人在走上邪路时，会冒用上帝的名字，声称自己是他的儿子，但实际上并非如此，就像希律在杀害基督时，犹大以一个吻背叛了基督，押沙龙在谋杀自己的父亲并篡夺王位时，声称他在希伯仑有一个宗教誓约，必须去那里履行，但实际上并非如此，尽管他假装如此。当犹大要背叛基督时，他低下头亲吻了他。

Let us learn, then, to know upon what ground it is that we give our Lord His own styles. Try what it is that makes us come to hear His word, and make a profession that we are His, for they are not all Christ's friends who give Him here a laigh good day, and fair words, and a white-like profession. Many shall say to Him, "Lord, Lord," that shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many at the last day shall say that they wrought miracles in Christ's name, cast out devils, eat and drank at His table, and so professed, and did outwardly very much; and yet they shall get that answer from Christ, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Let us, then, strive to be honest and sincere to our Master, and let us indeed be that for Christ which we profess ourselves to be, and if we do so, then the truth shall make us free. But if we have a fair face to Christ, but are not back friends also, but rather enemies that way, better that we had never given our name to Christ to be His, than having once given our name to prove false to Him. There are many in the world that, while religion seems to be holy, and it is well spoken of to be religious, and religion has the Kirk stamp upon it, many are there will then follow religion and back it, will profess fair, and so follow the Lord that way, and will be as religious as any. But when times change, they change. To swear a covenant with Christ and to pretend to do for Him, and yet to be doing against it secretly! Woe! for ever is thy case who callest thyself a friend of Christ, callest thyself His son, and Him thy Father, and yet despisest His directions and art a friend to the house of bondage! Great are the woes that attend such. It is religion to be religious in secret as well as to be religious in public, to take Christ into your families. See what ye think of this—to take Christ for well and for woe, to resolve if there were no moe to back Christ but myself, yet I will avow Him. That is that proves any to be religious. A colour of religion will not please the Lord. It is but a scorning Him. Those who believe all that the Lord says of heaven or hell, and everything; that is honest-like. But for those who only put the fair cloak of religion about them to be seen so by the world, that will not carry you over death, but the Lord will discover you one day to your shame.
让我们学会知道我们为什么给予主自己的称号。试试看是什么让我们来听他的话，并宣称我们是他的人，因为并不是所有称他为主的人都是他的朋友，他们只是表面客套、虚伪地宣称自己是他的人。许多人在那最后的日子会对他说：“主啊，主啊”，但他们却不能进入天国。许多人在那最后的日子会说他们以基督的名行了奇迹，赶走了魔鬼，在他的桌子上吃喝，并做了外表上很多事情的宣称，然而他们将从基督那里得到这样的回答：“你们这些被咒诅的人，离开我，进入那为魔鬼和他的使者所预备的永火。”让我们努力对我们的主诚实和真诚，让我们确实成为我们自己所宣称的基督的人，如果我们这样做，真理将使我们自由。但如果我们对基督虚伪，而不是真正的朋友，甚至是敌人，那么我们宁愿从未将我们的名字给予基督，也不要一旦给了我们的名字就对他不忠诚。 世界上有许多人，对宗教像是圣洁的一样，人们口中也说宗教好，宗教也受到支持，很多人会追随宗教并支持它，表面上表现端庄，这么跟随主，仿佛是最虔诚的。但是当时局改变时，他们也改变了。与基督订立圣约，假装为他而行事，却暗中背叛！哀哉，你这样的人，号称自己是基督的朋友，称自己是他的儿子，他是你的父亲，却蔑视他的旨意，成为奴隶之家的朋友！这样的人将遭受巨大的灾难。无论是暗中还是公开地虔诚都是宗教，将基督带入你的家庭。看看你如何看待这一点——不管是喜是忧，都以基督为准则，决心即使我是唯一支持基督的人，我也会为他作证。只有这才能证明一个人虔诚。外表的虔诚是不能取悦上帝的。这只是对他的嘲弄。相信上帝所说的有关天堂和地狱，以及一切，那才像是真诚的。 但对于那些只是披上宗教的公正外衣，只是为了让世人看到，这样是无法帮助你度过死亡的，但主会在某一天揭示你们的真面目，让你们感到羞愧。

Now for the matter of this young man's prayer. It is, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth me. What ailed him at his father? Wise bairns think their father's house to be good company, especially if their father be a great man. What ailed this young man to weary of his father's company? Would ye trow that a natural conscience will see a fault in God, for God is the Father that is here meant? In Jer. 2:5 the Lord says: "What iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?" Was there ever a people that "found sin in God"? and yet the Lord says, "What wrong did I against them." There is such a complaint as this (Mic. 6:3): "O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against Me." Who is there that leaves God but they find some fault in Him? All sinners who continue in sin they find something in God that makes them to tire of Him. What gars the drunkard, the whoremonger, the idolater, covetous person, tire of God? Is it possible that any reasonable appetite can desire to be free of that which is infinitely good; if so be they saw no ill in Him, at least, apprehended ill in Him? What is this that sinners see in Christ, and what ails them at Him? What gart people call Him a Samaritan, and He the chosen of God and precious, and God Himself? Is it possible, think ye, that men can obtrude this upon a conscience that is led with reason that they should think good ill, and to esteem that which is infinitely good to be ill, that they should account that which is happiness and good itself to be ill? Yes! certainly there is never a sinner, who follows his own ways, but he has his something in God that he loves not.
现在谈谈这个年轻人的祈祷之事。他说：“父亲，请给我属于我的那一份财产。”他对他的父亲有什么不满呢？聪明的孩子们认为他们父亲的家是一个好的伴侣，尤其是如果他们的父亲是一个伟大的人。这个年轻人为什么对他父亲的陪伴感到厌倦呢？你会相信一个天性良知会在上帝身上找到错误吗？因为这里所指的父亲就是上帝。在耶利米书 2:5 中，主说：“你们的祖宗在我这里找到了什么罪孽，竟远离我，随从虚无，自己成为虚妄呢？”有没有一个民族“在上帝身上找到了罪孽”？然而主说：“我对他们做了什么错事？”有人离开上帝，难道不是因为他们在他身上找到了一些错误吗？所有继续犯罪的罪人，他们在上帝身上找到了一些让他们对他感到厌倦的东西。是什么让酒鬼、淫乱者、拜偶像者、贪婪者对上帝感到厌倦呢？ 任何合理的欲望是否可能希望摆脱那无限善良的东西；即使他们在祂身上看不到恶，至少也对祂有所顾虑？罪人在基督身上看到了什么，他们为什么对祂感到不安？为什么有人称祂为撒玛利亚人，而祂却是上帝所拣选和珍贵的，祂本身就是上帝？你们认为可能吗，人们能够强加给一个受理性引导的良心，让他们认为善为恶，将无限善良视为恶，将幸福和善本身视为恶？是的！确实，没有一个罪人会按照自己的方式行事，而他心中总有一些他不喜欢的上帝的东西。

There are some grounds and reasons for this, that a sinner, looking wrong upon God, sees something in Him that makes him tire of His company.
有一些理由和原因，一个罪人对上帝的错误看法，他在上帝身上看到了一些让他厌倦与祂在一起的东西。

First: There is old nature in man. Like fool Adam, following his footsteps, that would be his own tutor, not trusting in God but in himself. And it is easy to prove that to be Adam's first sin, that he trusted not in God, and hearkened not what He said, but hearkened to that which his wife said, and the devil said to her; for if Adam had trusted in God he would not [have] believed what the devil spake. We all love this, to have a world of our own making. God awes them, and the cords that He lays on, they bind, and we dow not bide that—to be bound by religion. We dow not bear the Lord's bands, and therefore we would be quit of God and of His yoke. The law of the Lord awes the natural man so that he would fain be fra Him, and to quit Him and His law both.
首先：人类内心有着原始的本性。像愚蠢的亚当一样，追随他的脚步，他将成为自己的导师，不信任上帝，而是信任自己。很容易证明这是亚当的第一个罪过，他不信任上帝，不听从祂的话，而是听从他妻子和魔鬼对她说的话；因为如果亚当信任上帝，他就不会相信魔鬼所说的话。我们都喜欢拥有一个自己创造的世界。上帝使他们敬畏，他们所承受的束缚，他们会接受，而我们不愿意接受这种被宗教束缚的状态。我们不愿意忍受主的束缚，因此我们想摆脱上帝和祂的轭。上帝的律法使人类内心敬畏，以至于他们渴望远离祂，同时摆脱祂和祂的律法。

A second reason: Sinners they see God and Christ afar off. They see Him not near hand. There is aye something between them and Christ when they see Him. And, you know, when anything is seen with any medium intervening, it cannot be well seen. Those who look to Christ through their gain or lust, they see Him not right, they see Him not to be all glorious as indeed He is.
第二个原因：罪人们看到上帝和基督都是远远地。他们看不到他们近在眼前。当他们看到基督时，总是有一些东西在他们和基督之间。而且，你知道，当任何事物通过介质被看到时，它就无法被很好地看到。那些通过自己的利益或欲望来看基督的人，他们看不到他的真实面貌，他们看不到他的荣耀。

A third reason that makes them not to see Christ right, but with faults in Him, is, because they and their lusts and their conscience are all sib together; and so all is seen wrong where the light whereby we see is wrong. Our conscience should control us in that which is wrong; but our lust and our conscience under corruption are like two thieves meeting together. Ilk one of them tempts another to steal. And so they agree together in that which is spoken Prov. 1:13: "We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil." The blinded will and affections, they see always some fault in God, and ilk one of them helps another to sin. Like those two inclined to lust meeting together (Prov. 7), and saying: "Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. For the goodman is not at home, he has taken a long journey;" and the other party is allured, and goeth straightway after her, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, not knowing that it is for his life. Just so is it here. The natural light it is led away by the affections, that great witch. And ilk one of them helping another to go wrong, never considering it is so till they be fanged in the net.
第三个使他们看不清基督，而是带着对他的过错的原因是，因为他们和他们的欲望以及他们的良心都是一体的；所以当我们看到的光线是错误的时候，一切都会被看错。我们的良心应该在错误的事情上控制我们；但是我们的欲望和受腐败影响的良心就像两个盗贼相遇一样。他们中的每一个都引诱另一个去偷窃。就像箴言 1:13 所说的：“我们必得到各样宝物，将所掠的装满我们的房屋。”被蒙蔽的意愿和情感总是在上帝身上找到一些过错，他们中的每一个都帮助另一个犯罪。就像那两个倾向于欲望的人在一起（箴言 7），说：“来吧，让我们尽情享受爱，直到天亮；让我们以爱情自慰。因为丈夫不在家，他已经远行了。”另一方被吸引了，立刻跟随她去了，就像牛走向屠宰场一样，不知道那是为了他的生命。在这里也是一样的。自然的光被情感所引导，成为了一个巨大的女巫。 他们中的每一个都帮助另一个走上错误的道路，从未考虑到这一点，直到他们被困在网中。

Again, as a fourth reason, consider the way how men are led on to sin. Who in the world will not say that God is happiness, and who will not acknowledge but Christ is better nor gain, or court, or the world, or pleasure? But when it comes to that, Is Christ better nor this gain? In the assumption there, the poor soul is led away, and the miserable will and affections they lead away the mind there, and ilk one of them bewitches another to sin. There is this meikle power into the soul as some kings have in some parts to call together and dissolve Parliaments by their royal prerogative. So the will it is king, and calls all together as it pleases, and dissolves them again when it sees meet. It were good for us if we could learn to compare God and eternity, and all things that are here under the sun together. But that is the misery, the will has that meikle power in us as to draw all away from comparative judging of things, and lets only the one part be judged, but not the other. It is blind light that leads on a sinner to commit sin. The drunkard, when he is led to drunkenness, he sees only the present pleasure; he sees not that time coming when he will not get a drop of cold water to cool the tip of his tongue, and so cannot compare them rightly. Esau, in selling his birthright, he only saw the pottage, and found his present hunger. But he saw not that he was selling his birthright, which was to him a type of heaven.
再次，作为第四个原因，考虑一下人们如何被引诱犯罪。世界上有谁会说上帝不是幸福，有谁不承认基督比财富、追求、世界或快乐更好？但是当涉及到这个问题时，基督是否比这个利益更好？在这种假设中，可怜的灵魂被引开，可怜的意愿和情感将思想引开，每个人都迷住了另一个犯罪。灵魂中有这么大的力量，就像一些国王在某些地方通过他们的王权特权召集和解散议会一样。所以意愿就是国王，按照自己的意愿召集一切，再根据自己的意愿解散。如果我们能学会将上帝、永恒和这个世界上的一切事物进行比较，那对我们来说是好事。但这就是悲哀之处，意愿在我们身上有这么大的力量，以至于让我们远离对事物的比较判断，只让其中一部分受到审判，而不是另一部分。这是一种盲目的光明，引导罪人犯罪。 醉鬼在陷入酒醉时，只看到眼前的快乐；他没有看到未来无法得到一滴凉水来舒缓舌尖的渴望，因此无法正确地进行比较。以扫在出售自己的长子权时，只看到了那碗炖菜，满足了他当前的饥饿。但他没有看到自己正在出售的长子权，对他来说，那是天堂的象征。

O! but it concerns us very meikle to have rectified judgments, to have all things in us in their own right order, and minding heaven and the things that are above! There is a word spoken by the apostle, Rom. 8:5, which clears this point: "They that are of the flesh savour the things of the flesh; but they that are of the Spirit, they mind the things of the Spirit." Unrenewed men, there is nothing that smells well to them even in matters of religion; but what they see has honour, gain, lust, ease following upon it. But those who are spiritual, they will smell Christ another way; they will see in Him forgiveness of sins to be gotten, and that they shall be reckoned freemen of the Lord in that day when heaven and earth go together, and the earth shall all be burned in a fair low. O! that will draw them to seek after Christ. But woe! to them who find fault with God and with Christ, and see something in Him that makes them to tire of Him.
哦！但是对我们来说，纠正判断非常重要，让一切事物在我们内心中按照正确的秩序排列，并关注天堂和那些在上面的事物！使徒在罗马书 8:5 中说了一句话，澄清了这一点：“凡随从肉体的，体贴肉体的事；凡随从圣灵的，体贴圣灵的事。”未重生的人，即使在宗教事务上，也没有什么对他们来说是好闻的；但他们看到的是荣誉、利益、欲望和安逸。但那些属灵的人，他们会以另一种方式感受到基督；他们会看到在基督里可以得到罪的赦免，并且在那天当天堂和地球合二为一，地球将被完全烧毁时，他们将被视为主的自由人。哦！这将使他们追求基督。但是，唉！对那些对上帝和基督有所指责，并且在他们身上看到一些让他们对他感到厌倦的东西的人来说，那将是可悲的。

But is there any who finds fault with God? Yes. Any who find fault with His ordinances and laws, they find fault with Himself. They who hear that He commands such a thing to be done or forbids such a thing, and will not obey the same, they indeed find a fault in Him. O! for the light of heaven to let us see where-away we are going! And to this light, to Christ's Father and our Father, to Himself and the Holy Spirit, we ascribe all glory, praise, honour for ever and ever.—Amen.
但是有人对上帝有什么不满吗？是的。任何对他的法令和规定有不满的人，实际上是对他本人有不满。当他们听说他命令做某事或禁止某事，却不服从时，他们确实对他有不满。哦！愿天堂的光照亮我们前进的方向！我们将所有的荣耀、赞美和尊崇归于这光明，归于基督的父亲和我们的父亲，归于他自己和圣灵，直到永远。阿门。

The Forlorn Son seeks away from His Father
失落的儿子远离了他的父亲

"And he said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living."—LUKE 15:11–13.
他说：“有一个人有两个儿子，其中较小的儿子对他父亲说：‘父亲，请把属于我的那一份财产给我。’他就把财产分给他们。过了不多几天，较小的儿子把所有的东西都收拾起来，离家去了一个远方的国家，在那里挥霍了他的财产。”-路加福音 15:11-13

IT is a wonder, beloved in the Lord, to see a sinner tire of God and weary of His company. There is no ill in God nor anything that is worthy hatred. John says, "God is love;" and all things in God they are love also. Yet an ill eye sees colours wrong, and the sinner sees something in God which is not in Him. In Jer. 2:5, the Lord there complains by His prophet: "What iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me?" What sin or what ill can a sinner see in God? And yet if they saw no ill in Him, impossible that they would leave Him, impossible it is that the reasonable appetite can flee from anything but that wherein it sees the notion of ill. But to see any ill in God, it is ill seen when all is done; for He is the excellency of all the creatures. We have [need] therefore for us to pray to the Lord that our judgment and our light may be rectified, that so we make not a prayer to God to be away from Him, as this young fool did. There is none that leaves God who sees things rightly. All that look so upon other things as to embrace them and leave God, they have a wrong and unsound judgment. Esau looked not well, and compared not between his birthright and the mess of pottage that he sold his birthright for. He looked not to the end of it. The drunkard, he looks not well upon his lawless lust and desire after drink, and the anger of God that is hot as fire; and the dishonourer of God's name compares not his present satisfaction and the roasting his tongue in hell for ever and ever. Sinners see something in sin that none can see but themselves. But it is but the first sight they get; in the second sight it is like Eve's sight, to see the Godhead growing upon a tree!—if she would eat, and sin against God, she should be like God in knowing good and ill. So do we fools. We think if we will commit such a sin we will be happy. But it is but a mistake. We are beguiled in the end, and this is the case of many who go away from God.
在主内，看到一个罪人对上帝感到厌倦并厌倦与祂在一起是一种奇迹。上帝没有任何恶，也没有任何值得憎恨的东西。约翰说：“上帝就是爱”，上帝的一切也都是爱。然而，邪恶的眼睛看到的颜色是错误的，罪人在上帝身上看到了一些不属于祂的东西。在耶利米书 2:5 中，主通过祂的先知抱怨说：“你们的祖宗在我这里找到了什么不义，竟远离我？”罪人能在上帝身上看到什么罪恶或什么不好呢？然而，如果他们没有看到祂身上的任何不好，他们就不可能离开祂，理性的欲望不可能逃离除了看到不好的概念之外的任何东西。但是，看到上帝身上的任何不好，无论如何都是错误的看法；因为祂是所有创造物的卓越之处。因此，我们需要向主祈求，使我们的判断和光明得到矫正，这样我们就不会像这个年轻的愚蠢人那样祈求上帝离开祂。没有一个正确看待事物并拥抱它们并离开上帝的人，他们的判断是错误和不健全的。 以扫看起来不好，也没有将他的长子权与他出售长子权的一碗炖菜相比较。他没有考虑到最终的结果。酒鬼对他无法无天的欲望和对酒的渴望没有好好看待，也没有看到上帝的愤怒如火热；亵渎上帝名字的人没有将他目前的满足与永远在地狱中烤煮舌头相比较。罪人在罪中看到了别人看不到的东西。但这只是他们得到的第一印象；在第二次看到时，就像夏娃看到上帝的样子，上帝的形象在树上生长！——如果她吃了，得罪了上帝，她将像上帝一样知道善恶。我们这些愚蠢的人也是如此。我们认为如果我们犯了这样的罪，我们会快乐。但这只是一个错误。最终我们被欺骗了，这是许多离开上帝的人的情况。

But learn to keep your judgment and understanding clear, learn to know God and to know the creature, to compare them rightly together; learn to know the vanity of sin and the excellence of God, and then ye cannot go wrong. The soul that sees Christ, and considers what is in Him, it must love Him. And there is none out of love with Christ but such as see Him not.
但要学会保持你的判断和理解清晰，学会认识上帝和认识造物，正确地将它们进行比较；学会认识罪恶的虚无和上帝的卓越，那么你就不会走错。看见基督并思考他的人，必然会爱他。没有爱基督的人，都是因为没有看见他。

Ye heard the substance of the young man's prayer, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth me." Never a word that "he seeks of his father that he would bless him, or that he seeks his father's favour and goodwill to the purpose that he is upon;" but "give him the portion of goods that falleth him." The meaning is, "Give me my own will to follow my own way with something of this life," and there is the sinner's heart-wish morning and evening. All that the sinner seeks here is something divided from God, that he may get some created perishing thing out of his Father's hand. That is all that a sinner can seek who is left and forsaken of God, either the world, or the glory thereof, or the pleasure, or ease, or gain thereof, or something to satisfy the lawless desire of his heart and lusts. That is all the divinity the natural man has.
你听到了这个年轻人祈祷的实质：“父啊，把属于我的那一份财产给我。”从来没有一句话是“他寻求父亲祝福他，或者他寻求父亲的喜悦和好意以支持他的目的；”而是“给他属于他的那一份财产。”意思是，“给我自己的意愿，让我按照自己的方式过这种生活，”这就是罪人早晚的心愿。罪人在这里所寻求的只是与上帝分离的东西，以便从父亲手中得到一些被创造的消逝之物。这就是一个被上帝遗弃和抛弃的罪人所能寻求的一切，无论是世界，或者其中的荣耀，或者快乐，或者安逸，或者利益，或者满足他心中无法无天的欲望和私欲的东西。这就是自然人所拥有的所有神学。

In a word, it is only this life that the natural man seeks, even that which our Lord reproves, John 6:26: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek Me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled," and tells them what to seek, and what not to seek: "Labour not for that meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to life everlasting which the Son of man shall give unto you." That is only reason from our misted judgments that see not things rightly, and from this that the sinner would always be at something that he trows to be heaven and happiness, when indeed it is not so, for there is nothing in the creature can do so.
总之，只有这一生是自然人所追求的，即使我们的主耶稣在约翰福音 6:26 中责备他们：“我实实在在地告诉你们，你们寻找我，并不是因为看见了神迹，而是因为吃饼得饱。”并告诉他们要寻求什么，不要寻求什么：“不要为那必坏的食物劳力，要为那存到永生的食物劳力，就是人子要赐给你们的。”这只是因为我们模糊的判断不能正确看待事物，以及罪人总是追求他认为是天堂和幸福的东西，但实际上并非如此，因为在受造物中没有任何东西能做到这一点。

But is there nothing at all in the creature that is good or can make a man good and happy? Yes. All the creatures of God in their own kind they are good. But when we make any of the creatures an idol, and make them a god, when we trust in the creature and place our heaven and happiness in them, then all the creatures are nothing else but vanity and vexation of spirit. When we do so then there is nothing good at all that is under the sun. When the creature is any ways divided from God, then it is not good. Whatever thou would rest upon without God or beside Him, that is ill. The creature as a creature is good; but the creature as an idol and a god is ill.
但是在这个生物中，没有任何东西是好的或者能使人变得善良和快乐的吗？是的。上帝创造的所有生物在它们自己的种类中都是好的。但是当我们把任何生物当作偶像，把它们当作神，当我们信任生物并把我们的天堂和幸福寄托在它们身上时，那么所有的生物都只是虚无和灵魂的烦恼。当我们这样做时，太阳下没有任何好的东西。当生物与上帝分离时，它就不再是好的。无论你在没有上帝或者在上帝之外依靠什么，那都是不好的。生物作为生物是好的；但是生物作为偶像和神是不好的。

May we not, then, seek after the creature? Yes. But if thou seek it right it must be sought in God, the Creator. Seek ourselves in God, and we shall certainly find ourselves there. Seek yourselves, and seek the creature for God, and then ye shall find both God and the creature and yourselves. But if ye seek God out of God, and seek the creature out of God, then thou art seeking fire under you. And all natural men they are thus seeking fire under them. They seek their good things out of God, and so never get satisfaction to the soul. They seek a good thing that is like themselves. As it is in Psa. 4:6: "Many say, Who will show us any good thing?" That is a well-fard prayer to say, "Who will show us any good thing?" But the next verse tells us what the natural man's good things are, to have his corn, wine, and oil to abound. Their thought is how their house may be built up, and yet they may leave enough to their children behind them, as it is Psa. 49:11. And when they have gotten that their hearts are after, they are no a whit the more happy, but rather further from happiness than before.
我们难道不应该寻求创造物吗？是的。但是如果你正确地寻求，必须在上帝，创造者中寻找。在上帝里寻找我们自己，我们肯定会在那里找到自己。寻找你们自己，并为了上帝而寻找创造物，那么你们将会找到上帝、创造物和自己。但是如果你们在上帝之外寻找上帝，并在上帝之外寻找创造物，那么你们就是在寻找火焰。所有自然人都是这样在寻找火焰。他们在上帝之外寻找他们的好处，所以灵魂永远得不到满足。他们寻找与他们自己相似的好处。正如诗篇 4:6 所说：“许多人说，谁能向我们显出好处来？”这是一个善意的祈祷，说：“谁能向我们显出好处来？”但下一节告诉我们，自然人的好处是什么，就是他们的谷物、酒和油丰盛。他们的想法是如何建立他们的房屋，同时留下足够的给他们的子孙后代，正如诗篇 49:11 所说。当他们得到他们追求的东西时，他们并不比以前更幸福，相反，离幸福更远了。

Again, third, How comes this that men desire to be away from God, and that they are set to seek something without God to place their happiness in, when they may be persuaded they will not get the thing that they would be at?
再次，第三点，为什么人们渴望远离上帝，并且努力寻找一些不依赖上帝的东西来寻求幸福，即使他们被说服了他们得不到他们想要的东西？

The answer is, Ignorance can never make a right comparison of things whereof it is ignorant. He that never saw Spain cannot compare Spain and Scotland together. If one know not both the members of the comparison they cannot compare. The natural man he knows something of the creature, of lust, of gain, of reputation in the world, and court, &c., but he knows nothing of God; and therefore it is impossible that ever a natural man can make a right comparison between the Creator and the creature. And so the natural man is aye wrong in his comparing.
答案是，无知永远无法对其所不知道的事物进行正确的比较。从未见过西班牙的人无法将西班牙和苏格兰进行比较。如果一个人不了解比较的两个成员，他们就无法进行比较。自然人对于创造物、欲望、利益、世界中的声誉和宫廷等方面有所了解，但对上帝一无所知；因此，自然人永远无法在创造者和创造物之间进行正确的比较。因此，自然人在比较中总是错误的。

The natural man makes a comparison as bairns do sitting about their father's fireside, thinking there is not a fairer town in the world nor they are in; for they never saw Rome. That is the best that ever they saw. They think there is no more pleasant garden or fields than where they live, because they never saw better, and so conclude there can be no better. All natural folks, they have bairns' wits in this point; for they know something of this present world, but they know nothing of God, and therefore they make the comparison as they do. I grant, indeed, this world is a fair apple, and is good to have, it being rightly used; but alas! that we should be such fools as to prefer the world or anything in it to God! Alas! where is the wit of the Scribe and the scholar, when they go to seek their happiness in the creature, or anything beside God! When we do so it is even as we would go to mend an egg-shell or a lame vessel. For any to go build themselves up in a coutch of this world that time will take away, what folly is it! That night that the Lord shall take thy soul from you, and that good thing that thou sought beside the Lord, it shall take its leave of you, and thou of it. Thou shalt be forced to say then, "Oh, I made an ill comparison, for I looked not well upon things as they were, indeed, but with my blinded eyes." They see the creature and the Creator rightly who see anything in the creature to be dry and lifeless without God himself be to be found there.
自然人像孩子们围坐在父亲的炉边时一样进行比较，认为世界上没有比他们所在的城镇更美丽的地方；因为他们从未见过罗马。那是他们见过的最好的地方。他们认为没有比他们居住的花园或田野更宜人的地方，因为他们从未见过更好的，所以得出结论认为没有更好的地方了。所有的自然人，在这一点上都像孩子一样愚蠢；因为他们对这个世界有所了解，但对上帝一无所知，所以他们进行这样的比较。我承认，确实，这个世界是一个美丽的苹果，如果正确使用的话是好的；但唉！我们竟然如此愚蠢，将世界或其中的任何事物置于上帝之上！唉！文士和学者在寻求他们的幸福时，去追求创造物或除上帝之外的任何事物，他们的智慧在哪里呢！当我们这样做时，就好像我们要修补一个蛋壳或一个破损的容器。任何人都去依赖这个世界，而这个世界终将消逝，这是多么愚蠢的行为！当主从你那里夺走你的灵魂，以及你在主之外所追求的那个好东西，它将离开你，而你也将离开它。 你将被迫承认：“哦，我做了一个不恰当的比较，因为我没有真正地审视事物，而是用我被蒙蔽的眼睛看。”只有那些能够在创造物中看到没有上帝存在时是干燥和无生命的，才能正确地看待创造物和创造者。

"And his father divided unto them his living." Why should his father [have] done this, given him such a suit.
他的父亲把他的财产分给了他们。为什么他的父亲要这样做，给了他这样一套衣服。

The doctrine it is this: They that love an ill end and have a wrong eye toward the creature that they must have, there is a Providence individually disposing that means shall be furnished to such for attaining their ill end, and for gaining their unlawful conquersh. They that have an ill end before them and their intentions are poisoned in looking unto the last end beside God, the Lord in His providence disposes so that such shall be blinded, and means shall be furnished unto such to lead them on into the blind way they have set before them. There are some spoken of by the apostle (2 Thess. 2:11) that are pleased in unrighteousness, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might walk therein, and therefore "God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." God sends means unto such proportionable unto their wicked end, and that they may accomplish the same.
这个教义是这样的：那些爱恶果并对他们必须拥有的事物抱有错误的眼光的人，有一个个别安排的神意，为他们达到邪恶目的提供手段，并为他们获得非法征服提供帮助。那些心怀邪恶目的，意图在上帝之外寻求最终目标的人，主在祂的神意中安排他们被蒙蔽，并为他们提供手段，引导他们走向他们设定的迷途。使徒提到了一些人（帖撒罗尼迦后书 2:11），他们因为没有接受真理的爱，而喜欢不义，因此“神就给他们一个强烈的谬误，叫他们信从谎言，使他们都被定罪，因为不信真理，倒喜爱不义。”神按照他们邪恶的目的，派遣相应的手段，使他们能够实现同样的目标。

Eve she fell in love with those words, "Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and ill;" and because she fell in love with them, and had that wrong end before her, therefore the Lord left her, and then she gaed on in a course of defection as a boul goes down a brae without stay, till she brought ruin upon herself, and all her posterity. Fra Ahab was once set for Naboth's vineyard that he would die if he gat it not, the Lord finds out a way for that; and Jezebel, that wicked instrument, she is employed to hatch that plot, and promises to get him the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. And the Lord disposes of matters so that he shall get it. Scribes and Pharisees they were thristy for the blood of Christ, and the Lord's providence lets them see a way how they may be satisfied. A man comes to them and says: "What will ye give me and I will betray him unto you," and he and they make a market. They promise him threttie pieces of silver to betray the Lord of glory, and he receives them, and from that time he sought the opportunity to betray Him. The man that made profit and gain his end in following Christ, the Lord gives him an office like unto Himself. He is made Christ's purse master, and then at last he makes a market of Christ for his gain. It is said of some (Mic. 2:2) they coveted a field, and the Lord answered them in means to fulfil their coveting desire. They "take it away by violence;" if they get their end they care not by what means they come to it, and the Lord answers them in means according to the end. Now, there are two reasons wherefore the Lord does this especially.
夏娃爱上了那些话，“你们必定如同神一样，知道善恶。”因为她爱上了这些话，而且有了错误的目标，所以主离开了她，然后她就走上了一条背离的道路，就像一个球顺着山坡滚下去一样，直到她给自己和她的后代带来了毁灭。亚哈为了拿不到拿伯特的葡萄园而设下了圈套，主找到了一个方法；邪恶的耶洗别被派去策划那个阴谋，并承诺给他拿伯特耶斯列人的葡萄园。主安排事情，让他得到了葡萄园。文士和法利赛人渴望耶稣的血，主的旨意让他们看到了如何满足他们的方式。一个人来找他们，说：“你们愿意给我多少钱，我就把他出卖给你们。”他们就达成了交易。他们答应给他三十块银币来出卖荣耀之主，他接受了这些钱，从那时起就寻找机会出卖他。那个以追求利益和目标为终点的人，主给了他一个与自己相似的职位。 他被任命为基督的财务主管，最后他为了自己的利益将基督当作商品进行交易。有人说（弥迦书 2:2）他们贪图一块田地，主按照他们贪婪的欲望回应了他们。他们“用暴力夺取”；如果他们达到了目的，他们不在乎通过什么手段来实现，主按照目的回应他们的手段。现在，主之所以这样做有两个原因。

First: It is an ordinary gate in God to punish sin by sin. If thou will be at a wrong end, then the Lord will let you go out of His hand, and thou shall find wrong ways to follow that end. If thou would be at the world God says, "Take it to you, and thou shalt get means cast in thy way for acquiring the same;" to teach us to beware of unlawful desires to be away from God, and after any other thing, and to beware of our lawless and idolatrous desires.
首先：惩罚罪恶的一种普通方式是用罪恶来惩罚。如果你选择错误的道路，主会放开你的手，你将会找到错误的方向去追随。如果你想要追求世俗的东西，上帝会说：“拿去吧，你会找到获取这些东西的方法。”这是为了教导我们要小心非法的欲望，远离上帝，追求其他事物，并警惕我们的非法和偶像崇拜的欲望。

A second reason for this: The making the creature your end is idolatry, and the highest degree of idolatry, because the Lord He is the first author of all things and of our happiness. And if anything be made the first author except God that is idolatry. And ye make that to be your God, whether it be a king, or court, or pleasure, or profit, that is idolatry. And Romans 1:21 says that the Lord punishes that by other sinful sins: "Because when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness." And verse 28 says, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, and to do those things which were not convenient." The Lord gave them over to that plague that they cannot repent, but follow after sin greedily. And therefore let us beware of such desires as we set upon the creature without warrant or beside the Lord, for fear the Lord say to you, "Thou shalt get it, and an ill end with it."
这是第二个原因：将创造物作为你的目标是偶像崇拜，而且是最高程度的偶像崇拜，因为主是万物和我们幸福的第一位创造者。如果除了上帝之外，任何事物都被视为第一位创造者，那就是偶像崇拜。无论是国王、宫廷、享乐还是利益，你们都将其视为你们的神，那就是偶像崇拜。罗马书 1:21 说，主会用其他罪恶来惩罚这种行为：“因为他们虽然知道神，却不当作神荣耀他，也不感谢他，他们的思念变为虚妄，无知的心就昏暗了。”第 28 节说：“他们既然故意不认识神，神就任凭他们存邪僻的心，行那些不合理的事。”主将他们交给了这种瘟疫，使他们无法悔改，贪婪地追随罪恶。因此，让我们小心那些没有根据或超越主的欲望，以免主对你们说：“你会得到它，但会有一个糟糕的结局。”

Now, secondly, that his father gave unto him the portion of goods that fell to him. Wherefore does God answer an ill desire to any? This is a question that flesh and blood are inclined to make. Wherefore should the Lord so easily [have] given this forlorn child his will, and not told him the ill of the course he was taking himself to; and that he was in a happy case presently if he would make good use of it? But his father gave him his portion, and he is content. He fell on his own weight, and that he may try whether it be better to be with him in his house or to feed upon the swine's husks of sin, and cannot find them, it may be, when he would have them.
现在，第二点，他的父亲给了他属于他的财产份额。为什么上帝会回应一个邪恶的欲望呢？这是血肉之躯倾向于提出的问题。为什么主如此轻易地满足这个可怜的孩子的意愿，而不告诉他他正在追求的道路的危险，以及如果他好好利用现在的情况，他将会过上幸福的生活？但他的父亲给了他他的份额，他满足了。他自食其力，以此来试探是否与他在一起在他的家里更好，还是吃罪恶的猪食，也许当他想要它们时找不到它们。

The doctrine arising from this is, that it is not against the wisdom of God or the goodness of Christ to permit sinners to fall in [to] sin. It is not against the goodness of the Creator to permit Adam to fall, albeit at first he was made according to the image of God perfectly holy and happy. Natural wit and reason and the enemies of God's grace, they will not suffer any permission of sin to be in God because sin comes from our will, and make all the cause of sin to come only from our nature and will; and when we have willed such a thing, then the Lord joins His concourse to the committing thereof. This is indeed a devised justice in God, for this would prove the first sin to be before ever the first sin was committed. For why should the Lord [have] permitted Adam's will to look wrong, seeing He might [have] hindered the same? But we must go higher to see the cause why the Lord permits sin to be. He does it because it is the good pleasure of His will. It is the objection of that old heretic Marcion to say that the Lord envied man's estate and so permitted him to fall, or that He knew not of it, or that He was negligent and so permitted his fall.
这个教义的出发点是，上帝的智慧和基督的善良并不反对让罪人陷入罪恶。让亚当堕落并不违背造物主的善良，尽管起初他是按照上帝的形象完全圣洁和幸福的。自然的才智和理性以及上帝的恩典的敌人们，不会容忍上帝容许罪恶存在，因为罪恶源于我们的意愿，他们认为罪恶的原因只来自于我们的本性和意愿；当我们意愿这样的事情时，主就加入其中。这确实是上帝的一种设定的公正，因为这将证明第一次犯罪是在第一次犯罪之前。为什么主要允许亚当的意愿出错，既然他本可以阻止呢？但我们必须更高层次地看到上帝容许罪恶存在的原因。他这样做是因为这是他旨意的善意。那个古老的异端马可福曾经提出异议，说主嫉妒人的地位，所以容许他堕落，或者他不知道，或者他疏忽大意，所以容许他堕落。

Consider three things in God, and ye will then get the cause of this wherefore the Lord permits sin and permitted Adam to fall. The Lord has the nature of the creature to plead for him in this, a creature having free-will is unstable, and the Lord will make that to plead for him in this point. And they have well said who disputed this point, "Whether or not the creature could be created that it could not sin, that a creature shall be created unmovable and completely happy that way." That cannot be to create a creature after such a manner. Indeed, I grant the Lord may change the second act and so may hinder the creature to sin. But there is no reasonable creature but there is a power in it to fall, if God take away His hand from upholding him. Why, then, will some object, should the Lord make man such a creature to be under a possibility of sinning? That is even as to speir wherefore did the potter make all the vessels of clay that they may be broken, and not that they cannot be broken?
考虑上帝的三个因素，你将会明白上帝为何允许罪恶和允许亚当堕落的原因。上帝在这一点上有着与生物相同的本质，一个拥有自由意志的生物是不稳定的，上帝将利用这一点来为自己辩护。那些争论这一点的人说得很对：“是否可以创造一个不会犯罪的生物，一个不可动摇且完全幸福的生物。”按照这种方式创造生物是不可能的。的确，我承认上帝可以改变第二行动，从而阻止生物犯罪。但是，任何有理性的生物都有可能堕落，如果上帝不再扶持他们。那么，为什么有人会反对，为什么上帝要创造一个有可能犯罪的人呢？这就好比问陶工为什么要制造所有的陶器都能被打破，而不是不能被打破呢？

The Lord at the beginning made man a creature, and a reasonable creature, and a reasonable creature endowed with free-will, and so had in him a possibility to stand or to fall, and it became the Lord very well to let him try his own strength, seeing He had given him free-will to stand or fall; and that is the second reason wherefore the Lord permitteth sin—even to let him know there is a great difference between his own will and the grace of the Mediator. And therefore it is that the Lord suffers men, and suffers His own children to fall in sin, that they may know that in themselves they are but frail creatures when God leaves them to themselves; that we may learn to put a difference between that which is ours concredited to us of God, and that which is of free grace; that we may see when our will and the creature is left unto itself, that it is but a creature.
主在起初造人时，使他成为一个有理性的生物，一个有理性的生物，并赋予他自由意志，因此他有可能站立或倒下，让他试试自己的力量是合理的，因为他已经赋予他自由意志来站立或倒下；这是主允许罪恶的第二个原因，即让他知道他自己的意愿与调解者的恩典之间有很大的区别。因此，主容许人犯罪，容许他自己的儿女犯罪，以便他们知道当上帝离开他们时，他们只是脆弱的生物；我们要学会区分我们自己的意愿和上帝赐予我们的恩典之间的区别；当我们的意愿和生物被自己抛弃时，我们要看到它只是一个生物。

A third reason wherefore the Lord permits sin is because He made all things for Himself, and He has decreed that all He has made should be for two proposed ends to Himself—to wit, the glory of His justice, and the glory of His mercy. And fra the Lord has "made all things for Himself, even the wicked for the ill day" (Prov. 16:4), why but the Lord may make man with a possibility to sin, and to fall, even for that end that we may see what it is to be holden in God's hand, and not to be left unto ourselves; that we may tremble and stand in awe to sin against God, and provoke Him to forsake us; that we may always put up the prayer unto the Lord, "Lord, lead us not into temptation;" and that all may know if the Lord leave them there is no sin but they would be ready to fall in it if occasion offer, even the sin of Judas, to betray the Lord of glory. Being left and forsaken of the Lord, thou wilt be ready to fall in that unnatural sin of murdering thy own brother, as Cain did.
主允许罪恶的第三个原因是因为他创造了一切事物都是为了自己，并且他已经决定他所创造的一切都应该为他自己的两个目标服务，即他的公义的荣耀和他的怜悯的荣耀。既然主“为自己造了万物，甚至为那日子造了恶人”（箴言 16:4），为什么主不能创造一个有可能犯罪和堕落的人，甚至是为了让我们看到被上帝掌握的感觉，而不是被自己所放任；让我们战栗并敬畏地对待得罪上帝和激怒他离弃我们的行为；让我们时刻向主祈祷，“主啊，不要叫我们遇见试探”；让所有人都知道，如果主离开他们，没有任何罪恶，只要有机会，他们都会准备陷入其中，甚至是出卖荣耀之主的犹大的罪恶。当主离开并抛弃你时，你将准备陷入那种不自然的谋杀自己兄弟的罪恶，就像该隐一样。

And therefore this serves to teach all of us this lesson, to count meikle of grace, for God has our heaven and our hell in His hand this way as He is pleased to hold or to let go. Thou standest by grace, and therefore take heed and beware [not] to provoke the Lord by sinning against Him who may loose His fingers from upholding you, and He doing so thou wilt not miss to fall.
因此，这就教导我们所有人一个教训，要珍惜恩典，因为上帝将我们的天堂和地狱掌握在手中，按照祂的意愿来支撑或放手。你是靠着恩典站立的，所以要小心并警惕，不要通过犯罪激怒主，因为祂可能会松开手指，不再支撑你，这样一来，你就会摔倒。

Now the text says: "Not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey to a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living."
现在文本说：“不多天后，小儿子把所有的东西都聚集起来，离家到了一个远方的国家，挥霍了他的财产。”

The doctrine is clear, and it is this: As soon as God leaves us, then there is no longer standing for us; as soon as [He] gives a sinner leave to sin, he must then sin necessarily. When his father had given him his portion, not many days after he took his journey to a far country, and spent all there with riotous living. When he is away he proved the man he was, for he was no more but a man, a perverse son, that could stand no longer fra he was made his own tutor, and left his father's guiding. There is no longer standing fra once God takes away His hand—especially, for a sinner.
教义是清楚的，就是这样：一旦上帝离开我们，我们就再也站不住脚了；一旦他允许一个罪人犯罪，他就必然会犯罪。当他的父亲给了他他的一份财产后，不久他就离家去了一个远方的国家，并在那里挥霍一切。当他离开时，他证明了他是一个怎样的人，因为他只是一个人，一个堕落的儿子，不能再站立，因为他成为了自己的导师，离开了父亲的指导。一旦上帝把手收回，特别是对于一个罪人来说，就再也站不住脚了。

There are three things that bring a necessity of a fall upon such—I mean upon such an one as stands with liberty having guiltiness with his liberty.
有三件事情使得一个人必须经历一次跌倒，我指的是那些在自由中带有罪恶感的人。

First: There is something in us that brings on a necessity of this falling. A misted understanding, aye, looking wrong. If there were no devil to tempt us to sin, there is in us a will going aye downward to tempt us to wickedness. Christ tells us what it is that destroys a man, Matt. 15:19: "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man." The devil has little ado to make us fall in sin. He needs neither bring fire nor timber to kindle up that fire, for there is enough of that within us; and the devil's tempting to sin is nothing else but to bring [the person and the sin] together, to present an object to the understanding, the will, and the affections. And if that once be, and the Lord go away and desert, then the sinner cannot stand, because his props whereby he stood are tane away; so the rotten house must down.
首先：我们内心有一种使我们必须堕落的东西。一种模糊的理解，是的，看起来是错误的。即使没有魔鬼引诱我们犯罪，我们内心也有一种倾向向下引诱我们走向邪恶。基督告诉我们什么会毁灭一个人，马太福音 15:19：“因为从心里发出来的，有恶念、凶杀、奸淫、苟合、偷盗、妄证、亵渎。这都是污秽人的。”魔鬼没有太多事情可以让我们堕入罪恶。他不需要带来火或木材来点燃那火，因为我们内心已经有足够的火焰；魔鬼引诱犯罪无非是将[人和罪恶]结合在一起，向理解、意愿和情感呈现一个对象。一旦这样做了，主离开并背弃，罪人就无法站立，因为他所依靠的支撑已经被拿走了；所以破烂的房子必将倒塌。

A second reason of this is: The thing that is most natural unto us now since the fall of Adam, is to sin. It is natural to us. And ye know there [is] no need to tempt the fire to burn timber. It is natural to it. And a stone being lift [ed] up, and loosed from any grip, there [is] no need to tempt it to go down; it must do it, because it is the nature thereof so to do. Our nature inclines to sin. The Word of God has said this of us, Eph. 2:3. Our nature has an inclination toward sin as a stone has to go downwards. There [is] a man inclined to wickedness and to sin, and therefore when the Lord lays the bridle on his neck, and upholds not nature by his strength, he must fall. And then—
这是第二个原因：自亚当堕落以来，对我们来说最自然的事情就是犯罪。这是我们的本性。你们知道，木材不需要引火才能燃烧，这是它的本性。当石头被抬起并从任何束缚中释放出来时，它不需要被引诱下落；它必须下落，因为这是它的本性。我们的本性倾向于犯罪。上帝的话已经这样说了，以弗所书 2:3。我们的本性倾向于犯罪，就像石头倾向于下落一样。有一个人倾向于邪恶和罪恶，因此当主把缰绳放在他的脖子上，并不凭借他的力量支撑他的本性时，他必然会跌倒。然后-

Thirdly: What is it that holds all the sons of Adam in that estate they are in now? There is an upholding power in God, which, if he had, he could not fall. God made them according to His own image, for He had habitual grace that He might have stood in the state of innocency. But the Lord took his actual working from him, and therefore he behoved to fall. And since it was so with Adam in the state of innocence, far more must it be with us, if God take away His upholding power, and leave us to the guiding of our own will, down must we go. If He take away the working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, we can do nothing but that which is ill. And the question is here between us and the enemies of the Lord's grace. Whether man's will or the grace of God be strongest; or, if the creature can stand when the Lord takes away His grace, or, if he must fall, He taking away His efficacious grace? This text says it must be so. And this also answers another false position of those who are enemies of the Lord's grace. They say when the Lord has permitted the creature to sin, it is in the power of the creature to sin or not, to sin as well as before the permission came. No. There is a place in Isa. 57:17, that says the contrary: "For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him. I hid me and was wroth, he went on frowardly in the way of his heart," and if that be a judicial hiding, all the world will not answer it. In Psa. 81:12, it is said, "The Lord gave the people at that time to their lust," and what followed upon that? "They walked in the way of their own heart." If the Lord once loose His hand from Adam, then Adam must fall. If the Lord but permit Pharaoh to keep the people of Israel in bondage, leave it to his free will to let them go or not go, then Pharaoh's heart is hardened, and he will not let them go.
第三：是什么使亚当的后代们保持在他们现在的状态中？在上帝中有一种支持力量，如果他拥有它，他就不会跌倒。上帝按照自己的形象创造了他们，因为他有习惯性的恩典，他本可以站在无罪的状态中。但主从他那里拿走了他的实际工作，所以他必须跌倒。既然在无罪的状态下亚当是这样，那么如果上帝拿走他的支持力量，让我们自己去引导，我们就必须下降。如果他从我们身上拿走了我们的意愿和行善的能力，我们除了做坏事之外什么也做不了。这里的问题在于我们和主恩的敌人之间。人的意愿和上帝的恩典哪个更强大？或者，当主拿走他的恩典时，受造物能否站立？还是说，他必须跌倒，因为主拿走了他的有效恩典？这段经文说必须是这样。这也回答了那些敌对主恩的人的另一个错误观点。他们说，当主允许受造物犯罪时，受造物有能力选择犯罪与否，就像在允许之前一样。不，不是这样。 以赛亚书 57:17 中有一句话说相反的：“因他贪婪的罪孽，我发怒击打他，掩面发怒，他却仍然任性行事。”如果这是一种司法上的隐藏，全世界都无法解释。诗篇 81:12 中说：“我将他们交给自己的心意，任凭他们随自己的计谋而行。”那之后会发生什么呢？“他们随自己的心意而行。”如果主一旦放开对亚当的掌控，亚当就必堕落。如果主只是允许法老继续奴役以色列人民，让他自由选择是否释放他们，那么法老的心就会变硬，他不会放人。

The use of this point is, first, to condemn those who say they can keep a moderation in sinning, who think they will only take this meikle of sin, and no more, even like the fool who says, "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep," and he is aye the more ready for a new slumber. One will say I will do this little sin, but I will do no more; I will take this meikle ill conquersh, but no more. I will give it over when I have gotten that. I will only permit this looseness of my thoughts, but I will go no further on in sin. But remember that it is not in thy power to hold thy feet when the Lord looses His grip of you; and therefore hold fast thy grip of the Lord, and pray to Him to hold His grip fast of you, and that the Lord would not lead you into temptation. Thou knowest not when thy fire and the devil's timber are cast together, how soon they will make up a blaze; and therefore the hand of the Lord's grace is needful to be employed for upholding us; and, above all things, we would employ the Mediator, Christ, and be thankful to Him, who has made the estate of His ransomed ones in Himself so sure and immovable.
使用这一观点的目的首先是谴责那些声称自己可以在犯罪中保持适度的人，他们认为自己只会犯这么一点点罪，不会再犯，就像愚人说：“稍睡片刻，稍作打盹，稍抱双手躺卧”，他总是更愿意再睡一会儿。有人会说，我只会犯这一点点罪，不会再犯；我只会接受这么一点点不幸，不会再接受更多。当我得到了那个东西，我就会放弃。我只会允许我的思想放松，但我不会在罪恶中再进一步。但请记住，当主放开你时，你无法控制自己的脚步；因此紧紧抓住主，祈求他紧紧抓住你，求主不要引导你入迷惑。你不知道当你的火与魔鬼的柴料一起投入时，它们会多快地燃烧起来；因此，主的恩手是必需的来支撑我们；最重要的是，我们要求中保基督，并感谢他，他使他所赎回之人的地位在他自己里面如此确定和不可动摇。

Can we give thanks great enough to free grace, and to the Mediator, Jesus, who keeps us that we fall not into the sin of Sodom, in Judas' sin, or Cain's sin? Make meikle then of this grace of God, and employ it frequently. Well is the heart that has gotten that grace to depend only upon the Lord, to father thy standing upon Christ only, and so to put thy trust in Him. This was Peter's fault that he lippened not his standing only to Christ's strength, and it moved the Lord to let him know something of his own strength. For out of a conceit of himself he said, "Master, though all should forsake, yet will not I forsake Thee." But stay till death be presented before him, and he sees his Master bound and ill-used by men, and he be in fear of his life, and till his blood grow cold (for he spake that in hot blood). When it comes to that, he is made to see that man is nothing but man, and when God leaves him, he will prove but a brickle reed that will fall with the least opposition. Well to them who are upholden by the hand of the Lord, and are not lippening to their own strength. Made meikle of Christ and of His free grace, and employ Him and His strength as ye would be kept safe to the second coming of our Lord. To this Lord, who is able to keep us and to present us blameless to His Father at His coming; to Christ Himself, to His Father and our Father, and the Spirit of grace, be all praise, and dominion, and glory for ever.—Amen.
我们能否感恩到足够的程度，感谢自由的恩典和调停者耶稣，他使我们不至于陷入所多玛的罪恶、犹大的罪恶或该隐的罪恶？因此，要充分珍惜上帝的恩典，并经常运用它。拥有这种恩典的心灵是幸福的，因为它只依赖于主，只把自己的立足点放在基督身上，并完全信靠他。这正是彼得的错误，他没有完全依靠基督的力量，这让主知道了他自己的力量。因为他自负地说：“夫子，即使众人都离弃你，我也决不离弃你。”但是等到死亡摆在他面前，他看到自己的主被人捆绑和虐待，他为自己的生命担心，直到他的血变冷（因为他是在激动的情绪下说的）。当情况变成那样时，他才明白人只是人，当上帝离开他时，他将变得脆弱，只要稍有阻力就会倒下。那些被主的手扶持着，不依赖自己的力量的人是有福的。 让基督和他的自由恩典成为你的中心，并依靠他和他的力量，就像你想在我们的主第二次降临时得到保守一样。愿我们的主能够保守我们，并在他来临时使我们毫无瑕疵地呈现给他的父；愿一切赞美，权柄和荣耀永远归于这主，基督本身，他的父和我们的父，以及恩典的圣灵。阿门。

The Forlorn Son—the Grounds why he came Home, and his Prayer
失落的儿子——他回家的原因和他的祈祷

"And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants."—LUKE 15:14–19.
当他花光了所有的钱，那个地方发生了严重的饥荒；他开始感到缺乏。他去找了那个国家的一个公民，并被派去喂猪。他渴望填饱肚子，吃猪吃的糠秕，但没有人给他。当他醒悟过来时，他说：“我父亲的雇工有多少人有足够的面包吃，我却因饥饿而濒临死亡！我要起身去找我的父亲，对他说：‘父亲，我得罪了天，也得罪了你，不再配称为你的儿子，把我当作你的一个雇工吧。’”—路加福音 15:14–19。

BECAUSE, beloved in the Lord, to believe that we have such a father as honours us to be His sons, and [because] if the state of adoption and of the adopted children of God were well known, it would be more thought of nor by the most part it is, we would think more upon it than we do. It is no small matter of a bastard of hell to be made a heir and a son of heaven; of one who has no claim to Christ to be made one who has free right to Him. And if it be not so, it is our own fault, for our Lord excludes none from Him who are within the visible Kirk. His offer of mercy and reconciliation is so broad and large, that they are in a woful and miserable case, who live in a land, or country, or congregation, or city, where Christ shines in the gospel, and yet they are not the better of Him. What a condemnation will it be that when the parable of the lost and forlorn son is preached to a lost world and a lost people, his going away and his returning again, and his father's receiving him, and yet they will not return!
因为，亲爱的主内之人，我们相信我们有一个尊重我们为祂的儿子的父亲，而且如果领养和神的领养子的状态被广泛认识，它会比大多数人所想的更重要，我们会比现在更加思考。成为地狱的私生子并成为天堂的儿子，这不是小事；一个对基督没有要求的人成为对祂拥有自由权利的人。如果不是这样，那是我们自己的错，因为我们的主不会拒绝那些在可见的教会内的人。祂的怜悯和和解的提供是如此广泛和宽大，以至于那些生活在基督在福音中闪耀的土地、国家、教会或城市中，却没有从祂那里得到好处的人处于可悲和痛苦的境地。当一个失落和被遗弃的儿子的寓言被传给一个失落的世界和失落的人民时，他离开和回归，他父亲的接纳，然而他们却不愿回来，这将是多么可悲的定罪！

Consider what is in God, and what is in the creature; and this is indeed the main lesson that we should set to to learn, to know our Creator, and what is in Him, that He has made all things and all things subsist by Him. And then, upon the other hand, to know sin and misery, to know ourselves, to know the bentness of our wicked hearts unto sin, [hearts] which run away from the Lord days without number. And if so be that we could rightly acquaint ourselves with these, then we would be made to acknowledge our own wanderings, and we would be made to come unto a liking of God; if we could win to that, all were done that should be done. And then our preaching, and praying, and praising, and reading, and conference, exhortation, &c., would have a blessed effect with it, and we would still be seeking to know more till we came to the enjoying of the Lord Himself. And when thou hast gotten Christ Himself, and thou art in Him, O then, sinner, thou art at home; but never till then.
考虑上帝的本质和造物主的本质；这确实是我们应该努力学习的主要课程，了解我们的创造主以及他所创造的一切和维持一切的方式。另一方面，要了解罪恶和痛苦，了解我们自己，了解我们邪恶的心灵对罪恶的倾向，这些心灵一次又一次地远离主。如果我们能正确地了解这些，我们将被迫承认自己的迷失，并开始喜爱上帝；如果我们能达到这一点，一切都将完成。然后我们的传道、祈祷、赞美、阅读、交流、劝告等等，都会带来祝福的效果，我们将不断寻求更多的了解，直到我们享受到主自己。当你得到基督自己，你与他合一时，哦，罪人，你才能回到家；但直到那时，永远不会。

Now we have to consider: (1) upon what ground it is that the forlorn son came home; (2) what is his prayer when he comes to his father.
现在我们必须考虑：（1）这个孤苦伶仃的儿子回家的原因是什么；（2）他来到父亲面前时的祈求是什么。

Now, for the ground whereupon he is stirred up to come home. It is clear enough in the words going before. He is in want, and at the point of tyning for hunger. He thought himself to be in a miserable estate, and that made him to take up a new resolution, and then when he comes home, he seeks not to be in the rowme that he should be in, that his father would make him a son in the house, but that he would make him as one of his hired servants. The motive that the Lord used to bring home this forlorn son is his want and his affliction, as we read in Hos. 5:15: "I will go and return unto My place till they acknowledge their offence and seek My face; in their affliction they will seek Me early." That is one of the Lord's ordinary means of wooing His own children. He woos them in the furnace of affliction when they may neither fend nor fee as it were. Even when it is with him as it was with Manasseh, 2 Chron. 33:11, 12: "The Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly." He and the people sinned against the Lord, and therefore the Lord sent enemies against them, and he is taken and carried away captive to Babylon. And when he was so fettered there that he could not win away, then, in his affliction, he humbled himself, and sought the Lord. Deut. 30:1–3: "And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey His voice according to all that I command thee this day, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee." Hos. 2:14, 15: "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope;" that is, in the midst of great affliction I will speak unto her heart, and that ordinarily is the time when the Lord uses to do so. And there is a reason given for this, Prov. 29:15: "The rod and reproof," says the Spirit of God there, "give wisdom." If ever men do well at all, they will do well when the hand of God is upon them. Those that are not humbled by the Lord's visitations, what will humble them? It is true the Word of God uses this form of speaking, that "His word humbles" the heart; and sometimes it will do so. But such is the crookedness of our nature, that the most part they are not brought in to the Lord till the iron sinews that are in their neck be broken, and [He] souple our stiff-neckedness.
现在，关于他被激励回家的原因，前面的话已经很清楚了。他贫困，快要因饥饿而丧命。他认为自己处于可怜的境地，这促使他做出了新的决定，然后当他回家时，他不寻求成为他父亲家中的儿子，而是希望成为他的雇佣仆人之一。主用来吸引这个可怜的儿子回家的动机是他的贫困和苦难，正如我们在何西阿书 5:15 中所读到的：“我要回到我的地方，等他们承认自己有罪，寻求我的面。在他们受苦的时候，他们必切切寻求我。”这是主吸引自己的儿女的常见方式之一。当他们处于苦难的炉火中时，他们可能无法自保或支付。就像玛拿西所经历的那样，如代下 33:11,12 所述：“耶和华使亚述王的军长来攻击他们，用钩子钩住玛拿西，用铁链捆锁他，将他带到巴比伦。他在急难的时候恳求耶和华他的神，极其自卑。”他和人民犯了罪，因此，上主派敌人来攻击他们，他被俘虏到巴比伦。当他被束缚在那里无法逃脱时，他在苦难中谦卑自己，寻求上主。申命记 30:1-3：“当这一切事临到你身上，就是上主你的天主将你赶到的各国中，你必在那里追忆起祝福和咒诅，你必归向上主你的天主，全心全灵听从他的声音，遵守我今天吩咐你的一切诫命，那时，上主你的天主必转变你的境遇，怜悯你，再次从上主你的天主所分散你到的各国中聚集你。”何西阿书 2:14, 15：“因此，看，我要引她到旷野，诱导她，对她说慰藉的话。我要从那里赐给她葡萄园，使亚苛尔谷成为希望的门。”也就是说，在巨大的苦难中，我会对她的心说话，通常这是上主常常这样做的时候。 这是有原因的，箴言 29:15 说：“杖打和责备能赐智慧。”如果人们做得好，那就是当上帝的手加在他们身上时。那些不被主的访问所谦卑的人，还有什么能使他们谦卑呢？诚然，上帝的话语有时会使人谦卑。但是，我们的本性如此扭曲，大多数人只有在他们颈项中的铁筋被打断，上帝才能使我们的顽固屈服。

Use. In all our afflictions let us speer home to our Lord and husband, and say with the prophet: "It was better with me when I was under his guiding nor ever it has been since." Let us strive to make that use of all the Lord's visitations, to acknowledge that it is God's messenger seeking you to turn home to Him again, because thou hast been a runaway. But do all that the Lord strikes, turn to Him by the straikes that come upon them? No, certainly; there are many that fall further away from the Lord after they have been stricken. The Lord says of His people, Isa. 1:5: "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more." That is one of the ills that lie upon our nature, that many, when the hand of God lights on them to strike, it strikes them dead, and they wot not what He either says or does, but they are further from God nor before, and when it is so, the Lord will tire of visiting such, and will seek them no more.
在我们所有的困苦中，让我们回归到我们的主和丈夫那里，并像先知一样说：“在他的引导下，我过得更好，从那以后就再也没有过得更好。”让我们努力利用上帝所有的访问，承认这是上帝的使者，寻求你回到他的身边，因为你曾经逃离。但是，当上帝打击他们时，所有人都会转向他吗？当然不是；有许多人在受到打击后离上帝越来越远。上帝在以赛亚书 1:5 中说到他的子民：“你们还要受责打吗？你们越是悖逆，就越增添背道。”这是我们本性上的一个弊病，许多人当上帝的手降临时，他们被打击得毫无知觉，不知道他在说什么或做什么，他们离上帝比以前更远，当情况如此时，上帝将厌倦去访问这样的人，并不再寻找他们。

A second ill that comes of visitations to some is: Holiness in seeking God in the day of their visitation; and yet it is not holiness from the heart, but only from the teeth, forward. And therefore all the holiness and humiliation that we have under a cross, it should be well examined, because there are many while the hand of the Lord is upon them any way, they carry themselves humble like, and hing their head as a bulrush; they will speak words humbly to God, and yet for all that they have but a lying heart; for their purpose in seeking the Lord and in humbling, is only that they may get the cross removed. We should beware with that, for it will beguile us when the cross is away.
有些人在受苦难时，会出现第二种不良情况：在神来访的日子里，他们寻求圣洁；然而这并非来自内心的圣洁，而只是表面上的。因此，在十字架下所表现出的所有圣洁和谦卑都应该经过深思熟虑，因为有许多人在主的手加在他们身上时，无论如何都会表现得谦卑，低垂头像芦苇一样；他们会虚心地向神说话，然而他们的心却是虚伪的；因为他们寻求主和谦卑的目的只是为了摆脱十字架。我们应该提防这一点，因为当十字架离开时，它会欺骗我们。

How many are there in the world who will say in their sickness, "If the Lord will restore them again to their health, they shall be sure not to be the old man." They will vow to forsake their ill ways, and to take up a new course of life, an they are delivered from their disease, and yet afterwards they become as wicked and profane as ever they were before; and some worse. The ground of this comes from a false heart that gives God fair words while they are under His hand, and yet as soon as the rod is removed they, Pharaoh-like, harden their heart, and turn to their old bias again. And so blinded are they, who thus seem to turn to God when His hand is on them, that when it is off they turn away again.
世界上有多少人在生病时会说：“如果主愿意恢复他们的健康，他们一定不会再是老样子。” 他们发誓要放弃不良的行为，开始新的生活方式，当他们从疾病中康复后，却变得和以前一样邪恶和亵渎，甚至更糟。这种情况的根源在于虚伪的心灵，在受到上帝的惩罚时，他们对上帝说好话，但一旦惩罚消失，他们像法老一样硬化心灵，重新回到旧的偏见。他们如此盲目，以至于当上帝的手离开他们时，他们又再次背离。

And there is a third sort also in whom God wastes many crosses, and they are nothing the better; but they remain as proud as ever they were. Such are iron that no fire will soften, such as will neither wash nor wring; for all the pains can be taken, they will neither bow nor break. The Lord loses all the pains He wares upon such. The dross is not taken from them for all that the Lord does to them. Albeit He cast them into the furnace, they remain still as they were at the first.
有第三种人，上帝在他们身上浪费了许多十字架，但他们并没有变得更好；他们仍然像以前一样骄傲。他们像铁一样，火无法软化，无论怎样洗涤或拧干，他们都不会改变；无论付出多大努力，他们都不会屈服或崩溃。上帝在这样的人身上浪费了所有的努力。尽管他们被投入炉中，他们仍然保持原样。

And then, lastly, there are some who take a wrong course under their affliction to be rid of it. They take not such a course as this son does to come home to his father that he may help him, but they use indirect and sinful means to win out of the fang thereof. And such are in all their crosses like a stranger going to ride a water, he takes the wrong ford, and falls in a weel, and drowns there. The right gate under any cross, if it be of taking anything from you, is, with Job, to say, "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
然后，最后，有些人在遭受苦难时采取错误的方式来摆脱它。他们不像这个儿子那样回到父亲身边寻求帮助，而是使用间接和罪恶的手段来摆脱困境。在所有的困境中，这样的人就像一个陌生人要去渡水，他选择了错误的浅滩，掉进了一个深坑，最终在那里溺水。在任何困境下，如果有什么东西被夺走，正确的方法是像约伯一样说：“耶和华给了，耶和华收回。耶和华的名是应当称颂的。”

The right way to win through the fuird of that water and be safe, is to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will lift us up, to see the world's vanity and the sovereignty of the Lord, the Creator, to consider that man is but flesh, but God is a Spirit, and if His straikes be so heavy even in this life, O! what must the pains and torments that He inflicts on soul and body in hell be? If it be so great a pain to be four and twenty hours pained under the disease of gout or gravel, O! what torment must it be to be tormented in hell both in soul and body for ever in hell both night and day, no rest there; and to have that to close all with, never to be delivered out of that pain and torment. If we were wise we might learn meikle of God in our crosses, if we would come to Himself by them and acknowledge that it is our Father that strikes us, and not an enemy, halflings against His will, remembering always that He "delights not in the death of a sinner;" that He is not shooting them away whom He strikes, but, by the contrary, makes them welcome who come to Him, and to consider, as it is, Lam. 3:33, that He punishes or afflicts not willingly.
通过谦卑自己在上帝的大能手下，我们可以安全地穿越那水的洪流并获得胜利，看到世界的虚荣和主的统治，思考人只是肉体，而上帝是灵性的，即使在这个生命中，祂的打击如此沉重，哦！那么在地狱里祂对灵魂和身体施加的痛苦和折磨将会是什么样子呢？如果在痛风或结石的疾病下痛苦二十四小时已经如此痛苦，哦！在地狱里灵魂和身体永远受折磨，夜以继日，没有休息；而且最终永远无法从这种痛苦和折磨中解脱。如果我们聪明的话，我们可以从我们的苦难中学到上帝的很多东西，如果我们通过苦难来接近祂，并承认是我们的父亲在打击我们，而不是敌人，违背祂的意愿，永远记住祂“不喜悦罪人的死亡”；祂不是把祂打击的人赶走，相反地，祂欢迎那些来到祂面前的人，并且要考虑，正如耶利米哀歌 3:33 所说，祂并不愿意惩罚或使人痛苦。

The first part of this forlorn son's prayer is: "Make me as one of thy hired servants."
这个失落儿子祈祷的第一部分是：“使我成为你的雇佣仆人之一。”

Look now where a converted sinner desires to sit. God needs to put him no lower than he puts himself. That is the vantage of humiliation where it comes truly. It lays him upon the ground, the Lord working with this visitation to let him see himself. He acknowledges that he is the most unworthy in all his father's house, acknowledges that he is unworthy of his father's company or of his presence; acknowledges it is much more than he deserves if he be handled by his father as a servant, let be to be used as a son. Always this is a mark of a converted sinner when he is brought to think little of himself. As soon as the Lord began to show Himself to Peter, he became humble in his own eyes, and says: "Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man." The centurion's word to Christ: "It is a shame to see such a Lord under my roof who am so unworthy. Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be whole." A truly converted sinner knows not how laigh to set himself. If there were a pain and torment greater nor the pain and torment of hell, he would acknowledge it to be his deserving, and that it is procured by him at the Lord's hands. How great a word speaks the Apostle of himself, Eph. 3:8: "To me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." When he considers that God had made him an apostle and a preacher of the gospel, and applies that to himself. "To me who am less than the least of all saints," &c.: great Paul that calls himself little, and not only so but less, not only less than apostles, but less than saints, than any who are begun to be sanctified, ay, less than all saints, and less than the least of all saints. O! how low is that soul that sees itself well who has gotten a sight of its own vileness and so of its deserving.
现在看看一个转变的罪人想要坐在哪里。上帝不需要把他放得比他自己更低。这是真正谦卑的优势所在。它使他躺在地上，主通过这次访问与他一起工作，让他看到自己。他承认自己是他父亲家中最不配的人，承认自己不配与父亲同在或与他同在；承认如果他被父亲当作仆人对待，那已经远远超出了他应得的。当一个转变的罪人开始对自己看轻时，这总是一个标志。当主开始向彼得显现时，他在自己的眼中变得谦卑，并说：“主啊，离开我吧，因为我是个有罪的人。”百夫长对基督说：“看到如此不配的我有这样的主人，真是可耻。主啊，我不配你进入我的房屋；但只要说一句话，我的仆人就会痊愈。”一个真正转变的罪人不知道该把自己放得多低。 如果有一种痛苦和折磨比地狱的痛苦和折磨更大，他会承认这是他应得的，并且是由主的手所带来的。使徒在以弗所书 3:8 中说了多么伟大的话：“我这最小的，比众圣徒中的最小的还小，蒙这恩典，得以向外邦人传扬基督那测不透的丰富。”当他考虑到上帝使他成为使徒和福音传道者，并将其应用于自己时。“我这最小的，比众圣徒中的最小的还小”，等等：伟大的保罗称自己为小，不仅如此，而且更小，不仅比使徒小，而且比圣徒小，比任何已经开始被圣化的人都小，是的，比所有圣徒都小，比众圣徒中的最小的还小。哦！那个看到自己卑鄙和应得的灵魂是多么卑微。

Let us learn, then, to know that this is a mark of such as are in love with Christ. They think less of themselves than they can do of any other. Pride is not a mark of the children of God. There is a staff of pride in every one of us by nature as the Prophet Ezekiel speaks. And whoever they be who will be higher nor God will have them (as there be many in the world), they are far from the strain this son is at. Humiliation: O! but it be a great grace, and pride is a sin of great parents, but it is a miserable ill. Pride was born in heaven, and it fell out of heaven; but it could never win there sinsyne. The Lord "resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble." The Lord says of him who is proud that He is his enemy. Woe! to that man whom God knows far off as an enemy.
让我们学会，这是那些爱着基督的人的标志。他们对自己的看法比对其他人更低。骄傲不是神的儿女的标志。正如先知以西结所说，我们每个人天生都有骄傲的杖。而那些想要超越上帝的人（世界上有很多这样的人），他们离这个儿子的境地很远。谦卑：哦！这是一个伟大的恩典，而骄傲是一个伟大父母的罪恶，但它是一个可悲的病痛。骄傲在天堂诞生，却从天堂坠落；但它永远无法再次进入天堂。主“抵挡骄傲的人，赐恩给谦卑的人。”主说骄傲的人是他的敌人。哀哉！那个神远远认识的敌人。

And therefore learn this lesson to strike sail to Christ, and, for that effect, to know what sinful dust and ashes are. Consider if the Lord would turn thy outside out thou would be forced to say: "I am no more worthy to be called Thy son, make me as one of Thy hired servants," and acknowledge this of thyself.
因此，学会向基督屈服，并且为了达到这个目的，要知道罪恶的尘土和灰烬是什么。思考一下，如果主把你的外表暴露出来，你会被迫说：“我不再配称为你的儿子，使我成为你的一个雇工吧”，并且承认这一点是关于你自己的。

Was this a good petition of his? Every way. See upon what ground he says this: "I have sinned against heaven and before Thee." And upon that he brings in that conclusion.
这是他的一个好请愿吗？无论从哪个方面来看，都是的。看他为什么这样说：“我得罪了天，也得罪了你。”基于这一点，他得出了这个结论。

It is a great matter if our humiliation be not a hindrance both to faith and prayer. Because thou hast sinned against heaven and earth, should thou therefore conclude, that thou wilt not seek to be one of God's sons, nor to be one of the children of God. Many times we are so low in our own eyes, that we pray to the Lord for that which we deserve, but not for that which we desire. But let us acknowledge our wrong in this, and seek as meikle from the Lord as we would be at, and not which we desire. He declines indeed to be esteemed a servant, or to be thought the basest of the servants, and yet he dare not seek to be in the room of a son. But when ye pray to the Lord this way seek for that which it becomes Him to give, and not for that it becomes your baseness and guiltiness to receive. Know to whom it is that ye are speaking. Ye are speaking to one who can make a son of a slave of hell, as well and as easily, as He can make a servant of him.
如果我们的屈辱没有妨碍到信仰和祈祷，那就是一件伟大的事情。因为你曾经得罪了天地，你是否因此认为自己不会寻求成为上帝的儿子，或成为上帝的子女呢？许多时候，我们非常自卑，向主祷告我们应得的，而不是我们所渴望的。但让我们承认自己的错误，向上帝寻求像想要的一样多，而不是应得的一样多。他确实不会愿意被认为是仆人，或被认为是最卑微的仆人，但他也不敢试图成为儿子。但当你这样向主祷告时，寻求的是祂宜给的，而不是你低贱和有罪之人应该接受的。知道你在和谁说话。你在向那个能够让地狱的奴隶成为儿子，就像让他成为仆人一样容易的人祈求。

It is a great matter to be humbled, and yet to believe, both at one time. Ofttimes the one of these hinders the other, as Peter being humbled in his own eyes, says: "Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man." It had not been telling him that the Lord had gone from him according to his prayer. But being humbled, follow not his example in this, but pray rather: "Lord, let me stay with Thee, for I am a sinful man," for no company is so good for him that has that disease as to be with Him who is the physician. And that woman who had the bloody issue being thus humbled in her own eyes, she seeks only to touch the hem of His garment. Had it been a sin for her to have sought to kiss His feet or His face? No, certainly. But her humble faith thought it very meikleif she should get leave to come that near such a Lord as to touch the hem of His garment. But the humbled soul may come nearer Christ nor she. It will be welcome to come nearer even to kiss His sweet mouth; for the best chair in heaven is prepared for such as are humble. O, what our Lord esteemed of that woman, who esteemed herself but a dog, and was content to feed with the dogs upon the crumbs that fell from the children's table! He says of her, "I have not found such faith, no, not in Israel."
谦卑而又相信，这是一件伟大的事情。往往其中之一会妨碍另一个，比如彼得在自己眼中谦卑时说：“主啊，离开我吧，因为我是个罪人。”但主没有按照他的祈祷离开他。但是，不要效仿他的例子，而是更应该祈祷：“主啊，让我与你同在，因为我是个罪人。”因为对于那些患有这种病的人来说，没有比与医生在一起更好的伴侣了。那个患有血漏病的妇人在自己眼中如此谦卑，她只是想触摸他衣服的衣襟。她寻求亲吻他的脚或脸是一种罪吗？当然不是。但她谦卑的信心认为，能够获得接近这样一个主的许可，触摸他衣服的衣襟已经足够了。但是，谦卑的灵魂可以比她更接近基督。即使亲吻他甜美的嘴唇也是受欢迎的，因为天堂中最好的椅子是为谦卑的人准备的。 哦，我们的主看重那个自视为狗的女人，她甘愿与狗一起吃从孩子们餐桌上掉下来的碎屑！他说她的信心是“以色列中从未见过的”。"

A humble faith it is certainly, a high and a great faith, and a soul that thinks little of itself, O! what the Lord thinks of it. And therefore let us not be [led] that way to measure God's goodness by our wickedness. That is a false compass to measure our Lord with. Whatever thou be, wert thou never so sinful and wicked, yet the Lord is the Lord. That woman that is spoken of, Luke 7:38, who did wash Christ's feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hairs of her head, she would [have] been welcome to come hither to embrace Him, and kiss His mouth. Ay, the more humble thou art, so much nearer art thou to thy Lord. Once learn this lesson, to think little of thyself; and when it comes to that, thou art within sight of Christ. When thou art humble, thou art within Christ's breath, and it shall blow upon you. Go not over far away from the Lord in thy humility. Learn to seek more of Him nor thy deserving dytes thee to seek. It is an ill-dyted prayer that is dyted according to our deservings. But let us learn to dyte our prayers according to the Lord's mercy, and the riches of His free grace. To seek a drop of grace at the Lord's hands, because it is no more that we deserve? No, we deserve not that; and therefore seek a sea of grace from the Lord. Albeit, according to our deservings, it sets us to get little. Yet it sets Him well to give meikle.
一个谦卑的信仰，确实是一种高尚而伟大的信仰，一个自视甚微的灵魂，哦！主对它的看法。因此，让我们不要用我们的邪恶来衡量上帝的善良。这是一个错误的指南，用来衡量我们的主。无论你是谁，即使你是如此罪恶和邪恶，主仍然是主。路加福音 7:38 所说的那个妇人，她用眼泪洗耶稣的脚，并用头发擦干，她会很欢迎来到这里拥抱他，亲吻他的嘴。是的，你越谦卑，你离主就越近。学会这个课程，对自己不要太看重；当你达到这一点时，你就能看见基督。当你谦卑时，你就在基督的呼吸之内，它会吹拂在你身上。在你的谦卑中不要离主太远。学会寻求更多的他，而不是你应得的。按照我们应得的来编写的祷告是不好的。但让我们学会根据主的怜悯和他自由恩典的丰富来编写我们的祷告。因为我们只配得到一滴恩典，所以向主寻求一滴恩典。 不，我们不配得到那样的东西；因此，我们向主寻求一片恩典的海洋。尽管根据我们的应得，它只给予我们一点点。然而，它给予祂很多。

Seek no less than Christ Himself, and heaven, and the remission of sins, joy of the Holy Ghost, peace of conscience, &c. Seek that which is given only to the sons of God and the heirs of heaven, and be not satisfied with that which is given to servants. Ay, the greedier thy prayers be, thou art the more welcome to the Lord, for He cannot endure pinched, narrow prayers. He is not content that thou should seek less than He minds to give, and is willing to give you. He is not like that king who said, "Ask of me what thou wilt unto the half of my kingdom, and I will give it unto you." Seek no half a kingdom of the Lord, but seek a whole kingdom. And therefore learn this lesson: Not to make your prayers over narrow, but seek great things from the Lord contrary to that which Jeremiah (chap. 45:5) says to his servant Baruch; seek great things, even the greatest things that are in the Lord's coffers, for He is as able to give heaven as He is to give an acre of land or a drink of water. He is as able to give glory as He is to give grace. He is able to give the Spirit which He promises, by the prophet Joel 2:28, to pour out, the spirit of prophecy that your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Be not narrow in seeking from the Lord, to seek over little of Him. We are ofttimes too straitened in seeking from the Lord. The Lord is not troubled night and day with our prayers in seeking great things. And because we seek but little of the Lord therefore it is that many times we receive but little at His hands. But learn continually to seek more and more from the Lord, and tempt the Lord's liberality, as it were, in asking great things of Him, and then thou shalt get thy desire. And wite thyself if thou receive little at His hands, for it is only because thou art narrow in thy seeking.
寻求的不仅仅是基督自己，还有天堂、罪恶的赦免、圣灵的喜乐、良心的平安等等。寻求的是只赐给上帝的儿子和天堂的继承人的东西，不要满足于仅仅赐给仆人的东西。是的，你的祈祷越贪婪，主就越欢迎你，因为他无法忍受吝啬、狭隘的祈祷。他不满足于你寻求的少于他打算给予你的，他愿意给予你的。他不像那位国王说：“你向我要什么，我就给你一半的王国。”不要向主寻求半个王国，而是寻求一个完整的王国。因此，要学会这个教训：不要把你的祈祷局限得太狭窄，反而要向主寻求伟大的事情，与耶利米（第 45 章 5 节）对他的仆人巴录所说的相反；寻求伟大的事情，甚至是主宝库中最伟大的事情，因为他有能力给予天堂，就像他有能力给予一英亩的土地或一杯水一样。他有能力给予荣耀，就像他有能力给予恩典一样。 他能够赐予他所应许的圣灵，正如先知约珥书 2:28 所说，要倾倒神的灵，使你们的少年人看见异象，老年人做梦。在向主寻求时，不要狭隘地只寻求一点点。我们常常在向主寻求时太过狭隘。主并不因为我们日夜祈求大事而感到困扰。因为我们只寻求主的一点点，所以往往只从他那里得到一点点。但要不断向主寻求更多，像是试探主的慷慨一样，向他寻求大事，那么你就会得到你的愿望。如果你从主那里得到的很少，那就怪自己，因为你在寻求上太狭隘了。

Now, howbeit he put himself out of his own room, yet still he keeps God into his room, for he calls Him "Father." That is good and right humiliation indeed, that holds the Lord always where He should be, as ye may see Dan. 9:8–9, Daniel confesses, "To us belong confusion of face as at this day, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers. But to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him." That is right work. Let the Lord always be righteous and glorious, albeit shame and confusion should be written in great letters upon our faces. Let the Lord always be high and magnified, and all others put low that He may be high, as the Kirk acknowledges, Isa. 63:16, "Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting." Albeit we be named apostates, and are not worthy to be called the sons of Abraham; yet Thou art worthy to be called our Father, for Thy name is called upon by us. So it is said also Jer. 14:7–9, "O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee, for they put themselves very low," and then in the eighth verse, they say, "O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land?" Their God is made the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in time of trouble. But for themselves they acknowledge, "Our backslidings are many, and we have sinned against Thee." This is the way that the Lord would have His children to carry themselves, always to put God in His room, to make Him a Father, albeit I should be no son.
尽管他自己离开了自己的房间，但他仍将上帝留在房间里，因为他称呼祂为“父亲”。这是确实美好而正确的谦卑，它将上帝总是放在应该的地方，就如你们在但以理书 9:8-9 所看到的，但以理承认：“我们的君王、我们的首领、我们的祖宗因得罪你，脸上蒙羞。”但是对我们的神主宰得怜悯和饶恕，因为我们背叛了他。这是正确的工作。让主永远是公义和荣耀的，尽管羞愧和困惑可能会被大大地写在我们的脸上。让主永远高贵和伟大，其他所有的人都低下，这样他才能高贵，正如教会承认的那样，在以赛亚书 63:16 中说：“耶和华啊，你仍是我们的父；我们是泥，你是窑匠；你是我们众人的工。”尽管我们被称为叛教徒，并且不配被称为亚伯拉罕的子孙；然而，你是应当被我们称为父亲的，因为我们的名字被呼唤了你的名字。所以在耶利米书中也是如此。 14:7–9，“主啊，虽然我们的罪孽作证反对我们，但求你为了你的名而行：因为我们的背道甚多，得罪了你，他们自卑自贱。”然后在第八节中，他们说：“以色列的盼望，患难时的救主啊，你为何在这地方像个外人呢？”他们的神成为以色列的盼望和患难时的救主。但他们承认自己的背道甚多，得罪了你。这是主希望他的子民以这种方式行事，始终将神放在首位，使他成为父亲，即使我可能不是儿子。

Now, is not this contradiction? If one call Him a Father to him, then he must be a son? Yes, it is true. But happy they who can set God on high, and can set themselves low, that He may be high. Happy they who can give the Lord that which is His due, if it were with the loss of all that they have in the world. Ware upon God and give out for Him, albeit it were to tyne all that thou hast in the world, and thou shalt be no tyner when all is done. Thy husband, albeit he were dead in another country, yet let this content you that it is God who has done it, and acknowledge He is worthy of all that thou hast if it were meikle more. And this is the reasoning of a humbled soul, to exalt God as high as heaven; and if thou could get Him far up above the heavens to set Him there, and thou thyself to sit as low as hell.
现在，这不是矛盾吗？如果有人称他为父亲，那么他必须是儿子吗？是的，这是真的。但是，能够将上帝高举起来，并将自己放得很低的人是幸福的，这样他就可以高高在上。幸福的人是能够将上帝所应得的归还给他的人，即使这意味着失去世界上所有的东西。为了上帝而努力，并为他付出，即使这意味着失去世界上所有的东西，当一切都结束时，你也不会成为一个失去一切的人。你的丈夫，即使他在另一个国家已经去世，但你应该满足于这一点，那就是上帝做了这件事，并且承认他值得拥有你所有的东西，即使是更多。这是一个谦卑的灵魂的思考方式，将上帝高举到天堂的高度；如果你能将他带到远离天堂的地方，让他坐在那里，而你自己则坐在地狱的最低处。

This must answer a doubt that many of the children of God have, and it is this, say they: "Whatever God be in Himself, yet I wot not if I have any claim to Him to call Him my Lord and my Father. If ye have no better reason for that, "that ye wot not if He be your Lord or your Father," but that because ye are sinful, then it is but the forlorn son's logic, and it holds not in all. But rather say this: "If I were a slave of the devil, a child of wrath and perdition, yet I know He is in heaven and is a Father, and I will look unto Him as to a Father, notwithstanding of all my transgressions, for this is a part of His glory to make them welcome, and to forgive them their iniquities and transgressions who have run away and misspent all, played the harlot with many lovers, when they return unto Him again. It is not possible that our narrow thoughts can comprehend this Lord. And this indeed is the very ground of our sinning, because we measure our Lord by ourselves. Because thou hast a false heart therefore thou thinkest so of the Lord also. Because we are varying and changeable, we expone our Lord to be of that same kind. Because we cannot forgive great wrongs that are done against us, therefore we expone so of Him also. Never any shall have a solid and constant faith who look not over themselves and over their deservings to God, who considers not whatever our provocations and undeservings be, yet He is near unto all those who seek unto Him in truth.
这必须回答上帝的许多子女心中的疑惑，就是这样说的：“无论上帝本身是什么，我不知道我是否有权利称他为我的主和我的父。如果你没有更好的理由，只是因为你们是罪人，那么这只是一个可怜的儿子的逻辑，并不适用于所有人。但我们应该这样说：“即使我是魔鬼的奴隶，是愤怒和毁灭的孩子，我知道他在天上是父亲，我将把他当作父亲看待，尽管我犯了许多过错，因为这是他的荣耀的一部分，他欢迎那些迷失并浪费了一切，与许多情人通奸的人回到他身边，并原谅他们的罪孽和过犯。我们狭隘的思想无法理解这位主。这实际上是我们犯罪的根源，因为我们用自己来衡量我们的主。因为你有虚假的心，所以你也这样认为主。因为我们是多变的，我们认为主也是同样的。” 因为我们无法原谅对我们犯下的大错，所以我们也会对祂做出同样的事情。只有那些不仅关注自己和自己的价值，而且还关注上帝的人才能拥有坚定而持久的信仰，无论我们的挑衅和不值得如何，祂都靠近那些真心寻求祂的人。

O that we may learn to have right thoughts of Christ our Lord, not to measure Him by our short ell-wand, but by His large measure that He is in Himself. And to this Lord, to Christ's Father and our Father in Him, to Himself and the Holy Spirit, one incomprehensible Godhead be praise for ever.—Amen.
愿我们学会正确地思考我们的主基督，不要用我们短小的尺度来衡量祂，而是用祂自身的广大尺度来衡量。愿赞美归于这位主，基督的父亲和我们在祂里面的父亲，归于祂自己和圣灵，唯一不可理解的神头，直到永远。阿门。

The Forlorn Son—the Father's Welcome
被遗弃的儿子——父亲的欢迎

"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."—LUKE 15:20–21.
他起来，回到他父亲那里。但当他还远远地时，他父亲看见他，就动了慈心，跑去抱着他的脖子亲吻他。儿子对他说：“父亲，我得罪了天，也得罪了你，不配再称为你的儿子。”—路加福音 15:20-21。

YE have heard, beloved in our Lord, of the conclusion and logic of the first part of this parable, and of the behaviour of the forlorn son, when he came first home to his father. Now follows the second part thereof, which is the Lord's acceptation of His forlorn son, His welcoming him home again, and this is expressed in three particulars in the text. (1) The Lord's own behaviour towards: "When he saw him afar off, he had compassion upon him, and ran, and fell upon his neck, and kissed him. (2) We have set down the preparation the father makes for him, and the direction that he gives unto his servants for welcoming him home again. He gives direction to make him a new man, and to adorn him with other ornaments than these he had in the days of his vanity. There is a change upon him, for he gets the best robe put upon him, a ring put upon his hand, and shoes upon his feet, and to kill the fat calf. And then (3) there is the welcoming of both the father and all the house towards this prodigal son. There is a feast made, and the fat calf is killed, and great mirth and joy among all as it sets our Lord well, and all the angels and glorified in heaven well to rejoice at the home-coming of a runaway sinner.
亲爱的弟兄们，在主里，你们已经听过这个比喻的第一部分的结论和逻辑，以及这个失落儿子回到父亲家时的行为。接下来是其中的第二部分，即主接纳祂的失落儿子，再次欢迎他回家，这在经文中以三项具体表达。 （1）主对失落儿子自己的行为：“他看见儿子还远着，就动了怜悯的心，跑去抱住他的颈项，连连亲嘴。” （2）我们已经描述了父亲为儿子所做的准备，以及他对仆人们有关欢迎儿子回家的指示。他指示让儿子成为一个新人，用比他浪荡时期更珍贵的饰品装扮他。他有了改变，穿上了上好的袍子，戴上了戒指，脚上穿上了鞋，宰了肥犊子。然后（3）父亲和全家人对这个浪子儿子的欢迎。 有一场盛宴，一只肥牛被宰杀，所有人都欢乐齐聚，因为我们的主回来了，天堂中的所有天使和被荣耀者都为一个迷失的罪人归来而欢欣鼓舞。

There is none who comes to our Lord in spirit, truth, and sincerity, who shall get a worse welcome than this, or shall be put away, because they have been running away from Him, John 6:37: "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no ways cast out." No, in no sort He will send such away again. No, there is here not so meikle as a sign of the Lord's anger for his former misspending of time and means and all; but a loving intimation of his Father's love towards him, and such sweet expressions as you will find in no other father welcoming home such a child. There is no quarrelling of bygones now, but all these are laid aside. There is not a word of finding fault, that before he tired of his father's company; no rebuking him for his looseness, nor misspending that which he got. Fra this forlorn son breaks his own heart, the Lord will not break it. When he is sad and mourning for his provocations, the Lord has nothing to say to him; but He will give him the garments of joy and gladness for the spirit of sorrow and sadness.
没有人以灵性、真理和真诚来到我们的主面前，会比这更受欢迎，或者会被拒之门外，因为他们曾经远离他，约翰福音 6:37：“凡到我这里来的，我总不丢弃他。”不，他绝不会再把这样的人送走。不，这里没有一点主对他以前浪费时间和财富的愤怒的迹象；而是他父亲对他的爱的亲切示意，以及你在其他父亲对待回家的孩子时找不到的甜蜜表达。现在不再争论过去，所有这些都被抛在一边。没有责备的话语，因为他之前厌倦了父亲的陪伴；没有责备他的放纵，也没有责备他浪费所得之物。当这个失落的儿子伤心和悲哀地自责时，主对他没有任何话要说；但他会给他喜乐和快乐的衣服，代替悲伤和忧郁的心灵。

If we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, the Lord will lift us up. If we judge ourselves we shall not be judged of Him. If we had a casten down heart for sin, then should we get from our Lord the garment of righteousness and rejoicing. It were good for us to come with such preparation as this to God and Christ, with a heart humbled and cast down for sin. But this is not a thing that we have of our own. This is not a flower that grows in our garden. All dispositions and preparations to make a soul meet for Christ, the King Himself sends before He come to lodge in that inns: "Every good gift and every perfect donation come down from Him who is the Father of lights." There is no man who can come out to meet Christ till first He come to him. No man can love Christ till He love him first, because our love of Christ is nothing else but an effect of this love to us. There would be no light in the earth, nor any glancing in a transparent if there were not light without. We would not have light here, if the sun were not in the firmament. Even so if any let out a love look towards Christ, it is because He has loved us first. So we may learn for ever to sing a song of free grace shown in our conversion, that we may know on whom we should father it, that we make it not a bastard, that our home-coming to our Lord may only be put upon Him who is spoken, James 1:18: "Of His own will He begat us with the word of truth, that He should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures;" and 2 Tim. 1:9: "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His grace and His own purpose, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began;" Tit. 3:4: "But after that the kindness and love of God toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us."
如果我们在上帝的大能手下谦卑自己，主会抬举我们。如果我们审判自己，就不会被祂审判。如果我们为罪而心灰意冷，我们将从主那里得到公义和喜乐的衣服。我们最好以这样的准备来到上帝和基督面前，怀着谦卑和为罪而沮丧的心。但这不是我们自己拥有的东西。这不是我们花园里生长的花朵。所有使灵魂适合基督的性情和准备，都是国王亲自派遣的，他在来到那个旅馆之前就派遣了这些：“各样美善的恩赐和各样完全的赠与都是从那上头来的，从众光之父那里。”没有人能够在基督来到之前去迎接祂。没有人能够在祂爱他之前去爱基督，因为我们对基督的爱不过是祂对我们爱的结果。如果没有外界的光，地上就没有光明，透明的东西也不会发出闪光。如果天空中没有太阳，我们这里就没有光明。同样，如果有人向基督投以爱的目光，那是因为祂先爱了我们。 所以我们可以永远学习唱一首关于我们转变中所显示的自由恩典的歌，以便我们知道应该归功于谁，不要使它成为私生子，我们回归主的家园只能归于那位被提及的人，雅各书 1:18：“他按自己的旨意，用真道生了我们，叫我们在他所造的万物中，好像初熟的果子。”提摩太后书 1:9：“他救了我们，召我们，是按着自己的旨意和恩典，这恩典是万古之先，在基督耶稣里赐给我们的。”提多书 3:4：“但到了神我们救主的恩慈和他向人所施的慈爱显明的时候，他便救了我们，这不是因我们自己所行的义，乃是照他的怜悯，借着重生的洗和圣灵的更新。”"

What is the ground of our salvation? The love that God carried toward man applied unto us. His free love is allenarly the cause that moves Him to make a market to buy us; John 3:16: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It were good for us to seek all that we stand in need of for our salvation in Him; and happy they who get grace to know to whom they owe thanks for the work of their conversion, and know to whom their eyes should be lifted for the same, even to Him who has that draught in His hand (John 6:44) to draw all men unto Him.
我们得救的根据是什么？是上帝对人类的爱应用到我们身上。他的自由之爱仅仅是促使他为我们买下我们的原因；约翰福音 3:16：“神爱世人，甚至将他的独生子赐给他们，叫一切信他的不至灭亡，反得永生。”我们最好在他身上寻求我们得救所需的一切；幸福的是，那些获得恩典认识他们的转化工作应该感谢的人，并知道他们的目光应该向谁仰望，即那位手中拿着那个吸引所有人的渔网的人（约翰福音 6:44）。

A word, now, of the Lord's behaviour towards His forlorn son. His kissing him and falling upon his neck tell us this far: when a sinner comes to the Lord truly humbled for sin, there is nothing then but free love and kindness and expressions of love upon the Lord's part: Rev. 3:20: To him who knocks, the Lord says that He will open to him, and will come in, and they shall sup together. At the Lord's first meeting with a sinner, the Lord opens his heart by grace to let Him in, and there they sup together. There is a feast of love between them. And it sets our Lord well to do so at the first conversion of a sinner. I mean not that the sinner has no sorrow before Christ and he meet. Ay! he has meikle grief and sadness. But at the first meeting, I say, it sets our Lord to give the humbled sinner joy and consolation, and a feast of His presence. And there are three good reasons for this. The
主对他那可怜的儿子的行为，现在说一下。他亲吻他，扑到他的脖子上，告诉我们这一点：当一个罪人真正因罪而谦卑地来到主面前时，主只有自由的爱和恩慈以及对爱的表达。启示录 3:20：对那个敲门的人，主说他会给他开门，进来与他一同进餐。在主第一次与罪人相遇时，主凭着恩典打开他的心让他进来，他们在那里一同进餐。他们之间有一场爱的盛宴。在罪人第一次归向基督时，主这样做是合适的。我的意思不是说罪人在与基督相遇之前没有悲伤。是的！他有很多的悲伤和忧伤。但是在第一次相遇时，我说，主给谦卑的罪人带来喜乐和安慰，以及他的同在的盛宴，这是合适的。这有三个很好的理由。

First is taken from the disposition that the poor soul has been under before, for our Lord has promised that such shall be comforted, and the reason is clear thus: there are none who are converted but those who are once humbled, for our Lord has good news unto none but them that mourn; Isa. 61:1: He is sent to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; and to them who are not humbled and mourn not, He has a day of vengeance to preach unto them. So those who are humbled and mourn, and meet with the Lord, must be comforted.
首先，这是从贫穷的灵魂之前的处境中得出的结论，因为我们的主已经应许过这样的人将得到安慰，原因很明显：只有那些曾经受过谦卑的人才会归向主，因为我们的主只给那些悲伤的人带来好消息；以赛亚书 61:1：他被差遣来医治伤心的人，向被掳的人宣告自由，向被囚的人宣告开放监狱的消息；而那些没有谦卑和悲伤的人，他将向他们宣讲报复的日子。所以那些谦卑和悲伤，并与主相遇的人，必定会得到安慰。

Second: It is also agreeable to the Lord's love that humbled sinners, at their first meeting with Christ, should get such arles as they may never forget again all their days. Now I mean not by this that all the children of God can tell the very first mathematical point of the time of their conversion, for there be some with whom the Lord has dealt from their youth, and, with some, the Lord deals more smoothly in their conversion than He does with others. But for the most part I say this is His dealing, that when sinners have been going on into a course of rebellion, running away from Him, after their humiliation ordinarily He fills them with a feast of the sense of His love, that all their days they cannot forget it. And this answers a point that troubles very many of the children of God, "That they had once a hearty desire after the Lord and a rejoicing in His presence, they were earnest in seeking Him long syne, and found Him very kind to them, but now they find it not so with them." This answers the doubt. This is Christ's manner of dealing with His own, that at the first starting to the race He will give them a sight of the gold and garland, but afterwards He will only give them blinks of it now and then. At the first He will give them such a sight and sense of His kindness as that they may mark the very day and hour of their meeting and His, and that we may cry forth to His praise, O the excellence of that day wherein the Lord began first to shine in upon a poor soul by the blinks of His loving-kindness, who had no mind of Him to make them seek after more of it. A
其次：对于谦卑的罪人来说，与基督初次相遇时得到这样的安慰是符合主的爱意的，这样的安慰他们一辈子都不会忘记。我并不是说所有神的儿女都能够准确地回忆起他们的转变的确切时间点，因为有些人从年轻时起主就与他们同在，而对于另一些人，主在他们的转变中处理得更加顺利。但总的来说，我说这是主的作为，当罪人一直在背离主的道路上行走时，在他们谦卑之后，主通常会让他们充满对祂爱的感知，以至于他们一辈子都无法忘记。这解答了许多神的儿女的疑惑：“他们曾经对主怀有真诚的渴望，对祂的同在感到欢喜，他们曾经热切地寻求祂，而且很久以前祂对他们非常慈爱，但现在他们发现情况并非如此。”这解答了这个疑惑。 这是基督对待自己的方式，一开始他会给他们看到金子和花环，但之后他只会偶尔给他们一些闪光。一开始，他会给他们如此的恩慈的视觉和感受，以至于他们可以记住他们相遇的那一天和那一刻，我们可以为他的赞美大声呼喊，哦，主开始第一次以他慈爱的闪光照耀一个贫穷的灵魂的那一天的卓越，他们并没有想到要追求更多。 A

Third reason of this is taken from the case of weak beginners. For to scare weak beginners at the first with glowming, they would then be discouraged. The first day that bairns go to the school it is no wisdom to strike or to boast them, but to make of them rather. When the Lord gets a new scholar to His school, the first seat He sets them in He puts them into His bosom, that so they may be forced to say, He is a Lord worthy to be served, and that they may be made to condemn themselves for biding so long away from such a Lord, who is love and kindness itself.
这是从弱小的初学者的案例中得出的第三个原因。为了吓唬弱小的初学者，他们会因为恐惧而感到气馁。孩子们第一天上学，打击或夸夸其谈对他们来说都不明智，而是要让他们感到被接纳。当主把一个新的学生带到祂的学校时，祂首先安排他们坐在祂的怀里，这样他们就会被迫说，祂是一个值得侍奉的主，他们也会因为离开这样一个充满爱和善良的主那么久而自责。

The use we are to make of this is: O, if we could get natural people persuaded but to take a trial of Christ's love! if we could make them but to kepp one of Christ's kisses! But O! it be a hard matter to persuade nature what grace is. Ay, it is the hardest task in the world to gar natural men believe themselves to be in such a case as indeed they are in. If we could but come to this, to make the world believe the ill of drinking, swearing, whoring, covetousness, &c.; and, upon the other hand, to believe the superexcellency of Christ's love, then the field were won. But it is a hard matter to persuade two sorts of people of this, that there are thousands who believe they are in Christ who, notwithstanding, are deceived, and are not in Him.
我们要做的是：哦，如果我们能够说服自然人试试基督的爱！如果我们能让他们保留基督的一个吻！但是哦！说服自然人什么是恩典是一件困难的事情。是的，世界上最难的任务就是让自然人相信他们实际上处于这样的境地。如果我们能够让世界相信饮酒、咒骂、淫乱、贪婪等的恶劣之处；并且，相反地，相信基督的爱的卓越性，那么胜利就已经在望了。但是，说服这两类人是一件困难的事情，即有成千上万人相信他们在基督里，然而实际上却被欺骗了，不在他里面。

The first [sort are] secure sinners, who know not what God is, or what heaven and hell are, and are going on in sin and will not be convinced thereof, nor rise out of the state they are in. No; were Christ in the flesh preaching to them they would not rise out of their secure estate.
第一种是安全的罪人，他们不知道上帝是谁，也不知道天堂和地狱是什么，他们继续犯罪，不会被说服，也不会改变自己的状态。即使基督亲自向他们传道，他们也不会改变自己的安全状态。

A second sort of people hard to believe this are natural civilians, who go under the name of honest men in the world. They are not adulterers, thieves, ordinary drunkards, or blasphemers, &c., they have a civil white life in their own eyes and the eyes of the world. O! but it be a great matter to persuade such to fall in love with Christ, because they think they have already as meikle as to take them to heaven; and it is but a mistake when all is done. It is only nature that they take for true grace. And there are thousands in the world who are beguiled with this. I wish that ye would labour to know indeed what it is to have a conscience purified from dead works; to have many waking nights for sin; that ye were put to this, "Lord, if I had Christ I should quit all the world for Him, for He is more worth than it all." O! to be acquainted with the Son of God and His excellency. If men had such thoughts as these, and knew what need they stand in of Christ, O! what a high price would they put on such an excellent Saviour as Christ is!
第二类难以相信这一点的人是自然的平民，他们在世界上被称为诚实的人。他们不是通奸者、小偷、酗酒者或亵渎者等，他们在自己和世界的眼中过着正派的生活。哦！但是说服这样的人爱上基督是一件大事，因为他们认为自己已经拥有足够的条件进入天堂；但这只是一个错误。他们只是把本性当作真正的恩典。世界上有成千上万的人被这种迷惑所蒙蔽。我希望你们努力去了解什么是真正的良心从死行中净化出来；为了罪而夜不能寐；你们是否被迫这样说：“主啊，如果我拥有基督，我愿意为他放弃一切，因为他比一切都更有价值。”哦！认识神的儿子和他的卓越之处。如果人们有这样的想法，并且知道他们多么需要基督，哦！他们会对基督这样一个卓越的救主给予多么高的评价！

Now there is cast in here a word, by the way, of the prayer of the forlorn son and of his father's welcome to him. If ye will compare his prayer with the prayer he resolved upon while he was in a strange country, there is something left out of his last prayer, and he gets not all said that he would say. Ay, he gets it but half said. There can be no other reason for it but this. The forlorn son was struck with confusion and sorrow and grief for offending his father, and with astonishment and wondering that his Lord and Father met him, and that at their meeting there is nothing but words of love, whereas he deserved no such thing.
现在在这里有一个词，顺便说一下，是关于那个可怜的儿子的祈祷和他父亲对他的欢迎。如果你将他的祈祷与他在陌生国家时决定的祈祷进行比较，他最后的祈祷中有一些被省略了，他没有说出他想说的全部。是的，他只说了一半。这只能有一个原因，那就是可怜的儿子因冒犯父亲而感到困惑、悲伤和悲痛，对他的主和父亲与他相遇感到惊讶和惊奇，在他们相遇时只有爱的话语，而他并不配得到这样的待遇。

And there is none but when they come to seek God, at their first meeting with Him they shall find confusion and shall have broken prayers to God, like that we read in the Psalm 6:3: "O Lord, how long! Return, O Lord, deliver my soul! O save me!" Sorrow and desire fighting together—and so the poor soul is overwhelmed. So was it with the forlorn son at this time: his heart was so tane up with the consideration of his father's love, and with the sense of his own unworthiness, that it is no wonder that he forgot the half of his prayer.
当他们来寻求上帝时，除了混乱之外，他们在与上帝初次见面时会有破碎的祷告，就像我们在诗篇 6:3 中所读到的：“耶和华啊，你要转回，救我的灵魂；因为你的慈爱，求你救我！”悲伤和渴望一起斗争，所以可怜的灵魂被压倒了。这个时候，这个可怜的儿子也是如此：他的心被考虑到父亲的爱和自己的不值得感所占据，所以他忘记了一半的祷告，这也不足为奇。

We may learn here, that the prayers of the children of God when they come to pray to Him are not aye so logical and so methodic, that there is nothing left out of them, that they should say that all their prayers are set down in rhetorical and logical terms; neither are we to think that God answers no other prayers but those that are formed that way. No; you will ofttimes find the prayers of the children of God to be imperfect this way; and yet the Lord for all that makes them and their prayers welcome to Him. For in prayer He looks not so meikle to words as He does to the meaning of his own spirit. Ye will find in the Word of God there are seven sorts of expressions that are called prayer; and yet in our form of speaking we only call that prayer when a sinner pours out his heart to the Lord, and vocally utters his mind to Him.
我们可以从这里学到，当上帝的子民来向祂祷告时，他们的祷告并不总是那么逻辑和有条理，不是每个细节都被包含在内，不能说他们的祷告都是以修辞和逻辑的方式表达的；我们也不应该认为只有那样形式的祷告才能得到上帝的回应。不，你会经常发现上帝的子民的祷告在这方面是不完美的；然而，尽管如此，主仍然欢迎他们和他们的祷告。因为在祷告中，祂并不那么注重言辞，而是注重自己灵的意义。你会在上帝的话语中发现有七种被称为祷告的表达方式；然而在我们的说法中，只有当一个罪人向主倾吐心声，并口头表达自己的意愿时，我们才称之为祷告。

First: The Lord He acknowledges crying to be prayer, even crying where there is no distinct voice, as in Psa. 22:1; and in Psa. 69: "Why art Thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring, O my God. I cry in the day-time, and Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent." And David is brought, in Psalm 69, crying until his throat be dry, and till he be weary, and, indeed, crying to the Lord's majesty, albeit it be not joined with words. When the heart is going with the cry, it is prayer. When David makes a noise that way the Lord acknowledges that for prayer, and esteems it to be no less than prayer. Again—
首先：主耶和华承认哭泣是祷告，即使是在没有明确声音的情况下，就像在诗篇 22:1 中所说的那样；在诗篇 69 中也说：“神啊，求你救我，因为众水要淹没我。我陷在深淤泥中，没有立足之地；我到了深水中，大水漫过我身。”我白天呼求，你不应允；夜间呼求，也不得安宁。”并且在诗篇 69 中，大卫一直哭泣，直到喉咙干涸，直到疲惫不堪，实际上是向主的威严哭泣，尽管没有与言语结合。当心与哭泣同行时，那就是祷告。当大卫以这种方式发出声音时，主承认那是祷告，并认为它不亚于祷告。再次-

Second: The Lord counts the very breathing, and that is less, to be prayer. The afflicted Kirk says (Lam. 3:56): "Thou hast heard my voice, hide not Thine ear at my breathing, at my cry." When the Kirk of God is under distress they are but sending up their very breathing to the Lord, and beseech Him to accept of it. And David panting to the Lord, it is accepted. The speech is borrowed from them who cannot speak being out of breath, and so they pant. "I have panted for Thee all the day long," and the Lord welcomes that as praying.
其次：主计算着每一次呼吸，即使是微弱的呼吸，也算作祷告。受苦的教会说（耶哀哀书 3:56）：“你曾听见我的声音，不要掩耳不听我的呼吸，我的哀号。”当上帝的教会遭受困厄时，他们只是将他们微弱的呼吸送给主，并恳求他接受。大卫渴望主，这也被接受。这种说法是从那些因为上气不接下气而无法说话的人那里借来的，所以他们喘气。 “我整天为你喘气”，主将其视为祷告。

Third: The lifting up of the eyes is exponed as prayer, and therefore in Psalm 69 that is a part of David's complaint that his eyes failed with looking up, and he gat no answer of the Lord; Psa. 5:3: "O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and look up," says David. Looking up, with the eyes towards the Lord, is one of these gestures that He esteems. All these are sacrifices of the heart which the Lord makes welcome, albeit words be not joined with them.
第三点：抬起眼睛被解释为祈祷，因此在诗篇 69 中，大卫抱怨他的眼睛因仰望而失去了力量，并且他没有得到上主的答复；诗篇 5:3：“上主啊，我早晨要向你祈祷，仰望你。”大卫如此说。仰望上主，用眼睛朝向上主，是上主看重的姿势之一。所有这些都是上主欢迎的心灵的奉献，即使没有言语与之相连。

Fourth: Making moans in prayer the Lord accounts it as prayer. Jer. 31:18: "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself." The like is spoken of King Hezekiah (Isa. 38:14), that he chattered like a crane, or a swallow, and mourned as a dove; and Ezek. 7:16: "They that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains as doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity." The Spirit of God is speaking there of a repenting people that they shall mourn for their iniquities as doves of the valleys.
第四点：在祷告中发出呻吟声，主将其视为祷告。耶利米书 31:18：“我实在听见以法莲为自己悲叹。”以赛亚书 38:14 也提到希西家王，他像鹤或燕子一样叽叽喳喳，像鸽子一样哀叹；以西结书 7:16：“他们中逃脱的人必逃脱，必在山上像谷中的鸽子，各人为自己的罪孽悲叹。”上帝的灵在那里说的是一个悔改的民族，他们将为自己的罪孽像谷中的鸽子一样悲叹。

Fifth: Prayer is expressed by sighing and sobbing. The Lord is said (Psa. 102:20) to look down from heaven, to hear the groaning of the prisoner; and Rom. 8:26 it is said, we ourselves know not what to pray, but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed. Even dumb sighs that want auricular words and verbal expressions the Lord accepts them as prayer.
第五点：祈祷通过叹息和哭泣来表达。据说主（诗篇 102:20）从天上俯视，听囚犯的呻吟；罗马书 8:26 说，我们自己不知道该怎样祷告，但圣灵为我们代求，用无法言喻的叹息。即使是无言的叹息，没有听觉的词语和言辞，主也接受它们作为祈祷。

Sixth: Stretching out the hands is put for prayer; also as in Psa. 88:9: "Lord, I have stretched out my hands unto Thee;" and in Psa. 143:6, David says, "I stretch forth my hands unto Thee." The Lord accounts that to be prayer in His estimation.
第六点：伸出双手是为了祈祷；就像在诗篇 88:9 中所说：“主啊，我向你伸出双手；”以及在诗篇 143:6 中，大卫说：“我向你伸出双手。”主认为这是祈祷。

Seventh: Even tears, where the children of God dow not pray, they have a voice unto the Lord, as we may see Psa. 6:8: "Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping."
第七点：即使是没有祈祷的上帝的子民的眼泪，也有向主呼喊的声音，正如我们在诗篇 6:8 中所见：“你们一切作孽的人，离开我吧！因为耶和华听了我哀哭的声音。”

Any of these expressions in prayer, whether it be crying, breathing, or panting, lifting up the eyes, making a moan, stretching out the hands, sighing and sobbing, or if it be but a tear, or some few tears where words are not, but the mind is confused with sorrow and grief, the Lord makes all these or any of them welcome, and counts them prayer. This answers many doubts that trouble the children of God.
无论是哭泣、呼吸、喘息，抬头、呻吟、伸出双手、叹息和哭泣，或者只是一滴泪，或者在无法言说的时候，心灵被悲伤和痛苦所困扰，主都欢迎并将其视为祷告。这回答了许多困扰上帝子民的疑惑。

Some will say, "Alas! I cannot get words in prayer, and so can look for nothing at the Lord's hand."
有些人会说：“唉！我在祷告中无法找到言辞，所以在主的手中什么也得不到。”

Answer: God is that kind, that dumb beggars get alms from Him as well as speaking beggars. Alas! if we would learn to tell God in the morning in our family, what ails us or them. And ye need not a book to do this to signify to Him what ails you, for the Lord will accept of a sigh, if thou cannot get a look to Him nor speak to Him. Make both a sign to the Lord, and lift up your eyes and your heart to Him, and acknowledge to Him what ye are. Speak to the Lord as ye can, and I will assure you He will not find fault with your prayers for want of order and method, and because ye want logic in them; for it is the heart the Lord looks to. It is the sighing of his spirit that he specially beholds.
答案：上帝是那样的慈悲，即使是哑巴乞丐也能从他那里得到施舍，和会说话的乞丐一样。唉！如果我们能学会在早晨告诉上帝，我们或他们有什么病痛。你不需要一本书来告诉他你有什么病痛，因为主会接受你的叹息，即使你不能看到他，也不能对他说话。向主作个记号，抬起你的眼睛和心灵，向他承认你是谁。用你能的方式与主交谈，我向你保证，他不会因为你的祷告缺乏秩序和方法，或者因为你缺乏逻辑而责备你；因为主看重的是心灵。他特别注视的是他的灵魂的叹息。

There be some who complain they could never get a prayer put up to God all their life's time that they could count [to be] prayer. There may be reasons for this, I grant, for there be some who will pray earnestly to the Lord, who will not get fine terms in prayer, and this is no want in prayer when all is done. For sometimes the constitution of the natural parts will do this, as want of that measure of natural abilities that others have, and sometimes the grief of the mind will be greater than that the tongue can express the same; but the Lord esteems more of the sighings of the spirit nor of all the finest terms that can be uttered. [By] the poets it is said that some, being about great matters, they have been so much tane up therewith that they could not speak, and so have gone away stricken in dumbness, and that has been accounted sufficient to represent the weightiness of the matter; and therefore the children of God should not be cast down for any of those things.
有些人抱怨他们一生中从未能够向上帝祈祷，他们认为这些祈祷不能算作真正的祷告。我承认这可能有原因，因为有些人会真诚地向主祷告，但他们的祷告并不使用华丽的措辞，但这并不代表祷告有所欠缺。有时候，自然能力的限制可能导致这种情况，比如缺乏他人拥有的自然才能；有时候，心灵的痛苦可能超过了舌头所能表达的范围；但主更看重灵魂的叹息，而不是所有华丽措辞的祷告。诗人们说，有些人在面对重大事务时，会被这些事务所吸引，以至于无法开口说话，他们默默无言地离开，这已足以表达事务的重要性；因此，上帝的子民不应因为这些事情而沮丧。

But what cares He for the bowing of the head, or spreading out the hand, or lifting of the eyes, or breathing, or crying? No; He cares for no sort of expression that can be used where the spirit is not humbled in His sight. But where the spirit is humbled before Him, O! but the least expression that such can make is very welcome to Him, if it were but a sigh, or a sob, or a lifted-up head, or hand, or eye; till more come, He will accept of that, and will not let it go without an answer. If ye would set up a kirk to God, every one that has a family, in your families, and learn to speak to Him there, it would be a welcome and acceptable sacrifice to Him. It is a sore matter that so many should say they cannot speak to God in their families. If any of you have a suit to present to any magistrate, ye will seek him out and present your suit to him yourselves. Ay, ye will take upon you to speak to a king if it be a matter that concerns life and death. Nature teaches you to do that. But it must be the spirit of adoption that maun teach you to pray to God; and I assure you all the book prayers in the world will not teach you this lesson to pray to God. The Lord gives the spirit of prayer unto His children in a special manner, and therefore this should be sought of Him. And this proves you to be the sons of God, indeed, when ye can thus speak to Him in prayer. What says the first word of the Lord's prayer? Says it not, "Our Father which art in heaven," teaching us this far that none can pray right to God but those who can in faith say "Our Father," and apply Him to be their Father. Those who can only call the Lord their Creator, the Lord who provides for them, who keeps them in being, they cannot pray right to the Lord, but only those who can call Him "Our Father."
但他到底在乎头的低垂，还是手的展开，或者是举起的眼睛，或者呼吸，或者呼喊吗？不，他不在乎一点点表达，只要灵魂能在他面前谦卑。但当灵魂在他面前谦卑时，啊！对于他们所能做的最小的表达，他会非常欢迎，就算只是一声叹息、一声抽泣、或者抬起的头、手或眼睛；直到更多的表达来临时，他都会接受，并不会让它就此罄止。如果你们想为上帝建立一座教堂，你们每个家庭成员，都在家中学会与他说话，那将是上帝所欢迎和接纳的祭祀。很多人声称他们在家庭中无法与上帝交谈，这非常令人痛心。如果你们中任何人有请求要向任何官员提出，你会亲自去找他并呈递你的请求。是的，如果是关乎生死的事情，你甚至会冒昧地对国王说话。这是自然教导你要这样做。但应该是领养的灵，教导你向上帝祈祷；我向你们保证，世上再多的祈祷书也教不会你祈求上帝这一课。 主以特殊的方式赐予祷告的灵给祂的儿女，因此应当向祂寻求。当你们能够这样在祷告中与祂交流时，这实证了你们确实是神的儿子。主祷文的第一个字是什么？它不是说：“我们在天上的父”，教导我们只有那些能以信心说“我们的父”，并将祂视为自己的父亲的人才能正确地向神祷告。那些只能称呼主为他们的创造者、供应者、保护者的人，他们不能正确地向主祷告，只有那些能称呼祂为“我们的父”的人才能。"

Another thing here in this confession, he says: "I have sinned against heaven and against thee." He was far from God while he was riotously wasting all that his father gave him. To say, "I have sinned against heaven and against thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son," comes from another heart than he had before. And to say this as this forlorn son said it, none can do it but one who is a new and converted man. We read that David said this when Nathan came to him and accused him of his sin. He says: "Against Thee, against Thee only have I sinned" (Psa. 51:3). It is a great matter to say this right—not to say the syllables thereof distinctly; that is easily done; but to say this from the heart, this is a work of the Lord's Spirit, and only the converted child of God can say it after this manner. Where was this prayer when he prayed to his father: "Father, give me the portion of goods of that which falleth unto me; I am tired of your company, and therefore give me what you will give me, and let me go my ways and be my own tutor"?
在这个忏悔中，他说：“我得罪了天，也得罪了你。”当他挥霍了父亲给他的一切时，他远离了上帝。说：“我得罪了天，也得罪了你，不配再被称为你的儿子”，这是来自一个与以前不同的心。像这个可怜的儿子这样说，只有一个新的、归向上帝的人才能做到。我们读到，大卫在拿单来指责他的罪时也这样说。他说：“我得罪了你，我得罪了你一个人”（诗篇 51:3）。能够正确地说出这句话是一件大事，不是说清楚每个音节；那很容易做到；而是从内心说出这句话，这是主的灵的工作，只有归向上帝的儿女才能以这种方式说出来。当他向父亲祈祷时，这个祷告在哪里：“父啊，把我应得的家产给我吧；我厌倦了和你在一起，所以给我你愿意给我的，让我走我的路，做我的导师”？

But we may learn here: There is no man, so long as he is in the estate of sin, that is sensible it is so. But fra once we are converted and turn unto the Lord, then we feel our sores, and see that we have been sinning against the Lord. Now there are three reasons wherefore it is so.
但是我们可以从这里学到：只要一个人处在罪恶的状态中，他就不会意识到这一点。但是一旦我们转变并归向主，我们就会感受到我们的伤口，并意识到我们一直在得罪主。现在有三个原因解释为什么会这样。

First: You know people use to say, "A green wound is half whole." All have reason to say they have sinned against the Lord. But sin is not sensible of itself. Grace, indeed, knows grace to be grace; but sin knows not sin to be sin. Death knows not that death is death, but life knows life to be life. A man that is beastly drunk knows not that he is so, but when he is fresh and free of drink, he will know himself to be so; for drink, where it is, puts the senses out of the right place, and so they cannot discern. Now, while a man is in the state of sin, he is even like a man dead drunk. Therefore it is said, "They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink" (Isa. 29:9). To persuade the natural man that drinking is a sin, and such a great sin as indeed it is, that we cannot get done. Can we make the blasphemer of the Lord's name believe that for that sin, if he repent not, his tongue shall be tormented in hell's fire for ever and ever? A man that is in the estate of nature he knows not what the ill of those sins is. But when some sense of the life of God is begun in the soul, when grace begins to grow, and the Lord begins to show His loving-kindness in some measure, then they begin to see their wanderings. And when that is so, Ephraim begins to say (Jer. 31:18): "I am as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke;" but not till then. And there are two reasons for this—
首先：你知道人们常说，“绿色的伤口是半个愈合。”所有人都有理由说他们得罪了主。但罪恶本身并不明智。恩典确实知道恩典是恩典；但罪恶不知道罪恶是罪恶。死亡不知道死亡是死亡，但生命知道生命是生命。一个醉得像兽一样的人不知道自己是这样的，但当他清醒并不饮酒时，他会知道自己是这样的；因为酒精会使感官失去正常位置，所以无法辨别。现在，当一个人处于罪恶状态时，他就像一个醉酒的人一样。因此，有人说：“他们醉了，但不是因为酒；他们摇晃，但不是因为烈酒”（以赛亚书 29:9）。说服一个自然人喝酒是一种罪恶，而且是一种如此巨大的罪恶，以至于我们无法完成。我们能让亵渎主名的人相信，如果他不悔改，他的舌头将在地狱的火焰中永远受苦吗？一个处于自然状态的人不知道这些罪恶的恶果是什么。 但当上帝的生命开始在灵魂中产生某种感知，当恩典开始增长，主开始以某种程度显示祂的慈爱时，他们开始看到自己的迷失。当如此时，以法莲才开始说（耶利米书 31:18）：“我好像不习惯负轭的牛犊。”但直到那时才会如此。这有两个原因-

First: Because it is an infused light from heaven that lets man see sin and the breach of the law. A natural conscience, I grant, will say something to this, but it lets not the sinner see sin every way as it is, for it lets him not see the main object against whom sin is committed—lets us not see that glorious Majesty whom we provoke by our sins, before whom the glorious angels cover their face when they behold Him, and the heavens are not clean in His sight. There are two things to be seen in Christ if we look right unto Him. There is light and divinity; or rather there is in Him light and Divine light. There is a Divine power that comes from God to convince a sinner of the estate that he is in. The natural conscience will see and discern those sins to be sins that pagans, wild Americans, Turks, may also see, as killing of father or mother, adultery, oppression, &c. But to see spiritual sins to be sins, as to see and discern the pride of their nature to be a sin—that they cannot. Unbelief in the Son of God, no[t] making conscience to sanctify the Lord's day, to set up His worship in families, to keep correspondence with Him in heart, &c.—a natural conscience cannot see such to be sins; for as the natural conscience cannot believe in the Son of God, it being a supernatural work, so the natural conscience cannot see unbelief in the Son of God to be a sin, for it sees no form or privation therein. Thus it is supernatural light that maun let us see such sins as these to be sins. That which is called divinity in the conscience, if it be right and sound divinity, it is a plant which the Lord Himself plants there.
首先：因为它是来自天堂的注入的光，让人看到罪恶和违反法律的行为。我承认，自然的良心会对此有所反应，但它并不能让罪人完全看到罪恶的本质，因为它不能让他们看到罪恶所针对的主要对象——不能让我们看到那位我们因罪恶而激怒的威严荣耀，使得那些荣耀的天使在看到祂时掩面，天堂在祂眼中也不洁净。如果我们正确地注视基督，就会看到两件事。有光明和神性；或者更确切地说，有光明和神圣的光。有一种来自上帝的神圣力量，能够使罪人认识到自己所处的状态。自然的良心会看到并辨别出那些罪恶，就像异教徒、野蛮人、土耳其人也能看到的那些罪恶，比如杀父母、通奸、压迫等。但是要看到属灵的罪恶，比如看到并辨别出他们本性中的骄傲是一种罪恶，他们却做不到。不相信神的儿子，不以良心来尊重主日，不在家庭中设立祂的崇拜，不与祂在心灵上保持联系等。-一颗天然的良心无法看到这些是罪过；因为天然的良心无法相信上帝的儿子，因为这是超自然的工作，所以天然的良心无法看到不信上帝的儿子是一种罪过，因为它在其中看不到形式或缺失。因此，只有超自然的光才能让我们看到这些罪过是罪过。被称为良心中的神学，如果是正确和健全的神学，那就是主亲自在那里种植的一棵植物。

I observe this now for this cause, because I persuade myself of this, that the main cause wherefore multitudes in the world run on headlong into many ill courses without any awe or fear of the Lord's majesty and of His judgments, it is because they have no supernatural light in their conscience, for where this supernatural light is, it prevails against all temptations that can be cast into our way to draw to sin. But where all the light that one has is natural light that is soon overcome. There is no man that will abstain from sin as sin, but the man who has more than the light of nature. The main reason wherefore the world goes on in sin, and there are so many gods set up therein to be worshipped, and wherefore men live in drunkenness and in the breach of the Lord's day, wherefore they fear not an oath, as Solomon says; the reason wherefore men care not to live contentedly in the ignorance of God, it is because they want this supernatural light to awaken them. Never man shall go right to heaven who is pleased with the way he is in, as natural men are pleased with their way. This form of service to God contents them, and they will never speer whether that form be right or not. They never question but they are on the way to heaven, and that they have the marks of the children of God.
我现在观察到这个原因，是因为我深信，世界上许多人毫无敬畏上帝的威严和审判地奔向许多邪恶的道路的主要原因，是因为他们的良心中没有超自然的光芒，因为只有超自然的光芒才能战胜所有引诱我们犯罪的诱惑。但是，如果我们只有自然的光芒，很快就会被克服。没有人会因为罪而戒慎，除非他拥有超越自然的光芒。世界继续犯罪的主要原因，以及为什么有那么多偶像被设立来崇拜，为什么人们沉迷于酗酒和违反主日的行为，为什么他们不敬畏誓言，正如所罗门所说的；人们不在无知中满足地生活的原因，是因为他们缺乏这种超自然的光芒来唤醒他们。没有一个满足于自己现状的人会走向天堂，就像自然人满足于自己的方式一样。他们满足于这种事奉上帝的形式，他们永远不会去探究这种形式是否正确。 他们从不质疑，但他们正走向天堂，并且他们拥有上帝的子女的标记。

This says that many believe themselves to be right when they are wrong, and in the end shall be deceived; or then they would be after speering what shall become of them in that day, when they shall appear before the Lord in judgment. "Lord! if we could but once persuade you of this, that we could bring men to acknowledge they are in a state of sin, to be convinced that they are undone if they find not salvation in Christ, and win not to heaven another way than by anything I can do myself." And while the world is thus blinded as the most part, what marvel that they say they have faith in Christ, that they believe as well as any, while in the meantime there is no such matter!
这表明许多人在错误时自以为是，最终将被欺骗；或者他们会在那一天出现在主面前受审判时，才会明白自己将会怎样。 "主啊！如果我们能够说服您，让人们承认他们处于罪恶状态，让他们确信如果找不到基督的救恩，不通过我自己的努力就无法进入天堂，那该多好啊。" 当世界大部分人都被蒙蔽时，他们说自己对基督有信仰，相信得和任何人一样，这并不奇怪，而实际上并非如此！

For Christ's sake be not beguiled, and deceive not yourselves as the most part do. There are hundreds of you who hear me that trow you are going to heaven and will not be put off it. But it is so. But when it comes to that part of it, "Give account of your stewardship," and the poor soul maun be judged according to the works done in the flesh, whether they be good or bad, O! there will be wakening then, and ye will see that ye have been far wrong! But alas! it is out of time when a sinner is once wrong, and doubts not that it is so. He goes on, and so still goes further wrong, even like a traveller going in an unknown way. He goes wrong, and ay the further he goes that way he is the worse and the further from his lodging; and when night comes he is disappointed of lodging, and lies in the fields, because he never doubted that he was in a wrong way, and so speered not for the right way.
基督的缘故，请不要被欺骗，也不要自欺欺人，就像大多数人一样。在座的你们中有数百人认为自己将去天堂，不会被拒之门外。但事实并非如此。但当涉及到“交账”这一部分时，可怜的灵魂必须根据在肉体中所做的善恶行为来受审判，哦！那时将会醒悟，你们会看到自己走得太远了！但唉！一旦一个罪人一错再错，并且毫不怀疑自己是错的，那就为时已晚。他继续前行，越走越远离正确的路，就像一个走在未知道路上的旅行者。他走错了，而且越走越远离目的地；当夜幕降临时，他失望地无处可宿，只能躺在田野里，因为他从未怀疑自己走错了路，所以也没有寻找正确的道路。

It were good for us to speer and try in time, if we be in the way to heaven or not, and to be earnest to know what shall become of you when ye shall be called to give an account of your behaviour, what it has been, how ye have spent your life, and what you have profited by the hearing of the gospel. What wilt thou answer to God, who hast had twenty years' occasion of hearing the Word, receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and had many occasions of that kind, and yet are not the better of these, not a whit wiser to salvation than at the first? But alas! I see I was beguiled. I thought I had been right enough, and yet thou shalt see then thou wast close wrong. Such are those who shall come at the last day and say to Christ, "We have preached, wrought miracles in Thy name; we have eaten and drunken at Thy table, &c., and so thought all was well enough." But Christ tells them they were mistane,and He shall say to them, "Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity." This will be a cold meeting with the Son of God, and yet thousands shall be met therewith who will not believe it now, and will not examine their case to see if they be right or not. Lord, make us wise to see and try our case in time, that so we be not deceived with many others, and to this Lord, to His Father and our Father, and the Spirit of grace, be all praise and dominion and glory for ever.—Amen.
我们最好及时探索和尝试，看看我们是否走上了通往天堂的道路，并且要认真了解当你被召唤来述说你的行为时，你将会怎样，你的行为是什么样的，你如何度过你的生活，以及你从听福音中获得了什么益处。你将如何回答上帝，你已经有了二十年的机会听道，领受主的晚餐，并有许多类似的机会，但你并没有因此变得更好，对得救一点也不更加明智。但唉！我看到我被欺骗了。我以为我做得够好了，但你将会看到你当时是完全错误的。这样的人将在末日来到基督面前，对基督说：“我们以你的名传道，行了奇迹；我们在你的桌子上吃喝，等等，所以觉得一切都很好。”但基督告诉他们他们是错的，他会对他们说：“你们这些作孽的人离开我。”这将是与上帝之子的冷漠相遇，然而成千上万的人将在那时遇见，他们现在不相信，也不会检查自己的情况，看看他们是否正确。 主啊，使我们明智地及时审视和尝试我们的情况，以免被其他人所欺骗。愿荣耀和统治权永远归于主，归于祂的父亲和我们的父亲，以及恩典的圣灵。阿门。

The Forlorn Son—the Father's Expressed Welcome
失落的儿子——父亲的真挚欢迎

"But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry."—LUKE 15:22–23.
但父亲对仆人说：“快拿出上等的袍子给他穿上，把戒指戴在他手上，把鞋穿在他脚上。再把肥牛犊牵来宰了，我们可以吃喝快乐。”—路加福音 15:22-23。

WHO has such opportunity, beloved in our Lord, of our Lord's kindness to a soul running to a free Saviour as those who have once been rebels and are come home again to their Lord and Father. None can sing mercies' song so well as they who can do it out of sense and experience. None can do this so well as one who can say, "Once I was blind, but now I see. I was dead once, but now I live. Once I was a child of Satan and an heir of hell, but now I am made an adopted son of God, and an heir of heaven." Who can speak more to our Lord's commendation out of experience, nor a home-coming sinner thus made welcome to his Lord and Father again? You heard in the first part of this parable how our Lord was pleased with this forlorn, and what welcome the father gave him, or ever he spake one word of apology for himself, or ever he made any prayer at all, his father fell upon his neck and kissed him, for he waited not upon our God to move Him to be merciful unto us. He will not wait till He gets a hire for His mercy. He waits not till we make some way on our part for any good He is to do to us. He may not look for anything from us that will down-weigh the weights of His free love. O! so weighty as that is there is meikle telling there. Nothing in us to prevene the same. But or ever this poor forlorn son speak a word he falls upon his neck and kisses him. And then when he makes his prayer to his Lord, leaving the half of that he resolved to say unspoken, God welcomes it. The Son of God, the same Lord who is here called Father, He passed by all the slips of his prayer, and commands that he be received by the servants of the house as a son and not as a servant. And truly they will be very feckless and confused prayers that come from any spunk of faith that our Lord will not accept and make welcome. Yea, in Hosea 14:2, he learns His Kirk what to say to Him when they come: "Take with you words, turn to the Lord and say to Him, Take away all iniquity, and save us graciously. So will we render the calves of our lips," &c. He will take half-prayers, or He want all, even prayers where words are missed, and the meaning they intended to be at. Ay, He will take sighing and sobbing for prayer, the lifting up of the hands, or of the eyes, &c., so content is He with what His Spirit says, however it be said, as it is Rom. 8:26, He knows the meaning of the Spirit. He seeks no more for a prayer at some times but a believing sigh that is a work of His Spirit. And when we know not what we are doing, He knows well enough the meaning of His own Spirit, and can put a perfect commentary upon that, albeit we know not what it will do, that no man should think the Lord will not hear their prayers, because they have not good oratory to speak to the Lord in prayer, because they cannot speak as a print book, and set all the words in order, and so leave off to pray to the Lord. No, the Lord He hears the very breathing of His Kirk, Lam. 3:56. Ay, when His children cannot speak, and they have no words to say to Him for what they would be at, they may be confident to be heard, for many a dumb beggar has gotten almost at His door. They who cannot set their words in good method and order in prayer, if their heart look honestly toward the Lord, then He accepts of the sighs and good meaning of such, and takes that for prayer, and will answer it. So that all who come to Christ as they are bidden, and come in truth and sincerity, may be comforted in this, that their prayers shall not be cast away of Him.
谁有这样的机会，亲爱的主，我们主的恩慈对于一个奔向自由救主的灵魂来说是何等宝贵，就像那些曾经是叛逆者，现在回到他们的主和父的人一样。没有人能像他们一样出于感知和经历来歌唱恩典之歌。没有人能像一个能够说：“我曾经是盲目的，但现在我看见了。我曾经是死的，但现在我活着了。我曾经是撒旦的孩子和地狱的继承人，但现在我成为了上帝的养子和天堂的继承人。”谁能更好地通过经历来称赞我们的主，或者一个归家的罪人再次受到他的主和父的欢迎呢？你在这个寓言的第一部分听到了我们的主对这个可怜的人的喜悦，以及父亲在他还没有为自己辩解，还没有做任何祷告之前就拥抱他并亲吻他，因为他不等待我们的上帝感动他对我们施以怜悯。他不会等到得到对他的怜悯的报酬。他不等待我们在我们这方面做出一些努力来获得他要给予我们的任何善行。他不会期待我们的任何行为能够抵消他自由的爱的重量。哦！ 那是如此重要，以至于有很多事情可以说。我们内心没有任何阻止这样做的东西。但在这个可怜的孤独儿子说出一句话之前，他就扑到他的脖子上亲吻他。然后当他向他的主祈祷时，他留下了他决定不说出口的一半，上帝欢迎了这个祈祷。上帝的儿子，也就是这里被称为父亲的同一主，他忽略了他祈祷中的所有错误，命令仆人们将他接纳为儿子而不是仆人。而且，无论我们的主接受还是欢迎，只要是出自信仰的火花的虔诚祈祷，都将是非常无能和困惑的。是的，在何西阿书 14:2 中，他教导他的教会当他们来到时对他说什么：“你们要带着话来，归向耶和华，对他说，求你除净罪孽，悦纳我们，我们要用嘴唇的果子偿还你。”他会接受一半的祈祷，或者他想要全部，即使是在祈祷中错过了一些词语和他们原本的意思。是的，他会接受叹息和哭泣作为祈祷，举起双手或抬头等等，他对他的灵所说的话非常满意，无论它是如何说的，正如罗马书 8:26 所说，他知道圣灵的意思。 他不再寻求某些时候的祈祷，只需要一声信仰的叹息，这是他的灵的工作。当我们不知道自己在做什么时，他却非常清楚他自己的灵的意义，并且能够对此作出完美的解释，尽管我们不知道它会产生什么效果，但没有人应该认为主不会听到他们的祈祷，因为他们没有好的演讲能力来向主祈祷，因为他们不能像印刷书一样说出所有的话，并且停止向主祈祷。不，主听到他的教会的呼吸，耶利米哀歌 3:56。是的，当他的儿女无法言说，他们没有话对他说出他们想要的，他们可以确信会被听到，因为许多哑巴乞丐几乎已经到了他的门口。那些在祈祷中无法将他们的话语排列有序的人，如果他们的心诚实地朝向主，那么他会接受这些叹息和良好的意愿，并将其视为祈祷，并会回应。因此，所有按照他们所吩咐的方式来到基督面前，并以真实和真诚的心来的人，可以在这方面得到安慰，他们的祈祷不会被主抛弃。

Now, we have the expressed welcome of the Lord towards his forlorn son, and the direction and charge he gives unto his servants for getting ornaments for his body, and entertainment for cheering himself and all the house. For the ornaments that he gives direction to get, it stands in three particulars: First: That they get the best robe and put upon the home-coming sinner. Like enough he was ragged, or he came home, as all are ill clad when they come first to Christ. Second: He commands them to get a ring upon his finger, that is an ornament of honour; and then, Third: To put shoes upon his feet. And then for expression of the joy of the Lord's mind, and the joy of the whole soul, and that all that hear what the Lord has done may be allured thereby, the fat calf is slain that all may rejoice at the home-coming of a lost sinner.
现在，我们有主对他那可怜的儿子的热烈欢迎，以及他对仆人们的指示和命令，让他们为他的身体找到装饰品，并为他自己和整个家庭提供娱乐。关于他给出指示的装饰品，有三个具体的要点：首先，他们要给回家的罪人穿上最好的长袍。很可能他回家时衣衫褴褛，就像所有初次来到基督面前的人一样衣着不整。其次，他命令他们给他戴上一枚戒指，这是一种荣誉的装饰品。然后，他们要给他穿上鞋子。为了表达主的喜悦和整个灵魂的喜悦，并让所有听到主所做之事的人都因此而受到吸引，一只肥牛被宰杀，让所有人都为一个失落的罪人回家而欢欣鼓舞。

O! the rejoicing that our Lord and all the angels make for the home-coming of a lost sinner. There is more joy in heaven for the recovery of one lost sinner than there is for ninety and nine righteous persons. The Lord He knows not how to express His joyfulness and His kindness to a sinner who acknowledges what he has been doing, and repents of his misdeeds! O! repentance, it is an unknown work. Repentance is not known to be so acceptable a sacrifice to the Lord, as indeed it is. A home-coming soul that can get a bleeding heart for sin, that can thrust out an honest tear before the Lord for sin committed against Him, it knows not that God has a bottle to kep that in. They know not that God writes down all their sighs and their sobs, their tears and their sad looks. And because this is not known by the most part, therefore repentance is a slighted and neglected work. The world loves nothing worse than sorrow for sin. They think it a sad and melancholious thing; but there is no joy hereaway comparable to that joy which proceeds from an honest tear shed for sin, and for offending such a majesty as we have to do with.
哦！我们的主和所有的天使为一个失丧的罪人回归家园而欢欣鼓舞。天堂里为一个失丧的罪人的归正而感到的喜悦比为九十九个义人的喜悦还要多。主不知道如何表达他对一个承认自己所做之事并悔改自己过错的罪人的喜悦和仁慈！哦！悔改，这是一个未知的工作。悔改并不被认为是主所接受的祭品，但实际上它是如此。一个回归家园的灵魂，如果能为罪而流血的心，如果能在主面前为得罪他而流下真诚的眼泪，他们不知道上帝有一个瓶子来保存这些。他们不知道上帝记录下他们所有的叹息、哭泣、眼泪和悲伤的表情。因为大多数人不知道这一点，所以悔改成为了一个被轻视和忽视的工作。世界上没有比为罪而悲伤更糟糕的事情了。他们认为这是一件悲伤和忧郁的事情；但在这里没有什么比为罪而流下的真诚的眼泪和得罪我们所面对的这样一位威严的主所带来的喜悦更可比。

Now, the first ornament that our Lord commands to be put upon this prodigal is "The best robe." He commands to put a robe upon him, and the best of the robes. There is no necessity that we should strike largely upon every particular in a parable, if the main scope of the parable be looked unto. And yet there is little in this parable that looks not clearly to point out the state of a sinner in the state of sin, and to show the Lord's welcoming when they return to Him, and to let us see what ornaments He puts upon them when they come to Him.
现在，我们的主命令给这个浪子穿上“最好的长袍”。他命令给他穿上一件长袍，而且是最好的长袍。如果我们关注寓言的主要目的，就没有必要详细讨论每个细节。然而，在这个寓言中，几乎没有什么不清楚地指出罪人在罪中的状态，并展示了当他们回到主那里时，主的欢迎，并让我们看到他们来到主面前时主给他们穿上的装饰品。

First: Ye see he is to be clothed with a "robe," and with "the best robe." While a sinner is in the state of sin he is a ragged creature, and so has need of a robe, if ye will consider him two ways. If ye will consider him as he is, a man in nature, or if ye will consider him as he is, a civil righteous man; for man of himself as he is a natural man has no righteousness at all, or if he have any righteousness if he will say, it is as the phrase is, "A clout with many a hole in it," like that garment spoken of Job 8:14; it is like the spider's web, that garment of man's righteousness—it holds no wind away. All our righteousness is like a menstruous clout (Isa. 64:6). And you will find that all the garments that the natural man, while he is in the state of nature, they are so indeed. For while he has them he is not honest; nor marriage like to be married upon such a bridegroom as Christ. So long as we have no other garment but only our own natural righteousness, it is nothing else but sin, defiled further with sin. Isa. 59:6: "Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands." The works of the natural man are compared there to webs, but their webs will not cover them, for the best things they do there are violence in them and unrighteousness. All those who would be married upon Christ, and would be handseled new with Him for evermore, they must have another covering upon them than their own works, or their civil righteousness. There are two things in all natural garments that make them faulty.
首先，你们看到他将穿上一件“长袍”，以及“最好的长袍”。当一个罪人处于罪恶状态时，他是一个破烂的人，所以需要一件长袍，如果你们从两个方面来考虑他的话。如果你们将他视为一个人的本性，或者将他视为一个公正的人；因为一个人本身作为一个自然人根本没有任何的公义，或者如果他有任何的公义，他会说，就像那句话说的，“一个布片上有许多洞”，就像约伯记 8:14 所说的那件衣服；它就像蜘蛛网一样，那是人的公义的衣服-它无法阻挡风。我们所有的公义都像是一个污秽的布片（以赛亚书 64:6）。你们会发现，当一个自然人处于自然状态时，他们所穿的所有衣服确实如此。因为当他拥有它们时，他并不诚实；也不像要嫁给基督这样的新郎。只要我们没有其他的衣服，只有我们自己的自然公义，那就只是罪恶，进一步被罪恶所玷污。以赛亚 59:6：“他们的网罗不能作衣服，他们的作为也不能遮盖他们；他们的作为都是罪孽的作为，手所行的都是强暴的行为。”自然人的作为被比作网罗，但这些网罗不能掩盖他们，因为他们所做的最好的事情中都有暴力和不义。所有那些想要与基督结合，并永远与他同在的人，他们必须有一种比自己的行为或公民的义行更好的遮盖物。所有自然衣物中都有两个缺点。

First: That no natural garment we can have is able to hold away the cold from us. All those who stand to be Pharisees in the act of justification by the works of the law, or by their own righteousness, they shall be forced at last to say that it will not be able to hold out the rain of the Lord's indignation. And therefore David says, "Lord, enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight no flesh living shall be justified" (Psa. 143:2). "If Thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand." All thir and many moe places. They are shamed both with the lining and the outer half of their garments, which are only covered with nature and civil honesty, and with a seeming righteousness that the natural man counts so meikle of.
首先，我们所穿的任何自然衣服都不能抵挡住寒冷。所有试图凭借律法行为或自己的义来证明自己是法利赛人的人，最终都会被迫承认，这种衣服不能抵挡主怒的雨水。因此，大卫说：“耶和华啊，求你不要按着记念罪孽待你的仆人；因为在你面前，凡活着的人没有一个是义的”（诗篇 143:2）。在许多其他地方也有这样的说法。这些人被他们的衣服内外的内衬和外衣所羞辱，这些衣服仅仅覆盖了自然和社会道德以及外表上的那种看似的义，而自然人认为这是很多的东西。

Another fault in a natural garment is that it is not honest before the Lord. It will be long or God give that commendation to a natural and civil righteous man, that He gives to His spouse in the Song of Solomon: "Thou art all fair, my beloved, thou art all fair: there is no spot in thee." Long or thou smell in his nosethirlsof myrrh, aloes, cassia, and cinnamon. The natural and civil righteous man has no smell of heaven, or of glory. But Isa. 64:6, says, "They smell like a menstruous woman." All their "righteousnesses"—in the plural number—are like filthy rags that will never make a creature beautiful in the sight of God, and therefore there must be such a niffer as that which is spoken of 2 Cor. 5:21: "He must be made sin for us who knew no sin; that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him." These two must be done or we can be clean in the sight of God. Christ must be clothed with our sins, and we, again, must be clothed with His righteousness, and that is the fairest and the closest garment that any can be.
天然的衣物的另一个缺点是在主面前不诚实。上帝给予天然和公民义人的赞美，将会是很长时间，上帝在《雅歌》中对自己的配偶说：“我的爱人，你全然美丽，你全然美丽，你没有瑕疵。”你的鼻孔中闻到没药、沉香、没药和肉桂的香气。天然和公民义人没有天堂或荣耀的气味。但以赛亚书 64:6 说：“我们都像不洁净的人，所有的义都像污秽的衣服。”他们所有的“义”——复数形式——都像污秽的布条，永远不会使一个人在上帝眼中变得美丽，因此必须有像哥林多后书 5:21 所说的那样的交换：“神使那无罪的替我们成为罪，好叫我们在他里面成为神的义。”这两件事必须完成，我们才能在上帝眼中洁净。基督必须穿上我们的罪孽，而我们又必须穿上他的义，这是任何人都能拥有的最美丽、最贴身的衣物。

Now this garment is called "the best garment;" and it is the king's best garment, for it is the righteousness of our Lord. There may be good garments and better garments, but this is the best of all garments. Ay, this garment of Christ's righteousness is better in respect of the event, and for us, than if Adam had stood in the state he was in, and so we to have been clothed with Adam's righteousness. This is the best robe of all—the righteousness of God made ours, Phil. 3:9; the apostle says, "He counted all things but dung that he might win Christ; and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith," clothed with that righteousness, that is, the righteousness of Him who is both God and man. And look what wisdom of God is to be found here! and what goodness and loving-kindness! and such a supernatural providence that whereas the devil, that old serpent, had a mind by Adam's fall to bring Adam and all his posterity in the compass of eternal damnation; yet the Lord has turned about the wheel, so that so many as belong to Him in His election shall get better nor they lost in Adam, a more sure and permanent and glorious estate.
现在这件衣服被称为“最好的衣服”，它是国王最好的衣服，因为它是我们主的公义。可能有好的衣服和更好的衣服，但这是所有衣服中最好的。是的，基督的公义之衣相对于事件对我们来说要比亚当保持原本状态并穿上亚当的公义更好。这是所有衣服中最好的衣服—神的公义成为我们的公义，腓立比书 3:9 中写道；使徒说：“我以认识基督耶稣作我主为至宝，为了他，我已经丢弃一切，看作粪土，为要得着基督，赖以得称义的不是因着我自己的法律义，乃是因着信基督，就是因着信神所赐的义。”穿上那公义，即上帝与人兼之人的公义。看上帝在这里所彰显的智慧！还有他的良善和慈爱！ 而且有一种超自然的安排，虽然魔鬼，那条古老的蛇，希望通过亚当的堕落将亚当和他所有的后裔都置于永恒的诅咒之中；然而，主已经扭转了命运的轮子，以至于所有属于祂选民的人将比亚当失去的更好，拥有更加确实、永久和荣耀的地位。

This reproves those who would have the death of our Lord Jesus for sinners to come by hazard; who say that the Lord at first intended not the incarnation of Christ and His death and sufferings of itself, but at the first He principally intended Adam's obedience, creating him in the state of innocence; and that he was able to stand, but that Adam fell, and then there was a necessity of a Saviour; that He intended no[t] principally, but it came upon our Lord by hazard. This is a wrong unto our Lord, who, from the beginning, intended the glory of His mercy and free grace, and also the glory of His justice. No; the Lord was not deprived of His first intention, as they say, and so behoved to take Him to a second thought. No; for from the beginning the Lord He intended the glory of His mercy to be manifested towards some, and to manifest the glory of His justice upon others, to the glory of His name. And we owe Him hearty thanks for this, that we should be made welcome to get the borrowed righteousness of Jesus; and if we get that, we shall be marriage-like, and our Lord will marry us. Alas! what will the civil living of many do to them without this? No; such are in the way to be lost for ever, and to be naked, so that the cold shall seize upon them, and Christ will not marry them to Him because they live and die and never see themselves to be sinners, and so cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Our Saviour says, "Unless a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." The civil natural man he knows not what that is to be born again, and so lives and dies without seeing himself to stand in need of Christ. He contents himself with the outward calsay godliness, and thinks that enough to take him to heaven. But certainly if thy natural pride be not subdued, and thy worldly-mindedness, thou cannot come there. If thou only seek to be approven in the eyes of the present world, that will fail you, for it is not the best robe; it is not the main thing the Lord gives His elect ones to live a civil life. But those who are clothed with the robe of Christ's righteousness it shall not fail them, but cover them from the cold.
这是对那些认为我们的主耶稣为罪人而死是偶然发生的人的谴责；他们说，主起初并不打算让基督降世并自愿受死和受苦，而是起初主要打算亚当顺从，将他创造成无罪状态；他本来能够站立，但亚当却堕落了，于是就需要一个救主；他并不是主要打算这样，而是这种情况偶然发生在我们的主身上。这是对我们的主的不公，因为从一开始，主就打算彰显他的怜悯和自由恩典的荣耀，以及他的公义的荣耀。不，主并没有被他们所说的剥夺了他的初衷，因此不得不重新考虑。不，因为从一开始，主就打算向一些人彰显他的怜悯的荣耀，并向其他人彰显他的公义的荣耀，以彰显他的名的荣耀。我们应该由衷地感谢他，因为我们可以欢迎得到耶稣的借来的义，如果我们得到了这个，我们将像婚姻一样，我们的主将与我们结合。唉！对于许多人来说，如果没有这个，他们的世俗生活将如何呢？ 不可以，这样的人将永远失去自己，赤身裸体，受冷之苦，基督也不会接纳他们，因为他们活在世上，却从未承认自己是罪人，无法承受上帝的国度。我们的救主说：“人若不重生，就不能进神的国。”那些只活在世俗、自然状态下的人不知道重生是什么，因此一生都没有意识到自己需要基督的拯救。他们只满足于外表上敬虔的行为，并认为这已经足以让他们进入天堂。但是，如果你的天然骄傲和世俗心态没有得到压制，你就无法到达天堂。如果你只是追求在现世得到别人的认可，那将会失去你，因为这不是最好的长袍，也不是主赐给祂所选之人的主要恩赐，用以领受平凡的生命。相反，那些穿上基督义的长袍的人，就不会被世界的寒冷所侵袭。

The second ornament his father appoints for him it is a "ring upon his finger." This is a simple ornament.
他父亲为他指定的第二个装饰品是“戴在手指上的戒指。”这是一个简单的装饰品。

We may learn from this that the laigher a sinner set himself, the Lord will set him up higher. Albeit he set himself very low, the Lord will not do so also. The forlorn son would not believe when he sought a rowme among the servants that his father would [have] advanced him to be a son; he thought it much if he gat that. But now his father makes him a son, and will have him no lower, and he is adorned with the best robe, and gets a ring put upon his finger. Thus we may see, let a humbled sinner set himself very low, God will not do so to him. Also Eph. 3:8: "To me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given to be a preacher of the gospel." Paul there is little in his own conceit, but God counts not so of him also. And when Ananias makes a question, Acts 9:13, if he shall go to Paul shortly after his conversion the Lord says, "Go" to him, "for he is a chosen vessel to carry My name through the world." The Lord gives unto the humbled sinner a high rowme and seat in heaven. The believer is never a whit the worse esteemed in God's books that he counts little of himself. That thou count'st thyself very base and low, shall not blot thy name out of the Lamb's book of life. High shalt thou be in the Lord's books if thou humble thyself very low. Better that the Lord lout, and take thee out of the dust than that thou shalt build thy nest among the stars with Edom, and the Lord to pull you down out of thy nest.
我们可以从中学到，罪人越谦卑自己，主就会抬举他更高。虽然他把自己放得很低，但主也不会这样做。那个失落的儿子不相信，当他在仆人中寻找一个地方时，他的父亲会提升他成为儿子；他觉得如果能得到那个就已经很多了。但现在他的父亲让他成为儿子，不会让他更低，他穿着最好的袍子，戴着戒指。因此我们可以看到，一个谦卑的罪人把自己放得很低，上帝不会这样对待他。以弗所书 3:8 也是如此：“我这最小的，比众圣徒中的最小还小，蒙了这恩典，得以向外邦人传扬基督的浩荡丰盛。”保罗在自己的看法中很渺小，但上帝也不这样看待他。当亚拿尼亚在保罗归主后不久问是否应该去找他时，主对他说：“你去吧，因他是我所拣选的器皿，要在外邦人和君王并以色列人面前宣扬我的名。”主给了谦卑的罪人在天堂中一个高位。相信者在上帝的眼中并不因为他自视甚微而被看轻。你认为自己很卑微和低贱，并不会抹去你在羔羊生命册上的名字。 如果你非常谦卑地低下自己，你将在主的书中得到高位。与其你在尘土中筑巢，主宁愿俯身将你拔起，胜过你与以东一起在星空中筑巢，而主将把你从巢中拉下来。

This speaks against many of the dear children of God that put themselves far beneath themselves, and will not let it light that God has thoughts of peace towards them while indeed He has great and large thoughts towards them for their good. But if believers knew what thoughts God has of them, and what a royal and stately throne He has prepared for them, they would then be over fain, and would set their sails over high, and would not not be so much tane up with the sense of the Lord's loving-kindness. But He will let His children mourn and walk humbly under the sense of their own unworthiness, that they may be the better fitted to make a high preaching of the Lord's goodness and free mercy, who louts Himself to take up those who are so low, and respects them who are little in their own eyes and the eyes of the world about them.
这与许多亲爱的上帝的孩子相悖，他们将自己放得很低，不让上帝对他们怀有和平的想法发光，而实际上，上帝对他们有着伟大而广阔的美好想法。但如果信徒知道上帝对他们的想法，以及他为他们准备的皇家和庄严的宝座，他们将非常高兴，他们会将船帆升得很高，不会过于沉浸在主的慈爱中。但他会让他的孩子们在感受到自己的不值得时哀悼并谦卑地行走，这样他们就能更好地传扬主的善良和自由怜悯，主自己屈尊接纳那些如此卑微的人，并尊重那些在自己和周围世界眼中都微不足道的人。

The third ornament is "shoes upon his feet." Albeit, it is true, we need not, neither will we, stand upon every particular, yet there is good ground for this in Scripture, that a home-coming sinner he is ordained for a journey after he is come home. In Cant 7:1, shoes are spoken of: "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter." And Eph. 6:15, among the rest of the pieces of the spiritual [armour], we are commanded to have our "feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Why would the Lord speak this to His Kirk and children, but to let sinners know when they are come to Him, they may not be barefooted. For there are thorns and sharp rocks in the way to heaven, and therefore we have now to take heed to that exhortation set down Heb. 12:13: "Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." What a sweet word is that which we have in Psa. 119:104: "I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy word." The righteous sinner must take heed where he sets his feet, and not set down his feet in every place, nor be barefooted, for there are moe snares and rough passages in the way to heaven nor ye trow there be. How many are there who go to heaven and sink not in some myres by the way? We have heard of none of these. It is well said that the way to heaven is like a mossy way, some wet their feet as they go through it, and yet win through at last. But some going on unawares they drown in a myre by the way, and never win through. The Lord's children in the way towards heaven must not be barefooted, but have shoes upon their feet, for there are many thorns in the way, as the examples of the servants of God that have gone before us declare. David's adultery and murder was a thorn strake up in his foot, and made him to halt all his days. Noah's drunkenness, and the Lord's chief disciple Peter, [who] in denying his Lord and Master, gets a thorn in his foot, tell us that we had great need to take heed to our feet, and to walk in Christ's way that He has gone before us, to have our feet shod against those rough ways. And how many are there in the world who live and die in adultery and harlotry, living a profane and godless life, not making conscience of swearing, drinking, breaking the Lord's day, and so tyne the right gate to heaven, only because they are not shod with the shoes of the gospel of peace, and see not the right way where they should walk?
第三个装饰品是"他脚上的鞋子"。虽然我们不需要，也不会对每个细节都坚持不放，但圣经中确实有充分的依据，即一个归家的罪人在回家后被命定要踏上旅程。在雅歌 7:1 中，提到了鞋子："王女啊，你的脚穿美丽的鞋子。"而在以弗所书 6:15 中，在属灵装备的其他部分中，我们被命令要"脚穿预备福音之道的鞋子"。主为何要对祂的教会和子民说这话呢？不就是要让罪人知道，当他们来到主面前时，不能赤脚。因为通往天堂的道路上有荆棘和尖锐的岩石，所以我们现在要谨记希伯来书 12:13 中所写的劝告："要为自己的脚修直道路，使瘸子不至于偏离正道。"诗篇 119:104 中的话多么甜美："我禁止我的脚走一切邪恶的道路，为要遵守你的话。"义人罪人必须谨慎脚下之地，不可随意停留，也不可赤脚行走，因为通往天堂的道路上有更多陷阱和崎岖之处，远超你所想。有多少人前往天堂却在途中陷入泥沼？我们从未听说过这些人。有人说得好，通往天堂的道路就像是一条长满苔藓的路，有些人在穿越时湿了脚，但最终成功通过。但有些人不经意间陷入泥沼，永远无法通过。主的子民在通往天堂的道路上不可赤脚行走，必须穿上鞋子，因为道路上有许多荆棘，前人的榜样已经告诉我们。大卫的通奸和谋杀是他脚上的荆棘，使他终身跛行。挪亚的醉酒和主的首要门徒彼得否认主人时，也在脚上扎了荆棘，这告诉我们我们非常需要谨慎脚下，走在基督已经走过的道路上，让我们的脚穿上鞋子以应对那些崎岖的道路。 世界上有多少人活在通奸和娼妓之中，过着亵渎和不虔诚的生活，对于咒骂、饮酒、破坏主日毫不顾忌，因为他们没有穿上福音之平安的鞋子，看不到正确的道路应该走向何方？

There is yet a particular to be marked which is very worthy our observation, and it is also a part of the scope and drift of the parable, and it is this: That our Lord He makes more of the forlorn son coming home again to Him nor he does of the other son who had stayed at home, not departing from the house. For ye see there are no ornaments put upon the eldest son, nor any melody for his biding in the house. Where we may learn this, that repentance and rising by the grace of God out of the state of sin, is better nor all the civility and Pharisaical righteousness in the world. And in some respects this repentance and rising by grace out of the state of sin having fallen, is better nor no sinning at all.
有一个特别需要注意的地方，非常值得我们观察，也是寓言的范围和目的的一部分，就是我们的主更看重那个失落的儿子回到他身边，而不是那个一直留在家里没有离开的儿子。因为你们看到，没有给长子戴上任何装饰，也没有为他在家里演奏任何乐曲。从中我们可以学到，悔改并凭借上帝的恩典从罪恶状态中崛起，比世界上所有的礼貌和法利赛人的义行都更好。在某些方面，这种悔改和凭借恩典从罪恶状态中崛起，比根本不犯罪更好。

There are great questions about this, Whether it had been better for man not to sin, or to sin and get mercy for sin. It is true, I grant, there is danger in the one which is not in the other, and in reference and respect towards us, it were better not to sin than to sin. It were better not to be sick, and so not to need the physician, than to be sick and need his cures. But if we will look unto Christ's feasts and offers that He makes unto us, having sinned, and to the Lord's comforts and refreshments He has prepared for His own, we may say that it is best. And in respect of the Lord and what He gave for repentance; He gave a dear price for repentance, a greater price than was given for Adam's not sinning; for if [he] had continued there needed no repentance, and it was free; but the other cost a very dear price (Acts 5:31). Christ coft repentance. He died and rose again to purchase repentance; and therefore it must be of more worth than Adam's not sinning, seeing it cost our Lord such a price. Ye will grant that a jewel that has cost ten hundred thousand thousand pounds must be better nor that which cost but twenty pounds if he have any skill that coft it. Repentance cost very dear. Ay, it is dearer nor if Adam had stood in the state of innocence to this day, and all His seed with him. It cost no less price than the blessed blood of the Son of God. The Lord in His blessed wisdom foresaw this, for it is not without His providence that our Lord He would suffer man to drown himself in the debt of sin, that he might get a royal and kingly cautioner to relieve him of his debt. He would suffer him to be under the hazard of hell that he might get a lovely Redeemer. He would suffer him to be sin-sick for that end, that he might get a drink of the blood of the Son of God. He would suffer him to do that which procured him to be shot out of Paradise, and from the trees of the garden, that he might have right to the Tree of Life that grows in the midst of the Paradise of God, that bears twelve manner of fruits every month, and to the River of the water of life. And that certainly is better than his first estate was.
关于这个问题有很大的争议，是人最好不犯罪，还是犯罪后得到宽恕。我承认，在这两者中存在着危险，就我们而言，不犯罪比犯罪更好。不生病，不需要医生的治疗，比生病需要医生的治疗更好。但是，如果我们看看基督为我们提供的盛宴和祂为自己准备的安慰和滋养，我们可以说这是最好的选择。就主和祂为悔改所付出的代价而言，祂为悔改付出了昂贵的代价，比亚当不犯罪所付出的代价更大；因为如果亚当继续不犯罪，就不需要悔改，而且悔改是自由的；但是其他的代价非常昂贵（使徒行传 5:31）。基督为悔改付出了代价。祂为购买悔改而死而复活；因此，悔改必定比亚当不犯罪更有价值，因为这代价是我们的主所付出的。你会同意，一颗花费了一千万英镑的珠宝一定比花费了二十英镑的珠宝更好，如果有人有能力购买它。 悔改的代价非常昂贵。是的，它比亚当若站在无罪状态至今，以及他所有的后代，还要更昂贵。它的代价不亚于神的儿子宝贵的血。主在祂的祝福智慧中预见到了这一点，因为我们的主不会让人陷入罪债中而不加干预，祂要让人得到一位皇家和国王般的担保人来解救他的债务。祂要让人处于地狱的危险之下，以便得到一位可爱的救赎主。祂要让人因此而生病，以便得到神的儿子的血。祂要让人做那些导致他被赶出伊甸园和园中的树的事情，以便他能够享有生长在神乐园中央的生命树的权利，那棵树每个月结出十二种果实，并且有生命之水的河流。这无疑比他最初的状态更好。

The Fathers said to this purpose, that the fall of Adam it was felix culpa, not that it was happy in itself, but happy in regard to the consequents of it; to have such a disease as will have the Lord of life Himself to come from heaven for the curing thereof, and take our sickness and infirmities upon Him in our nature, and make us partakers of His Divine nature, and clothe us with the robe of His righteousness!
父辈们说，亚当的堕落是 felix culpa，不是因为它本身是幸福的，而是因为它所带来的后果是幸福的；因为我们有这样一种疾病，以至于生命之主亲自从天上降临来治愈它，并在我们的本性中承担我们的疾病和软弱，使我们分享祂的神性，并给我们穿上祂的义袍！

And if ye will look unto us also, this is better to sin and repent of sin, than to live in a Pharisaical righteousness, or we had stood in our first estate; for there is no man who has such experimental knowledge of the goodness of God as that man has who has been over head and ears in sin. And our Lord gives not a fairer commendation to any as that woman, who wash Christ's feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Christ says she loved much because much was forgiven her, for He had cast seven devils out of her. And Paul was a blasphemer, a persecutor of the Church, thirsting for the blood of the saints, an injurious person, &c., yet being forgiven, and the Lord taking him into His service, he does more glorious works than all the rest of the apostles did. Now this teaches us two things shortly.
如果你们也愿意看重我们，那么犯罪并悔改要比活在法利赛人的义中更好，或者说我们一开始就站在了我们的第一位置；因为没有人比那些深陷罪恶中的人更有对上帝的恩慈的实际认识。我们的主对那个用眼泪洗耶稣脚、用头发擦干的妇人给予了最高的赞扬。基督说她之所以爱得多，是因为她得到了多次宽恕，因为基督曾经从她身上赶出了七个魔鬼。保罗曾经是个亵渎者，迫害教会，渴望圣徒的鲜血，是个恶人等等，但是在得到宽恕后，主接纳他为仆人，他所做的荣耀工作超过了其他使徒的所有工作。现在这教导我们两件事情。

First: That we beware of turning the grace of God into wantonness. For whatever I have said of the excellence of repentance, and rising from the state of sin beyond standing in the first estate of Adam, and not sinning, comes all by accident of the grace of God, and no thanks to the sinner for it. And therefore let no man say because Jesus Christ is come into the world to die for sinners, and to purchase repentance and remission of sins, therefore we will live as we please, and go on in a course of sinning, for that is to tramp the blood of the covenant under foot. He who does so, whatever he be, he knows not the worth of the blood of the Son of God, and the excellence of Jesus our Lord. The dear blood of God that was shed for sin, it should teach us to beware of sin, that seeing our sins put Him to such pain, shame, to so many sore scourges and wounds, and many sad hearts, put Him to those words, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto the death;" "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me," should not this make us to beware to commit sin?
首先，我们要小心将上帝的恩典变成放纵。无论我对悔改的卓越性如何言说，以及从罪恶状态中崛起超越亚当的第一状态，并且不再犯罪，这一切都是上帝的恩典的偶然结果，与罪人无关。因此，不要有人说，因为耶稣基督来到世上为罪人而死，为罪人购买了悔改和罪恶的赦免，所以我们可以随心所欲地生活，继续犯罪，因为那是践踏盟约之血。无论他是谁，这样做的人都不知道上帝之子的宝血的价值和我们的主耶稣的卓越性。上帝所流的宝贵血液为了罪而流，应该教导我们小心犯罪，因为我们的罪使他承受了如此痛苦、羞辱、许多严重的鞭打和伤口，以及许多悲伤的心情，使他说出那些话：“我的心忧愁得要死。”“我的神，我的神，你为什么离弃我？”难道这不应该让我们小心犯罪吗？

And another thing this teaches us, is to let us see what our Lord will do unto them who come home to Him, that He will receive them graciously and pardon them, that no man may despair, and think their sin to be such that mercy and forgiveness and a welcome are above anything they can look for at the Lord's hand. If thou wilt come home to God and Christ, repenting for thy sins, and seek to be into the kingdom He has purchased, there is more remedy for thy disease than can be spoken of, there is more sweetness in our Lord nor the sinner believes to be in Him. The coming to the kingdom, let be to the kingdom of glory, is like the Queen of Sheba's coming to see the glory and order of Solomon's court, she confessed she saw much more than was reported to her. If the natural man know Christ's welcome He gives to a home-coming sinner, how He adorns, puts the robe of His righteousness on them to cover their nakedness, puts a ring on their finger to adorn them, and shoes upon their feet that they may walk the better in His ways, He gives them the joy of the Holy Ghost, and inward peace of conscience, gives them a feast of fat things, gives them to drink of the wines refined upon the lees; think you that they would love sin and the way thereof, as they do? Would they count so meikle of roses and lilies and windle-straes that will presently fade, and there is no more of them. No, certainly. It is because the world knows not what it is to meet with Christ, whose breath is heaven itself, whose comforts transcend far the motions of all natural understanding, that they count so little of Him, and follow after other vanities. O, but there is meikle sweetness in meeting with Christ. Men know not what tranquillity and security under a pacified conscience are. O! but that is solid rejoicing under the hope of glory. Now for this hope's sake, and the hope of redemption laid up for the children of God, we render, to the Father of our Lord Jesus, and our Father, and to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, all praise and glory for ever and ever.—Amen.
这件事还告诉我们，让我们看到我们的主将如何对待回归他的人，他将慈悲地接纳他们并宽恕他们，这样没有人会绝望，认为他们的罪孽是如此之大，以至于在主的手中寻求怜悯、宽恕和欢迎是超出他们所能期望的。如果你愿意回归上帝和基督，为自己的罪孽忏悔，并努力进入他所购买的国度，那么你的病痛将有更多的治疗方法，我们的主比罪人所相信的更甜美。进入国度，无论是荣耀的国度，就像示巴女王来到所罗门宫中看到荣耀和秩序一样，她承认她看到的远比她听说的要多。 如果自然的人知道基督对一个归家的罪人的欢迎，如何装饰他们，给他们穿上他的公义之衣，遮盖他们的赤裸，在他们手上戴上戒指来装饰他们，给他们脚穿上鞋，让他们更好地行走在他的道路上，他赐给他们圣灵的喜乐和内心的平安，赐给他们丰盛的享受，让他们喝精选的酒；你认为他们会像现在这样爱罪和罪恶之道吗？他们还会这样重视将会很快凋谢且再也没有的玫瑰、百合和柳条吗？当然不会。正是因为世人不知道遇见拥有天堂气息、安慰远超越一切自然理解的基督会是多么重要，才会对他如此不重视，而追求其他虚无的事物。哦，但是与基督相会中蕴藏着无限甜蜜。人们不知道拥有一个平静和安全的心灵所带来的宁静和安全感。哦！但是在对荣耀的盼望中经历了坚实的喜乐。 现在，为了这个希望的缘故，以及为上帝的子民所存的救赎的希望，我们将永远永远地赞美和荣耀归于我们的主耶稣的父亲，我们的父亲，耶稣和圣灵。阿门。

The Forlorn Son—he was Lost and is Found
失落的儿子——他迷失了，现在被找到了

"For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him."—LUKE 15:24–28.
因为我的儿子死了，又活过来；他失落了，又被找到。他们开始欢乐起来。现在，他的长子正在田地里，当他走近房子时，听到了音乐和舞蹈声。他叫来一个仆人，问这些事情是什么意思。仆人对他说，你的弟弟回来了；你的父亲宰了肥牛，因为他平安归来。他很生气，不愿进去；因此他的父亲出来劝他。

THEY have no less nor cause, beloved in our Lord, to be glad and to rejoice, whenever a wandering sinner comes home to Christ Jesus, who is so cheerful a receiver of them, who is so willing to receive them, and is so heartsome and kind to all His own who have any grace to claim kyndness to Him. And we see there is good ground for rejoicing and mirth, at the home-coming of a wandering sinner here. And wherefore we should rejoice also, when our Lord He rejoices, and makes such mirth. When He is so glad at the home-coming of a sinner, the sinner himself whom this most concerns should much more rejoice, and be glad. And our Lord He gives a very good reason for this gladness and rejoicing, "for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
他们在我们的主里是无论何等的喜乐和欢乐，每当一个迷失的罪人回到基督耶稣，这位如此愉快地接纳他们，如此乐意接纳他们，并对所有拥有恩典来向祂请求慈悲的人如此善良。我们看到在这里，一个迷失的罪人回家是有充分的理由来欢乐和快乐的。因此，当我们的主欢乐时，我们也应该欢乐。祂对一个罪人回归的喜悦有其很好的理由，“因为这个我儿子是死的，活了；失而复得，应当欢喜。”

Now the last part of the parable is, How the elder brother—eldest or in possession, and so repute[d] eldest—took with the Lord's kind dealing towards his younger brother. The text says, "And when he drew near the house, he heard music and dancing," and knew not what it meant, as the natural man knows not what it is to come to Christ, and how welcome a sinner is to Jesus. They know not how sweet the Lord's breath is unto those who have been long away from the Lord and get grace to come home to Him again. And the elder son calling for one of the servants, he speers, what meant that more than ordinary mirth that was among them? The servant answers, "Thy brother is come, and thy Father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound." And the son was angry, and would not go into the house. And the rest of the chapter is spent in a conference between the angry son and a kind and meek father. But we see the son that had an ill eye because his father's heart was good, and [was] the gentle and loving father; he was angry that his father had received the younger brother into his house again. There is nothing that makes a hypocrite's heart more sad than when God welcomes home a sinner to Himself. And the father again, as if he had done a fault, he speaks to his angry son in calm words, and gives a reason of his making mirth, and why he dealt so kindly with his younger son, and made so meikle of him; "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found." That is a matter of joy in heaven to the Lord and to the blessed angels, and the Lord avows that He is content at the home-coming of a sinner, howbeit the eyes of the wicked world dow not endure it.
现在寓言的最后一部分是关于长子——最年长或拥有财产，因此被认为是最年长者——对待上帝对弟弟的慈爱的态度。经文说：“他快到家的时候，听见有音乐和跳舞的声音，便叫过一个仆人来，问是什么事。”他不知道这是什么意思，就像自然人不知道来到基督面前和罪人对耶稣是多么受欢迎一样。他们不知道离开主已久的人回到主面前，主的呼吸对他们是多么甜美。长子叫来一个仆人，问他们为什么如此欢乐。仆人回答说：“你兄弟回来了，你父亲因为他平安回来，就把肥牛犊宰了。”长子生气，不愿进屋。接下来的章节是关于愤怒的儿子和慈爱温和的父亲之间的对话。但我们看到，这个儿子因为他父亲的心是善良的，他心生嫉妒，对父亲再次接纳弟弟回家感到愤怒。 没有什么比上帝欢迎一个罪人回归更让伪君子的心更伤心的了。父亲再次，仿佛他犯了错一样，用平静的话语对他愤怒的儿子说话，并解释了他为什么对他年幼的儿子如此友善，并对他非常重视；“孩子，你常与我同在，我所有的一切都是你的。我们应该欢庆和快乐，因为你的弟弟曾经死了，现在又活过来了，曾经迷失了，现在又被找到了。”这对主和祝福的天使来说是天堂的喜悦，主承认他对一个罪人回归感到满意，尽管邪恶的世界无法忍受这一点。

Now there be two excellent reasons given in the twenty-fourth verse, wherefore the Lord is glad and rejoices at the home-coming of the forlorn son. "This my son was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." There is a change made upon him. "My son is translated from death to life; he was lost, but now he is found." That is a matter of rejoicing to be avowed before the world when a sinner that was dead becomes living; when a sinner that was running away from the Lord turns home again to Him and is found of Him. And this is a cause of rejoicing to the Father and the whole house that the Lord has gotten home a lost bairn and a forlorn son that was running away from him formerly.
现在在第 24 节中给出了两个优秀的理由，这就是为什么主对那个可怜的儿子回家感到高兴和欢喜的原因。“这个儿子是死了，又活了；失丧了，又得着了。”他发生了变化。“我的儿子从死亡转化为生命；他曾经迷失，但现在被找到了。”当一个罪人从死亡中复活，当一个远离主的罪人回到主面前并被主找到时，这是一个值得在世人面前宣告的喜乐的事情。这也是父亲和整个家庭欢喜的原因，因为主把一个迷失的孩子和一个曾经远离他的可怜儿子带回了家。

See now what is said of his estate before he come home to his father. Before he was dead and lost in an uncow country; dead, and yet hungry, and would eat husks, and not long since he was coming home, and acknowledging to his father: "I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants;" and was ragged, and naked, and bare, and you know the woful gate that he was in. How then was he dead? for all these be actions of life. But, whatever a natural man does we may say he is dead, for all thir actions of life he does are not the actions of the life of God; for he has not that life, and so he is spiritually dead and knows not the case he is in while it is so. And that is the estate of all those who are not within the kingdom of the Son of God, albeit they eat, drink, sleep, walk, laugh, &c., and go about all the businesses of this life, and work the works of sin as living men, yet in the Lord's estimation they are nothing else but dead men.
看看他回到父亲家之前关于他的情况所说的。在他死去之前，他迷失在一个荒凉的国家；死了，但仍然饥饿，只能吃糠秕。不久前，他回家了，并向父亲承认：“我得罪了天，得罪了你，在你眼中不再配称为你的儿子：请将我当作你的佣人。”他衣衫褴褛，赤身裸体，你知道他所处的悲惨境地。那么他怎么会死呢？因为这些都是生命的行动。但是，无论一个自然人做什么，我们可以说他是死的，因为他所做的这些生命行动并不是上帝生命的行动；因为他没有那种生命，所以他在属灵上是死的，而且不知道自己所处的情况。这就是那些不在上帝之子的国度内的人的状况，尽管他们吃喝、睡觉、行走、笑等，忙于这个生活的一切事务，做着罪恶的行为，但在主的评估中，他们只不过是死人而已。

The best works of the unregenerate who are not born again by the water and the Spirit, they are but only works of dead men. And therefore never go to question if the heathen and those that never heard of Christ can do works good in the sight of God, as the patrons of nature have been careful to defend things done by them as good. All the actions of natural men are dead actions before the Lord, and the best thing they can be called is only to call them well-farded sins. For actions are only good in God's estimation that can be called good from all the four causes. First, that are good in regard of the author of them; second, in regard of the matter; third, good in regard of the form or manner of doing them; and fourth, in regard of the end wherefore they are done. And if an action want any of these that it be not good in all these respects, then it is imperfect in the sight of God, and so ill. And therefore the Apostle says, Rom. 14:23, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Now all the works of men, while they are in the state of nature, they are done without faith, and so they are sin. Look but to two things in the works of the natural man, and you will see all of them to be sin.
未经水和圣灵重生的不归主的人的最好作品，只是死人的作品。因此，永远不要质疑异教徒和那些从未听说过基督的人是否能在上帝眼中行善，因为自然的拥护者一直努力捍卫他们所做的事情是好的。所有自然人的行动在主面前都是死的行动，他们能被称为最好的事情只能被称为涂得好的罪恶。因为只有在上帝的评估中，可以从四个原因中称之为好的行动。首先，它们在作者方面是好的；其次，在物质方面是好的；第三，在形式或方式上是好的；第四，在目的上是好的。如果一个行动缺少其中任何一个，它在上帝的眼中就不是完美的，因此是邪恶的。因此，使徒在罗马书 14:23 中说：“凡不是出于信心的都是罪。”现在，所有人的行为，在他们处于自然状态时，都是没有信心的，所以它们是罪。只要看自然人的作品中的两件事，你就会看到它们都是罪。

Works that come not from faith, if that the first motion of them comes not from the renewed man, these works are sin, as ye may see, Heb. 11:6: "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Let all the world distinguish as they will, it is a thing impossible that a man can do works to please God and procure life eternal unless he have faith, and the works be done in faith; which cannot be said of the natural man. Let all the world distinguish in this as they will, the Word of God warrants us to say this. Make the works of the natural man as fair and as beautiful as ye will in your eyes, and never so life-like, yet the Lord esteems them to be no other but dead and sinful works.
如果这些作品不是出于信仰，如果它们的第一动力不是来自重生的人，那么这些作品就是罪，正如你们所看到的，希伯来书 11:6 所说：“没有信就不能得神的喜悦。”无论世人如何区分，一个人如果没有信心，不能做出讨神喜悦并获得永生的工作，而且这些工作必须是在信心中完成的；这是无法用来形容自然人的。无论世人如何区分，上帝的话语使我们有权利这样说。无论你们如何看待自然人的作品，无论它们在你们眼中多么美好、多么生动，主都认为它们只是死亡和罪恶的作品。

And then look to the end of all that the natural man does, and in that they are wrong also. Nay, but, says one who takes their defence, they intend not always an ill end in all they do, who are not in Christ, for they do not all to the honour of an idol or a wicked god, or for the honour of the creature. But the Spirit of God says, 1 Cor. 10:31, "Whether ye eat or ye drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Where a work wants this intention, and the doer of the work aims not at this, albeit he should give his body to be burnt in the fire, and bestow all his goods on the poor, yet the Lord says this of him, that he is no other but a sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal. It is a work of sin and is not done in obedience to God, but He is therein disobeyed.
然后看看自然人所做的一切的结局，他们在这方面也是错误的。不过，有人为他们辩护说，那些不信基督的人并不总是有恶意的目的，因为他们并不是为了崇拜偶像或邪恶的神，也不是为了崇拜受造物。但是，上帝的灵在哥林多前书 10:31 中说：“所以，你们或吃或喝，无论做什么，都要为荣耀神而行。”如果一个工作缺乏这样的意图，而工作的执行者并不以此为目标，即使他把自己的身体献给火焰，把所有的财物施舍给穷人，主也说他只是一个发出声音的铜器，一个叮当作响的钹。这是一种罪恶的行为，不是出于对上帝的顺从，而是对上帝的不顺从。

And for that they refer not the end of all that they do to the honour of an idol-god; albeit it were so, as they allege, there are none who profess to give religious worship to anything but virtually he refers the last end of all he does thereto. But be it so, that he does not refer it to an idol; yet because he refers not the last end of all his actions to God, and makes not Him his last end, it is certain he must have another last end to which he refers all he does; for all reasonable creatures, even devils and wicked men, they do all that they do out of a conceit to attain happiness, and therefore their wicked end must either be the Creator or the creature. But if it be confessed, as the adversaries themselves do confess, that the last end is not the Creator, because they understand him not in the Mediator Christ Jesus, then the creature must be their last end, and that certainly is idolatry. To make the creature, either the first author of anything, or to make it the last end of anything, it is to put the creature in the rowme of God. For a man to do things for his credit, honour, his friend, &c., having no other end for what he does, is a work of a dead soul, and the Lord will not accept thereof as acceptable to Him.
为此，他们并不将他们所做的一切归功于偶像神的荣耀；即使他们所声称的是如此，也没有人承认自己崇拜的是除了他之外的任何东西，虽然实际上他将自己所做的一切都归功于最后的目标。但即使如此，他并没有将他所有行动的最后目标归于神，也没有将神作为他的最后目标，那么他肯定有另一个最后目标，他将自己所做的一切都归于那个目标；因为所有理性的生物，包括恶魔和邪恶的人，他们所做的一切都是出于追求幸福的想法，因此他们邪恶的目标必定是创造者或者是创造物。但是，如果正如对手们自己所承认的那样，最后的目标并不是创造者，因为他们没有在基督耶稣中理解他，那么创造物必定是他们的最后目标，而这无疑是崇拜偶像。将创造物作为任何事物的第一创作者，或者将其作为任何事物的最后目标，都是将创造物置于上帝的位置。一个人为了自己的声誉、荣誉、朋友等而做事。对于他所做的一切而言，没有其他的目的，这是一个死灵魂的作品，主也不会接受它作为对他的悦纳。

One use of this is to see that the hearing of God's Word by the natural man, receiving the sacraments, reading, praying, &c., he will get no thanks for these, neither are they acceptable to God, so long as he is not in Christ. All these things that thou doest being out of Christ, will be but small bulk in the Lord's eyes in that day when thou shalt be judged of the Lord by thy works. And therefore careful should we be that we may be found in Christ, that our persons may be accepted in Him. And your persons being accepted in Christ, then the Lord will also accept of your works. But otherways all that the natural man does is wickedness; his prayer is sin and abomination before the Lord. When he is about prayer that is not in Christ, the smell of his sacrifice is unsavoury to the Lord. He cannot endure such prayers, and therefore great need have we to be assured that we are in Christ, that our works may not be dead but living works.
这样做的一个用途是看到自然人听到上帝的话语，接受圣礼，阅读，祈祷等等，他对这些都不会得到感谢，也不会被上帝接受，只要他不在基督里。所有这些你所做的事情，如果不在基督里，将在主的眼中只是微不足道的，当你在那日被主按照你的行为审判时。因此，我们应该小心，以便我们能在基督里被找到，使我们的人在祂里面被接纳。当你的人在基督里被接纳时，主也会接受你的行为。但是，自然人所做的一切都是邪恶的；他的祈祷在主面前是罪恶和可憎的。当他在不在基督里的祈祷时，他的祭物的气味对主来说是不悦的。他不能忍受这样的祈祷，因此我们非常需要确信我们在基督里，使我们的行为不是死的，而是活的行为。

Observe while he says, "This my son was dead," there is the estate of the natural man before he come to Christ. Eph. 2:2, the apostle says: "And were by nature the children of wrath even as others." "But God for His rich mercy wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Has not the natural man a soul, and can he not perform the works of nature? A man in nature is not naturally dead, but he is spiritually dead.
看他说“这个儿子是我的”时要注意，这是他接触基督之前的自然人的状态。以弗所书 2:2，使徒说：“你们从前行事为人、随从今世的风俗、顺服空中掌权者的首领、就是现今在悖逆之子心中运行的灵。”“然而神既有丰富的怜悯，因他爱我们的大爱”我们死在过犯中的时候，便叫我们与基督一同活过来……”是不是自然人有灵魂，能做自然的事工呢？自然生来的人不是在生理上死了，而是在灵魂上死了。

There are three things that a man in nature, touching his spiritual life, has not. And first, the natural man has not life itself; second, he has not reason; and, third, He has not sense or the use of his senses. These are all joined with life where it is; yet he wants, them. And
一个自然人在接触到他的精神生活时，有三样东西是他所没有的。首先，自然人没有生命本身；其次，他没有理性；第三，他没有感觉或者对感官的使用。这些都与生命紧密相连，但他却缺乏它们。

First: I say he wants life itself, and all the natural motions thereof; and yet for all that he is hearing the Word and singing Psalms, and reading, &c. And yet these are not works of life in him. And he is praying. Now will a dead man do so? Yes; a man spiritually dead may do all these things so as he does them. All that the natural man does has nothing but an outside with it. The Lord sees the stinking bones of a dead corpse under all these. He sees seven abominations in such a man, and so He sees all abominations in him.
首先，我说他想要生命本身，以及所有自然的运动；然而尽管如此，他听到了圣言，唱诗篇，阅读等。然而这些对他来说并不是生命的工作。他在祈祷。现在一个死人会这样做吗？是的，一个灵魂上的死人可能会做所有这些事情。自然人所做的一切都只有表面。主在这一切下面看到了一具腐烂的尸体的骨头。他在这样的人身上看到了七样可憎之物，所以他在他身上看到了所有的可憎之物。

Second: The man in nature, he has no reason nor the reasonable presence of a living man. This may seem not to be very true-like. He is a governor of a city or a country side, and knows the laws very well, and he is a trim bookman. Can such a man be a dead man? Yes; all that such a man, who is in nature, does, is the work of a dead man; for there is never a word that he speaks, or a conclusion he makes, that is heaven-like, and therefore the work is dead. The very main end of all that he does is the world. It is that he may provide for him and his, that he may get honours, pleasure, court, &c., and the things of the world. All his words, thoughts, actions, run upon this pin, the things of this present world. All his logic and strongest arguments for anything he does even in reforming the matters of the house of God are taken from this: "It will hazard my life and my office in the world, if I join not in such things." This is plainly the reasoning of a dead man.
第二点：人在本质上，他没有理由，也没有一个有理性的活人的存在。这似乎不太像真的。他是一个城市或乡村的统治者，非常了解法律，他是一个修整的书生。这样的人能成为一个死人吗？是的；这样一个在本质上的人所做的一切，都是一个死人的工作；因为他说的每一个话语，做出的每一个结论，都不像天堂，因此这个工作是死的。他所做的一切的最终目的就是世界。他为了自己和他的人提供生活，获得荣誉、快乐、宫廷等等，以及世界上的事物。他的所有言语、思想、行动都围绕着这个中心，就是这个现世界的事物。他为任何事情所做的逻辑和最强的论证，甚至在改革上帝的家事时，都是从这个出发的：“如果我不参与这些事情，那么我的生命和我的职位在世界上就会受到危险。”这明显是一个死人的推理。

Third: Those who are only natural they want the sense of life. They know not what that is, to have a soul wounded with sin, because of this, and so are just like the drunken man that Solomon speaks of (Prov. 23:35)—when he is drunk with wine, every one goes by and beats him with rods, and he knows not that they do so till the wine be out of his head, and he wakes out of his dream; then the strokes he has gotten make him sore and crazed. Even so will it be with them who are in the state of nature, when they are wakened out of their dream. O! the blasphemous oaths will lie heavy on him then, and the harlotry of the harlot will be a sore burden to him; and he who has loved the creature more than God, who is the Creator, such a man will never feel his wounds till he be brought to the Physician Christ, and the Lord once translate him out of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son, that he be brought from death to life. But then he feels all the sore strokes he has gotten all his time by sin. The first fall Adam got by sin dang him dead and all his posterity, and made him and his to want the life of God and His image wherewith they were endowed, from all mankind for ever in themselves.
第三点：那些只追求生活感觉的人，他们不知道罪恶伤害灵魂是什么感觉，因此就像所罗门所说的那个醉汉（箴言 23:35）——当他喝醉了酒，每个人都会经过并用棍子打他，他却不知道他们这样做，直到酒醒了，他从梦中醒来；然后他所受的打击使他痛苦和疯狂。当他们从梦中醒来时，那些处于自然状态的人也会有同样的感受。哦！亵渎的誓言将会对他造成沉重的负担，妓女的淫乱行为也会成为他的重担；而那些将创造物爱得比创造者上帝更多的人，除非他们被带到基督这位医生那里，主一次将他们从黑暗中转移到祂亲爱的儿子的国度，使他们从死亡中得到生命，否则这样的人永远不会感受到他们一直以来因罪恶而受到的所有打击。亚当因罪恶而跌倒，使他和他的后代都失去了上帝的生命和祂所赋予的形象，从此以后，所有的人类都永远无法在自己身上拥有这些。

Can this be, that one act of sin which works morally, can take away all the habitual justice and righteousness that are in man by nature? They who oppose the truth of God deny that man could lose by his transgression, but only by the decree of God that it should be so. But if sin be well looked to, it has two set of actions in it. The one is moral and the other is physical. Morally sin, even reatus, deserves that, because of it, the sinner should be deprived of life; and then physically, the blot of sin puts out the image of God. And if any man will speer how the first fall of Adam should put the life of God out of all mankind for all eternity? I answer, albeit we could give no natural reason, or any reason of logic or physic for this, yet this is sufficient for proof of it, that the Word of God says, the natural man cannot understand the things that are of God, for they are foolishness unto him, and Christ says (John 6:44), "No man can come unto Me unless the Father which hath sent Me draw him." These and many other places say unto us clearly that, albeit we know no other reason, yet this is enough to tell us that man, in the state of nature, he is a corrupt creature, and sees not God, and is not for Him, that he loves not God in that estate, nor can love Him; and this is the woful estate of every man so long as he remains in that case.
这是否可能，一个罪恶的行为，道德上的作用，能够夺走人类天生具有的所有习得的公正和正义？那些反对上帝真理的人否认人类会因为自己的过失而失去，只是上帝的旨意如此。但是，如果仔细观察罪恶，它有两种行为。一种是道德的，另一种是物理的。道德上的罪恶，即罪恶的责任，应该导致罪人失去生命；然后在物理上，罪的玷污抹去了上帝的形象。如果有人想知道亚当的第一次堕落如何使上帝的生命永远离开了所有人类？我回答说，即使我们无法给出自然的理由，或者逻辑或物理的理由，但这已足以证明，上帝的话语说，自然人不能理解上帝的事物，因为对他来说是愚昧的，基督也说（约翰福音 6:44），"除非差我来的父招引他，否则没有人能到我这里来。"这些以及许多其他地方明确告诉我们，尽管我们不知道其他原因，但这已足以告诉我们，人在自然状态下是一个腐败的生物，看不到上帝，也不是为了上帝而存在，他在那种状态下不爱上帝，也无法爱上帝；只要他仍然处于那种状态，这就是每个人的可悲处境。

Now the use of this is: If so be that the natural man be so, how comes it to pass then that there be so many who will not be convinced that it is so with them? how comes it that it is so hard a task for a minister to convince a natural man that he has a hard heart, and that he is in a state of sin, and that all by nature are ignorant of God? This only is the cause, that all by nature are dead in sins and trespasses, and being dead cannot be brought to know they are so. No. Ye know all the art and logic in the world used to persuade or convince a dead man, that is in the grave, of the estate of his body, that it is dead and under corruption, will not convince him to know that it is so, because he neither hears nor sees what they do or say to him. Even so is it here with the man remaining still in the state of nature; he cannot be brought unto the faith of a hell to believe this, that "that day I came first into the world, I came in it an heir [of] hell." The natural man cannot be brought to believe this. The comparison holds well here between the natural man and the man that is buried in the grave; there are lilies and flowers growing out of the grave, but it smells filthily within. Little knows the man that is in nature what an ill smell he would cast if he were tane up and discovered. A man living in the state of nature, and so in the state of sin, he may be well busked, and have a good smell outwardly, be an honest married man in his own house, not deceiving or wronging his neighbours, not a shedder of blood, and yet he is only a man buried in a grave when all is done, and some flowers growing above the grave. But when God takes him out of his grave, and lets him see the case that he is in, then all his sins begin to stink. When he is wakened, then he counts all these things that formerly the world and he himself esteemed much of to be but dung, as we may see example in the Apostle Paul, Phil. 3:7: He counted that to be a Pharisee, to be come of the royal tribe, &c., to be but loss and dung for Christ. So we may see a man shall never get a right sight of the miserable estate he is in till first the Lord opens his grave that by nature he lies in. And, that being done, he shall then be forced to say: "Once I was dead, but now I am alive; once I was blind, but now I see; I was once lost, but now I am found. Once I was a stranger and an enemy to God, but now, Lord be thanked, who has taken in a poor forlorn dyvour to Christ, and has made me to know what is His will."
现在的使用方法是：如果自然人是这样的，那么为什么有那么多人不愿意相信他们是这样的呢？为什么对于一位牧师来说，说服一个自然人他的心是冷酷的，他处于罪恶的状态，所有人都是对上帝无知的，这是如此困难的任务呢？唯一的原因是，所有人天生都在罪恶和过失中死去，而死去的人无法意识到自己的状态。不。你们知道，世界上所有的艺术和逻辑都无法说服或者使一个死人相信他的身体状况，即它已经死亡并且正在腐烂，因为他既听不到也看不到他们对他所做或所说的。在这里，自然人仍然处于自然状态，情况也是如此；他无法相信地狱的信仰，相信“那一天我第一次来到这个世界，我就成了地狱的继承人。”自然人无法相信这一点。在自然人和埋在坟墓里的人之间，这个比较很适用；坟墓里有百合花和鲜花盛开，但里面闻起来很臭。 人们很少意识到，如果他们被发现并揭示出来，他们在本质上会散发出多么难闻的气味。一个生活在自然状态下，也就是罪恶状态下的人，他可能外表整洁，气味宜人，是一个诚实的已婚男子，不欺骗或伤害邻居，不流血，但最终他只是一个被埋在坟墓里的人，坟墓上长着一些花。但当上帝将他从坟墓中带出来，让他看到自己的处境时，他所有的罪恶开始发臭。当他被唤醒时，他会认为以前世界和他自己认为很重要的这些事情都不过是粪土，就像我们可以在使徒保罗身上看到的那样，腓立比书 3:7：他认为自己是法利赛人，出自王室的支派等等，都不过是为了基督而损失和粪土。因此，我们可以看到，一个人在主打开他天生所处的坟墓之前，永远无法真正看清他所处的可怜状态。而一旦这样做了，他将被迫说：“我曾经是死的，但现在我活着；我曾经是盲的，但现在我看见了；我曾经迷失，但现在我被找到了。” 曾经我是一个陌生人，对上帝是敌对的，但现在，感谢主，他接纳了一个可怜的被遗弃者到基督那里，并让我知道他的旨意是什么。"

The other reason his father gives for his kind usage is, "He was lost, and is found." That is the property of a man in the state of sin. He is a lost man, that is, he is such a thing as may be lost, or wander from the right owner without his knowledge, and may be torn of wild beasts—a sinner in the state of nature. O! but there be many loose-handed devils to steal him away. In 1 John 5:18, the Apostle says, "He that is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." The man that is in the state of nature is not held up as he that is born of God is. The Apostle says of himself, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12). So that while a man is once in the state of grace God becomes his keeper, but so long as a man is in the state of nature he is a tint creature, and he is ready to be turned away with any kind of religion; like unto those of whom the Apostle speaks (Heb. 13:9), who are carried about with divers and strange doctrines, and have not the heart established in grace, a comparison that is borrowed from ships, that every tide and every blast of wind that blows will blow and turn them as they come upon them, because she wants a rudder to keep her sure. So a man in the state of nature will receive any new gust in religion. Any wind or tide that comes from Satan and his instruments carries him away from his Lord. And the Apostle Peter (2 Pet. 3:17) has a word to this purpose borrowed from beasts: "See that ye be not led away with the error of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness." It is an easy thing for Satan to drive a man away from religion, who follows only that religion which a king loves best, and who places his happiness in court. Certainly it is easy to drive such from any point of faith. And therefore the Word of God uses this comparison ordinarily to compare lost sinners to wandering sheep. David says, "I am gone astray like a lost sheep." And Matt. 10:5, 6, when Christ there is sending out His disciples to preach the gospel, and telling them what they shall first preach, He says: "Go not in the way of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." All these and many others say that a man in the state of nature is a man easily carried away with every wind of doctrine. Like the word Eliphas has to Job 15:12: "Wherefore doth thine heart carry thee away, and what do thine eyes wink at?" To be like one in an uncou country, or house.
他父亲给出的另一个对他友善对待的理由是：“他曾经失落，现在又找到了。”这是一个在罪恶状态下的人的特点。他是一个失落的人，也就是说，他是一个可能会迷失或在不知情的情况下远离正确主人的东西，可能会被野兽撕裂的罪人。哦！但有许多松散的魔鬼来偷走他。使徒约翰在约翰一书 5:18 中说：“从神生的，就不犯罪，因神所生之种存留在他里面，他也不能犯罪，因为他是由神生的。”在自然状态下的人并没有像那些由神生的人一样得到扶持。使徒保罗谈到自己时说：“我知道我所信的是谁，也深信他能保全我所交付他的，直到那日”（提摩太后书 1:12）。所以，当一个人一旦进入恩典的状态，上帝就成为他的保护者，但只要一个人处于自然状态，他就是一个脆弱的生物，随时准备接受任何形式的宗教；就像使徒所说的那些人（希伯来书…… 13:9)的人，他们随着各种奇怪的教义而被带来，他们的心没有在恩典中确立，这是从船只借来的比喻，每一次潮汐和每一阵吹来的风都会把它们吹走并转向，因为她没有舵来保持她的稳定。所以一个处在自然状态的人会接受任何新的宗教冲动。任何来自撒旦和他的工具的风或潮水都会把他从他的主那里带走。使徒彼得（彼后 3:17）也有一个从动物那里借来的话：“你们要谨慎，免得被恶人的错误诱惑而从自己坚固的立场上坠落。”对于撒旦来说，驱使一个人远离宗教是很容易的，他只追随国王最喜欢的宗教，把自己的幸福寄托在朝廷上。当然，驱使这样的人离开任何信仰点是很容易的。因此，上帝的话通常使用这个比喻来比较迷失的罪人和流浪的羊。大卫说：“我如同迷失的羊走差了路。”马太福音 10:5, 6，当基督派遣门徒传扬福音，并告诉他们首先要传讲什么时，他说：“不要走撒玛利亚人的路，也不要进以色列的城，只要往以色列家迷失的羊那里去。”所有这些和许多其他人都说，一个处于自然状态的人很容易被各种教义的风吹走。就像以利法对约伯书 15:12 所说的：“你为什么让你的心被带走，你的眼睛为什么眨眼？”就像一个在陌生的国家或房子里的人一样。

Let us learn here to know how ill we are kept while we are in the state of nature, ready to be led away with court, honour, the love of the world, and to be stolen from the Lord. Has not the devil made sin to the natural man like new wine that is sweet in the down-going, that runs into his head who drinks it, and or he wit it steals away his wit from him, and his feet, and deprives him of the use of all his senses? So while a man remains in the state of sin, he drinks his new wine till he be stolen off his feet.
让我们在这里学习了解我们在自然状态下是如何被困住的，准备被追求名利、世俗之爱和被从主那里偷走。难道魔鬼不是把罪恶对于自然人变得像新酒一样甜美，使得喝下去的人陷入迷醉，他的智慧被偷走，他的双脚被夺走，剥夺了他所有感官的使用吗？所以当一个人仍然处在罪恶状态中时，他会一直喝着新酒，直到他被偷走双脚。

But when is the sinner well kept? Never till he come into Christ's house and kingdom, for there he gets a new Lord, and there are new laws there; he gets a new tutor then that will answer for him. This is a sufficient reason, albeit there were no moe to prove that fra once we come in Christ's tutory, that we are given over to Him, we cannot fall away again; for whoever they be that are given to Christ they are not their own, but they are bought with a price. We cannot keep ourselves well. We are always running away from our Lord. But when Christ our Lord comes and takes us home in His keeping, then are we sure; and never till then. For then we are our Lord's jewels, of whom our Lord says (Mal. 3:17): "And they shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels." There is no man who commits himself unto Christ, who ventures his life and all for Christ's cause and for religion, [but] He will answer for all that are given to Him. And when He renders up the kingdom to His Father, He will make such compt of them as that which we read, John 17:12, where He says: "Of all that Thou hast given Me have I lost none, but the child of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled." There is no man lost by Christ but he who is a lost man in God's eternal decree.
但是罪人何时才能得到善待呢？直到他进入基督的家和国度，因为在那里他得到了一个新的主，那里有新的法律；他得到了一个新的导师，他会为他负责。这是一个足够的理由，即使没有其他的证据来证明，一旦我们进入基督的教导，我们就归属于他，我们就不会再背离；因为凡是归给基督的人，他们不再属于自己，而是被用代价买来的。我们不能自己好好保护自己。我们总是在逃离我们的主。但是当我们的主基督来接我们回家时，我们才能确信；直到那时为止。因为那时我们是我们主的宝贝，正如我们的主在玛拉基书 3:17 中所说：“在我整理我的宝贝的日子，他们必属于我。”凡是将自己托付给基督的人，为基督的事业和宗教冒险付出生命和一切的人，他会为所有归给他的人负责。当他将国度归还给他的父亲时，他会对他们作出如我们在约翰福音 17:12 中所读到的那样的交账：“你所赐给我的人，我没有失落一个，惟有那灭亡之子，使经上的话应验。”在基督里没有失落的人，除非他在上帝永恒的定旨中是一个失落的人。

Now when the older brother comes home to the house, he hears melody and joy and meikle mirth in his father's house, and he knows not what it means. And therefore he calls one of the servants, and asks what these things meant.
现在当哥哥回到家时，他听到父亲的房子里传来旋律、欢乐和许多欢笑声，他不知道这是什么意思。因此他叫来一个仆人，问这些事情是什么意思。

The text it will clear this point unto us, that the father of the house—the Lord and His angels—they are glad at the home-coming of a sinner, for there was rejoicing and dancing at the home-coming of His forlorn son, and it must be a good spring that gars him dance. Indeed He is very blith when a lost sinner comes home to Him, and He makes a psalm of joy upon it. And this was the matter of Christ's joy at this time, that a forlorn sinner is come home. This is a matter of no small comfort to such as have a mind home toward Christ, that their home-coming will gar the Lord rejoice. Is this modesty in Christ to dance? I am sure it is love gars Him to do it; and the apostle says love does nothing that is unseemly. The Word of God expresses to us in many pithy words the joy and rejoicing that the Lord our God has for the declaration both of mercy and justice upon mankind. As, first, for expression of God's affection when justice comes to seize upon the sinner who would have none of the Lord's counsel, nor hear none of His reproof, it is said, "The Lord laughs at his calamity, and mocks when his fear cometh" (Prov. 1:26). Laughter is not to the Lord an expression of affection as it is to man; but because this is one of the many ends that the Lord intends and aims at in the making of mankind, the declaration of the glory of His justice in so many as break their neck upon Christ, the Lord will "laugh at the calamity of such, and mock when their fears come." And then for the expression of the Lord's love and joy at the home-coming of a sinner, which is the declaration of the glory of the Lord's mercy in them who are appointed heirs of salvation, what expressions are these? Isa. 62:5: "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." Zeph. 3:17: "The Lord thy God will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." And in Solomon's Song 8:6 there is an expression the Kirk has to this purpose, speaking to her beloved: "Set me as a seal upon thy hand, and as a signet upon thine arm." That which we wear between our breasts, because the breast is near the heart, and we love that well; and that which we make a chain and bracelet to our arm, we love it well. Now the Kirk prays that the Lord would make her so to Him, expressing this far unto us how excellent, how sweet, how lovely, all the Lord's elect and His lost ones, when they are found again, are to Him. And there is an expression not unlike unto this, Cant. 4:9: "Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck."
这段文字清楚地告诉我们，家中的父亲——主和他的天使们——对于罪人归家感到高兴，因为当他那失落的儿子回家时，有欢乐和跳舞。这一定是一个让他跳舞的好春天。事实上，当一个失丧的罪人回到他身边时，他非常快乐，他为此唱起了欢乐的诗篇。这就是基督在这个时候的喜悦之源，一个失落的罪人回家了。对于那些心向基督归家的人来说，这是一件非常令人欣慰的事情，因为他们的回家将使主欢喜。基督跳舞是谦虚的吗？我确信这是爱使他这样做；使徒说，爱不做不合宜的事。上帝的话语用许多简洁的话语向我们表达了主我们的上帝对于宣告怜悯和公正对待人类的喜悦和欢乐。首先，当公正来抓住那些不听从主的劝告，不接受他的责备的罪人时，上帝的感情表达如下：“耶和华在他遭难的时候发笑，戏弄恶人的惊恐”（箴言 1:26）。 笑声对于上帝来说并不像对人类那样表达情感，但这是上帝在创造人类时的众多目标之一。当那些在基督身上摔断脖子的人中，上帝宣告了他公义的荣耀，他将“嘲笑他们的灾难，嘲笑他们的恐惧”。而当一个罪人回归时，上帝表达了他的爱和喜悦，这是上帝怜悯的荣耀的宣告，他们被任命为得救的继承人。以赛亚书 62:5 说：“新郎怎样为新娘喜乐，你的神也必为你喜乐。”西番雅书 3:17 说：“耶和华你的神在你中间，是施行拯救的大能者，他必因你欢欣喜乐，默然爱你，且因你喜乐而欢呼。”在所罗门的雅歌 8:6 中，教会有一个类似的表达，对她所爱的人说：“求你将我放在你心上如印记，带在你臂上如戳记。”我们佩戴在胸前的东西，因为胸部靠近心脏，我们非常喜爱它；我们将它作为链子和手镯戴在手臂上，我们也非常喜爱它。 现在教堂祈求上帝使她成为祂的人，向我们表达了上帝的选民和失落的人重新被找到时，对祂是多么卓越、甜美和可爱。还有一个类似的表达，就像《雅歌》4:9 所说：“你抓住了我的心，我的姐妹，我的新娘；你用你的一只眼睛，一条项链抓住了我的心。”"

All this says this much unto us, that whatever can be in the father to contribute for the good of the bairns he has begotten, or what affection can be in the mother towards the fruit of her womb, all these are in the Lord towards His children, but in Him after an infinite manner, and are inimitable. They are in Him without any change or any imperfection at all; for the Lord needs no-wise to rejoice in this, for it adds nothing to Him, yet He expresses Himself this way to declare how greatly He rejoices in them who are saved when they come home to Him.
这一切对我们来说意味着，无论父亲能为他所生的孩子做出多少贡献，或者母亲对她子宫中的果实有多少情感，这一切都在主对待他的子女时存在，但在他身上是无限的方式，并且是无法模仿的。它们在他身上没有任何变化或任何缺陷；因为主无需因此而欢喜，因为这对他没有任何增添，然而他以这种方式表达自己，以表明当那些得救的人回到他身边时，他是多么欢喜。

And also this serves to reprove that woful opinion of some who say that man's condemnation falls out against the will of God. No; certainly all that is in God is omnipotent, and so is His will omnipotent also. What He wills it comes to pass. The enemies of the grace of God bring in God weeping, full of sorrow and natural affection towards men, because He is condemned not according to His will. But if it were so, they would make God to be far from that infinite perfection the Word of God ascribes to Him; Eph. 1:5: He does whatsoever He will in heaven and in earth that we should be to the praise of His glory.
而且这也用来驳斥一些人的悲惨观点，他们说人的定罪是违背上帝的意愿的。不，当然上帝的一切都是全能的，他的意愿也是全能的。他所愿意的就会发生。上帝的恩典的敌人们说上帝因为他的意愿没有被接受而哭泣，充满对人类的悲伤和自然的情感。但如果是这样的话，他们就会使上帝远离上帝的话语所赋予他的无限完美；以弗所书 1:5：他在天上和地上都按照他的意愿行事，使我们荣耀他。

If the Lord make so meikle of honouring a sinner, that He accounts it to be the matter of His joy and rejoicing, O! that we and these who are yet in the black estate of nature, could be induced to believe, what joy it would be to our Lord, that we would repent, and believe in Him and His gospel! The natural man he knows not that the Lord rejoices at his home-coming, and will not believe the Lord's oath for it: "As I live, says the Lord, I delight not in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should repent, and be saved" (Ezek. 18:32). He rejoices at the home-coming of a sinner. Make God blith, and come home to Him and seek His face, repent of your ill-ways, and so make the Lord dance and sing that He has gotten home one who was running away from Him. Come home to the Lord and repent of sin that there may be a psalm over thy repentance in heaven. They are called a "destroyed" people (Hos. 13:9) to whom the Lord shows their sins, to make them mourn for them the more. O! that is the sweetest sight God can give to a sinner. When they been running to the devil and applauding themselves in their own ways, afterward to see them come greeting home to the Lord, touched in their conscience with rebukes and challenges for sins; O, that is a matter of God's mirth, and a delicate to Him. Learn to know this and have other thoughts of godliness than ever yet ye have had, to account them blessed who see their sins and by the discovery of them are driven to the Lord. And to this Lord who is the remedy of sin; to the Father of Christ and our Father; and the blessed Spirit who sanctifies and cleanses us from sin, we render all praise and glory for ever.—Amen.
如果主如此尊重一个罪人，以至于将其视为自己的喜悦和欢乐的事情，哦！如果我们和那些仍处于黑暗状态的人能够相信，对于我们悔改、相信主和福音，这将是多么的喜乐啊！凡属自然的人不知道主为他的归来而欢喜，也不相信主的誓言：“主耶和华说：我不喜悦恶人死亡，惟喜悦恶人转离所行的道而活”（以西结书 18:32）。主为罪人的归来而欢喜。让上帝欢喜，回到他的怀抱，寻求他的面，悔改你的恶行，这样主就会跳舞唱歌，因为他收回了一个曾经远离他的人。回到主的身边，悔改罪恶，这样天上就会有一首赞美诗唱颂你的悔改。被主指出自己的罪恶，使他们更加悲伤的人被称为“被毁灭的”（何西阿书 13:9）。哦！这是上帝能够给罪人的最甜美的景象。 当他们一直追随魔鬼并以自己的方式自我称赞时，然后看到他们回到主那里，因为良心上的责备和挑战而感到悔过；哦，这是上帝的喜悦，对他来说是一种美妙的事情。学会了解这一点，并对敬虔有不同的想法，认为那些看到自己的罪恶并因此被驱使回到主那里的人是有福的。我们向这位拯救罪恶的主，基督的父亲和我们的父亲，以及使我们从罪恶中得到圣化和洁净的圣灵，献上永远的赞美和荣耀。阿门。

The Forlorn Son
失落的儿子

"And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: but as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and he glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."—LUKE 15:29–32.
他回答他的父亲说：“父亲，我已经服侍你这么多年了，从来没有违背过你的命令。但你从未给我一只小山羊，让我和朋友们一起欢乐。但是，当你的儿子回来时，他和妓女一起浪费了你的财产，你却为他宰了肥牛。父亲对他说：孩子，你一直和我在一起，我所有的一切都是你的。我们应该欢乐快乐，因为你的弟弟曾经死了，现在又活过来了；曾经失落，现在又找到了。”-路加福音 15:29-32。

LET the world, beloved in our Lord, esteem of the children of God as they will, the Lord has aye a good eye to them that repent and come home to Him. The Lord is kind to any without exception who will come and lay their sores upon Him and will give Him the weight of all that lies upon them. And the Lord seeks no more, in the matter of believing, of a humbled sinner, but that they lay the weight and burden of their salvation upon Him.
让世人，亲爱的主内之人，无论他们如何看待神的儿女，主总是关注那些悔改并归向祂的人。主对任何人都慈悲待之，只要他们愿意将自己的伤痛交托给祂，并将所有的重担放在祂身上。在信仰的事上，主对一个谦卑的罪人所要求的只是将救恩的重担交给祂。

In thir words there is (1) the reason the Lord gives why the forlorn sinner is so handled. (2) We have to consider how this elder brother that knows not God takes with this. At the first he knows not what it meant when he heard more than ordinary joy and melody in his father's house, and he calls for one of the servants, and asks what it means. There is no natural man that knows the sweet kisses and expressions of love that the Lord shows to a home-coming sinner. (3) We have the servant's answer to the elder son. "Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound." (4) When the elder brother hears this, he is angry and refuses to go into the house. As the hypocrite he will not in any ways countenance the home-coming sinner. He will not welcome his brother when he is come home. Then his father comes and entreats the elder brother to come in. Then we have in the end, a conference between the loving father and the elder son, the father answering all the objections that the son could give against his kind and friendly dealing, and the son again accusing both his father for what he does and accusing his brother also.
在这些话中有以下几点：（1）主给出了为什么那个被遗弃的罪人会受到这样对待的原因。（2）我们必须考虑这个不认识上帝的长子对此的看法。起初，当他听到他父亲家里有比平常更多的喜悦和音乐时，他不知道这意味着什么，于是他叫来一个仆人，问这是什么意思。没有一个自然人知道主对一个归家的罪人所表现出的甜蜜的亲吻和爱的表达。（3）我们有仆人对长子的回答。“你弟弟回来了，你父亲宰了肥牛犊，因为他平安回来了。”（4）当长子听到这个消息时，他生气了，拒绝进屋。作为伪君子，他不会以任何方式支持归家的罪人。他不会欢迎他回家的弟弟。然后他的父亲来劝说长子进屋。最后，我们看到了慈爱的父亲和长子之间的对话，父亲回答了儿子对他友善行为的所有反对意见，而儿子则指责父亲的所作所为，并指责他的弟弟。

First: He says, "I have served thee so many years and served thee after such a kind that I never at any time brake any of thy commandments, and yet thou never gavest me a kid to make merry with my friends." And herein accuses his father of unjust dealing, accounting him as it were the transgressor.
首先：他说，“我已经为你服务了这么多年，对你的服务非常友善，从未违背你的任何命令，但你从未给我一只小山羊让我和我的朋友欢庆。”他在这里指责他的父亲不公正地对待他，认为他父亲就像是那个违反规定的人。

Second: He finds fault also with his father's son; he calls him not his brother but "thy son." "But as soon as this thy son was come which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." He calls him a drunken waster, and one who had spent all his father's goods with harlots. The children of God they will never get that praise from hypocrites that the Lord Himself gives them. And then we have the father's mild and gentle oration to his son, yet entreating him and giving him fair words and giving a good reason wherefore this should be a time of mirth and rejoicing. "It was meet," says he, "that we should make merry and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." Albeit he will not call him his brother, yet his father calls him his brother, and therefore, says he, this was a fit time to be glad and rejoice, namely, when a sinner comes home in penitence and mercy is shown to a penitent sinner. Now of thir particulars shortly.
其次：他也对他父亲的儿子有所指责；他称他为“你的儿子”，而不是兄弟。“但是，当这个儿子回来时，他与妓女一起吞噬了你的财产，你却为他宰杀了肥牛。”他称他为一个醉酒的浪费者，一个把父亲的财产都花在妓女身上的人。神的儿女永远不会从伪君子那里得到主自己给予他们的赞美。然后，我们有父亲对儿子的温和演讲，他恳求他，给他美言，并给出一个好理由，说明为什么这应该是一个欢乐和喜庆的时刻。“我们应该欢欣鼓舞，因为你的弟弟曾经死了，现在又活过来了；曾经失落，现在又被找到了。”尽管他不愿称他为兄弟，但他的父亲称他为兄弟，因此，他说，这是一个适合欢乐和喜庆的时刻，即当一个罪人在悔改中回家，对一个悔改的罪人施以怜悯时。现在简要地谈谈这些细节。

And first: We have to speak of this that the forlorn son gets such a welcome of his brother and that his brother thinks so of the joy that is at his home-coming, that he knows not what it means. Therefore we have to learn that—
首先，我们必须谈论的是这个被遗弃的儿子得到了兄弟的如此热烈欢迎，而他的兄弟对他回家的喜悦如此看重，以至于他不知道这意味着什么。因此，我们必须了解这一点-

The course of God's goodness to a home-coming sinner and of that rejoicing that the Lord and the blessed angels who are His servants, and the matter of the Lord's giving mercy to such a one, it is a hid mystery to the natural man. He that knows no better than mere nature thinks God's kindness that He shows to sinners the work of the gospel and the news thereof, inviting sinners to come to Christ telling them that they will be welcome, he thinks that to be an uncow thing. That God should take a defiled sinner into His clean bosom, and give him mercy for all his sins, he knows not what that means; and therefore he offends at it. The natural man knows not the things that are of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And he is carnally minded, he knows not the depth of the Lord's love; he knows not what that is for mercy and misery to meet together. He knows not, nor considers not, how kind and gracious the Lord is towards such, and what bowels of love and tender compassion the Lord has to a repenting home-coming sinner. No. There is no man that knows the greatness of the Lord's mercy, and how far His kindness is extended to home-coming sinners, but only he that will come and see, that will come and take a proof thereof himself. Sense is the best schoolmaster to teach us this lesson of God's goodness and His loving-kindness. By preaching, hearing, reading, contemplation of the cause and the theory of this, by all these we will only see this [goodness and loving-kindness] afar off. But once come and taste this goodness of the Lord, and come in within Christ's house, and hear heaven's music, and that will say more to you of these things than anything else can do, and more than ever ye would [have] believed.
上帝对归来的罪人的恩慈之路，以及主和祂的仆人——那些天使们的欢乐，以及主赐予这样一个人怜悯的事情，对于自然人来说是一个隐藏的奥秘。那些只懂得纯粹自然的人认为上帝向罪人所显示的恩慈是福音的工作和其中的消息，邀请罪人来到基督面前，告诉他们他们将受到欢迎，他们认为这是一件不可思议的事情。上帝竟然将一个被玷污的罪人收入祂纯洁的怀抱，并赐予他所有的罪孽的怜悯，他们不知道那意味着什么；因此他们对此感到冒犯。自然人不了解上帝的事物，也不能了解，因为它们是属灵的。他们心思纵欲，不了解主的爱的深度；他们不知道怜悯和痛苦如何相遇。他们不知道，也不考虑主对悔改归来的罪人是多么慈善和宽容，主对他们怀有何等的爱和温柔的怜悯。不，他们不知道。 没有人能够知道主的怜悯有多伟大，以及他的仁慈延伸到何等程度，只有亲自前来看见和证明的人才能明了。感知是教导我们学习上帝的良善和慈爱的最好教师。通过宣讲、聆听、阅读、反思其原因和理论，我们只能从远处看到这一切。但一旦亲身来领略主的良善，走进基督的家，听到天堂的音乐，那会比任何事情都更加深刻地向你证明这些事实，超出你曾经相信的范围。

A second reason for this is, This is a thing that is so contrary to nature that one who is a sinner, and withal a wicked sinner, that such should get mercy they cannot believe it. Scribes and Pharisees they wonder at this; and therefore Christ is challenged for this by them, for going to Zacchæus's house, who was a publican; and He is challenged and sore accused, and calumnies raised upon Him for this matter, in that He ate and drank and kept company with publicans and sinners, who were a people most hated among the Jews, that none would keep company with, but those that were like themselves, And Scribes and Pharisees and the Rabbis among the Jews break their neck upon Christ because of this, that He was so entire and so warm-hearted to poor vile sinners. And this is one point of the gospel, and indeed a main point of it, that Christ in the gospel invites sinners to come, and receives repenting sinners be they never so vile in their own eyes and the eyes of others. So that repentance is a work of the gospel and not a work of the law. It is a thing altogether supernatural and not proceeding at all from nature. And then—
这是第二个原因，这是一件与自然相反的事情，一个罪人，而且是一个邪恶的罪人，他们无法相信这样的人会得到怜悯。文士和法利赛人对此感到惊讶；因此，他们对基督提出质疑，因为他去了撒该的家，撒该是一个税吏；他们对此事对基督提出质疑，严厉指责他，并对他进行诽谤，因为他与税吏和罪人一起吃喝和交往，而这些人在犹太人中最受憎恶，除了那些与他们相似的人，没有人会与他们交往。因此，犹太人中的文士、法利赛人和拉比们因为这个原因而与基督发生冲突，因为他对可怜的卑鄙罪人如此真诚和热心。这是福音的一个要点，实际上是其中的一个主要要点，基督在福音中邀请罪人前来，并接纳悔改的罪人，无论他们在自己和他人眼中多么卑鄙。因此，悔改是福音的工作，而不是律法的工作。这完全是超自然的事情，根本不是出于本性。然后-

Third: That the Lord should extend more than ordinary mercy to sinners, who have been furthest and deepest in guiltiness, the natural man cannot away with it. And that slays all these who are opposers of God's mercy, and so come not to Christ for mercy, because they think the offers of the gospel are not so meikle for them, seeing it is reached to them who transgress so highly in such a large manner. They cannot believe that, and foster themselves in that conceit, and take a wrong opinion of Christ. And thus they make hell to come upon themselves before the time, and the terrors of the second death before ever the Lord give out the sentence.
第三点：主应该对那些犯下最严重罪行的罪人施以超乎寻常的怜悯，但凡是属于自然人的，都无法接受这一点。这就杀死了那些反对上帝怜悯的人，他们不会为了怜悯而来到基督面前，因为他们认为福音的呼召并不是为他们准备的，因为这些呼召是针对那些在如此大的程度上犯下如此严重罪行的人的。他们无法相信这一点，并沉溺于这种错误的观念，并对基督持有错误的看法。因此，他们在时候未到之前就给自己带来了地狱的折磨和第二次死亡的恐惧，而主还没有宣判。

Now our use of this is to let us see what is the natural man's light, and what is his judgment of God's matters. That which is called free will in the understanding, believing God and Christ, the elder brother knows not what that means. This should be marked that the natural man who goes on into the ways of sin he has not right thoughts of God. All of them have false thoughts of God in their will and their affections. There is a hostility and enmity between their mind and the Lord, and His manner of dealing with poor sinners. He knows not what that means. What! has the natural man no light at all? Yes; he has some literal and natural light, but there are four faults in it shortly, and this is a clear difference between the light of the natural man and the believer's light.
现在我们使用这个是为了让我们看到自然人的光明是什么，以及他对上帝事物的判断。在理解中被称为自由意志的东西，相信上帝和基督，这位长兄不知道那是什么意思。应该注意的是，那些走在罪恶道路上的自然人对上帝没有正确的思考。他们所有人在意愿和情感上对上帝都有错误的想法。他们的思想与主和他对可怜的罪人的处理方式之间存在敌意和敌对关系。他不知道那是什么意思。什么！自然人一点光明都没有吗？是的，他有一些字面和自然的光明，但它有四个缺点，这是自然人的光明和信徒的光明之间的明显区别。

First: There is no proportion between the light of the natural man and the things that are of God. Christ is little to the natural man, and so are mercy and repentance to a home-coming sinner little also. His heart is misted and blinded, he sees not what wide bowels of mercy and love Christ has to a home-coming sinner. But the believer sees Christ and mercy and repentance all in one colour. He sees that Christ has open arms for receiving a repenting sinner. He sees there is a chamber of love to receive a lost and tint sinner in Christ. He sees there is a door opened in Christ to receive those who come not into Him till the eleventh hour. Again—
首先：自然人的光与属神的事物之间没有比例。对于自然人来说，基督微不足道，对于回归的罪人来说，怜悯和悔改也是微不足道的。他的心被迷雾和盲目所笼罩，他看不到基督对回归的罪人有多么广阔的怜悯和爱心。但信徒看到基督、怜悯和悔改都是同一种颜色。他看到基督张开双臂接纳悔改的罪人。他看到在基督里有一间充满爱的房间，接纳迷失和蒙污的罪人。他看到在基督里有一扇门敞开，接纳那些直到第十一个小时才来到他面前的人。再次——

Second: The light that the natural man has, it wants weight to draw the will and the affections and all the powers of the soul to love and embrace and follow after Christ. And therefore it may well be resembled to the light of the moon, especially in the winter season. The moon in winter has light, but it is not like the summer sun that has a melting and warming power with it. Whereas the light the believer has, it works upon his heart to warm and refresh him with the love of Jesus, that as he knows Christ so he follows on to know Him. And these two are joined in Hos. 6:3 by the spirit of God: "Then shall ye know Him if ye follow on to know Him." So that light and heat and refreshment follow the heat and sense of Christ's love that the natural man has. The natural man may see the gospel to be true, but he sees it not to be good, neither assents to the promises that are contained therein. Yet they are true promises but he assents not, or follows not in them as good, and so he goes no further on but to a bare light.
其次：自然人所拥有的光亮，渴望有力量吸引意愿、情感和灵魂的所有力量去爱、拥抱和追随基督。因此，它可以被比作月光，尤其是在冬季。冬天的月亮有光亮，但它不像夏天的太阳那样具有融化和温暖的力量。而信徒所拥有的光亮，它作用于他的心灵，以耶稣的爱温暖和滋润他，使他认识基督并追随他。这两者在何西阿书 6:3 中被上帝的灵所结合：“我们要认识耶和华，竭力追求认识他。他出现确如晨光，他必临到我们像甘雨，像滋润田地的春雨。”因此，光亮、热量和滋润是跟随自然人对基督的爱的热量和感知而来的。自然人可能看到福音是真实的，但他并不认为它是好的，也不同意其中所包含的应许。然而，这些应许是真实的，但他不同意，或者不以它们为善，所以他只停留在光亮之中，没有进一步前进。

Thirdly and lastly: There is no liking, love, joy, desire, accompanying the light the natural man has, and because of this it is no wonder that those who have but little knowledge of Christ, it is no marvel albeit they misken the Lord's dealing with His children, and call that which is the excellence of Christ and of the gospel, madness and daffin. As certainly this will follow the not knowing Christ and His ordinances rightly, that so natural men may break their necks and stumble upon the works of God, as we may see in Psa. 83:11.
第三，也是最后一点：自然人所拥有的光明中没有喜好、爱、喜悦、欲望，因此不足为奇，那些对基督知之甚少的人，对主与祂的子民的交往会产生误解，将基督和福音的卓越视为疯狂和嬉笑。正如我们在诗篇 83:11 中所见，不了解基督和祂的教导将导致自然人摔断脖子，绊倒在神的作为上。

Now the servant gives an answer to the elder brother, wherefore there should be mirth and rejoicing in his father's house. "Thy brother is come: and he hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound." The argument that the servant uses for that [which] the father did is: "Thy father hath received him a whole and living son who was once sick and dead, and therefore there is mirth and rejoicing." And the strength of the argument is tane fra the hazard wherein the forlorn son was once, and now, says he, he is escaped from that hazard and danger, and therefore it is most expedient and lawful, that there should be mirth and feasting and rejoicing in heaven. And so by this we may learn that this forlorn son he has once been in great hazard, he has once been over in the devil's camp, and so in great danger, but now he is returned safe and sound; and therefore the servant says to his brother: "He has received him safe and sound." The Lord would hereby teach us that we have been in a fearful and dangerous hazard while we remain in the state of nature. And indeed so it is. For being there we are under spiritual death, as it is Eph. 2:2: "Called us from death to life." And being in nature, we are also under the state of condemnation: "And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others."
现在仆人回答了哥哥的问题，解释为什么在父亲的家里应该有欢乐和喜庆。“你的弟弟回来了：他杀了肥牛犊，因为他平安无事地回来了。”仆人用这个论点来解释父亲的行为：“你的父亲接纳了一个完整而活着的儿子，他曾经生病死了，所以应该有欢乐和喜庆。”这个论点的力量来自那个可怕的危险，那个被遗弃的儿子曾经处于其中，现在，他逃离了那个危险和威胁，因此在天堂里有欢乐、盛宴和喜庆是最合适和合法的。因此，我们可以从中学到，这个被遗弃的儿子曾经处于巨大的危险之中，他曾经在魔鬼的阵营中，所以处于巨大的危险之中，但现在他平安无事地回来了；因此仆人对他的哥哥说：“他平安无事地回来了。”主通过这个告诉我们，在我们处于自然状态时，我们曾经处于可怕而危险的危险之中。事实上确实如此。因为在那里，我们处于属灵的死亡之下，正如以弗所书所说。 2:2：“从死亡中召唤我们到生命。”而且，作为人类的本性，我们也处于被定罪的状态：“我们从前也和他们一样，在本性上是怒子。”"

And therefore all those who are come to Christ, they have cause to be blyth, and to rejoice and to praise Christ's rich and free grace, and to say with their hearts: "I thank God that whereas once I was a persecutor, and a blasphemer and an injurious person, one who hated Christ and the power of religion, &c.; but now I am not so, but, by free grace, I am become a new man." There is no man has such cause to sing a triumphant song of the Lord's praise as he who was once dead, and the Lord has given him mercy, and quickened him from that estate.
因此，所有来到基督面前的人都有理由欢欣、喜乐和赞美基督丰富而自由的恩典，并且用心灵说：“感谢上帝，曾经我是一个迫害者、亵渎者和伤害他人的人，一个憎恨基督和宗教力量的人等等；但现在我不再是这样了，而是凭借自由的恩典成为了一个新人。”没有人比曾经死去、而主赐予他怜悯并使他从那种状态中复活的人更有理由唱一首胜利的赞美歌。

"And he was angry, and would not go in." This was the older brother. There seems to be natural reason for this, that he would not go in, he being a civil liver, and an honest man that way, one who had not at any time broken his father's command, as he himself says, that had not run away from his father, and tired of his company, and spent his goods with harlots and in debauchery, as his younger brother had done. This is a strange thing, thinks he, that he should make so meikle of him. Because it is so, I will not go into the house. Reason would say that the elder brother has cause to stick here, and to be offended at what his father does. But this is one of the supernatural points of the gospel, and a very great one; that those who seem to be furthest from mercy, who have done most for stopping mercy to be extended towards them, the Lord He ordinarily gives mercy to such. And yet, on the other part, honest civilians and well-covered Scribes, Pharisees, that have a trim-like outside, and seek for no more of religion, and seek not into Christ, the Lord hardens the heart of such, and gives them over to the spirit of error and delusion; and harlots and publicans, and very sinful persons, who are even seen to be great sinners, they get mercy and forgiveness, and are led into Christ to seek their life in Him.
他很生气，不愿进去。这是哥哥。似乎有自然的理由，他不愿进去，他是一个守规矩的人，一个诚实的人，从来没有违背过父亲的命令，正如他自己所说的，他没有离开父亲，厌倦了他的陪伴，也没有把财产花在妓女和放荡上，就像他的弟弟那样。他觉得这是一件奇怪的事情，他父亲竟然如此看重他。因为如此，我不会进屋。理性会说，哥哥有理由坚持在这里，并对父亲的所作所为感到不满。但这是福音中超自然的一点，也是非常重要的一点；那些似乎离怜悯最远，对怜悯的延伸做出了最大努力的人，主通常会给予怜悯。 然而，在另一方面，诚实的平民和外表光鲜的文士、法利赛人，并不追求更多的宗教，也不寻求基督，主使这样的人心硬，使他们陷入错误和迷惑的精神中；而妓女、税吏和非常罪恶的人，即使被视为大罪人，他们得到了怜悯和宽恕，并被引导进入基督，寻求在祂里面的生命。

We may learn here that it is God's way, and it is the way of the gospel, to ride upon the weakest, poorest, basest, and most contemptible things in the world, and to cause the glory of His mercy and goodness to shine upon them, and to cause the news of mercy to sound effectually to those who seem most lost in the world. Look wherever, at any time, God has shown mercy and the light and saving power of His truth, wherever the Lord has shown the greatest works of mercy, whether it be upon nations, or congregations, or families, or particular persons, it has always been shown most clearly and effectually to such as the world thought least of. When Jacob is blessing his children, there is not a word spoken of any blessing to the tribe of Levi (Gen. 49); but when he is dying the Lord by him gives them a curse because "they slew a man in their anger, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." And yet the Lord has chosen them for His portion, even the tribe come of him who gat his father's curse, the Lord chooses him out of all the tribes of Israel to be His portion. And a bastard Jephthah—the Jews abhorred any of that kind—yet the Lord will have him to be a judge in Israel, and the instrument by whom He will work a great deliverance for that people. And among the twelve Patriarchs, the odd and the castaway son Joseph, who was hated and sold of his brethren; the servant of God, Moses, at the direction of the Lord's spirit, says of him, "The blessing of the Lord upon him who was cast forth of his brethren."
我们可以从这里得知，上帝的方式，以及福音的方式，是骑在世界上最虚弱、最贫穷、最卑微、最受轻蔑的事物上，使他的怜悯和良善的荣耀闪耀在它们身上，并使怜悯的消息对那些在世界上似乎最迷失的人产生有效的声音。无论何时，无论何地，上帝显现怜悯和他真理的光和拯救力量的时候，无论是在国家、会众、家庭或个别人身上，总是向那些被世界忽略的人清晰明确地显示。当雅各祝福他的儿女时，没有一个字提到对利未族的祝福（创世记 49 章）。但当他垂垂而终时，上帝在他身上对他们发出了咒诅，因为“他们在愤怒中杀了一个人，在自己的意志中推倒了一面墙。可他们的怒气是可怕的，他们的愤怒是残忍的。我要在雅各中分散他们，在以色列中向他们散开”。然而，主已经选择了他们作为祂的份，即使他们是受到父亲诅咒的部落，主从以色列的所有部落中选择了他作为祂的份。而一个私生子耶弗他——犹太人憎恶这种人——然而，主要他成为以色列的一位法官，并通过他来为那个民族实现伟大的拯救。在十二个祖先中，有一个被遗弃的儿子约瑟，他被他的兄弟们憎恨并出卖；作为上帝的仆人，摩西在主的灵的指引下，对他说：“愿主的祝福临到那被他的兄弟们抛弃的人。”"

And likeways when Christ is coming into Jerusalem in His triumph, as it was prophesied, riding upon an ass and a colt the foal of an ass, He will not have Scribes and Pharisees to sing His triumph, but bairns and little ones, cry out "Hosanna, blessed is the king that cometh in the name of the Lord." And where, when Christ was born, were all the Bible-men and the book-learned men that should [have] known so well, and observed the time and the place of His birth? And yet shepherds get leave to be the first preachers of His birth to the world? No; all the great rabbis and exponers of the law they had beguiled themselves with their light, and knew not that Christ was born, and the shepherds proclaim His birth that so the Lord he may triumph upon the weakest things, and these fardest unlike heaven he will take them to heaven.
当基督骑着驴子和驴驹进入耶路撒冷，正如预言所说的那样，他不会有文士和法利赛人来歌颂他的胜利，而是婴儿和小孩子，他们呼喊着“和散那，奉主名来的王是应当称颂的。”当基督降生时，所有的圣经人和书学者都在哪里？他们应该非常了解并注意到他的降生的时间和地点。然而，牧羊人却获得了向世界宣告他降生的首位传道者的资格。不，所有伟大的拉比和法律解释者都被他们的光蒙蔽了，不知道基督已经降生了，而牧羊人却宣告了他的降生，这样主就可以在最软弱的事物上获得胜利，并将这些最不像天堂的事物带到天堂。

And this is, indeed, the sweetness of the mercy and love of our Lord, that even those who are furthest off from mercy in their own eyes, and in the eyes of the world, these shall get mercy rather than others who seem to be nearer within the reach thereof, that the Lord may make good that which is said by the apostle (1 Cor. 1:26–29): "For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the strong; and base things in the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence." He will choose the kinless things of the world, and the nothings, to be his portion, that no flesh may glory before him, but that the glory of the salvation of all those who are saved may be to the Lord, and to the Lord allanerly.
这确实是我们主的怜悯和爱的甜蜜，即使那些在自己和世界眼中离怜悯最远的人，他们将得到怜悯，而不是那些似乎更接近怜悯的人，以便主能够实现使徒所说的（哥林多前书 1:26-29）：“弟兄们，你们想想，你们这些蒙召的，按人智慧有智慧的不多，有能力的不多，有尊贵的也不多。神却拣选了世上愚拙的，叫有智慧的羞愧；拣选了世上软弱的，叫那强壮的羞愧。神拣选了世上卑贱的和被人厌恶的，以及那些算不得甚么的，为要废掉那些自以为是的，使一切有血气的，在神面前一个也不能夸口。”他将选择世界上的无亲无故之物，选择无物之物作为他的份额，使得没有血气的人在他面前夸口，而所有得救的人的救恩荣耀归于主，归于独一的主。

O happy and blessed is the case and condition of a sinner who is despised of all, yea, even of themselves, and thereby can come home to Christ. When thou comest to Him the Lord will not speer at thee when thou comest, who was thy father, or thy mother, or what thy kindred is, neither will He speer what thou hast been doing all the time till thou come to Him, if so be thou come to Him with a bleeding heart for sin. And therefore let never man speer this question what they have been doing before who are come into Christ, for all thy harlotries and thy manifold sins and provocations be not bars away for those. And albeit Scribes and Pharisees hoot at you that thou should seek home to Christ, and be made welcome of Him; yet for all their ill will and their malice at Christ's dealings with His own poor ones, seeing He makes you welcome, make thou thyself welcome also.
一个被所有人鄙视的罪人，甚至连自己都鄙视的罪人，能够回到基督面前，这是多么幸福和有福的情况。当你来到祂面前时，主不会问你的父亲是谁，母亲是谁，你的亲属是谁，也不会问你在来到祂之前一直在做什么，只要你带着因为罪而流血的心来到祂面前。所以，永远不要问那些已经来到基督面前的人之前做了什么，因为你的淫乱、种种罪恶和挑衅都不会成为阻碍。尽管文士和法利赛人嘲笑你，说你应该回到基督面前，并受到祂的欢迎；但是，尽管他们对基督对待自己贫穷的人的恶意和恶意，既然祂欢迎你，你也要欢迎自己。

What further says his elder brother to his father? "Neither did I at any time break Thy commandments." The word in the first language is, "I never went beyond thy commandment." Albeit this be the word of a proud Pharisee, yet it tells us what sort of obedience our God requires of us. That obedience he craves is not to go out of the straight line, not to decline to the right hand or to the left hand.
他的哥哥对父亲说了什么？“我从未违背过你的命令。”在第一种语言中，这个词是“我从未超越你的命令。”尽管这是一个骄傲的法利赛人的话，但它告诉我们我们的上帝要求我们什么样的顺从。他渴望的顺从不是偏离直线，不是向左或向右偏离。

The doctrine is clear, and it is this: The law that God will have us to follow and to square ourselves unto as a line and rule, it is such a law as requires strict and precise obedience of us. The apostle says: "Walk circumspectly as in the day-time," that is, walk as those who count all their stops, and have light to see where they set their feet. God will either give such obedience as that, or He will account any obedience we give no obedience. And look to five things in the law of God, and that will tell us this is true.
教义是清楚的，就是这样：上帝要我们遵循和依照的法律，是一种要求我们严格和精确服从的法律。使徒说：“要谨慎行事，像在白昼一样”，也就是说，要像那些计算每一步的人一样行走，并且有光亮来看清他们脚下的路。上帝要么给予这样的服从，要么将我们所给予的任何服从视为无效。观察上帝的法律中的五个方面，就会告诉我们这是真实的。

First: The law of God it is a spiritual law, and it is not by hands, and feet, and tongue, and teeth, and obedience with the outward man that will satisfy God, but He must have the obedience of the heart and the inward man. And therefore the Lord lays charge upon our thoughts; Jer. 4:14; Isa. 55:7. In those places God will have the thoughts to be subject to Him: "O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness. How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee?" "Let the wicked man forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, for He will have mercy; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." And our Saviour Christ when He expones the the law (Matt. 5:22), ye will see exponing the sixth command, He not only forbids murder, but He says, "Whosoever miscalls his brother, and calls him 'Raca,' 'thou fool,' or is angry with him without a cause, he is a breaker of that command." And He not only condemns adultery for a sin and breach of the seventh command, but He says he that looks upon a woman and lusteth after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart; so that it will not be the outside of civility and of country holiness that will make a man accounted religious and holy in the sight of God, but the holiness of the heart.
首先：上帝的法律是一种属灵的法律，不是通过手、脚、舌头、牙齿和外在的顺从来满足上帝，而是必须有内心和内在的顺从。因此，主对我们的思想提出要求；耶利米书 4:14；以赛亚书 55:7。在这些地方，上帝要求思想顺服于祂：“耶路撒冷啊，你当洗去恶事，使你的罪恶从我眼前除掉。你心里要洁净，不再作恶，以致我的怒气因你的恶行发作。”“恶人当离弃自己的道路，不义的人当除掉自己的意念。归向耶和华，耶和华就必怜恤他；当归向我们的神，因为祂必广行赦免。”我们的救主基督在解释律法时（马太福音 5:22），你会看到在解释第六诫时，祂不仅禁止谋杀，还说：“凡骂弟兄是拉加的，骂弟兄是魔利的，骂弟兄是愚顽的，或说他是魔利的，都该受议会的刑罚。”他不仅谴责通奸为罪恶和违反第七戒的行为，而且他说，凡是看着一个女人并对她起淫欲的人，他已经在心里与她通奸了；所以，在上帝眼中，一个人被认为是虔诚和圣洁的，并不是因为外表的礼貌和乡村的圣洁，而是因为内心的圣洁。

Second: Look also to the universality of God's commandments, and that will tell us He requires such obedience, Psa. 119:6: "Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all Thy commandments." This says that shame follows upon that man who pretends to keep some of God's commands, and yet breaks other some wittingly. Not a drunkard and yet a harlot, shame will come upon such a man; not a cozener, and yet none may lippen to his word, shame shall come upon such a man. And that it is the commendation given to Zacharias and Elizabeth, that they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Again—
其次：还要看到上帝的诫命的普遍性，这将告诉我们祂要求这样的顺从，诗篇 119:6：“我一切的道路都坚定在你的法度上，我就不至于羞愧。”这说明，那些假装遵守上帝的一些诫命，却故意违背其他一些诫命的人将会感到羞愧。不是一个酒鬼，却是一个妓女，这样的人将会感到羞愧；不是一个欺骗者，却没有人相信他的话，这样的人将会感到羞愧。而扎迦利亚和以利沙伯被称赞的就是他们在主的一切诫命和典章上行得无可指摘。再次——

Third: If we will look to the universality of time, God requires such obedience of us, Psa. 106:3: "Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times." There are anew who will keep the commandment of the Lord while the cross is lying upon them, or upon their house, or any of their bairns; but that place says: "Blessed is the man that doeth righteousness at all times." And then—
第三点：如果我们看到时间的普遍性，上帝要求我们如此顺从，诗篇 106:3：“遵守公义、时常行公义的人是有福的。”有些人在十字架压在他们身上、或者压在他们的房子上、或者压在他们的孩子身上时，仍然会遵守主的诫命；但那个地方说：“行公义的人是有福的。”然后-

Fourth: In obedience to God's commands is to look to all the circumstances of our actions, to the end wherefore, to the manner how, and to the ground and principle from whence they flow. So the believer he must look to his intentions, what it is he sets before his eyes when he comes to hear the Word of God. If a man comes to the kirk to hear the Word for saving his honesty, because it will be a shame for him, he being a man of whom notice is taken, and in some place and reputation, if his place in the kirk shall be seen empty, or for any other by respect, then you obey not God after a right and acceptable manner. But if you can say, ye do what [ye do] in obedience to His commandments, for that end that ye may win a step nearer God, and may grow deep in His love, then that is right obedience. And then—
第四点：顺从上帝的命令是要考虑我们行动的所有情况，目的、方式以及它们的根源和原则。所以信徒必须考虑自己的意图，当他们来听上帝的话语时，他们心中所设立的目标是什么。如果一个人来教堂听上帝的话语是为了保全自己的名誉，因为他是一个受人关注的人，有一定的地位和声誉，如果他在教堂的位置被看到是空的，或者出于其他任何原因，那么你并没有以正确和可接受的方式顺从上帝。但是如果你能说，你所做的一切都是为了顺从上帝的命令，为了更接近上帝，更深入地体验祂的爱，那么那就是正确的顺从。然后-

Lastly: In our obedience to God's commandments no man must make a pattern and rule of others in their obedience. What, albeit ye be as holy as that man, if ye be not holier than he, you and he may both go to hell together, as the Scribes and Pharisees ilk one of them did imitate others. But made that them to be holy? No. Christ says, "If your righteousness exceed not the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God." It is a remarkable place that which we read 2 Kings 14:3, where King Amaziah is reproved of the Lord, that he did not as David had done before him. And may not a man be a good man, albeit he be not as holy as David was? Who can win to that high pitch? Yes; I confess he may be a good man, and not win so far on as he did. But this is to teach us that we make no man our copy in obeying the commandments of the Lord. But we must set that copy before us which Christ says of His Kirk, Cant. 4:7: "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee." You must see and strive by all means to be quit of spots in the world.
最后：在我们顺从上帝的诫命时，没有人可以将自己的顺从作为他人顺从的模范和规则。即使你和那个人一样圣洁，如果你不比他更圣洁，你和他都可能一同下地狱，就像文士和法利赛人互相模仿一样。但这使他们成为圣洁吗？不。基督说：“你们的义若不胜于文士和法利赛人的义，断不能进天国。”我们在列王记下 14:3 中读到的地方非常引人注目，上帝责备亚玛谢王没有像大卫之前的行事。一个人即使不像大卫那样圣洁，他也可以是一个好人吗？谁能达到那么高的水平呢？是的，我承认他可以是一个好人，但他可能没有达到大卫那样的程度。但这是要教导我们，在顺从上帝的诫命时，我们不要以任何人为榜样。而是要根据基督在雅歌 4:7 中对他的教会所说的设定榜样：“我的爱，你全然美丽，毫无瑕疵。”你必须努力通过各种方式摆脱世界上的瑕疵。

Now the use of this, that we have been speaking [of] is, to reprove them who mock godliness, and scorn those who fear an oath, as the Scripture speaks, and make conscience of their words and thoughts as if that were in needless preciseness. But the way to heaven is a straight and narrow way, and alas! the world knows it not. They scorn a strict and precise walking with God in everything. And alas! this is even now the sin that rings in Scotland, that any who would walk so as to approve themselves to God in everything, these get a new name to be "Puritans" and "Separatists." And I believe there be not many parts where the gospel is that have gone so far on in this sin as we have done, notwithstanding our light be clearer than the light of others; and therefore our judgment must be the greater, for we lie under the woe that is pronounced by the Lord against those who call evil good and good evil.
现在，我们所讨论的使用方法是，责备那些嘲笑虔诚的人，嘲笑那些敬畏誓言的人，正如圣经所说，他们对自己的言语和思想持有良心，好像这是多余的严谨。但通向天堂的道路是一条狭窄而艰难的道路，唉！世人不知道。他们嘲笑与上帝在一切事上严格而精确的行走。唉！这甚至是苏格兰现在的罪恶，任何一个在一切事上行走以使自己得到上帝的认可的人，都会被冠以“清教徒”和“分离主义者”的新名字。我相信没有多少地方的福音已经走得像我们这样远了，尽管我们的光明比其他人的光明更加明亮；因此，我们的判断必须更加严厉，因为我们正受到主对那些称恶为善、称善为恶的人所宣告的祸患。

Now only a word [more] of two things in this parable that we may close it. And—
现在只剩下一个词，关于这个寓言中的两件事情，我们可以结束了。而且-

First: That albeit the forlorn son when he comes home be highly honoured and kindly entreated by his father, yet the elder brother will not go into the house where he is, but is angry at both his father and his brother, challenging them both.
首先：虽然那个失落的儿子回家时会受到父亲的高度尊重和友善对待，但是哥哥不会进入他所在的房子，而是对父亲和弟弟都生气，挑战他们两个。

Second: What is it that ails him at his brother and his father? Nothing, but only because God is good to him, he cannot digest that. Where we may learn:
第二点：他对他的兄弟和父亲有什么不满？没有，只是因为上帝对他很好，他无法接受这一点。我们可以从中学到：

First: That whenever a sinner comes home to Christ they shall then get the hatred and envy of the rest of the world. What fault had this younger brother done to him to be angry for? No fault at all. But because he came home to Christ, therefore he is angry. And what is the ground of the hatred, that is between the followers of Christ and the rest of the world? They have no other cause wherefore to be angry at them, but because they are come home to Christ, and because it is so, they cannot get the world's heart. That must be true which Christ says and registers in His Testament: "Ye are not of the world, for if ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Ye shall get the world's malice, and all the quarrel that the world shall have against you shall be only because you are My disciples. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent cannot go together, but they must be at enmity." And how comes it to pass that there cannot be a kindly peace between Prelatists and Papists, and those who have bound themselves in a covenant with God? Even because we are not in one way. The Lord has said it, that their horns must be in our side. And, therefore, let no man who comes to Christ look always for the wind fair in his sails, and that he shall lie always upon a soft bed, fra thou hast tane you to Christ. No; thou shalt be used hardly of the men of the world, who are not in the same course with you, and shall be forced to say as the prophet Jeremiah says (15:10): "Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; and yet every one doth curse me." And the reason of all their envy is because the Word of God is his delight. That shall be enough for a quarrel to the world. Seek God, and ye shall get the world on your top. Even thy father and mother and the wife that lies into thy bosom, if thou seek God, and they go not on into that way, also they shall be thy enemies. And, therefore, we must resolve to take the world's feid. If we would have God's favour, whoever comes to Christ must make them[selves] for the scourge of the world's tongue.
首先：每当一个罪人回到基督那里时，他们就会得到世界其他人的仇恨和嫉妒。这个弟弟有什么过错让他生气呢？没有任何过错。但是因为他回到基督那里，所以他生气了。基督徒和世界其他人之间的仇恨的根源是什么？他们没有其他原因来生气，只是因为他们回到了基督那里，因为如此，他们无法得到世界的心。基督在他的遗嘱中说的话必定是真实的：“你们不属于世界，因为如果你们属于世界，世界就会爱自己；但因为你们不属于世界，而是我从世界中选择了你们，所以世界恨你们。你们将得到世界的恶意，世界对你们的所有争端将仅仅是因为你们是我的门徒。女人的后裔和蛇的后裔不能共存，他们必须互相敌对。”那么为什么主教派和天主教徒以及那些与上帝立约的人之间不能有和睦的和平呢？ 即使我们不是一条道上的人。主已经说过，他们的角必须在我们身上。因此，凡是来到基督面前的人，不要总是期望顺风顺水，总是躺在柔软的床上，因为你已经归向基督。不，你将会受到世人的苦待，他们与你不在同一条道上，你将被迫像先知耶利米所说的那样（15:10）：“我有祸了，我的母亲，你生我是作为争论和争执的人，遍地上的人都咒诅我！我没有放债，也没有人向我放债，人人都咒诅我。”而所有这些嫉妒的原因就是因为神的话是他的喜悦。这对世界来说已经足够成为争端的理由了。寻求神，你将得到世界的尊重。即使是你的父母和躺在你怀中的妻子，如果你寻求神而他们不走在那条道上，他们也将成为你的敌人。因此，我们必须决心与世界为敌。如果我们想要得到神的恩宠，凡是来到基督面前的人都必须做世界舌头的鞭子。

Wherewith is it that he finds fault? "As soon as this thy son came that hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." The Pharisee has an ill eye towards the children of God, because God has a good heart to them. It is the natural man's ordinary to find fault with his neighbour's sins. It is ordinary for them to speak that, word which we read, Isa. 65:[5]: "Stand back by thyself, come not near me, I am holier than thou." A soul that is truly sanctified will be loathe to make a hole in his neighbour's conscience, that he may see what is there. No, he sees so many faults in himself that he sees not the faults of others well. He will say with the apostle, "I am the chief of sinners." The forlorn son speaks no ill of him, but he has much that he casts up to the forlorn son.
他为什么要找茬呢？“你这个儿子刚回来，就和妓女一起挥霍了你的财产，你却为他宰了肥牛。”法利赛人对上帝的儿女心怀不满，因为上帝对他们心怀善意。对于凡人来说，找邻居的过错是司空见惯的事。他们常说那句我们在以赛亚书 65:5 中读到的话：“离开我，不要靠近我，我比你圣洁。”一个真正被圣化的灵魂会不愿意在邻居的良心上开个洞，看看里面有什么。不，他自己有那么多的过错，以至于看不清别人的过错。他会和使徒一样说：“我是罪人中的罪魁。”那个失落的儿子没有说他的坏话，但他却有很多事情拿来责备那个失落的儿子。

The last particular that we observe is: The Lord taking the forlorn son's part. "It was meet (says he) that we should make merry, and be glad," &c.—to teach us that God will for a while flatter a hypocrite, for you see the Lord reproves him not for his rough dealing. And woful is the case of that man under whose head God lays a cod to let him sleep in his security, and wakens him not to whom he says, as it is in Hos. 4:17: "Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone." Now,
我们观察到的最后一个细节是：主站在这个可怜的儿子一方。“我们欢宴快乐是应当的”（他说）——这是为了教导我们，上帝会暂时迎合伪君子，因为你看到主并没有因为他的粗暴行为而责备他。那个人的情况是可悲的，上帝将一块鳕鱼放在他的头上，让他在安全中入睡，却不叫醒他，就像何西阿书 4:17 中所说的：“以法莲与偶像联合，由他吧。”现在，

Lastly: That the Lord takes the defence of His forlorn son. "It was meet that we should be glad and rejoice," teaches us this: Come home to Christ, who will, albeit all the world should speak ill of them, yet He will take their defence, and speak on their part. When that poor woman poured the ointment on Christ's feet, and the disciples began to murmur, and say, "It might [have] been sold for much money and given to the poor," Christ took her defence, and says, "Let her alone, she has wrought a good work on Me, for she did it for My burial; and wheresoever this gospel is preached throughout the world, this also that she has done shall be preached for a memorial of her." And Acts 9, when Ananias is bidden, "Go, preach to Saul," Ananias says: "This man has done much ill, and he has presently authority to bind all that call on Thy name, and carry them to Jerusalem;" but in ver. 15 Christ says, "Go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." And—
最后：主保护他那可怜的儿子。"我们应该高兴快乐"教导我们：回到基督那里，即使全世界都说他们的坏话，他仍然会为他们辩护，代表他们说话。当那个可怜的妇人把香膏倒在基督的脚上，门徒们开始抱怨说："这些香膏本可以卖很多钱给穷人"，基督为她辩护，说："别管她，她在我身上做了一件好事，是为了我的埋葬；无论这福音在全世界传讲，也必要述说她所作的，作为对她的纪念。"在使徒行传 9 章，当亚拿尼亚被吩咐去传道给扫罗时，亚拿尼亚说："这个人做了很多坏事，他现在有权力捆绑一切呼求你名字的人，并把他们带到耶路撒冷"；但在第 15 节，基督说："你去吧，因为他是我所拣选的器皿，要在外邦人、君王和以色列人面前宣扬我的名字。"

O, but that is a sweet thing, that albeit all the world should say against you, yet if thou wilt come to Christ, He will take thy part. Let them call you what they will, never so ill, He will call you His love, His dove, His undefiled, &c. And well is the soul that has Christ's commendation and high song of praise. It is better nor the commendation of all the world. What's the matter what men speak of you if God commend you. What is the matter albeit wicked men speak ill of you, if God speak good of you, for what He says all the world shall not get undone. Seek ye the Lord's commendation, and to be approven of Him, and it makes not then what men say against you. Lord teach us so to do for His name's sake. To this Lord, and our Lord, to His Father, and our Father, and to the Holy Spirit, be ascribed all glory, praise, and honour for ever and ever.—Amen.
哦，但这是一件甜蜜的事情，尽管全世界都可能对你说些什么，但如果你愿意来到基督面前，他会站在你这一边。让他们称呼你为什么都可以，即使再坏，他会称呼你为他的爱、他的鸽子、他的无瑕之物等等。拥有基督的赞美和高歌赞美的灵魂是多么美好。这比全世界的赞美更好。如果上帝称赞你，那么人们怎么说你又有什么关系。如果上帝称赞你，那么恶人怎么说你又有什么关系，因为他所说的话全世界都无法改变。寻求上帝的称赞，并得到他的认可，那么人们对你说什么就无关紧要了。主啊，为了你的名字教导我们这样做。愿荣耀、赞美和尊荣归于我们的主，归于他的父，归于圣灵，直到永远。阿门。

The Worth and Excellence of the Gospel
福音的价值和卓越

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."—2 COR. 10:4, 5.
我们争战的兵器并非属肉体的，却是借着上帝大有能力，能拆毁坚固的营垒；将一切妄想和高傲自尊的事物摧毁，使其顺服于上帝的知识，并使每一个思想都顺服于基督。

THE most part of the world, beloved in our Lord, there are but few of them who put that price upon the gospel of Christ that is meet to be put upon it, and so did some of thir false apostles. They called the gospel foolishness, daffing. They thought it to be but baseness itself. But men's thoughts are not the measure whereby this gospel is to be measured, for the Word of God and the gospel of Christ, is not of the less worth in itself that men put a small price upon it. But our Lord He knows best what is the worth and excellence of this gospel of Christ. He who kens the vanity and daffing of the vain thoughts of the heart of man, He kens that albeit all the world should count light of His gospel, esteeming it but foolishness and daffing, and a weak thing; yet He knows that the weapons of that warfare are not carnal and fleshly, but mighty through the power of God to the pulling down of strongholds. I say nothing now of what I spake before, but only I say this:
世界上大部分的人，亲爱的主内之人，只有少数人对基督的福音给予了应有的重视，而一些假使徒却不然。他们称福音为愚蠢、嘲弄。他们认为福音只是一种卑贱的东西。但人们的想法并不能衡量这福音的价值，因为上帝的话语和基督的福音本身并不因为人们对它的低估而减少其价值。然而，我们的主最清楚地知道这福音的价值和卓越。祂了解人心虚妄和嘲弄的思想，祂知道即使全世界都轻视祂的福音，认为它愚蠢、嘲弄和软弱，祂也知道这福音的武器并非属肉体和血气，却借着上帝的大能，能够拆毁坚固的堡垒。我现在不再重复之前所说的，只是说这一点：

Be no party in the world. Make the gospel and Christ your party, and take not the gospel for your enemy; for resist the gospel who will, and, whoever they be that stand out against it, it shall aye at last overmaster them, and ding them down, and tread them under foot, whether they will or no. How many have there been who have been setting their shoulders and their wits together to thrust this gospel out of the world. They thought it to be a cumbersome guest, and would fain [have] been quit of it, and so pressed to blow out Christ's candle. But they have been like drunken men, who in their drunken humour would run up to the top of a hill to blow out the light of the sun; but instead of blowing out the light thereof, they have only kythed their own foolishness. Even so do men in the world, climb up, upon the top of their worldly pomp and ambition, to blow out this candle of the gospel. But the more they blow at it to get it out, they only kythe their witlessness the more. It has evermore proved itself to be master, and more, against all who oppose it.
世上没有什么党派。把福音和基督作为你的党派，不要把福音视为你的敌人；不管谁抵抗福音，最终都会被它克服，被击倒，并被踏在脚下，无论他们愿意与否。有多少人竭力排挤这个福音，他们认为它是个麻烦的客人，想要摆脱它，努力吹灭基督的蜡烛。但他们就像醉酒的人，想要跑到山顶吹灭太阳之光，但却只是暴露了自己的愚蠢。世人也像是爬上世俗的权势和野心之巅，试图吹灭福音的蜡烛。但他们越吹，只会暴露出更多的愚蠢。福音在面对抵抗时，一直证明它自己是无法阻挡的。

A second use that we are to make of this, that the weapons of the gospel are mighty, is: Wherever this gospel cometh, whether it be to a congregation, to a nation, or to a particular person, it will evermore be master. We may not think to make a servant thereof, because it is mighty through the power of God. It is the arm of the Lord, as it is in Isa. 53:1; the prophet says there, "Who hath believed our report, or to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" And so never think to bruike the gospel and make a servant of it; for ye can no more make the gospel a servant to serve you than ye are able to break the Lord's arm. And, indeed, he is a strong party who will make the Lord's arm either to bow or to break. And, therefore, wherever the message of the gospel comes, let it have its own proper place; make it master. Let it prove to be the power of God to lay down those high and strong turrets of pride, of self-love, of worldly-mindedness, &c., under the foot of Christ, that so He may be known thereby to be mighty. The gospel will not be a servant and drudge to any. It will not be a post-horse to run our errands for us. It will not be a servant to the greatest upon earth. If it be mighty, through the power of God it will keep its own place, who will, who will not.
我们应该对福音武器强有力的第二种用途是：无论福音传到何处，无论是传给一群人、一个国家还是一个特定的人，它都会永远位居主宰地位。我们不能期望它为我们服务，因为它通过上帝的力量是强大的。它是主的膀臂，就像以赛亚书 53 章 1 节中所说的，“谁相信我们所传的呢？耶和华的膀臂向谁显露呢？”因此，永远不要试图压制福音，让它为我们服务；因为你无法让福音成为一个为你服务的仆人，正如你无法折断主的膀臂一样。实际上，任何试图使主的膀臂屈服或折断的人都是自找苦吃。因此，无论福音的信息传到何处，让它有其适当的位置；让它成为主宰。让它被证明是上帝的大能，在基督的脚下打倒那些骄傲、自我爱、追求世俗享受等高大坚固的塔楼，使人们因此认识到祂是全能的。福音不会成为任何人的仆人和懒汉。它不会成为为我们跑腿的驿马。它也不会成为世上最伟大者的仆人。 如果它是强大的，凭借上帝的力量，它将保持自己的位置，谁愿意，谁不愿意。

Moreover, if the gospel be not the arm and power of God to bring us home to Christ and to salvation, it shall then be the blackest news that ever we heard in our time. It is not for nought that our Lord, who is mercy itself, pronounced such a woe against Chorazin and Bethsaida, even a more heavy woe than against Tyre and Sidon. Woe! to you for evermore to whom Christ and the gospel come, and yet mend ye not. And He also pronounces a woe and a curse against these who bring not out the fruits of the gospel where it comes. And, therefore, it were best for you to bring out the fruits of the gospel timeously; for ye will not be quit of the gospel so easily and so lightly as ye trow to be quit of it. It will either mend you or end you. If it do no more, it will leave a summons at your door declaring that mercy and salvation were offered to you, and ye would not accept of it.
此外，如果福音不是上帝的力量和能力，将我们带回基督和救赎，那么这将是我们听到的最糟糕的消息。我们的主耶稣，他本身就是怜悯，对可拉津和伯赛大发出了如此严厉的咒诅，甚至比对推罗和西顿更严重。哀哉！对于那些基督和福音来到，却不悔改的人，永远的哀哉！他还对那些福音来到却没有结出果实的人发出了咒诅。因此，最好及时结出福音的果实；因为你们不会像你们想象的那样轻易地摆脱福音。它要么改变你，要么终结你。即使它不能做更多，它也会在你的门口留下一份传票，宣告给你提供了怜悯和救赎，而你却不接受。

If ministers cannot be means to save people's souls, they will yet leave a summons at the door of your souls, and will take the sun, the moon, stars, the stones, and timber of the kirk, in witness that we did our duty, and told our Master's message to you, but ye would not obey. And, therefore, for Christ's sake, seeing the gospel is come to you, take heed that ye despise it not, as ye will be answerable to Him who is the Master thereof. In Revelation 14:9, 10 there is a woe and an everlasting curse pronounced against these who receive not the gospel when it is sent to them. And, 2 Thess. 1:9, 10, the apostle says the Lord will come in flaming fire and take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of Christ. There is no less doom pronounced against those who are disobedient to the gospel of Christ nor the vengeance and the heavy curse of God. His word and gospel have not another word to say to the despiser of the gospel nor the vengeance of Christ to light upon them. That is a heavy burden to light upon any. And therefore I beseech you, in God's name and in Christ's name, let the gospel have the one work, which is the proper work thereof. Let it be master, and think not to make a servant of it. Bow unto the gospel, least if ye bow not willingly unto it, it break you all in pieces.
如果牧师们不能拯救人们的灵魂，他们将在你们的灵魂门前留下传票，并以太阳、月亮、星星、教堂的石头和木材作为证据，证明我们尽了我们的职责，向你们传达了我们主的信息，但你们不肯顺从。因此，为了基督的缘故，既然福音已经传到你们这里，你们要小心不要轻视它，因为你们将要对那位是福音主的人负责。在启示录 14:9、10 中，对那些不接受福音的人宣告了祸患和永远的咒诅。保罗在帖撒罗尼迦后书 1:9、10 中说，主要在烈火中降临，向那些不认识神，不顺从基督福音的人报复。对那些不顺从基督福音的人，上帝宣告了同样的厄运和重罚。他的话和福音对于福音的轻视者没有其他话可说，基督的报复也不会降临在他们身上。这是一个沉重的负担，落在任何人身上都是沉重的。因此，我以上帝的名义和基督的名义恳求你们，让福音发挥它应有的作用，这是它的正当工作。 让它成为主人，不要试图使其成为仆人。顺从福音，以免你们不愿顺从，它会将你们全部打碎。

Our weapons of our warfare, they have might and power from heaven and from God to ding down strongholds. Then it is so. It is but a daft question and a foolish conceit of those who are enemies of the Lord's grace to say, that for all that might and power that is in the gospel, that yet, notwithstanding, the free-will of these to whom it is sent with that power, may say or no to it, Take it, or reject the offer thereof, as your free-will pleases. This is nothing else but a conceit of those who never kent the power of the gospel. And we may know the gospel to be mighty through the power of God if we will look either to Him who is the author of this gospel, or if we will look to the matter that is contained in the gospel, or if we will look into the manner of the working thereof.
我们的战争武器，它们来自天堂和上帝的力量和能力，用来摧毁坚固的堡垒。然后就是这样。这只是一个愚蠢的问题和那些敌对主恩的人的愚蠢想法，他们说，尽管福音中有那么多的力量和能力，但被送到这些人手中的自由意志可以选择接受或拒绝，随你的自由意愿而定。这只是那些从未体验过福音的人的想法。如果我们看看这福音的创造者，或者看看福音中所包含的内容，或者看看福音的工作方式，我们就会知道福音是通过上帝的力量而强大的。

For the author of this gospel, it is no other but God Himself. Indeed, if this gospel were the word of a man only, albeit it were spoken unto the soul of a man, then I think man's free-will might say or no to it, as it pleased. But the gospel is not the word of man to man, but it is a love-letter that is written to us by our Lord Himself, and is dited by His Spirit. And why may it not command our will to yield unto it, seeing the Lord Himself is the author thereof? It is a great indignity offered to our Lord to say, Let Him speak as He will, albeit it were never so pithily; and let Him work with His word as He pleases, that yet, notwithstanding, to say or no, to accept or not accept as He pleases, that albeit our Lord shoot His arrows at man, yet He may either resist or jouk, and let the fire go by him. He that framed the arrow He has put might and power in it, He has put steel in the point thereof, that it may pierce where it lights. And, when He intends to bring in a soul to Himself, He shoots not as it were at the rivers and so to shoot at it begess, but He shoots as it were at a mark; and He aims and sets right on before He shoots, and so cannot but light into the mark, and His arrow it will pierce where it lights.
对于这福音的作者，除了上帝本身，没有其他人。确实，如果这福音只是一个人的话，即使是对一个人的灵魂说的话，那么我认为人的自由意志可以随心所欲地接受或拒绝。但这福音不是人对人的话，而是我们的主亲自写给我们的一封情书，并由他的圣灵编辑。既然这福音的作者是主自己，为什么它不能命令我们的意志顺从呢？这是对我们的主的极大侮辱，说让他随意说话，即使再有力量，让他用他的话语随意行事，然而，说或不说，接受或不接受，随他的意愿，即使我们的主向人射箭，他也可以抵抗或躲避，让火经过他。那个制作箭矢的人已经在箭矢中放入了力量和能力，他在箭头上放入了钢，使它能够在落地处刺穿。 当祂打算将一个灵魂带到自己面前时，祂并不像射击河流那样射击，然后再射击它的支流，而是像射击一个目标；祂瞄准并在射击之前进行调整，所以不可能不命中目标，祂的箭矢会穿透它所命中的地方。

Again, if we will look unto the matter that is contained in the gospel, we will see that it is mighty through the power of God, for all the world cannot frame and make up such logic as is contained in the gospel. All the wits in the world cannot pen such a glorious description of the New Jerusalem as is contained in the two last chapters of the Revelation. Nor can all the wits of men and angels make such a description of the Son as there is made of Him (Heb. 1) All the world cannot come out with such a description of the power of the gospel as that which is here. And, therefore, albeit hell and all the powers had said that the gospel shall not prevail, yet seeing He said that it shall prevail, they shall not be able to resist it, but it shall prove to be mighty through the power of God, who is the author thereof.
再次，如果我们看一下福音中所包含的内容，我们会看到它是借着上帝的力量而强大的，因为全世界都无法构思和创造出福音中所包含的逻辑。全世界的智慧都无法写出《启示录》最后两章中关于新耶路撒冷的辉煌描述。人类和天使的智慧也无法对子所作的描述（来 1 章）与之相比。全世界都无法给出关于福音能力的描述，就像这里所述一样。因此，即使地狱和所有的权势都说福音不会得胜，但既然他说福音会得胜，他们将无法抵抗，而福音将通过上帝的力量证明自己是强大的，因为他是福音的创造者。

Third: if we will look unto the manner of the working of the gospel, we will also see it to be mighty to ding down all our strongholds. If God were not omnipotent, there might be some show for this, to say that man's free-will might say aye or no to the gospel of Christ. But He who knows all the several parts and the turnings of the heart of man, shall not He know how to win in into it? How can He make any creature by His power but He maun also know by His power how to move it as He thinks meet? He who when He backs His word with power can win into [the] heart where there are seven devils and speak to it, can He not win into any man's heart how backward soever it be? I am sure there was never a man who had more hurtful thoughts of the Son of man, Jesus Christ, than the Apostle Paul had, for he dought not endure to hear of His name, nor to hear of any who professed His name, but persecuted them all most cruelly. And yet our Lord, He did no more but speak a word or two to him; and with these same few words He spake to him, He cast him off his high horse whereupon he rode so triumphantly, and lays him laigh down upon his back and under His feet. And whereas he was going of purpose to persecute the members of Jesus Christ, he says to Him, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" To hear our Lord casting down, at an instant, such a strong and cruel opposer of the gospel of Christ, and presently to make him say, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" that is a cast of the power of our Lord's right arm. And so they are but fools to say that nature, or free-will, or man's heart is able to decline from the straik of God's Word when He resolves to work upon them by it.
第三点：如果我们观察福音的工作方式，我们也会看到它有能力摧毁我们所有的堡垒。如果上帝不是全能的，那么或许可以说人的自由意志可以选择接受或拒绝基督的福音。但是，那位了解人心的各个部分和转折的上帝，难道不知道如何进入人心吗？他如何能够用他的力量创造任何生物，而不知道如何按照他认为合适的方式来引导它？他曾经以他的力量支持他的话语，进入了一个心中有七个魔鬼的人，并对他说话，他难道不能进入任何一个人的心中，无论他多么不情愿吗？我敢肯定，没有人对人子耶稣基督有比使徒保罗更多的有害想法，因为他不能忍受听到他的名字，也不能忍受听到任何信奉他名字的人，而是残酷地迫害他们。然而，我们的主只是对他说了几句话；用这几句话，他把他从他骑得如此得意洋洋的高马上赶下来，把他放倒在地上，踩在他的脚下。 他本意是来迫害基督耶稣的信徒，但他却对主说：“主啊，你要我做什么？”听我们的主瞬间制服这位强大且残忍反对基督福音的人，然后让他说：“主啊，你要我做什么？”这是我们主权能的体现。那些说自然、自由意志或人的心愿能够拒绝上帝话语的人只是愚昧。

Now Lord be thanked that it is so, that we are not able to resist it but that it is mighty and powerful to overcome us. There is a trim place for proving of this point, Cant. 2, where the spouse, which is the Kirk, is telling the manner of her well-beloved's working. He worketh by love. Now love, it cannot be ravished or hindered any way, albeit the lover may be ravished, or tane away, or kept away from the thing beloved; yet love cannot be so, for if it can be ravished or hindered, then it is not true love. In ver. 4, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." And when the banner of love is holden up by Christ over the Kirk, is she able to resist then, and to hold Him out, as she pleases? No; for the next verse says when this banner of love was holden over her she fell a sound [Authorized Version, "sick of love"], and therefore she says in the next verse, "Stay me with flagons, and comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love." This is our Lord's gate of working upon the hearts of those whom He is minded to turn to Himself, He casts a lump of love over them, and when He does that, He can gar the rebel fall a sound of love. When a soul is running fra God and fra the consolations of His Spirit; when Jesus once sets His love upon you, and speaks to thy soul, it shall not be in thy power to resist, or to win out of His hand again. Let men make a principle of free-will, or determine whereupon it is that the word sets first. But when the Lord speaks to any, and backs His word with power, it makes them to set their heart upon Jesus; and the soul that Christ loves, He looks upon it in love, and, when the Lord does so, the soul is far fra indifferent then, whether it receive Christ and His word or not; but there is a necessity laid upon them that they must yield. And the Lord also, He is far fra that, that He counts whether these to whom He speaks give obedience to Him or not. He speaks not so. But whoever they be to whom He speaks, if they submit not willingly He treads them under foot, and makes them pliable, and so makes good that word spoken, Deut. 30:6: "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." Take with your rebellion to God all of you, not [only] with that natural power of resisting the grace of God, but take with that wickedness and sweirness that is in the soul, and that opposition that nature makes to Christ till He subdue it by His power. And Ezek. 36:26, where a new heart is promised by the Lord, and He promises to take away the old and stony heart.
现在，感谢主，事情就是这样，我们无法抵抗它，但它却强大而有力地战胜了我们。有一个地方可以证明这一点，歌罗西书 2 章，配偶（即教会）描述了她心爱的工作方式。他通过爱来工作。现在，爱是无法被掠夺或阻碍的，尽管爱人可能会被掠夺、带走或远离所爱之物；然而爱本身是无法被掠夺或阻碍的，因为如果它可以被掠夺或阻碍，那么它就不是真爱。在第 4 节中，“他带我入筵宴所，他的旗在我以上是爱。”当基督举起爱的旗帜在教会之上时，她能够抵抗并将他拒之门外吗？不，因为下一节说，当这面爱的旗帜在她之上时，她陷入了爱的病态，因此她在下一节中说：“用葡萄酒固住我，用苹果撑我，因我爱情成病了。”这是我们主在那些他打算转向自己的人的心上工作的方式，他向他们投掷一块爱的块，当他这样做时，他能让叛逆者陷入爱的病态。 当一个灵魂远离上帝和他的灵的安慰时，当耶稣一旦对你表达他的爱，并对你的灵说话时，你就没有能力抗拒，或从他手中逃脱。让人们把自由意志当作一个原则，或者确定话语首先设定的基础。但当主对任何人说话，并用力量支持他的话，就使他们把心收归耶稣；基督所爱的灵魂，他以爱看待，并且当主这样做时，灵魂就很难漠不关心，是否接纳基督和他的话语；他们就有必须顺服的必要。主也远离那样，他不会计较对他说话的人是否顺服于他。他不会这样说话。但无论他和他说话的人是谁，如果他们不甘愿顺服，他就会将他们践踏，并使他们顺从，这样就实现了申命记 30：6 的话：“耶和华你的神要割去你心和你后裔的心，使你尽心尽性爱耶和华你的神，使你存活。”把你们所有的反抗带给上帝，不仅是那种抵抗上帝恩典的自然力量，还有灵魂中的邪恶和顽梗，以及人性对基督的反对，直到祂用祂的力量征服它。以西结书 36:26 中，主应许给予新的心，且承诺除去旧的石心。

But say they there, "That new heart that is promised to us there, it is promised upon condition that we resist it not." But look to the text, and ye will see that it mentions no such thing as "I will give unto you a new heart if you oppose it not;" but the text says absolutely, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes to do them." There our Lord He meets with the wits of men and opposes Himself to all objections that they can make of this kind, while He promises to take away the stoniness of the old heart, and then to give a new heart also, and to cause those whom He takes in hand to walk in His statutes. This in effect is our Christ's gospel. Even the power and the mighty arm of God to bring in the rebel soul to Christ and to make it Christ's own captive, and to make all of us say, "I find there is more life and power in His word than ever I could have believed there was to bring me into grace whether I will or not."
但他们说，"在那里向我们承诺的新心，是在我们不抵抗的条件下承诺的。" 但是看看原文，你会发现它并没有提到"如果你不反对，我会给你一个新的心"这样的话；而是绝对地说："我也要给你们一个新心，把石心从你们的肉体中除掉，给你们一个肉心。我要把我的灵放在你们里面，使你们遵行我的律例，谨守遵行。" 在这里，我们的主对人们的聪明才智进行了回应，并反驳了他们可能提出的所有异议，同时承诺除去旧心的顽石性质，然后也给予一个新的心，并使那些他接管的人遵行他的律例。这实际上就是我们基督的福音。甚至是上帝的力量和大能的手臂，将叛逆的灵魂带入基督，并使其成为基督的俘虏，并使我们所有人都说："我发现他的话语中有比我曾经相信的更多的生命和力量，无论我愿意与否，都能将我带入恩典之中。"

And, in effect, who are those who oppose this power of the grace of God? and it has been very well observed by learned men, that there was never any who opposed themselves unto it, but those who kent nothing of the grace of God themselves. And thus the grace of God it revenges itself upon them. Because they resist and oppose the power of it they shall never get profit or benefit thereby. And, indeed, few—few whoever kent what the power of the grace of God meant—durst take upon them to be an Arminian, or to speak against the power of the grace of God; but if any know rightly the power of the grace of God, it were the way to make souls fall in love with it, and to make them loath to say anything against it.
实际上，那些反对上帝恩典的力量的人是谁？有学者非常明智地观察到，从来没有人反对它，除了那些自己对上帝恩典一无所知的人。因此，上帝的恩典会对他们进行报复。因为他们抵抗和反对它的力量，他们永远不会从中获得利益。实际上，很少有人敢于承担亚米尼洛派的身份，或者反对上帝恩典的力量；但是，如果有人真正了解上帝恩典的力量，这将使灵魂爱上它，并让他们不愿说任何反对的话。

Now if this word and weapons of our warfare be mighty through the power of God, pulling down strongholds, &c., we have sweet uses arising unto us from this. And—
现在，如果这个词和我们的战争武器因上帝的力量而强大，能够摧毁坚固的堡垒等等，我们从中获得了甜蜜的用途。而且-

First: O, if we could get your hearts summoned to obey this, that ye would come in to Christ, and give over your hearts to Him to be wrought upon by His word. Alas! and any of you have a bairn that is unlettered, ye will send it to the school that it may learn there. Others, through feeling of disease on their bodies, will have recourse to the physicians. If a man have a weak and troubled estate he will have recourse to the lawyer, and will concredit his cause to him. And yet thou hast a rebellious soul, and yet thou wilt not give over that to Christ to take and order therewith, and to work upon all the powers thereof, and to change them by His word. If we could once win on this far, to let God's word work upon our hearts by our Lord's power, we would then find that we get a sweet niffer, we would get a new heart for an old heart, we would get new spirits for old spirits. O! but that is a sweet and a happy change. And there is no way for us to become new men and women, but only this, by renouncing ourselves over to the power of God's word to be wrought upon by it, and, if we be not new men and new women, it had been better for us that we had never lived. Woe! is to that soul for evermore that has no more of Christ than nature gives unto it! We may get some learning by being at schools, wisdom may be acquired by pains, riches, &c., and the world may esteem of a man for these things; but yet, for all that, he is nothing else but Christ's painted tomb. For all these, he is all rotten and filthy within; for as beautiful-like as he looks without, yet within he is nothing else but the workhouse of the devil. Say of such a man what ye will, make him never so trim a man for natural parts, wanting a spiritual work, yet he is no other in Christ's account, but a trim limb of the devil. Will the world call him an honest man, then he is an honestheir of Satan. If ye will call him a civil man, yet he is no other but a civil heir for hell, whatever the world thinks of him or himself. Yet this is the account that God has of a man so long as he has not given himself over to be wrought upon by the word of God.
首先：哦，如果我们能够使你们的心灵听从这个呼唤，你们会来到基督面前，将你们的心交给祂，让祂的话语来改变你们。唉！如果你们有一个未受教育的孩子，你们会送他去学校学习。其他人，因为身体上的疾病感受到痛苦，会去找医生。如果一个人的处境脆弱而困扰，他会去找律师，并将自己的事情托付给他。然而，你有一个叛逆的灵魂，却不愿意将它交给基督来接管和治理，并通过祂的话语来改变它的所有力量。如果我们能够让上帝的话语通过我们主的能力在我们的心中发挥作用，我们将会发现我们得到了一个甜蜜的交换，我们会得到一个新的心灵来代替旧的心灵，我们会得到新的精神来代替旧的精神。哦！这是一个甜蜜而幸福的改变。我们成为新人的唯一途径就是将自己完全交给上帝的话语的力量来改变我们，如果我们不成为新人，那么我们活着就没有意义了。哀哉！ 这是针对那些灵魂永远只有自然赐予的基督的人所说的！我们可以在学校学到一些知识，在痛苦中获得智慧，财富等等，这些东西也许会让世人钦佩一个人；但即便如此，他仍然只不过是基督的油漆骷髅。 对于所有这些，他的内心都已腐烂而肮脏；他看起来或许外表美丽，但内里只是魔鬼的作坊。 无论你如何评价这样的人，纵使他天赋自然，缺乏属灵方面的工作，但在基督的眼中，他仍然只是魔鬼的一个腰肢。世人称呼他为诚实人，他也只不过是撒旦的诚实继承人。即使你将他称为文明人，他依然只是通往地狱的文明继承人，无论世人或他自己对此怎么想。 然而，只要他还没有将自己交托给上帝的话，这就是上帝对他的评价。

Second use. An there be any here who are complaining of a rebellious heart, of a stony and hard heart, I say to such; "Look if ye cannot get faith to believe in this gospel of Christ, to lay hold upon thir weapons that are mighty, through the power of God, to the pulling down of strongholds, and get faith to believe in it. Thou wilt not find the heart to be so backward. A soul which has such a hard, a rebellious, and a stony heart, it burdens them very sore. But here [is] a ground of comfort to such, if thou can get faith to believe it, that albeit thy heart were never so rebellious, hard, and stiff, yet there are weapons in Christ's armoury that are able to ding it down, to humble and soften it. Thou wilt say, "I cannot get my haughty heart humbled, nor can I get it win off the love of the world, and I find many lusts prevailing there wherewith I am greatly borne down." But here is our comfort, if we have faith to believe. This word of the gospel, it is mighty through the power of God to bring all these in subjection. If ye can get but this far as to be chased into Christ, by reason of the sight of your sins, it is sweet and comfortable.
第二个用途。如果有人抱怨心中有叛逆之心、硬如石头的心，我对他们说：“看看你是否能相信基督的福音，抓住上帝的大能，用这些武器推倒坚固的堡垒，并相信它。你会发现心不再那么迟钝。一个拥有如此叛逆、硬邦邦的心灵，会给他们带来很大的负担。但对于这样的人来说，这里有一个安慰的基础，如果你能相信，即使你的心从未如此叛逆、硬邦邦，基督的军械库中有能力击败它、使其谦卑和柔软。你会说：“我无法让我傲慢的心谦卑，也无法让它远离世俗的爱，我发现有许多欲望在那里占据主导地位，让我感到沉重。”但是，如果我们有信心相信，这是我们的安慰。福音的话语，通过上帝的大能，能够使所有这些都屈服。如果你能因为看到自己的罪而被追逐到基督面前，这是甜蜜而令人安慰的。

O, but I like these souls well who are ever mourning for sin, who are complaining of a hard, rebellious, uncircumcised, stony heart. But here is a ground of comfort for such, that God's word is mighty through His power to bear down sin. If we could once win to this, to think that sin is a burden, it were good for us, it would drive us in to Christ. Thou art nearer to heaven when thou art bemoaning the estate of thy hard heart, and art putting it in Christ's hand to be healed, than when thou thinkest all well with you. Thou art meet then to receive of Christ's pity, for He is a Lord ready to forgive all such as come to Him in humility, He is a physician who will take sick folks in hand to heal them who have no money to give for their cure. He is indeed the poor man's physician. He seeks no more of us, but only to tell Him that we are sick. He has a hammer to beat down the hard heart. He has a sword to cut it in pieces. He can make whole the broken heart and afflicted spirit for sin; He can give a new heart and new spirit. Cast not down your heart, because ye find the hardness thereof; cast not away your confidence for all that, but believe in God's word, which is mighty through the power of God to bring it under these.
哦，但我喜欢那些为罪恶而悲伤的灵魂，那些抱怨自己有一颗顽固、叛逆、未受割礼的石头般的心。但对于这样的人来说，有一个安慰的理由，那就是上帝的话语凭借祂的力量能够击败罪恶。如果我们能够意识到罪是一种负担，那对我们来说是好事，它会驱使我们去寻求基督。当你为自己顽固的心境而悲伤，并将其交托给基督来医治时，你离天堂更近，而不是当你认为一切都好的时候。那时你就有资格接受基督的怜悯，因为祂是一个愿意宽恕所有谦卑地来到祂面前的人的主，祂是一个会接手治愈那些没有钱支付医治费用的病人的医生。祂确实是穷人的医生。祂只需要我们告诉祂我们生病了。祂有一把锤子可以击碎顽固的心。祂有一把剑可以将其切成碎片。祂能够治愈因罪而破碎的心灵和受苦的灵魂；祂能够赐予新的心灵和新的灵魂。 不要因为你发现困难而灰心；不要因为一切而失去信心，相信上帝的话语，这是通过上帝的力量来实现的。

The Lord be thanked that there is this meikle power in the gospel of Christ, as to make a soul that is sick for sin whole again, as to make a hard heart a soft heart; that there is virtue into it, as to pour down that Spirit upon us, promised to the house of David (Zech. 12:10), the spirit of prayer and supplications, and the spirit of repentance and mourning for sin. And if we could attain to this, it were a sweet preparation for a solemn fast and humiliation when the Lord is glooming upon the land for the sins thereof, and the Lord is calling to solemn fasting and humiliation for the sins of the land; it were meet that every one of us should take to heart our own sins and the sins of the land wherein we live, and be humbled before God for them, that so the Lord might comfort us.
感谢主，基督的福音有这样的大能，能使一个因罪而病的灵魂再次完全，能使一颗硬心变得柔软；其中有力量，能将应许给大卫家的那灵（撒迦利亚书 12:10）倾倒在我们身上，那灵是祈祷和恳求的灵，是为罪而悔改和悲哀的灵。如果我们能达到这一点，那将是一个甜蜜的准备，当主因这地的罪而降临阴云，呼召我们进行庄严的禁食和谦卑时，我们应该将自己的罪和所居住之地的罪放在心上，并为此在神面前谦卑，这样主就能安慰我们。

Now, where are the fruits and effects of thir weapons of our warfare? To pull down strongholds, to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God in bringing in subjection everything to the obedience of Christ. These be even all things that be either within or without a man that set themselves in any way against the gospel. It brings all of them in subjection. Especially it casts down all these fortifications that be inwardly in the soul against Christ and the gospel, even all these things that natural men lippen to.
现在，这些兵器的果实和效果在哪里呢？能拆毁坚固的堡垒，推翻各种设想和一切高傲自大的东西，反对神的知识，使一切顺服基督。这些就是所有对福音不利的事物，无论是内在还是外在。它让所有这些顺服。特别是它推翻所有内心对基督和福音的堡垒，也包括那些信赖自己天然本能的人。

Now, whose is the house before this work be wrought? Matt. 12:44, answers this question. Satan says, "I will return into my house whence I came out." So the goodman of that old house is no other but the devil; and Christ our Saviour says in another place, "How can a man enter into a strong man's house, unless he first bind the strong man and cast him out?" He means there that Satan is master of every man's house until Christ come into the soul and bind him and cast him out, and take possession there Himself. That may gar all our feathers fall, albeit so oft we will say that we love Christ. For speer at all men and women, they will say that they love Christ, and they are angry that any should think otherways, yet by nature all of us are keeping a castle against Christ, and were keeping it for the devil's service. And of necessity before ever Christ come to dwell into the soul, all these high towers they must fall to the ground, and Christ must bring in a new work with Him, and make us new creatures. And this is one of the works of the gospel, even to lay all the heights that are in man's soul down even with the ground, to make sin and the devil and all these lusts that are keeping up the castle of the heart from him, fall flat to the ground together. And He soops all that muddy house to the door, that so He may make a pleasant house of ashler work for Himself. It seeks to cast down all the old rotten barns that formerly have been built there by sin and the devil, and to exalt us, that so the king of glory may come in as it is, Psa. 24:7: "Exalt yourselves, ye gates; be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors: that so the King of glory may come in."
现在，在这项工作开始之前，这所房子是谁的？马太福音 12:44 回答了这个问题。撒旦说：“我要回到我出来的房子。”所以那个旧房子的主人不是别人，正是魔鬼；我们的救主基督在另一个地方说：“人怎能进入一个壮士的家，除非先捆绑那壮士，把他赶出去？”他的意思是撒旦是每个人的家的主人，直到基督进入灵魂，捆绑他并赶走他，并在那里取得所有权。这可能会让我们所有的羽毛都掉下来，尽管我们经常说我们爱基督。因为问问所有的男人和女人，他们会说他们爱基督，他们会生气，认为别人可能有其他想法，然而按照本性，我们所有人都在为基督保留一座堡垒，并为魔鬼的服务而保留着它。在基督进入灵魂之前，所有这些高塔必须倒塌，基督必须带着新的工作进来，使我们成为新的造物。 这也是福音的工作之一，即将人的灵魂中的一切高峰都摧毁，使罪恶、魔鬼和所有保持心灵堡垒的欲望一同倒在地上。祂将那个泥泞的房子扫到门外，这样祂就可以为自己建造一个美好的石砌房子。它试图推倒所有以前由罪恶和魔鬼建造的破旧谷仓，并提升我们，这样荣耀之王就可以如诗篇 24:7 所说的那样进来：“众门哪，你们要抬起头来！永久的门户，你们要被举起！那荣耀的王就要进来。”"

All this serves greatly to ding down our proud natures, to let the natural and the civil man see in what estate he is in God's sight, albeit he have a good report before the world, that yet notwithstanding he is not a man great in God's sight unless the gospel has gotten work in him to ding the high towers that are in him. If thou hast never had a sick soul for sin it is a token that Christ and His word have never had any work in you; it is a token, if it be so, that as yet we are God's rebels; and woe is to them for evermore who are in that case, and will remain in it stubbornly. He has wisdom to call in rebels, and power to make them submit themselves to Him. But He has also a rod of iron to bruise them all to pieces, who proudly stand out against Him. Well's them who can give over the old house to Christ in time, who resolve that nature and their sins and their own old hearts will never take them to heaven. Aye, albeit they have some knowledge of God, and be acquainted with divinity that way liberally; yet [they] know that all these are no other but the keeping up of a castle against Christ, and building up forts against Him, and are made to acknowledge that we are ever in a woful estate until the gospel come in with the power thereof, and ding down all these strongholds that are in us; and to account so of ourselves that we know nothing till we know that Christ has thus wrought in us. Mark the speech of a learned man who doubtless had a very great measure of learning, yet he says of himself: "I know nothing, neither do I desire to know anything but the Cross of Christ and Him crucified; whereby I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to me.' All the natural and civil honesty in the world will not do the turn to bring us to heaven, till we once see that by nature we are in a damnable case, and, in God's mercy that if He please He may cast us away from Him for ever to hell. If we be not made Christ's captives we shall be captives and bondmen in hell for ever. Except we become a fallen down building that Christ may build us up, we shall questionless be miserable for ever.
所有这一切都极大地降低了我们骄傲的本性，让自然人和文明人看到他在上帝眼中的地位，尽管他在世界上有好的声誉，但除非福音在他身上起作用，否则他在上帝眼中并不伟大。如果你从未因罪而感到灵魂痛苦，那就意味着基督和他的话从未在你身上起过作用；如果是这样，那就意味着我们仍然是上帝的叛逆者；那些始终固执地保持这种状态的人将永远受苦。他有智慧召回叛逆者，并有能力使他们顺服于他。但他也有一根铁杖，可以将那些骄傲地违抗他的人粉碎。那些能及时将旧屋交给基督的人是有福的，他们决心不让本性、罪恶和旧心带他们去天堂。 是的，尽管他们对上帝有一些了解，并且对神性有所了解；然而，他们知道所有这些都只是为了抵抗基督，建立堡垒抵挡他，他们承认我们在福音带来力量之前一直处于悲惨的状态，并且摧毁我们内心的所有这些堡垒，并且认为我们对自己一无所知，直到我们知道基督在我们内心这样工作。请注意一个博学的人的言论，他无疑拥有很高的学识，然而他对自己说：“我一无所知，也不渴望知道除了基督的十字架和他被钉死；通过这个，我对世界被钉死，世界对我也被钉死。”世界上所有的自然和道德的善良都无法带我们进入天堂，直到我们看到我们在本性上处于可悲的境地，并且在上帝的怜悯中，如果他愿意，他可以永远将我们从他那里赶到地狱。如果我们不成为基督的俘虏，我们将永远成为地狱中的俘虏和奴隶。 除非我们成为基督可以建立的倒塌建筑物，否则我们将永远不会幸福。

Now of this point a word or two of some things. First, concerning some ordinary faults that are in some, making them to hold by these towers. Next, we will show unto you some marks of these where these strongholds are casten down. Third, we will show unto you the way that the Lord keeps in casting down these strongholds.
现在关于这一点，有几件事情要说一下。首先，关于一些普通的错误，这些错误使得一些人依靠这些堡垒。接下来，我们将向您展示一些这些堡垒被摧毁的标志。第三，我们将向您展示主在摧毁这些堡垒时所采取的方式。

Now for the ordinary faults that are in men in holding up these towers. They are:
现在谈谈人们在支撑这些塔楼时常见的错误。它们包括：

First: And there is no man who is born without this: Thir walls of sin and strongholds they are not altogether casten down so long as we are living here. If it had not been so, one who was a chosen vessel of mercy, the Apostle Paul, had never used that speech spoken, Rom. 7:18: "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." This was spoken by him after his regeneration. And woes them! who acknowledge not that there is some of the old work of nature to the fore in them so long as they are here. Why? How can this be true? Because there is nothing that altogether expels original corruption that is in all of us but only glory. I know indeed that true grace sneds away the branches off that tree, and wins in upon the stock also. And grace casts down the walls and the roof of this house. But for the root of this tree, and the ground stones of that house, there is nothing gets that hoked up and takes order with it but only glory. Aye, the children of God, when the house has been casten down by the grace of regeneration, they have been ready many times to build toofalls for themselves again; as we read of Noah, Lot, David, who fell in heinous sins after they were freely regenerate[d] of God, and the falling into these heinous sins, it was the building of toofalls and little houses of sin and corruption again.
首先：没有一个人生来就没有这个：罪恶的墙壁和堡垒只要我们还活在这里，就不会完全被推倒。如果不是这样，一个被拣选为怜悯的器皿，使徒保罗，就不会说出罗马书 7:18 中的那句话：“我也知道，在我里头，就是在我肉体里，没有良善。”这是他在重生后说的。可悲的是，那些不承认在他们身上仍然存在一些旧的本性工作的人。为什么？这是怎么可能的？因为除了荣耀之外，没有什么能完全驱逐我们所有人身上的原始堕落。我确实知道真正的恩典会剪掉那棵树上的枝条，并进入树干。恩典会推倒这所房子的墙壁和屋顶。但对于这棵树的根和那所房子的地基石，只有荣耀才能将其挖掘出来并加以整顿。 是的，上帝的子民，当房屋被重生的恩典摧毁后，他们很多次都准备再次为自己建造倒塌的房屋；正如我们所读到的有关挪亚、罗得、大卫的记载，他们在被上帝自由重生之后陷入了极为罪恶的罪行，这些罪行就是再次建造罪恶和腐败的小房屋。

But there be others again, against whom the Lord is shooting the arrows of His gospel, and yet there is not a hole made into their walls by them, nor a branch sned off their tree for all that can be done to them. We may read of the like of these, Acts 7:51, where the Apostle Stephen is preaching to some Jews, and in the end he says unto them: "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart." He shoots strongly at them, but there is not a hole made into their wall for all his shots, but they fortify it so strongly that it shoots back again at himself, who preached to them, and they presently stone him to death for what he did. And so did they to Christ Himself. He shot at them by the preaching of His word and working of miracles among them, to batter down their old walls; but they shot out again at Him and crucified Him. This is a pitiful mark where the gospel is preached to people, and it convinces them of sin, and all that that produces in them is, it raises hatred in their heart against the preachers of the gospel. But there is not one hole made in their old work for all that they can do, but it stands upright unshaken.
但又有其他人，主用福音的箭射击他们，但他们的墙上没有一个洞，他们的树上没有一个枝条被砍掉。我们可以在使徒行传 7:51 中读到类似的情况，使徒斯蒂芬向一些犹太人传道，最后他对他们说：“你们这些心硬脖颈、未受割礼的人。”他对他们射击得很猛烈，但他们的墙上没有一个洞，他们把它加固得很牢固，以至于射击反弹回去，射中了向他们传道的斯蒂芬，他们立即用石头砸死了他。他们对基督也是如此。他通过传道和在他们中间行奇迹来射击他们，打破他们的旧墙；但他们又向他射击，把他钉在十字架上。这是福音传给人们的一个可怜的标志，它使他们意识到自己的罪恶，而他们心中唯一的反应就是对福音传道者产生仇恨。但是，他们的旧工作没有一个洞，无论他们能做什么，它都屹立不倒。

But there be a third sort of people whose old walls and strong towers, preachers, by their preaching, make to totter and shake, but incontinently when they find their walls begin to shake, they set to to put props to them to hold them up; such as we read of Cain and of Ahab, they did this—they returned to their former pleasures and their old sins again, albeit their consciences were challenged for the wrongs they had done. And, indeed, these persons are in a very miserable case, who get their sins discovered and laid open to them by the preaching of the word, and yet go home presently and away to the tavern, or, when they go out here, fall to their swearing, and so heap up their sins continually and obdures their conscience. These are in a very fearful case if they were sensible of it.
但是还有一种人，他们的古老城墙和坚固的塔楼，被传教士的讲道所动摇和震撼，但是当他们发现城墙开始摇晃时，他们立即开始支撑它们，以保持稳定。就像我们所读到的关于该隐和亚哈的事情一样，他们这样做——他们回到了他们以前的享乐和旧罪恶中，尽管他们的良心因为他们所做的错误而受到责备。实际上，这些人处境非常可怜，他们通过听道得知自己的罪恶被揭示和暴露，然而他们回家后立即去酒馆，或者当他们出门时开始咒骂，这样不断积累他们的罪恶并麻痹他们的良心。如果他们能意识到这一点，他们将处于非常可怕的境地。

But the best sort of the hearers of God's Word is these who fald themselves willingly to Christ our Lord, when He speaks to them by His Word and preachers, who are content that the Lord ding down their towers of pride, of worldly-mindedness, of filthiness, that He bring to the ground their high castles of self-love, lay under His feet their love to the world, ding down their conceit and love they have to superstition and idolatry. And in the Word of God, ye will find six several marks of such hearers as these, and we shall point at them. For the—
但是，听从上帝话语的最好的人是那些自愿投身于基督我们的主的人，当祂通过祂的话语和传道人对他们说话时，他们满足于主拆毁他们骄傲、世俗心态和污秽的堡垒，将他们高耸的自我爱之城摧毁，将他们对世界的爱放在脚下，拆除他们对迷信和偶像崇拜的自负和热爱。在上帝的话语中，你会找到这样的听众有六个不同的标志，我们将指出它们。

First mark, look Acts 2:37, where the Apostle Peter preaching to a number of souls who were converted to Christ, it is said, they were pricked at the heart by his preaching. The words he spake to them were such as if a serpent had stinged them, they were so sharp they pierced the heart. When the Word of God begins to batter at the hearts of such, and to discover unto them the great towers of atheism that are in them, the high walls of profanity, the deep waters of bloodshed, the strong desires of filthiness, when they see such a slavery to all sorts of sin, and are borne down under the sense thereof, then the heart of the child of God it is stinged, it is pricked, it is rent, and pierced, as it were by it.
请看使徒行传 2:37，彼得使众人归向基督时，他的讲道让听众感到心神受到了刺痛。他所说的话如同毒蛇的毒针一般锋利，刺穿了听众的心。当上帝的话开始攻击那些人的心，揭示了他们内心的无神论之塔，亵渎之墙，流血深渊和肮脏欲望等等一切罪孽，在他们感到沉重负担时，神的儿女的心也感到刺痛，受到刺激，被撕裂，就像被割穿了一样。

The second mark of such is set down to us Jer. 31:18: "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised." When once the soul is complaining of sin and is borne down under the sense thereof, and is sending up complaints both to God and to His servants against it, it is a token that these high towers are beginning to fall down, but as long as thou art continuing in thy guiltiness of sin, and are not complaining against it, that is not the gate to heaven. Albeit thou hope for heaven, yet it is not well with thee, it is a token that there are high towers into thy soul, that the work of the old Adam is yet standing fast.
这是耶利米书 31:18 中的第二个标记：“我确实听到以法莲为自己悲叹，说：你惩罚了我，我受了惩罚。”当灵魂一旦对罪恶感到抱怨，并在其中感到压力，并向上帝和祂的仆人抱怨时，这是这些高塔开始倒塌的迹象，但只要你继续沉浸在罪恶中，并且不对其抱怨，那就不是通向天堂的门。尽管你希望进入天堂，但你的状况并不好，这表明你的灵魂中有高塔，旧亚当的工作仍然牢固。

A third mark of these who fald willingly to Christ, and stoop to His Word, is this: They begin presently when their sins are discovered to them, to make syllogisms of their own, even as the unjust steward, who was shot out of his service, for faults committed by him. When he was out he begins to think with himself: "What shall I do now? I cannot beg for shame. None will pity me for work. I cannot work. And I have not of my own to keep me." And so he resolves he will back to his master again. Let him cast him in prison if he will, for then he kens he maun find him. Happy is the soul when it comes to such an estate as that; it sees it has nothing of its own to live upon, and so resolves it will go back to Christ. Let Him cast it in prison, if He will, it is in a better estate nor it was then. Sich-like [was] the forlorn son when he had spent all that he had, and had no more. He resolves that he could not die for hunger in a far country, and, at the first, he thought he could not for shame go home to his father, yet when he saw that no other could be, he resolves that he will do it, go home, and offer his service to his father, for he thought it better to be a living servant nor a dead son.
那些自愿归向基督并顺服祂的话语的人的第三个特征是：当他们发现自己的罪的时候，他们立刻开始自己推理，就像那个不义的管家，因为他犯了错误而被解雇。当他被解雇后，他开始自问：“现在我该怎么办？我不能出去乞讨，因为丢脸。没有人会因为我工作而同情我。我也不能工作。我没有自己的东西来养活自己。”于是他决定回到他的主人那里。就算主人把他关进监狱，他也知道他会找到他。当一个灵魂达到这样的状态时，它会看到自己没有任何东西可以依靠生活，于是决定回到基督那里。就算基督把它关进监狱，它的状态也比之前好。就像那个失落的儿子，当他花光了所有的财产，一无所有时。 他决定在一个遥远的国家里不会因为饥饿而死，起初他认为因为羞愧而不能回到父亲身边，然而当他意识到没有其他选择时，他决定回家，向父亲提供自己的服务，因为他觉得做一个活着的仆人比做一个死去的儿子更好。

A fourth mark of these who stoop willingly to the gospel is: It raises into them an earnest desire after a Saviour. I will not say but in some this desire of a Saviour is not so throughly spiritual as it should be; yet there is some desire in him after Christ, and he sees that far, that he may not want Him, and he desires that Christ would come in into his soul and ding down all his haughty lusts and imaginations, and wishes that he were in body and soul made captive to Jesus.
那些自愿屈服于福音的人的第四个标志是：它在他们心中引起了对救主的渴望。我不会说在某些人身上，对救主的渴望并不完全属灵；然而他心中确实有一些对基督的渴望，他看到了远处，他不想失去祂，他渴望基督进入他的灵魂，打倒他所有傲慢的欲望和幻想，并希望自己在身心上都成为耶稣的俘虏。

A fifth mark of these who are obedient to the gospel of Christ is: He looks, evermore looks, to the promises with a long look of love. He never hears such a promise as that Christ Jesus came into the world to save penitent sinners, but he thinks with himself, "O! if I were one of these whom He is come to save. And O! if I could have my heart steeped into these gracious promises."
那些顺从基督福音的人的第五个标志是：他始终以充满爱意的长久目光注视着应许。他听到基督耶稣降世拯救悔改的罪人的应许时，心里想着：“哦！如果我是那些他来拯救的人之一。哦！如果我能让我的心沉浸在这些恩典的应许中。”

A sixth mark of these who yield unto the gospel is: There is no man who prizes Christ so highly as such a man does. O! he would give heaven, if he had it, to have Christ. There is nothing he would think too dear to be sure of Christ. You know that woman who is spoken off by the Evangelist Luke, who washt Christ's feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. If her hair had been heaven and her tears, she would have thought them over ill to wash and to dicht Christ's feet; she had such a high estimation of Him. When once the soul comes to this pass; "O! miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death," and knows how far thou art oblist to Christ for delivering you from it, it will make you to put a high price upon Christ, and make you to say, "O! that I could give anything for Him that I might get Him. If heaven and earth were mine I would give them for Him." There will be no pinching then, when the soul is once truly humbled by the word of God. There will be no pinching then what we give for Christ. It would not be then, "Wilt thou give thy sinful lusts for Christ? wilt thou quit thy pride for Him? wilt thou quit the world and the things thereof for Christ?" We will stand upon nothing then, but we will quit all willingly that we may gain Christ. And these are very lively and clear marks of a downcasten and humbled soul by the word of God.
那些顺从福音的人的第六个标志是：没有人像他们那样珍视基督。哦！如果他们拥有天堂，他们愿意为了得到基督而将其奉献出来。没有什么东西对他们来说是太贵重的，以确保拥有基督。你们知道路加福音中所提到的那个女人，她用眼泪洗净基督的脚，并用自己的头发擦干。如果她的头发是天堂，她会认为用它们来洗净和擦干基督的脚是不够的；她对基督有如此高的评价。当灵魂一旦达到这个境地：“哦！我是多么可怜的人，谁能救我脱离这死亡的身体”，并且知道你为基督从中解救你而欠下了多少，它会让你对基督高价评估，并让你说：“哦！我愿意为了得到他而付出任何代价。如果天堂和地球都是我的，我会为了他而将它们奉献出来。”当灵魂一旦真正被上帝的话语所谦卑，那时就不会再吝啬为基督付出什么了。那时不会再是这样的：“你愿意为了基督放弃你的罪恶欲望吗？你愿意为了他放弃你的骄傲吗？ 你愿意为基督放弃世界和其中的一切吗？那时我们将不再依靠任何东西，但我们愿意放弃一切以得到基督。这些都是被神的话语压抑和谦卑的灵魂的明显标志。

Now for the way and order that the Lord keeps in casting down thir strongholds. The text tells us that nature and the old man it is first cast down, it is all shot to the ground; and so the law it has work first to cast down before the gospel get anything ado to raise up. And this is to let all of us see what estate we are in by nature, even in the state of damnation. I know this casting down of the old work it is rather a preparation for working than any proper work.
现在，关于主如何以及顺序来摧毁他们的堡垒。文本告诉我们，首先要摧毁的是本性和旧人，它们都被击倒在地；所以，律法首先要起作用，摧毁一切，然后福音才能开始兴起。这是为了让我们所有人都看到我们按本性所处的状态，即处于灭亡的状态。我知道，这种摧毁旧有工作更多是为了准备工作，而不是真正的工作。

But what is the first work that the gospel works upon the soul? There is a question about this among some. Some say that repentance it is the first work; others say that believing it is the first work. But I think there can be no true repentance without some measure of faith preceding. But verily I think there is a work into the soul that goes before either faith or repentance. Our Saviour Christ has a word John 6:45, 46: "They shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me." So there is a sort of hearkening to the word of the Father, that is in some before it be in others; and while He speaketh of a resurrection in the former verse, it is likely to be meant that that is the first work. Then this is the first work that is wrought into the soul—howbeit the habit of all the rest be wrought then also—even a spiritual hearing and apprehending of Christ by the soul; and then in the next place follows believing. And Christ our Lord He puts a difference between this hearing and faith, for the soul it can never come to Christ to believe in Him until it have once some apprehension of the first work wrought into the soul, until it learn to make a difference between Christ and other men by a spiritual hearing of God's word, till they learn to know His tongue by the tongue of all others. Where before they had but a light conceit of His word, now they esteem greatly of Him and of His word; and having attained to that, then follow believing in Christ and resting upon Him. And then follows the third work, a godly sorrow for sin, which indeed is formally the work of repentance, for whatever sorrow they had formerly, it was nothing else but a legal downcasting for sin, but no true repentance and godly sorrow till then.
但福音对灵魂的第一项工作是什么呢？对此有一些争议。有人说悔改是第一项工作；有人说信仰是第一项工作。但我认为，没有一定程度的信仰，就不可能有真正的悔改。但实际上，我认为在信仰和悔改之前，灵魂中有一项工作。我们的救主基督在约翰福音 6:45, 46 中说：“他们都要蒙神的教训。凡听见父而学习的，就到我这里来。”所以，在一些人身上，有一种倾听父神话语的情况，而在其他人身上则没有。当他在前一节中谈到复活时，很可能是指这是第一项工作。那么，这是灵魂中发生的第一项工作，即使其他一切的习惯也在那时形成，那就是灵魂通过属灵的倾听和领悟来认识基督；然后紧随其后的是信仰。 基督我们的主将这听闻与信心区分开来，因为灵魂在没有对第一次在灵魂中完成的工作有所领悟之前，它永远无法来到基督面前相信祂，直到它通过对神的话语的属灵听闻学会将基督与其他人区分开来，直到他们学会通过其他人的言语认识祂的言语。在此之前，他们对祂的话语只是一种轻微的概念，现在他们非常重视祂和祂的话语；在达到这一点之后，就会跟随着对基督的信仰和依靠。然后是第三个工作，对罪的虔诚悔改，这实际上是悔改的工作，因为无论他们以前有多么悲伤，那只是对罪的法律性的自责，而不是真正的悔改和虔诚的悲伤，直到那时为止。

Use. Then there must be a humiliation and downcasting in all who rightly know what Christ is. I would send all of you to this mark to see and try if ye have ever had this humiliation and downcasting, and consequently to try if ye have Christ. Alas! I trow, examine the most part, and speer at them how they gat Christ, and how He came to them, or when were their high castles dung down. I trow they maun be forced to answer that they have either gotten Him in their cradle, while they were young, and kent not of it, or they have gotten Him sometime while they were sleeping; but for grief and sorrow for sin, for one tear for offending God, they never kent nothing of that kind. I would be loath now by saying this to bind sorrow for sin unto tears, for I know there is a true sorrow that is without tears, and I know there is a real sorrow that is beyond tears. But this far, I say, that there maun be a true humiliation for sin one way or other before Christ come into the soul. But alas! I trow all Jobs [Job 6:4] be dead to have such sorrow, and find such grief for sin as he had. To have the arrows of the Almighty drinking up their spirits as he had, I trow the most part kens not what that means, as to have such a deep sort of offending at themselves for offending of such a good Lord, even, to be angry at the heart at themselves, for offending Him; and when this is, it will drink up the spirits.
使用。然后所有正当认识基督的人，都必定有羞辱和贬低。我要把你们都送到这个标记去看看，然后尝试一下你们是否曾经有过这种羞辱和贬低，因此尝试一下你们是否有基督。唉！我相信，检查大多数人，问问他们是如何得到基督的，基督是如何来到他们身边的，或者他们是何时高高的城堡倒塌了。我相信他们必须得回答，他们要么是在摇篮里得到了基督，当他们还年幼无知时，并不知道基督的存在；要么是在睡觉的时候得到了基督；但是因为对犯罪的悲痛和悔恨，只为冒犯上帝而流下的一滴眼泪，他们从来没有体会过那种情感。我现在很不愿意说这话，以泪水将忏悔捆绑在一起，因为我知道有一种真正的忏悔是无泪的，我知道有一种超越泪水的真正的忏悔。但我会说到此, 在基督来到灵魂之前, 总是必须有一种真正的为罪而羞愧。但唉！我相信所有的约伯（约伯记 6：4）都已经死去，没有人能够像他一样对罪恶感到如此的悲伤。 让全能者的箭矢像他一样喝尽他们的精神，我想大多数人不知道这意味着什么，就像对自己对这位善良的主犯下如此深重的冒犯感到愤怒，甚至对自己的冒犯感到内心的愤怒；当这种情况发生时，它将耗尽他们的精力。

I pray you try whether or no this work be in you, for many will be beguiled at the last day, thinking that they have gotten these things, and when it is tried it will be found to be nothing else but a plain imagination. And God, at the first, sees all such to be but false and counterfeit work; their repentance, their believing, and all that they have; and so that they are not in Christ. And therefore we should never rest until we get sure wit whether we be in Christ or not, if we be passed beyond nature as yet, if we be stepped from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Son of God. Lord, waken all of us to put ourselves to a trial in this point, and to see that we be not such who profess to be in Christ, and yet in the meantime remaining in nature. Now to this Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be all praise and glory for ever. Amen.
我祈求你去尝试一下，看看这项工作是否适合你，因为到最后一天，许多人会被欺骗，认为他们已经得到了这些东西，但当真正尝试时，会发现这只是一种纯粹的想象。上帝一开始就看到这些都是虚假和伪造的工作；他们的悔改、信仰以及他们所拥有的一切都是如此；所以他们并不在基督里。因此，我们应该不停地努力，直到确定自己是否在基督里，是否已经超越了自然，是否已经从黑暗的王国迈向了上帝的儿子的王国。主啊，唤醒我们所有人，在这一点上对自己进行审视，看看我们是否是那些自称在基督里，但与此同时仍然停留在自然状态的人。现在，愿荣耀归于主，父、子、圣灵，直到永远。阿门。

The Apostle's Choice
使徒的选择

No. I
不。

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."—PHIL. 3:7, 8.
但是，对我来说，那些曾经是盈利的事情，我都因基督而看作是损失。是的，无疑地，我把一切都看作是损失，因为认识我主基督耶稣的卓越。

THERE is no man, Beloved, that has a reasonable soul, but his soul it has a choice, and something that he counts his good and happiness that fain he would be at; and as many as have reason with them, there is some good thing that fain they would have. And the apostle that speaks these words that now are read, he teaches us his choice.
亲爱的，没有一个有理智的人的灵魂不会有选择，也有一些他认为是他的善和幸福的东西，他渴望拥有；而且只要有理智的人，就会有一些他们渴望拥有的好东西。而说出这些被阅读的话的使徒，他告诉我们他的选择。

This text it is the apostle's choice of all things that were in the bosom of the created world, of all things that heaven has, of all things that earth can afford. He tells what is the thing among them all he would fainest be at. Comparing himself with the false apostles who lived then, and being disputing against their ceremonies and service-book, and all such idle toys as these, he turns his back upon them; and after he has bidden the Philippians beware of these snares, for they were not apostles of Christ's sending, he tells them in the next rowme what it was that he loved best of all other things, when he had compared his choice and their choice together; for that which the false apostles would have been at was circumcision as under the law, albeit the blind people they saw not this—which was something like unto Christ, and an old ordinance of God—Christ before this time had adumbrate these shadows. When the apostle compares the two ways together, and considers that he himself was once upon that course, he counts of himself as one that was a king yesterday, but is become a beggar for all these things the day; he counts himself like a drunken man who thinks, in the time of his drunkenness, that he is very rich, but when he comes to himself and is fresh, he counts all that he conceited of then not to be worth a drink of cold water. When he looks unto Jesus and saw His loveliness, the apostle would say no less to them, comparing himself to them, and his choice with the false apostles whom he is forbidding them to follow, than that they should not open the ear in the least thing to mix the law of Moses and Christ's ordinances together. And to induce them to this, he comes in with his own experience of Christ, what he thought of Him beyond all other things, and says this much in effect, that all the false apostles they tell you of ceremonies and of righteousness by Moses' law. And he tells of himself: "If I would be proud of these things, then I might boast with the best of them of as great privileges as they have, whether religious, natural, or civil. But," says he, "when once I gat a sight of lovely Jesus, I abhorred them all, and could not abide them in comparison of the excellence of Christ Jesus my Lord." He says, "I am one who has as meikle to boast of as any of them has. I was circumcised the eighth day as well as they, and so gat the outward seal of the covenant. I am a Jew as well as any of them, and more, I am come of the royal tribe of Benjamin, of whom came the first king that ever was in Israel; for the outward observation of the law I was a Pharisee, and for my zeal I was one who persecuted the gospel and Christ as sore as any did, and for the righteousness which is of the law I was blameless, a civil, honest man. I carried myself so as no man could spit on my cloak." But that is a sweet turn that follows after the reckoning up of these things. He says, "When once I began to know Christ, fra once I gat a sight of that lovely Saviour Christ, then all these things whereof I thought so highly before, and that they were my gain, I thought but basely of them, and counted them but loss. Fra that time they had no rowme in my count book, but I cast all of them away, having once fallen in love with Christ."
这段文字是使徒在创造世界的怀抱中选择的所有事物中的选择，是天堂拥有的所有事物，是地球能提供的所有事物。他告诉我们在所有这些事物中，他最想要的是什么。与当时的假使徒相比，他反对他们的仪式和礼拜书，以及所有这些无聊的玩意，他背弃了他们；在警告腓立比人要小心这些陷阱之后，他告诉他们在比较了他的选择和他们的选择之后，他最喜欢的是什么；因为假使徒想要的是按照律法行事的割礼，虽然这些瞎眼的人没有看到这一点-这与基督有些相似，是上帝的一项古老的规定-在此之前，基督已经预示了这些阴影。 当使徒将这两种方式进行比较，并考虑到他自己曾经走过那条路，他认为自己昨天还是一个国王，但今天却成了一个乞丐；他认为自己像一个醉汉，在醉酒时认为自己非常富有，但当他清醒过来时，他发现自己当时的自负一文不值。当他注视耶稣并看到祂的美丽时，使徒对他们说的话不亚于对他们自己的比较，以及他所选择的与他们所禁止追随的假使徒之间的比较，即他们不应该在任何事情上将摩西的律法和基督的仪式混合在一起。为了说服他们这样做，他以自己对基督的经历为例，他认为基督超越一切，实际上他这样说，所有那些假使徒告诉你们的关于仪式和摩西律法的义务，我也可以因这些事情而自豪，就像他们一样，无论是宗教上的、自然的还是民事的特权。 但是，他说道：“当我一见到可爱的耶稣时，我就厌恶了所有这些，无法将它们与我主基督耶稣的卓越相比。”他说：“我有许多可以自夸的东西，和他们中的任何人一样。我在第八天受了割礼，也得到了外在的盟约印记。我和他们一样是犹太人，而且更甚，我是属于便雅悯王族的人，以色列的第一位国王就出自这个族群；对于律法的外在遵守，我是法利赛人，出于对福音和基督的热忱，我曾像任何人一样激烈地迫害他们；对于律法的义，我是无可指责的，一个有道德、诚实的人。我表现得如此好，以至于没有人能往我的斗篷上吐口水。”但是，在列举这些事情之后，接下来有一个甜蜜的转折。他说：“当我开始认识基督，一旦我看到了那位可爱的救主基督，那时我对这些之前如此看重的事情，以及它们对我来说是多么重要，我只觉得它们卑微，视之为损失。从那时起，它们在我的账簿上没有任何位置，我把它们都抛弃了，一旦爱上了基督。”"

So will every soul do who has had another lover nor Christ, and then gets Christ for his lord and love. This is the original work of a soul that has been meikle tane up with civil privileges in the world, or any outward thing, that has thought meikle of court, honour, riches, pleasure, &c. And then he comes to know what Christ is by experience. Such a one shall be forced to say, "I never knew what happiness and blessedness was till now. All those things wherein I placed happiness before were no other but empty appearances thereof until once I met with the Son of God." That is a real mark of a soul that has indeed met with Christ; it can put all other things down laigh, and the Son of God up high in his own rowme. And it must be so with them who have gotten a sight of Christ, and knows what He is. Bairns they cannot compare youth with old age, because they have never yet known what old age is. But those who are come to old age, they can compare the one with the other, and having tried both, and known what youth is—not other but daffing, and hunting after nutshells, in respect of old age. There are none of those who are in glory but they know well enough what it was to be in the estate of sin, and what lying happiness it is that is promised to sinners here. They know well enough what is the ill of night drinking, and what ill is in that to deny a covenant and to quit Christ; they know what it is to sell an exceeding weight of great glory for this present world. Even so the children of God, who are fallen in love with the Son of God, they can speak more of the vanity of all things that are hereaway, and of the excellence of Jesus, than all the world beside can do.
所以，每一个灵魂都会这样做，他曾经有过另一个爱人，不是基督，然后他得到了基督作为他的主和爱。这是一个灵魂的原始工作，他在世界上被民事特权所占据，或者任何外在的事物，他认为法庭、荣誉、财富、快乐等等都很重要。然后他通过经验来认识基督。这样的人将被迫说：“直到现在，我从未知道幸福和祝福是什么。我之前所认为的幸福的事物只是空洞的表象，直到我遇见了上帝的儿子。”这是一个真正遇见基督的灵魂的标志；它可以将其他一切放在低下，将上帝的儿子放在高处。对于那些见过基督并知道他是谁的人来说，情况必须如此。孩子们无法将青春与老年相比，因为他们从未真正了解过老年是什么。但是那些已经到了老年的人，他们可以将两者进行比较，并且在尝试了两者并了解了青春是什么之后，他们会发现青春只不过是相对于老年的嬉戏和追逐虚无的东西。 那些在荣耀中的人都清楚地知道曾经处在罪恶的状态中，以及对罪人所承诺的虚假幸福。他们深知夜晚饮酒的害处，以及拒绝盟约和背弃基督的错误。他们知道为了这个世界的现在而放弃了无比伟大的荣耀是什么意思。同样，那些爱上了上帝之子的上帝的儿女们，他们能比世界上其他人更多地谈论这里一切事物的虚无，以及耶稣的卓越。

Now for the particulars contained in the words. The apostle tells us here what it was that was the wail of his wit, and ye know well enough what he did, and what he made his choice, for he was no fool; and he says that all the fair satins, and pasments, and gold-lace, that he had before he came to Christ, when he came to Christ he counted them all to be beggar's rags, and that is in the seventh verse, "But what things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ;" and then in the eighth verse he confirms this yet more, for it might [have] been objected: "What, Paul, count ye nothing of circumcision, esteem ye so little of that to be a Jew, to be of the royal tribe of Benjamin, for your profession to be a Pharisee, to have such zeal, to be blameless touching the outward righteousness of the law?" "No," says he, "I rue nothing of what I have said, 'Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ.' " And then in the next verse follows his wish what it is that he desires. And first what it is that he would not have. He says that he would not for the world "be found in his own righteousness, which is by the law." In that righteousness whereof the false apostles teach, in that righteousness that nature has, for as glorious like as it seemed to them. And then he tells what it is that he would have. "That he might have the righteousness which is by the faith of Christ," even to be found in that righteousness which is of God by faith. "That is," says he, "the main thing that I would be in hands with."
现在谈谈这些话中的细节。使徒在这里告诉我们他的智慧的哀号是什么，你们很清楚他做了什么，他做出了选择，因为他不是傻瓜；他说，在他来到基督之前，他拥有的所有华丽的缎子、金线和金边，当他来到基督面前时，他把它们都看作是乞丐的破布，这在第七节中有所体现：“但我先前以为与我有益的，我现在因基督都当作有损的。”然后在第八节中，他进一步确认了这一点，因为可能会有人反驳：“保罗，你难道不重视割礼吗？你对犹太人身份，对属于便雅悯支派的荣耀，对作法利赛人的职业，对如此热心，对外在律法的公义无可指责，都看得这么轻吗？”“不，”他说，“我对我所说的一点也不后悔，‘不但如此，我也将万事当作有损的，因我以认识我主基督耶稣为至宝，我为他已经丢弃万事，看作粪土，为要得着基督。’”然后在下一节中，他表达了自己的愿望，他想要什么，首先是他不想要的。 他说他绝不愿意“以法律所赐的自己的义”被发现。在那些伪使徒所教的义中，在那些本性所具有的义中，尽管它们对他们来说看起来是多么光荣。然后他告诉我们他想要什么。“他希望拥有基督的信仰所赐的义”，甚至被发现在那由信仰赐予的上帝的义中。“也就是说，”他说，“这是我最想拥有的东西。”"

First: Look for the dependence of thir words. How is it that the apostle compares himself with thir false teachers, who follow the now dead ceremonies of Moses' law? He says, "Let them who know no better follow these dead ceremonies and services, but for me, I have changed all these things now. I have quit them all, and tane me only to Christ."
首先：寻找他们言辞的依赖关系。使徒是如何将自己与那些追随已经过时的摩西律法仪式的假教师相比较的呢？他说：“让那些不知道更好的人继续遵循这些已经失去生机的仪式和仪式，但对于我来说，我已经改变了所有这些事情。我已经放弃了它们，只归向基督。”

Then we may see that there is a far difference between a minister who is fairly called of Christ under the New Testament, and those false teachers who have their face towards Rome, or any other false religion that leads away from Christ. All these who are false teachers, and lead away from Christ, they would evermore be at nignayes and dead ceremonies in the service and worship they profess. But the apostle would say here, and all true pastors with him, "Let the Pharisees and those who know no better, go on with their dead ceremonies and their service-book, but for me, God send me Christ and His righteousness, and if I get Christ and His righteousness to be mine, then adieu to them and all their ceremonies, and to their righteousness by the law, and all these things."
然后我们可以看到，在新约下，那些被基督公正地召唤的牧师与那些面向罗马或任何其他偏离基督的错误宗教的假教师之间存在着很大的区别。所有这些假教师，他们会一直坚持虚伪的仪式和他们所信奉的崇拜。但是使徒在这里会说，和所有真正的牧师一起，"让法利赛人和那些不了解真相的人继续他们的虚伪仪式和他们的礼拜书，但对于我来说，上帝让我得到基督和他的公义，如果我得到基督和他的公义，那么再见他们和他们所有的仪式，再见他们依靠律法的公义和所有这些事情。"

This is a note of the false kirk and of the false apostles; they would evermore be at ceremonies. The religion they would be at is a religion that stands all in fair shows, a religion for Kirk and market. But the religion which is the way to heaven, and the true Kirk, and [which] Christ's ministers would be at, is a religion that is spirit and life, a religion that specially is inward more nor outward. [In] Isaiah 1:13 there is a number there who were for the new moons, holidays, multitudes of sacrifices, meikle fat of lambs and rams. But the Lord and His prophet they are for this (Isa. 1:16): "Wash you, make you clean; put away the ill of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well." And Micah 6:6, there are some there for offering thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil, for giving their firstborn for their transgression; but the Lord tells what it is that He seeks, "To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." And Matt. 15, there is the like dispute between the scribes and Pharisees and Christ. The scribes and Pharisees they were all for religious ceremonies, as they called them, such as eating of meat with unwashen hands, vessels, &c. But Christ and His disciples they were more for keeping the commandments of God than for observing the traditions of men.
这是关于虚假教堂和虚假使徒的注释；他们总是参与仪式。他们参与的宗教是一个完全建立在表面上的宗教，是教堂和市场的宗教。但是通往天堂的宗教，真正的教堂，以及基督的仆人们参与的宗教，是一种精神和生命的宗教，一种更注重内在而不是外在的宗教。以赛亚书 1:13 中有一群人为了新月、节日、众多的祭品、许多的羊和公羊的脂肪而忙碌。但是主和祂的先知却要求这样（以赛亚书 1:16）：“你们要洗濯、自洁，从我眼前除掉你们的恶行；要止住作恶，学习行善。”弥迦书 6:6 中也有一些人为了献上成千上万的公羊和无数的油河，为了赎罪而献上他们的长子；但是主告诉他们祂所寻求的是：“行公义、好怜悯、存谦卑的心与你的神同行。”马太福音 15 中也有类似的争论，涉及文士、法利赛人和基督之间的争执。 文士和法利赛人都非常注重宗教仪式，比如他们所称的用未洗手的方式吃肉、使用未洗净的器皿等等。但是基督和他的门徒更注重遵守上帝的诫命，而不是遵守人的传统。

Use: Learn to make a difference rightly of the two parts of the controversy that is between the prelates and the land. What is the quarrel that the prelates and their adherents have at Scotland this day? It is not because we will not follow the Bible and God's ordinances in His worship; but their quarrel at us is, because we will not follow a service-book and ceremonies, and because we will not have a creature of their upsetting, a prelate, to be head of the Church. And this is our comfort that the controversy stands thus, that they are not coming against us for not following the Bible and the revealed will of God in His Word, for we are willing that matters shall be judged thereby both in Assemblies and Parliaments. And, blessed be God! that the matter stands so, that it is not religion that they are pursuing us for, but something that is like religion, and we stand for the defence of the true religion. And this also serves to put a difference between an honest person and those who come with an honest and prepared heart to the communion, and those who have no other motive to induce them to it but for the fashion. Those who come to the communion because they would be illspoken of if they did otherways. O! but that be a naughty end, and such will not come speed. There is a far difference between these and such as come here, and care for nothing else, if so be that they can meet with Christ Himself, and care not what all the men in the world say of them. O! that this were our end and errand this day. And I lay this upon your conscience to try yourself hereby whether your end in coming here this day be to get Christ or not.
使用：学会正确区分在主教和土地之间的争议的两个方面。今天在苏格兰，主教及其追随者为什么争吵？不是因为我们不愿意按照圣经和上帝在崇拜中的教令行事；而是他们对我们的争执是因为我们不愿意遵循一本仪式书和仪式，并且我们不愿意让他们搅乱的一个创造物，即主教，成为教会的领袖。这是我们的安慰，争议就是这样，他们不是因为我们不遵循圣经和上帝在祂的话语中所启示的旨意而来对付我们，因为我们愿意让事情在会议和议会中通过它们来判断。感谢上帝！事情的情况是这样，他们追求我们的不是宗教，而是类似宗教的东西，而我们为真正宗教的防御而站立。这也有助于区分一个诚实的人和那些带着诚实和准备好的心来参与圣餐的人，以及那些没有其他动机来引导他们参与圣餐，只是为了追求时尚。 那些来参与圣餐的人，因为如果他们做其他事情会被人说闲话。哦！但那是一个邪恶的目的，这样的人不会得到成功。这些人与那些只为了与基督亲近而来，不在乎世界上所有人对他们说什么的人有很大的区别。哦！但愿这是我们今天的目的和使命。我将这个责任放在你的良心上，以此来检验你今天来这里的目的是否是为了得到基督。

The apostle goes on and says, "What things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ." Then this tells us that the apostle he had what was gain to him, as well as the false apostles had. He had whereof to boast as well as they. "Are they apostles? so am I. Are they circumcised? so am I." The apostle says by this, "I can ride up with the best of them and something more, if they come to a boasting for things of that kind." Compare the life of the believer and the life of the natural man together, and let the natural man lay counts and figures of his state here and multiply them until doomsday. We that are believers, we have all that the natural man has, and something more. And there be four things wherein believers are beyond all the natural men in the world.
使徒继续说：“我曾以为与基督有益的，我现在因基督都当作有损的。”这告诉我们，使徒拥有与伪使徒一样的利益。他有可以夸耀的东西，就像他们一样。“他们是使徒吗？我也是。他们受割礼吗？我也是。”使徒通过这句话说：“如果他们为这些事夸耀，我可以和他们一样甚至更胜一筹。”比较信徒的生活和自然人的生活，让自然人计算和估算他们的状态，直到世界末日。我们信徒拥有自然人所拥有的一切，还有更多。信徒在四个方面超越了世界上所有的自然人。

First: The wicked have this world, and they have it as the men of this world. They bruick it as "the men of this earth," as it is Psa. 10:18. And the world it is their patrimony and hire. The believers have the world also, but in another manner than they have, for we have it only as our inns, to stay in while we are here, and not as our patrimony and hire. There is none of us who lies out of the world more than they do, but the world is only our moveables, while it is their patrimony, and their portion that is ordained for them. That is the difference betwixt the heir and him who is only a servant, for the son has always the estate prepared for him, but the servant he gets no more than his penny fee, and when all is done he is put to the door. Whatever the natural men in the world have we have it also, but we have it after a surer way than they have it. And this should teach us to use this present world as though we used it not, seeing it is not our heritage but only our moveables.
首先：恶人拥有这个世界，他们像这个世界的人一样拥有它。正如诗篇 10:18 所说，他们将其视为“这地上的人”。这个世界是他们的祖业和报酬。信徒也拥有这个世界，但方式不同于他们，因为我们只把它当作旅馆，暂时居住在这里，而不是我们的祖业和报酬。我们中没有人比他们更离开这个世界，但这个世界只是我们的可移动财产，而对他们来说，它是他们的祖业和为他们预定的份额。这就是继承人和仅仅是仆人之间的区别，因为儿子总是有为他准备好的财产，而仆人只能得到他的工钱，一切结束后他就被赶出门外。无论世界上的自然人拥有什么，我们也拥有，但我们拥有的方式比他们更可靠。这应该教导我们把这个现世界当作不用的东西来使用，因为它不是我们的祖业，只是我们的可移动财产。

Second: For natural and worldly men, the sun it shines upon them by day and the moon by night, the rain it falls upon the just and unjust; but we have the Sun of Righteousness to shine upon us, which they have not, and that is better nor all other things that are in the world. They have the sun and the moon and these other profits and pleasures in the world to laugh upon them; but we have Him who made all things and can undo them when He will, to laugh upon us, and that is much better.
其次：对于自然和世俗的人来说，白天太阳照耀着他们，夜晚月亮照耀着他们，雨水降在义人和不义之人身上；但我们有公义之日的太阳照耀着我们，他们没有，这比世界上其他一切都更好。他们有太阳和月亮以及世界上的其他利益和享乐来嘲笑他们；但我们有创造万物并可以在他愿意时撤销它们的主来嘲笑我们，这更好。

Third: Natural men they have the toom, empty, and frothy creature; but we have the blessing with these things. They have bread for their use; but we have the staff of bread, which is better. And—
第三点：自然人们拥有空洞、空虚和浮华的生活方式；但我们拥有这些事物的祝福。他们有面包供他们使用；但我们有更好的面包之杖。而且-

Lastly: and I make an objection of it—they have ofttimes a fairer wind in their sails nor we have here; but yet they have not law-burrows of it that it shall be always so. They have more of court and pleasure, profit and ease, more than we have while we are here—and it is true that we have the cross more than they ofttimes; but they are not sure that it shall continue so. But albeit they have these things, and we want them, yet we have that which is spoken of Rom. 8:37: "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." They have court and kings upon their side, and we have them not; yet this is enough against them all, that we have Him upon our side who to this hour never tint a battle, whatever party He had against Him. They have Spain and antichrist and the powers of the world with them, yet God be thanked that we have Him for us who guides all these at His pleasure. We have Him on our side who gets that stately style ascribed to Him, Rev. 1:5: "The Prince of the kings of the earth," so that all others, were they never so great, all of them are under Him. And so we may see they have no reason to tire who have sided themselves in a covenant with the Son of God, for before all be said that is to be said, and before the field be done, we shall be forced to say that we have gotten the highest of the brae above our enemies, and that the shadow of the Sun of Righteousness has looked upon us.
最后，并且我对此提出异议—— 他们的船往往比我们这里的船有更顺利的风向；但是，他们也不确定它一直会这样。他们拥有比我们在这里更多的法庭和享乐、利润和便利，这是真的，我们往往承受更多的苦难；但他们也不能确定情况会一直持续下去。虽然他们拥有这些，而我们没有，但我们却拥有《罗马书》8:37 所说的：「然而，靠着爱我们的主，在这一切事上，已经得胜有余了。」他们的一方面是法庭和君王，我们却并没有，但是我们有捍卫我们的主，而主战胜一切，无论是什么势力都无法战胜他。他们有西班牙、敌基督和世界的权势支持着他们，但感谢上帝，我们却有主和我们同在，祂按自己的意愿支配这一切。我们有祂和我们同在，祂被赋予崇高的称号，启示录 1:5 中说的： "地上君王的君王、地上众王的元首"。所以其他的一切，在多么伟大也都在祂之下。 所以我们可以看到，与上帝之子结盟的人没有理由感到疲倦，因为在一切都说出来之前，在战场结束之前，我们将被迫说我们已经站在了敌人之上的最高山脊，并且公义之日的阳光已经照耀在我们身上。

"These things that were gain to me I counted them loss for Christ." Here is a strange change, that these things that before were gain are now become loss to the apostle; and yet it is a change incident to all those who are in Paul's case; and the reason of it is, because whoever they be who are not in Christ they see not things as they are indeed, but he looks upon them so as they seem to his sophistic reason; but when any comes to Christ and gets His light they will be forced to say, "The thing that before I thought as my very heart or the apple of my eye, whereof I thought quit me of the one as soon quit me of the other, yet when once I came to Christ and gat a sight of Him, I counted nothing at all of these."
这些对我有益的东西，我为基督看作是损失。这是一个奇怪的变化，以前对使徒来说是有益的东西现在变成了损失；然而，这是发生在所有处于保罗情况下的人身上的变化；原因是，因为不在基督里的人看不到事物的真相，而是根据他们的诡辩理智来看待事物；但当任何人来到基督面前并得到他的光照时，他们将被迫说：“以前我认为是我心中最重要的事物，或者是我眼中的瞳孔，我认为放弃其中一个就等于放弃另一个，但是一旦我来到基督面前并看到了他，我对这些事物一点也不在乎。”

The doctrine is clear. A man who once comes truly to Christ changes his mind, his estimative faculty is altogether changed. Moses, he lived forty years at Pharaoh's court in Egypt, and there is no question but at that time he thought meikle of it to be such a great courtier in such a great king's court. But when once he gat faith to behold Christ and the recompense of reward, he had another thought and estimation of things than before. He esteemed Christ's worst things better than the things that were in Egypt; and so do all those who are indeed converted unto Christ. You count meikle of gold now, but if once you knew what Christ is, you would count it nothing in comparison of Him. If you had once your cheek laid to His sweet cheek, and had one blink of that glorious and beautiful face of His, ye shall then change all your opinions and thoughts that now you have, and you shall cry shame upon all the painted idols in the world, in comparison with fair Jesus, when once you have gotten a sight of the Son of God; and indeed it must be so. This says that natural men they have false counters wherewith they lay their accompts—the natural man has no good arithmetic. See you not what is counted of Christ by the world. Acts 4:11: "This the stone which was set at nought by you builders." Men use to write ciphers for nothing, and so they put Christ for a cipher and counted Him nothing. But counted they so of themselves even in slaying of the Lord of glory? No. They counted themselves wise, for they say, "If we receive this man, the Romans will come upon us and take our nation from us." And the woman of Samaria when He came first to the well, and tells what He could do, she says, "Art Thou greater than our father Jacob who digged the well?" And where laid she Christ in the meantime? She thought Him not so much worth as a drink of cold water. This is the estimation the world has of Christ. And the Papists they have this estimation of Christ; they think themselves and the fathers are worth something, but for Christ and His truth they think it not worth a drink of water to them.
教义明确。一个真正接近基督的人会改变他的思想，他的评估能力完全改变了。摩西曾在埃及法老的宫廷生活了四十年，毫无疑问，在那个时候他认为成为如此伟大国王宫廷的重要人物是非常了不起的。但是一旦他获得了信仰，看到了基督和回报的时候，他对事物的想法和评估就完全改变了。他认为基督最糟糕的事情比埃及的事物更好；所有真正归向基督的人都是如此。你现在很看重金子，但是一旦你了解了基督是什么，你会觉得与他相比，金子一文不值。如果你曾经把你的脸贴在他甜美的脸颊上，看到他荣耀而美丽的面容，你会改变你现在所有的观点和想法，你会对世界上所有的偶像感到羞耻，因为与美丽的耶稣相比，它们都是虚伪的。当你一旦看到上帝的儿子时，事情就必然如此。这说明了自然人使用错误的计算方式来计算他们的账目-自然人没有好的算术能力。 你们看不清世人对基督的看法吗？使徒行传 4:11：“这所被你们匠人所弃不要的石头。”人们习惯用零写密码，所以将基督视为零，算不得什么。但是，在杀害荣耀主的时候，他们对自己也是这样看吗？不是的。他们认为自己很聪明，因为他们说“如果我们任凭他，罗马人就要来除掉我们的地土”。撒玛利亚的妇人在基督首次来到井边时，听到他所能做的事，就说“难道你比我们的始祖雅各还大吗？他是掘了这口井的人。”她同时在什么地方放置了基督？她认为基督不值得一杯冷水。这就是世界对基督的评价。天主教徒也对基督有这样的评价；他们认为自己和先辈们有价值，但对基督和他的真理，他们认为不值得一杯水。

Now where fra comes this, that men in the world count so little of Christ?
现在，为什么世人对基督如此看轻呢？

Answer: Because there is something broken in them that makes five seem to be seven; there is something wrong in them that makes gold seem to be God. That blind mind that thou hast naturally will never let you see Christ to be Christ. But once come to Christ Himself, and then ye will be put from such thoughts. He will give unto you another sight, that old sight will be put out of the office.
答案：因为他们内心有些东西坏了，使得五看起来像七；他们内心有些问题，使得黄金看起来像上帝。你天生的盲目思维永远不会让你看到基督是基督。但一旦来到基督面前，你就会摆脱这样的想法。他会给你另一种视角，那种旧的视角将被取代。

And there is another reason for this. The apostle says of himself (1 Cor. 13:11): "While I was a child I spake as a child," &c. A man, while he is in nature, is no other but a plain bairn; but when once he comes to Christ he becomes an old man, and so his thoughts change. You know what a man of thritty years will think of the nignayes and the clay houses that he was wont to build when he was a bairn. The timber of them would be of loch-reeds, and the theiking of it of leaves of trees, and all these things that they thought meikle of when they were bairns when they hear of them will laugh at themselves, and count nothing of them. Even so is it with a man that is come to Christ, when he is laying his counts he lays down the world and all that is in it for a cipher, and lays down counters for Christ.
还有另一个原因。使徒在哥林多前书 13:11 中说到自己：“我作孩子的时候，说话像孩子，思想像孩子。”一个人在自然状态下只是一个普通的孩子，但一旦他来到基督面前，他就成了一个老人，他的思想也会改变。你知道一个三十岁的人会怎么想他小时候常常建造的泥房和用莲叶盖的茅屋。这些房子的木材是用湖边的芦苇做的，屋顶是用树叶盖的。当他们听到这些事情时，他们会嘲笑自己，觉得这些事情一文不值。同样，一个来到基督面前的人，在他计算的时候，会把世界和其中的一切看作零，而把基督看作计算的基准。

A third reason is: A man who is come to Christ he is a man risen from the dead; and what thoughts think you will you have of all things that are here when you see all that is here set on fire together? What will you think of honours, riches, pleasures, &c., when you see the Son of God set down upon a white throne to judge the world, and with your eyes you see all these things consumed and wasted? Will not a man say then that he has been nothing but a fool that set set his heart upon these things that perish so suddenly?
第三个原因是：一个来到基督面前的人，他是一个从死亡中复活的人；当你看到这里的一切都被一起点燃时，你会对这里的一切有什么想法？当你看到上帝的儿子坐在白色宝座上审判世界，并亲眼看到所有这些事物被消耗和浪费时，你会对荣誉、财富、快乐等有什么想法？那时，一个人难道不会说他一直把心思放在这些突然消失的东西上，真是个傻瓜吗？

Use First: This serves to let these see who are truly and indeed converted to Christ the first thing that ever they get. See and try if you would know this. If ever you have changed your minds as yet; for that is certain that these whose minds and estimatures are nothing changed, they are never come to Christ yet. Ephraim is brought in saying, "What have I to do any more with idols?" Fra once Israel returns to the Lord, they will have no more to do with idols, nor anything that may provoke Him. If you love the world, your night drinking, your idols of profit, pleasure, ease as well as well as ever ye did, and be raxing your arms after these things, until your sinews be like for to break to compass them about, say what you will, and profess what you will, you have gotten no new thing as yet, ye are not come in grips with Christ, for you lay down Christ and heaven and glory for a cipher, and your court, favour, profit, pleasure, &c., for all things. O! but there be many false arithmeticians in the world, who in laying their compts lay down the world for thousands, but when they come to lay Christ, they lay Him down for a cipher or for a penny. But stay till you begin to count over again, and then you shall be forced to say that you laid a fool's count, that thought so meikle of a clayey world that evanishes, and thought so little of Him that made the world and all things therein and endures for ever.
首先使用：这是为了让那些真正归附基督的人看到，他们所得到的第一件事。看看并尝试一下，如果你想知道这一点。如果你的思想还没有改变，那么这是确定的，那些思想和评价没有改变的人，他们还没有来到基督面前。以法莲说：“我还与偶像有什么关系？”一旦以色列回到主面前，他们就不再与偶像有任何关系，也不再做任何可能激怒主的事情。如果你仍然像以前一样热爱世界，热爱夜晚的饮酒，热爱追求利润、享乐和安逸，而且一直在为这些事情奋力拼搏，直到你的筋骨几乎要断裂，才能实现这些目标，不管你说什么，表达什么，你还没有得到新的东西，你还没有真正接触到基督，因为你放弃了基督、天堂和荣耀，换取了一个零，以及你的宫廷、青睐、利润、享乐等等。哦！但世界上有很多虚假的算术家，他们在算账时把世界看成千万，但当他们来算基督时，他们把基督看成一个零或一个便士。 但是等到你重新开始计算，然后你将被迫说你做了一个愚蠢的计算，认为这个消失的泥质世界如此重要，却对创造世界和其中所有事物的神如此不重视，而神是永恒存在的。

Use Second: We see that men they must either change their thoughts, or it will be very ill with them in the end. They must change. Their thoughts as well as their practices must be changed. We must be cast into a new mould, otherways we are lost and tint souls. If thou be in Christ thou lookest to pleasant things in the world, as a stranger does to fair meadows, orchards, palaces, coaches, courts, and pleasant countries until he is far afield. He looks to all these things with a sigh, if he love home well, and says: "He had rather be at home in his own country nor have them all." Such is the estimation that those who are in Christ have of the things of the world. He can let out a hearty laughter at all things that are in it; and count nothing of them all, to be at home, in glory with Christ, and with His Father.
使用第二：我们看到，男人们必须改变他们的思想，否则最终会非常糟糕。他们必须改变。他们的思想和实践都必须改变。我们必须被投入一个新的模具，否则我们就会迷失和失去灵魂。如果你在基督里，你会像一个陌生人一样看待世界上的美好事物，如美丽的草地、果园、宫殿、马车、法庭和宜人的国家，直到他远离家乡。如果他非常爱家，他会带着叹息看待所有这些事物，并说：“他宁愿回到自己的国家，也不要拥有它们。”这就是那些在基督里的人对世界事物的评价。他可以对其中的一切事物发出热烈的笑声，并且不把它们当回事，只想回到与基督和他的父亲一起在荣耀中的家中。

"I count all things loss for Christ." Was that a loss to be circumcised, to be of the people of Israel, to be descended of the royal tribe of Benjamin, and to be blameless for the outward things of the law? The apostle tells us by this, that whatever comes betwixt a man and Christ to keep him from a right estimation of Christ, albeit all the brave pasments and gold fuilzie in the world were upon it, it is no other but plain nothing, and we should count so of it. If anything come between me and Christ, whatever it be, away with it. The apostle would say, "The time was when I counted as meikle of these things as they did, but when once I met with Christ, and saw things with daylight"—for the sinner and the man who are in nature see all things with moonlight—then he says of all these things, "I counted them all loss that I might gain Christ" (Matt. 16:26). There is a man pre-supponed there to have gained the whole world; and who is there in the world that has gained, if that man has not gained that has gained the whole world? But it is said of such a man, albeit he should gain—as who yet ever gained it all—yet if in gaining thereof he lose his own soul, he is a loser when all is done (Rom. 10:3). It is said that the Jews which followed after the law of righteousness they attained not unto it, and so they lost by following thereof, for they tint the righteousness of Christ. Whoever follows after something which seems to be theirs, and that they would be at, and then tines Christ by following thereof, such men are losers, get they that which they follow, or get they it not. The works that Papists do to merit by them, they are their loss instead of profit, for they come between them and Christ. Whatever it be, court, honour, or pleasure, or anything else that thou followest, if it come between thee and Christ, thou art a loser in seeking of it. Aye, if it were in seeking that which is spoken of Prov. 1:13, "All precious substance," or seeking that which is spoken of Prov. 7:18, "To fill thyself with love," yet if it come between you and Christ it is loss. And there is good reason it should be so. What is it which makes a man lose in the world? Is it that which is taken out of his rent for a year? Albeit, something be tane away that way, that is not meikle; but if anything be tane away from a man's stock that is it which makes loss. So whatever takes away any of Christ from us, who is our stock, that is loss indeed, and may be justly called loss. And God knows there be many who lose this way. There be many who for winning of court, honour, favour of kings, profit, pleasure, they care not to sell their covenant, and Christ, and His Kirk. And, alas! what winning is there when all is done. God knows there is just nothing. They use to say of merchants, they are rich. But another who knows better will say, Stay till all his counts be fitted, and all his creditors paid, and then you will know whether he be rich or poor. It is even just so here. To get a higher style in the world, to quit thy covenant with God, what winning is there when sinners shall once become sin-sick, and their compts begin to be laid, and they must pay again, all the pleasures that they have gotten that way, and he must vomit it all up again? As it is Job 20:15, and they will see they are losers. You think you are well set up now, if you get riches and honours and pleasures; but stay till the Lord come, and say, "Pay me for all the court, honour, pleasure, &c., that ever you gat;" and there will be a great poverty soon then. Stay till Christ come to crave a count of men and women, how they have spent their talents, and they shall be seen to be very poor. I speak only of one place (Rev. 6:15) for clearing of this point—Kings and great men, rich men, chief captains, and mighty men, they are cited there before the Son of God. And what are their great places and their great wages that they gat worth to them then? They cry out, "Mountains and rocks fall on us, and hide us from the face of the Lamb that sits on the throne, and from His wrath, for the day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to lose [stand?]." So that there is no loss like unto this loss, for me to lose my country, wife, bairns, &c. So did David these things, and the children of God may lose them. But to lose the precious soul, woe to thee for evermore who does this, for thy loss is never kent till then. Of all the losses in the world that is the most fearful to lose Christ, and so to lose thy own soul.
“我为基督看作一切为损失。”受割礼、属于以色列民族、出自便雅悯支派的皇室血统、在律法的外表上无可指摘，这些都算是损失吗？使徒告诉我们，无论什么东西阻碍一个人与基督之间的联系，使他无法正确评估基督，即使世界上所有华丽的装饰和金银珠宝都在其中，它也只不过是一无是处，我们应该这样看待它。如果有任何东西阻碍我与基督之间的关系，无论是什么，都要摒弃它。使徒要说的是，“曾经有一段时间，我像他们一样看重这些东西，但一旦我遇见了基督，用光明的眼光看待事物——因为罪人和凡人都是用月光来看待一切事物的——那么他对所有这些事物说，‘我看作一切为损失，只为得着基督’”（马太福音 16:26）。在那里，假设有一个人已经得到了整个世界；如果那个人没有得到，那么世界上还有谁得到了呢？ 但据说这样一个人，即使他能够获得——然而，谁曾经获得过一切——但如果在获得这一切的过程中失去了自己的灵魂，那么当一切都结束时，他是个失败者（罗马书 10:3）。据说追随正义律法的犹太人没有达到目标，所以他们在追随中失去了，因为他们失去了基督的正义。无论是追求自己认为属于自己的东西，还是追求他们想要的东西，然后通过追求失去了基督的人，无论他们得到了他们追求的东西还是没有得到，他们都是失败者。天主教徒为了通过行为来获得恩惠，这些行为反而成为他们的损失，因为这些行为使他们与基督隔绝。无论是追求权力、荣誉、快乐还是其他任何你追求的东西，如果它们使你与基督隔绝，你在追求它们时都是失败者。是的，即使是追求箴言 1:13 所说的“一切宝贵的财富”，或者追求箴言 7:18 所说的“满足自己的爱”，但如果它们使你与基督隔绝，那也是损失。这是有充分的理由的。是什么让一个人在世界上失败？是一年租金中被扣除的那部分吗？ 虽然有些东西被那种方式夺走了，但那并不多；但如果有什么东西从一个人的财产中夺走，那就是导致损失的东西。所以不管什么东西从我们身上夺走了基督，那就是真正的损失，可以正当地称之为损失。上帝知道有很多人就是这样失去的。有许多人，为了赢得宫廷、荣誉、国王的青睐、利润、快乐，他们无所顾忌地出卖他们的约定和基督，以及祂的教堂。唉！但等一切都结束的时候，赢得了什么呢？上帝知道，一无所得。人们常说商人们很富有。但更了解情况的人会说，等到他所有的账目都清理好，所有的债主都得到偿付，然后你就会知道他究竟是富有还是贫穷。在这里也是如此。为了在世上有更高的地位，放弃你与上帝的约定，罪人们一旦成为病人，他们的账目开始被核算，他们必须再次付出所有通过这种方式得到的快乐，然后他们必须再次呕吐出来。正如约伯记 20：15 所说，他们将会看到他们是失去者。 你现在可能认为自己已经安排得很好，如果你拥有财富、荣誉和快乐；但等到主来临，说：“偿还我所有的宫廷、荣誉、快乐等等，你曾经得到的一切。”那时很快就会有巨大的贫穷。等到基督来要求男人和女人交账，看看他们如何使用自己的才能，他们将被证明是非常贫穷的。我只谈一个地方（启示录 6:15）来阐明这一点——国王和伟大的人、富人、首领和强大的人，他们在那里被传唤到神的儿子面前。他们所得到的伟大地位和丰厚报酬对他们来说有什么价值呢？他们呼喊着：“山岭和岩石啊，倒在我们身上，把我们藏起来，不叫我们看见坐宝座的羔羊和他的忿怒，因为他的忿怒的大日到了，谁能站得住呢？”所以没有比这更大的损失了，对我来说失去我的国家、妻子、孩子等等。大卫也经历了这些事情，神的儿女也可能失去它们。但是失去宝贵的灵魂，那些这样做的人永远都是可悲的，因为你的损失直到那时才会被认识到。在世界上所有的损失中，失去基督和自己的灵魂是最可怕的。

What is the other part of the apostle's choice, or that which he would be in hands with? "For the superexcellent knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."
使徒的选择的另一部分是什么，或者说他将与之同在的是什么？“为了对基督耶稣我主的超卓认识。”

Why says he not for Christ Himself rather than for the superexcellent knowledge of Christ? Christ is one thing, and the superexcellent knowledge of Christ another, and yet in substance both of them are one. There is a great question anent this. What it is that is the greatest happiness of the glorified in heaven, and what it is that is the main happiness of those who are journeyers towards this kingdom? But the happiness both of the one and the other stands in this superexcellent knowledge of Christ. There were very grave and learned men who lived at the time when Paul lived, for it is probable that there went letters between Paul and Seneca, who was a very learned man, and that they conversed one with another. But what counts the apostle to be his superlative knowledge? Even this, to trust and believe in a Saviour slain and despised by the world. There was no wisdom in his accompt like the knowledge of this. And look to this superexcellent knowledge of Christ in three things, and you shall find it to be so.
为什么他不是为基督自己说话，而是为基督的超卓知识说话？基督是一回事，而基督的超卓知识是另一回事，但实质上它们都是一回事。对此有一个很大的问题。在天堂得荣耀的人最大的幸福是什么，而在追求这个王国的人最主要的幸福又是什么？但不论哪一方的幸福都在于对基督的超卓知识。保罗时代有一些非常严肃和博学的人，很可能保罗和塞内加之间曾有通信，后者是一位非常博学的人，他们也可能互相交谈。但使徒认为最高明的知识是什么呢？正是信靠并相信一个被世界所杀害和藐视的救主。在他的账目里没有任何智慧能与这种知识相提并论。再来看一看涉及基督超卓知识的三个方面，你会发现确实如此。

First: All the wisdom natural men can speak with will never make the thing they speak of go into the heart. All that the moralists in the world can speak of heaven or of hell, all that they can speak of the deformity of vice, and of the beauty and comeliness of virtue, can never make it go into the hearts of men and women. But Christ, when He speaks in the gospel of these things, He can speak into the heart, and speaks daily to the hearts of many, and whoever gets a sight of Christ Himself in the gospel, O! so fair, so excellent as the knowledge of Him will be to them. All the knowledge of all the sovereigns in the world will be nothing to them.
首先：凡是自然人所说的智慧，永远无法使他们所说的事情深入人心。世界上所有道德家所说的天堂或地狱，所有他们所说的邪恶的丑陋和美德的美丽，都无法使其深入男女的心灵。但是，当基督在福音中谈论这些事情时，他能够深入人心，并且每天对许多人的心灵说话。任何人一旦在福音中看到基督自己，哦！对他们来说，认识他是如此美好、如此卓越。世界上所有君主的知识对他们来说都是无足轻重的。

Second: The gospel is superexcellent in the knowledge thereof. Is there no further knowledge of Christ to be had there as Mary's son, a carpenter's son? Yes, He is to be seen there as a plant of renown, as Ezekiel calls Him; as the branch of righteousness as Zachariah calls Him; and as Isaiah says, He is to be seen there as wonderful in His works. There He is miraculous. In His death He is to be seen as life, so that He is a wonder to all to think upon.
第二点：福音在其中的知识是极好的。在那里，作为玛丽的儿子、一个木匠的儿子，还有没有更深的对基督的认识？是的，在那里，他被看作是一个有名望的植物，正如以西结所称呼的；正如撒迦利亚所称呼的公义的枝条；以赛亚说，他在那里被看作是他奇妙的作为。在那里，他是奇迹般的。在他的死亡中，他被看作是生命，以至于他对所有人来说都是一个令人惊奇的思考对象。

Third: Look into Christ's offer in the gospel, and that is also wonderful, and His knowledge is superexcellent in that: To offer a kingdom to all His followers. How long shall it endure? For an hundred thousand years? Aye. It endures for evermore. It lasts for all eternity. Let Christ make an offer of that when it is racked on God's wheel, it would give meikle at such a time to have an interpreter to repeat its own case to it, meikle more if Christ should make this offer to it. Ye shall find also that in this offer there is peace to a troubled conscience, ease to a troubled mind. To offer a kingdom, thus how great a matter is it? Who is there can offer an eternal kingdom but only He? A soul may dream of a kingdom, but none can speak it into the conscience but He who can say, "Come and see." Come therefore to this sacrament with disposed hearts, and set to your nose to the sweet smell of the Son of God, bend your ears to hearken to the offers, and ye shall see and hear superexcellent knowledge there.
第三点：看看基督在福音中的恩典，那也是非常美妙的，他的知识在其中是超凡的：向所有的追随者提供一个王国。它将持续多久？一万年吗？是的。它将永远持续下去。它将永恒存在。当基督在上帝的车轮上折磨它时，让基督提供这样一个王国，那将是多么宝贵，如果有一个翻译把它的情况重复给它听，那将更加宝贵。你还会发现，在这个恩典中，有平安给困扰的良心，有安慰给困扰的心灵。提供一个王国，这是多么伟大的事情？除了他之外，还有谁能提供一个永恒的王国呢？一个灵魂可能会梦想拥有一个王国，但只有他能将它说进良心中，他能说：“来看看。”因此，带着准备好的心来参加这个圣礼，将你的鼻子靠近上帝之子的甜香，弯下耳朵倾听那些恩典，你将在那里看到和听到超凡的知识。

The Apostle's Choice
使徒的选择

No. II
二号

"The knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."—PHILIPPIANS 3:8.
基督耶稣我主的知识。我为他已经丢弃一切，并且看作粪土，只为要得着基督。 —腓立比书 3:8。

HOW like, beloved in our Lord, that the apostle is meeting with a doubt here, in the eighth verse of this chapter, which might seem to rise from that which he has said in the seventh verse thereof. And does the apostle count all his former gain to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus? even all these fair and great privileges that are in so great request among men, and the men who were of his profession they thought no little thing of thir privileges, to be of the seed of Israel, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, come of the royal and kingly tribe, to be for profession a Pharisee, for zeal a persecutor of the Church, touching the righteousness that is of the law blameless. It might have been said to Paul, "Paul, think ye nothing of all these?" The apostle answers to these, ver. 8, and says, "I will eat nothing in of that which I have said, but confirms it." "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Yea, also, I count them to be but dung. I count them not worthy the least of my love to take any of it from Him."
亲爱的主内之人，使徒在本章的第八节中遇到了一个疑问，这似乎是由于他在第七节中所说的引起的。使徒是否认为他以前的一切都因认识基督耶稣的卓越而成为损失？即使这些在人们中间非常受欢迎的美好和伟大的特权，而且他所从事的人也认为这些特权并不是小事，如属以色列的种族，希伯来人中的希伯来人，出自王室和君王的支派，以法利赛人的身份，对教会的热心迫害，对律法的义无可指责。有人可能对保罗说：“保罗，你难道对这一切一无所想吗？”使徒在第 8 节回答说：“我不会对我所说的任何事情有所保留，而是加以确认。”“是的，我确实认为所有的事情都是为了认识我主基督耶稣的卓越而成为损失。是的，我认为它们只是粪土。我认为它们不值得我最小的爱从中取走任何东西。”

The first thing we learn here is, Labour once to win in a way of commendation of Christ, and then His praise shall grow among your hands. Speak once good of Christ into your heart, and ye will not win soon off that text again. The more that you think of Christ, the more will that matter grow among your hands. The more you enter upon thinking of Christ's fulness, the more will you love it. Paul, the longer he speaks of Christ, the higher he grows in estimation of Him, for he said before, "I count all things loss for Christ," but now, "I count them dung for Him, that I may gain Him." Learn to be content to lose all things that ye may get Christ, and if you do so, indeed, you may be sure you shall get Him. You will see this to be true also Cant. 5. When there is a question moved to the Church, the spouse of Christ, "What is her beloved," say they, "more than another beloved?" Compare verse sixth with the sixteenth, and ye will see the answer to be clearly this way. In verse sixth, she answers: "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand, His head is as the most fine gold, His locks are bushy and black like a raven, His eyes are as the eyes of doves, His cheeks are as a bed of spices," &c. And then, having described Him in all His parts in the sixteenth verse, she says of Him: "He is altogether lovely," and, "therefore wonder not," would she say, "that I make so meikle din for my beloved, for there is nothing in Him, but that which is most desired." And Psa. 73:24: "Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory." But he goes higher in the next verse: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and I desire none in earth beside Thee;" and so still ascends. Isa. 40:7, the prophet, speaking of the Lord's greatness and majesty, says, "All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted unto Him to be less than nothing and vanity." So that whoever they be who take themselves to speak of God, or of Christ, in their excellency and glory, if they think rightly of it, they will be dipped over head and ears in it. No created paper and ink are able to describe the Lord as He is. Aye, His word tells not all to us what He is. It is not possible for us to get a copy of Him. Set a thousand worlds of poets to make songs of Christ they could not say the thousandth part of the thing that is true of Him.
我们在这里学到的第一件事是，劳动一次以赢得基督的称赞，然后他的赞美将在你的手中增长。一次在心中说出基督的好话，你将很难再离开这个话题。你越是思考基督，这个问题就会在你的手中越发增长。你越是开始思考基督的丰满，你就会越爱他。保罗越是谈论基督，他对他的评价就越高，因为他之前说过，“我因基督看作有损的，现在却因他看作有益的。”学会甘心失去一切以得到基督，如果你真的这样做，你可以确定你将得到他。你也会看到这是真实的，就像《雅歌》5 章所说的那样。当有人问教会，基督的新娘，“她的良人比其他良人有什么特别？”他们说，“比其他良人更加美好。”将第六节与第十六节进行比较，你会清楚地看到答案是这样的。 在第六节中，她回答说：“我的爱人白皙红润，是万人之中的首领，他的头发如最纯金子，乌黑浓密如乌鸦，他的眼睛如鸽子的眼睛，他的脸颊如香料之床”，等等。然后，在第十六节中，她描述了他的所有部分，她说他是“完全可爱的”，并且，“因此不要惊讶”，她想说，“我为我的爱人大声喧哗，因为他身上没有任何不受人欢迎的东西。”而诗篇 73:24 中说：“你必以你的策略引导我，以后必接我到荣耀里。”但在下一节中，他更上一层楼：“除你以外，天上还有谁能让我满足？除你以外，地上也没有我所爱慕的。”以此类推。以赛亚书 40:7 中，先知在谈到主的伟大和威严时说：“在他面前，万民都如虚无，被他看为不及虚无和虚空。”所以，无论是谁，如果他们自认为在谈论上帝或基督的卓越和荣耀，如果他们正确地思考，他们将会完全沉浸其中。没有任何创造的纸和墨水能够描述上帝的真实面貌。 哦，他的话并没有告诉我们他是什么。我们无法获得他的副本。即使让千千万万的诗人创作关于基督的歌曲，他们也无法说出他真实的一千分之一。

Use First: This serves to teach all the ministers of Christ this common place of preaching. Above all things learn this, to put our Lord Jesus high up above all, that so He may be a world's wonder to men and angels: for to speak rawly and caldriffly of Christ, and not to grow continually in the praises of His excellence, is one of the faults of the friends of the Bridegroom.
首先使用：这是为了教导基督的所有部长这个普遍的传道地方。最重要的是要学会将我们的主耶稣高高举起，超越一切，使他成为人类和天使的奇迹：因为粗鲁地、冷淡地谈论基督，不持续地赞美他的卓越，是新郎的朋友们的错误之一。

Use Second: If there be so meikle to be spoken of Him, while we are here, O then, when we come to our Father's house, and shall see Him as He is, face to face, what large thoughts shall there be of Him then, when the thoughts that are of Him in the kingdom of grace are so great! What shall these thoughts be of Him that shall be in the kingdom of glory? What marvel is it that that song of His praises lasts for ever and ever, that they never weary who sing this song, for He will byde all the songs of praise of the glorified. [Why] but we to whom Christ has given pawns this day that He was slain for our sins, what should we do to Him again, but lift Him up high in our praises and put Christ high in His rowme, and everything under Him in their rowme?
使用第二点：如果在我们在这里的时候就有这么多关于祂的话要说，那么当我们来到我们父的家，面对面地看见祂的时候，那时会有多么伟大的思想呢，因为在恩典的国度里，对祂的思想已经如此伟大了！那么在荣耀的国度里，对祂的思想将会是怎样的呢？祂的赞美之歌为何永远不息，为何唱这首歌的人永不疲倦呢？因为祂将超越所有被荣耀者的赞美之歌。既然基督今天已经为我们的罪而被杀，我们应该怎样回应祂呢？除了在我们的赞美中高举祂，把基督高举在祂的位置上，让一切都在祂的统治之下，我们还能做什么呢？

Third use: If it be so that our Lord is so high that He can never be enough praised, why is there so meikle din this day in Scotland for adhering to a covenant and for quitting of a covenant? No, the din is not for a covenant or a ceremony, or such a thing is not the main thing that is in controversy in Scotland this day. But whether Christ should be only King and Priest unto His own Kirk to give out laws, or if men should rule there as they please. And this should put all Scotland and all the world to it to hazard for such a glorious Lord as Christ is.
第三个用途：如果我们的主如此崇高，以至于无法被充分赞美，为什么在苏格兰今天为坚守盟约和放弃盟约而引起如此大的喧嚣？不，这喧嚣不是为了盟约或仪式，或者这些并不是今天在苏格兰争议的主要问题。而是基督是否应该成为自己教会的唯一国王和祭司，来颁布法律，或者人们是否应该随心所欲地统治。为了如此荣耀的基督，这将使整个苏格兰和整个世界陷入危险。

Before the apostle go from this he has a word that is worthy to be observed before we leave it, "Christ Jesus my Lord." When the apostle is speaking of Christ, he must have a kiss of Him to himself by the way, he must of necessity speak something to let his hearers know what he thought of Christ. To teach us this far that whenever we speak of Christ, whenever we preach of Him, or whenever we hear of Him, to strive evermore to apply Him, and to take Him home to ourselves. There be three good reasons of this, why both the apostle and all others with him, they should labour to apply Christ unto themselves when He comes near unto them any way.
在使徒离开之前，他有一句话是值得注意的，那就是“我的主基督耶稣”。当使徒谈到基督时，他必须亲自亲吻他，必须有必要说一些让听众知道他对基督的看法的话。教导我们，无论何时我们谈论基督，无论何时我们传讲他，或者无论何时我们听到他的消息，都要努力将他应用于自己，并将他带回家。这有三个很好的理由，为什么使徒和其他与他同在的人，在基督以任何方式接近他们时，都应该努力将基督应用于自己。

First: Because to speak or hear of His name and not to smell of Him thereafter, it is a very great miss when Christ speaks to us and comes to offer Himself to you in the sacrament. When Christ goes away, and has not met with you and thou hast not gotten a kiss of Him, woe! to that person whoever they be, woe! to that soul to whom Christ offers Himself, and they notwithstanding get no good of Him. Christ comes to thy elbows, thy eyes, and thy ears, and all the parts of thy body, and soul; and yet, between you and God, if thou can say, thou has met with Him to day, and woe to them that cannot say it. And this apostle he has reason to speak of Christ, for he knows His worth and excellency (Col. 1), he is speaking a word of Christ there, and having spoken a word for Him, he digresses a little from his text, that he may speak more of Christ (v. 15), "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature; for by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in the earth, visible and invisible," &c. It is even with all of them that has a right estimation of Christ as with them that go unto their coffer and see gold lying there and stay a while tirling it over, they have such pleasure in it. So is it with all those who get a glance of Christ in the Word or the sacraments.
首先：因为提到祂的名字，却无法感受祂的气味，这是非常遗憾的。当基督向我们说话并在圣礼中向你献身时，如果祂离开时没有与你相遇，你没有得到祂的亲吻，那么哀哉！无论是谁，那个人都会遭殃；那个灵魂，即使基督向他献身，他们却无法从中获得好处，也会遭殃。基督来到你的手肘、眼睛、耳朵和你身体和灵魂的所有部分；然而，在你和上帝之间，如果你能说，你今天已经与祂相遇了，那些不能说的人将会遭殃。这位使徒有理由谈论基督，因为他知道祂的价值和卓越（歌罗西书 1 章），他在那里谈论基督的话，而且在为祂说了一句话之后，他稍微离开了他的文本，以便更多地谈论基督（第 15 节）：“祂是那不能看见之神的像，是首生的，在一切被造的以先；因为万有都是靠着祂造的，无论是天上的，地上的，能看见的，不能看见的，都是有的……” 所有那些对基督有正确评估的人，就像那些打开保险箱看到里面有金子，然后停下来玩弄一会儿，他们对此感到非常愉悦一样。对于所有那些在圣经或圣礼中一瞥到基督的人也是如此。

Second: Those who have gotten a sight of Him, they ought to stand still and look more upon Him, for He is well worth looking on. And we who are ministers, if we carry Christ to others, and be gathering in the Lord's bride to Him, should not we ourselves be the better and get our drink silver at the least? Woe! to them that preach Christ to others, whatever they be, and cannot say, "My Lord Jesus Christ."
其次：那些已经看见祂的人，应该站在原地，更多地凝视祂，因为祂值得仔细观察。而我们作为传道人，如果将基督带给他人，并将主的新娘聚集到祂身边，难道我们自己不应该变得更好，并至少得到我们的饮料的银子吗？哀哉！对于那些向他人传讲基督的人，无论他们是谁，却不能说：“我的主耶稣基督。”

A Third reason for this is, because wherever Christ is rightly and kindly spoken of, He evermore leaves tokens that He has been there, He leaves some drops of myrrh behind Him, and that makes them speak more to His commendation.
这是第三个原因，因为无论在哪里，只要对基督正确而友善地谈论，他总是留下他曾经在那里的痕迹，留下一些没药的滴液，这使人们更多地赞美他。

Use: All these who have heard of Christ this day, and have been partaker of Him in the sacrament, let them take something of Christ home with them—sick folk, take home physic with you; blind folk, take home eyes with you; lame folk, take home feet and hands with you; ignorants, take home knowledge with you, for Christ is all in all, and this is indeed to eat and to drink worthily.
使用：所有今天听过基督的人，并在圣礼中与他有份的人，让他们带一些基督回家吧-病人们，带上药物回家；盲人们，带上眼睛回家；跛脚的人们，带上脚和手回家；无知者们，带上知识回家，因为基督是一切，这确实是值得称道的吃和喝。

Another word. Let us mark of this that the apostle says, "Christ Jesus my Lord." This is a homely word that He speaks, even as if there had been no moe in heaven or in earth who had right to Him. It might have been said to Paul, Is Christ yours more than He is the world's? Yes; but He is common to all believers. Christ is like a ship that is divided among so many owners. The ship belongs to every one of them. Even so David, and Thomas, and His apostles, and all believers have their own property in Christ. And yet, albeit He be a common Saviour to all believers, yet every believer in particular may make Christ his treasure and his portion, and this should hearten us to go in application of Christ to ourselves as ours, and never to rest till we come to that. There is no common thing in the world like unto Christ, for He is free to all believers, even all that are in Him. The saints they have a free heritage that no man has anything to say against it. Where was he that could ever say: "The sun, the moon, the earth were his property"? These things are common to all, and every one is like to scart out other's eyes for them; but having once gotten Christ by faith in thy soul, thou may say of Him, "My Lord and my God;" and O! but thou art rich for evermore who can say this far indeed, and art sure of it.
另一个词。让我们注意使徒所说的，“基督耶稣我的主。”这是一个朴素的词，他就像天上地下没有其他人有权利拥有他一样。也许有人会问保罗，基督对你来说比对世界更重要吗？是的，但他是所有信徒共同拥有的。基督就像一艘被分给许多所有者的船。这艘船属于他们每个人。大卫、托马斯、他的使徒和所有信徒都在基督里拥有自己的财产。然而，尽管他是所有信徒的共同救主，但每个信徒都可以将基督视为自己的宝藏和份额，这应该鼓励我们将基督应用于自己，直到我们达到那个目标为止。世界上没有任何东西可以与基督相比，因为他对所有信徒都是自由的，即所有在他里面的人。圣徒们拥有一份无人能够反对的自由遗产。谁能说：“太阳、月亮、地球是他的财产”呢？ 这些事情对所有人都是共同的，每个人都可能为了它们而争斗；但一旦你通过信仰在你的灵魂中得到基督，你可以说他是“我的主和我的神”；哦！但是你真的是永远富有的，如果你能说出这样的话，并且对此深信不疑。

The apostle he goes on and says: "I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." The word in the original is, "I have made shipwreck of all things." He says, "I am content to cast away all the gold pasments, all the satins, all the velvets that I had being a Pharisee, and let them tine for Christ. I am content to quit them all, and to let them all go to nothing, to that end that I may make Christ my gain." And the apostle he speaks not here of himself only as an apostle, but he speaks of himself as a believer, and speaks after that manner. Tine what he will, he shall aye keep Christ to the fore. And indeed He is well worthy of His rowme, and woe! is [to] them, and they shall say it one day, Woe! is [to] them for evermore, who cast Christ overboard that they may keep Christ and honour and the world. And there are four sorts of persons who wrong Christ this way.
使徒继续说道：“我已经损失了一切，将这些都看作粪土，好让我可以得着基督。”原文中的词是“我已经船只遭遇过一切事情。”他说，“我愿意放弃所有的黄金、朴素、天鹅绒，所有我在法利赛时拥有的东西，让它们为了基督而消逝。我愿意放弃它们，让它们全都化为乌有，只为了让基督成为我的收获。”使徒在这里说的不仅是作为使徒，也是作为一个信徒，并以这种方式说话。无论得到什么，他都将一直把基督放在首位。事实上，祂对这个位置是非常无私的，谁将基督丢弃以保持尊严和世界的人，祸哉！他们终将悔恨莫及。以这样的方式对基督不敬的人有四种类型。

First: There are some who have even heavy a loadening in already, and so cast Christ overboard, because Christ and that loadening which they have already, cannot agree, and before they quit their other loadening they will quit Christ—1 Tim. 6:9: "They who will be rich fall into divers temptations and snares, and into many hurtful and foolish lusts, which draw men into destruction and perdition." It is not said that they are rich, but they who will be rich. They resolve that they will take in a burden of the world and will sail to heaven with [it]. Nay two ills light upon such.
首先：有些人已经背负了沉重的负担，因此将基督抛弃，因为基督和他们已经承担的负担无法协调，在他们放弃其他负担之前，他们会放弃基督-提摩太前书 6:9：“凡想要发财的人，就陷入迷惑和网罗，并许多无知有害的私欲里，叫人沉在败坏和灭亡中。”并没有说他们是富有的，而是那些想要发财的人。他们决心要承担世界的重担，并带着它们航行到天堂。然而，这样做会带来两个问题。

First: The world and Christ they will never agree together. Your gain, your ease, your credit, your riches, &c., they may well agree with Christ as long as the weather is fair and both go one gate. But stay till the wind change, and it come to that whether you will quit your credit, your gain, your pleasures, &c., or Christ and religion, and it will be seen then, that such take them to the world, and to things thereof, and are content that Christ and religion and a covenant and conscience be all casten overboard. Let them sink or swim rather ere they quit their temporal peace, or ease, or gain. And O! but that be a miserable change.
首先：世界和基督永远不会达成一致。你的利益、安逸、声誉、财富等，只要天气晴朗，两者同行，它们可能与基督很好地达成一致。但等到风向改变，到了你必须放弃你的声誉、利益、快乐等，或者放弃基督和宗教，那时就会看到，有些人选择了世界和世俗之物，宁愿把基督、宗教、契约和良心都抛弃。他们宁可沉没也不愿放弃他们的世俗安宁、舒适或利益。哦！那将是多么可悲的转变。

Again: Where the love of the world and the things thereof carry over high a sail, and are proud of them, He denies to give them grace, for He resists the proud. They content themselves with the outside of religion, and labour not for the power thereof. Alas! Is this holiness enough? to come to the communion, to sit reverently in the kirk, and have no more but that? I grant it is not ill indeed. But if thou hast no more of religion but that, it will be a sail to blow full of wind and blow you into the midst of the sea and drown you. For the Lord He shall seek an account of you for all the occasions of the Word and Sacraments and other exercises of that kind that ye have been at albeit the most part see not this, and shall ask of them, how they have profited by every one of these occasions? and He shall try and search them whether they came in sincerity to seek the Lord in all these exercises, or if their errand was to seek any other thing.
再说一遍：当世界的爱和其中的事物高高飘扬，并为此感到自豪时，他拒绝给予他们恩典，因为他抵挡骄傲者。他们满足于宗教的外表，却不为其力量努力。唉！这样的圣洁足够吗？只是参与圣餐，恭敬地坐在教堂里，就没有更多了吗？我承认这确实不错。但是如果你除此之外没有更多的宗教信仰，那将是一张充满风的帆，会把你吹到海的中央并淹死你。因为主会为你参与的所有圣言、圣礼和其他类似的活动寻求一个交代，尽管大多数人看不到这一点，他会问他们，他们在每一个场合中有多少受益？他会试探和探究他们是否真诚地来到这些活动中寻求主，还是他们的目的是寻求其他东西。

There is a thrid sort of persons that are sailing, but they are sailing close under the water; and these are they who know that they do wrong, and yet notwithstanding, they will go on in that same ill course; and, indeed, if there be a fearful case of impenitence in the world, this is most fearful, to add drunkenness to thrist, and to walk on into the imaginations of their own heart, saying, they shall have peace in so doing. The Lord will not spare such, but the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against them. And—
有一种人是航行的，但他们在水下航行得很紧密；这些人知道自己在做错事，但尽管如此，他们还会继续走上那条不良之路；事实上，如果世界上有一个可怕的不悔悟的情况，那就是在口渴之余饮酒，并且在自己心中的想象中继续前行，说他们这样做会得到平安。主不会饶恕这样的人，而主的怒火和忌妒必要向他们燃烧。

Lastly: There be some that this cancer and ill are into the spirit; they pre-suppone that they have faith, and yet it is but a rotten faith. Look to the faith of many, and it will be found to be thus with them. O woe! to you for evermore, who are beguiled in a matter of such consequence as this. Every man trows that his profession and his grace are good enough, that there is neither crack nor flaw into it, and yet many are deceived. Never man suspected his own gold but it is good enough, and yet many have but brass instead of it. It were meikle better for us in time to try whether we be in the faith or not, than thus to be deceived in a matter of so great importance, for woe! to them for evermore who beguile themselves in such a matter as this, that when they go at that last day to open up their profession, to find out their faith and their grace, and that they find nothing there, but only a show, and a fair glori-flenkun—think you not but this will be a miserable mistake to many? Aye! that it will; and so learn to beware of it.
最后：有些人认为这种癌症和疾病已经渗入了他们的精神；他们预设自己有信仰，但实际上只是一种腐朽的信仰。看看许多人的信仰，就会发现他们是这样的。哦，永远为你们感到悲哀，因为你们在这样重要的事情上被欺骗了。每个人都认为自己的信仰和恩典足够好，没有任何裂缝或瑕疵，但实际上许多人都被欺骗了。从前没有人怀疑自己的黄金是否足够好，但实际上许多人只有黄铜。我们最好及时检验自己是否有信仰，而不是在如此重要的事情上被欺骗，因为那些在这样的事情上欺骗自己的人将永远受苦，当他们在最后一天去展示自己的信仰和恩典时，却发现什么都没有，只有一场表演和华丽的外表——难道你们不认为这对许多人来说是一个可悲的错误吗？是的！它确实是；所以要学会提防它。

"All things." What should Paul cast this away and make shipwreck of it, to be of Israel, to be come of the tribe of Benjamin, to be as touching the law a Pharisee, blameless before all men? Answer: Yes; the world and all that is in it is to be casten away, in three cases.
“一切事物。”保罗应该抛弃这一切，并使其遭受船难，成为以色列人，属于便雅悯支派，按照律法成为法利赛人，在众人面前无可指责？回答：是的；世界和其中的一切将在三种情况下被抛弃。

First: The world is to be casten away in so far as it is an idol, and when it will be in Christ's place. In that case cast overboard with it.
首先：世界应该被抛弃，因为它是一个偶像，当它将被基督取代时。在那种情况下，也将与之一同被抛弃。

Second: If the world will have the yolk of your love, and the heart of it, then the world is not worth the keeping. When the apostle looked upon all other things into the world that he loved, and laid them into the balance, and laid Christ His alone in the other balance, he found Him to be weightier than all, that He far overvalues them all, and sees that he has been no other but a befooled man in setting his heart upon them so long, and so is content to quit them all for gaining Christ.
其次：如果世界上有你的爱的重担和它的心，那么这个世界就不值得保留。当使徒看着他所爱的世界上的其他事物，并将它们放入天平中，将基督独自放入另一个天平中时，他发现基督比所有其他事物都更重，他远远超过了它们的价值，并意识到自己在长时间将心思放在它们上面时只是一个被愚弄的人，因此愿意放弃它们来得到基督。

Third: We must quit the world and the things thereof. If there come a competition between Christ and them, that we must either quit the one or the other, as sometimes there will come terms of competition this way,in foro contradictorio as they say—the matter will be soon decided by one who looks to heaven and to glory that is to be had by adhering to the Son of God, and then looks to the hundreds of all other things. They will say, "To hell with all other things that would hinder me from bruicking the Son of God." "Court, go thy way, and take thy leave, and all the pleasures thereof," Daniel says, "and welcome death, and to be all torn with wild beasts rather ere I quit to speak with God in prayer." "I here write a free resignation of the world and all things therein, rather ere I want a communion that way with heaven. This seems to be a fair spoken word, to quit all things in the world for a communion with Christ. And yet there be four things in Christ that will say that, without exception, all other things should be quit for Him.
第三点：我们必须放弃世界和其中的事物。如果基督与它们之间存在竞争，我们必须放弃其中之一，有时候会出现这种竞争的情况，就像他们所说的，在矛盾的法庭上，这个问题很快就会被一个注视着天堂和荣耀的人决定，这个人通过坚持神的儿子来获得荣耀，然后再看看其他所有事物。他们会说：“与那些阻碍我与神的儿子交流的所有事物一同下地狱。”“法庭，你走吧，带着你的离别和所有的快乐，”但以理说，“欢迎死亡，宁愿被野兽撕裂，也不愿放弃与神交流的祈祷。”“我在这里写下对世界和其中所有事物的自由放弃，宁愿失去与天堂的交流。这似乎是一个公正的说法，为了与基督交流，放弃世界上的一切事物。然而，基督中有四件事将会说，除了他，所有其他事物都应该被放弃。”

First: Look what Christ Himself is—He is all love. He is all essential love, for if the creatures have any good thing in them to draw the heart after them, they have it only from Christ.
首先：看看基督自己是什么——他是全部的爱。他是全部的本质之爱，因为如果生物体内有任何好的东西能够吸引人的心，那都是来自基督。

Second: See what the Scripture says of the loss of heaven and the loss of other things. Matt. 10:39: "He that findeth his life shall lose it;" Matt. 13:46: "This is the pearl hid, which when a man had found, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." What will buy heaven? If all the angels in heaven were sold, what would they do to the buying of heaven? Ay! albeit there were as many of them as there have fallen drops of rain since the world began, and a thousand times more, they were not all able to buy it. So that there is no loss comparable to the loss of heaven. What reck of the loss of gear, wife, children, country, &c., if thou keep heaven and keep Christ. Thou may then look over thy shoulder and laugh at them, and look to Him who can carry you through the sea dry shod, and will bear you through all difficulties, and at last set you in glory.
其次，看一下圣经对失去天堂和失去其他东西的描述。马太福音 10:39：“得着生命的，将要失丧生命；”马太福音 13:46：“他找着了一颗宝贝珠子，就去变卖他一切所有的，买了这颗珠子。”什么能买到天堂？即使天堂里的所有天使都被卖掉，他们能对买到天堂有什么作用？哎呀！即使有和世界开始以来降落的雨滴一样多的天使，再加上一千倍，他们也无法全部买到。所以，没有什么损失能与失去天堂相比。如果你保住天堂和基督，那么对于失去财产、妻子、孩子、国家等等，你又何必在意呢？你可以转过头来嘲笑它们，并且仰望那位能使你在海上干脚过河的主，他会带领你度过一切困难，最终使你得荣耀。

The third consideration to make us quit the world for Christ, is in consideration how the Scripture sets Christ above all things both as God and man. First as God (Isa. 40:18) He is set alone: "To whom will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare with Him?" And then as man, He is always alone also both as king, priest, and prophet—Psa. 72: Kings they are put beneath Christ, for they must all fall down before Him. All kings think it an honour to hold Christ's stirrup and acknowledge that to be true which is written of Him—Rev. 19:16: "King of kings and Lord of lords." There was never another gat that style but Himself; and Heb. 10:12: All priests are put under Him and prophets also, for Moses is put down and Christ is put up. And the angels, who are far above any creature, they are all of them put down and Christ is put up. And then, in His power, He passes all other kings. Who is there that has such a cloak to put about him as glory? and who has such chariots at their command as He has? who can say that word which He says, Isa. 50: "I, at My rebuke, dry up the sea; I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh; … I clothe the heavens with darkness, and I make sackcloth their covering?" Will ye tell me where dwells that king that can draw a web of darkness from the east to the west, so that at midday nothing shall be seen if he please? Where is that king that can dry up the Red Sea at his pleasure? Kings are only kings on land, but they cannot command the sea. They have not the chair which is spoken of Psa. 29: "The Lord has His chair in the seas." That is the Lord's royal chair that belongs to Him only. The Lord He is God of the sea and of the land also, and is another manner of monarch in battle nor poor silly bits of clay are.
第三个让我们为基督离开世界的考虑是考虑到圣经如何将基督作为上帝和人放在万物之上。首先作为上帝（以赛亚书 40:18），祂是独一无二的：“你们用什么与神相比较呢？祂的形像可与什么比较呢？”然后作为人，祂也总是独一无二的，无论是作为国王、祭司还是先知——诗篇 72:国王们都要在基督面前俯伏。所有的国王都认为能扶住基督的马镫是一种荣耀，并承认关于祂的记载是真实的——启示录 19:16：“万王之王，万主之主。”除了祂自己，再也没有其他人有这样的称号；希伯来书 10:12：所有的祭司都在祂之下，先知也是如此，因为摩西被废弃，基督被举起。而那些高于一切受造之物的天使们，他们都被废弃，基督被举起。而且，祂的权能超过其他所有的国王。还有谁能像祂一样拥有如此光荣的披风？还有谁能像祂一样拥有如此多的战车？还有谁能说出祂所说的话，如以赛亚书所记载的那样？ 50：“我一斥责，就使海洋干涸；我使河流变成旷野，其中的鱼臭气熏天……我使天空笼罩黑暗，用麻布遮盖。”你们能告诉我，那位能从东方到西方织出一张黑暗网的国王住在哪里，以至于在正午时分，如果他愿意，什么都看不见？那位能随心所欲地使红海干涸的国王在哪里？国王只能在陆地上为王，但他们无法指挥海洋。他们没有诗篇 29 所说的“耶和华在海洋中有宝座。”那是属于耶和华的皇家宝座，只属于祂。耶和华是海洋和陆地的神，祂在战斗中是另一种统治者，不像可怜的泥土一样。

And then the last consideration is that there is no benefit of God good unless we get Christ with it.
除非我们与基督同在，否则上帝的善意没有任何好处。

Let our use of all this be to stir up all these who spend their love, their confidence, their fear, upon the earth and the things thereof, to come here and to ware all upon this one thing; poor bits of needy creatures that fall in love with the world and the things thereof, that are so toom and empty, come here and fall in love with Christ who can furnish you all things whereof you stand in need. O! fools, that they are, who are toomingtheir purse, and yet, for all that, get no bread to stay their hunger. They are reproved for it, Isa. 55: "Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which will not satisfy." O! that we could learn to set all our desires upon our lovely Jesus, and learn to find and see all that we desire in Him; as, indeed, all that we can think of is completely in Him. If this were known and believed, certainly we would not so much set our hearts and our affections upon other lovers as now we do.
让我们利用这一切来激励那些将他们的爱、信心和恐惧都放在地上和其中的事物上的人们，来到这里，将一切都用在这一件事上；那些爱上世界和其中的事物的可怜的需要的人们，他们是如此空虚和空洞，来到这里，爱上基督，他能为你提供一切你所需要的东西。哦！他们是多么愚蠢，他们把钱包掏空，却无法满足自己的饥饿。以赛亚书 55 章对此进行了谴责：“你们为什么用钱买那不是食物的东西，用劳碌买那不使人饱足的呢？”哦！如果我们能学会将所有的欲望都放在我们可爱的耶稣身上，并学会在他身上找到和看到我们所渴望的一切；事实上，我们所能想到的一切都完全在他里面。如果这一点被认识和相信，我们肯定不会像现在这样将我们的心和感情都放在其他情人身上。

"And do count them all but dung that I may win Christ." The word that is before is not in the first language here, for the superexcellent knowledge of Christ, as some translate it, but it is for Christ Himself. It tells us this far, that there was no created thing beside Jesus that He was seeking, telling us this also, what it is that is the formal object whereunto the soul looks, and what it would be at. It is not the remission of their sins, or peace of conscience, sanctification, justification, or any of these things that are purchased to us by Christ, but it is Christ Himself they would be at. Look, then, if that be the proper thing whereunto your soul looks, to be in hands with Christ, John 1:2: "To as many as received Him, He gave them power to become the sons of God;" 1 John 5:12: "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life." That is the main thing the child of God desires to be in hands with, even with Christ Himself; to be seeking to have a full portion of joy in the Holy Ghost. But seek Christ before that. Conviction of sin may be sought for, but Christ Himself is more. The losing of a hard heart may be sought from Christ, and yet Christ Himself is more, and therefore He should rather be sought. And look unto thir two things, ye will see good reason for it.
"并且我以他们都为粪土，为要得着基督。" 这里的前面的那个词在第一种语言中并不存在，有些人将其翻译为基督的卓越知识，但实际上是为了基督自己。它告诉我们，除了耶稣以外，他并没有追求任何被创造的事物，它还告诉我们，灵魂所寻求的形式对象是什么，以及它想要达到的目标。它不是他们的罪得赦免，或者良心的平安，成圣，称义，或者我们通过基督获得的任何这些东西，而是他们想要的是基督自己。那么，请看看你的灵魂是否真正寻求的是与基督同在，约翰福音 1:12：“凡接待他的，就是信他名的人，他就赐他们权柄，作神的儿女。”约翰一书 5:12：“有神的儿子就有生命，没有神的儿子就没有生命。”这是神的儿女最渴望与之同在的主要事物，即与基督自己同在；寻求在圣灵中得到充足的喜乐。但是，首先要寻求基督。可以寻求对罪的认识，但基督自己更重要。 失去一颗冷酷的心可以从基督那里寻求，然而基督本身更加重要，因此应该更加努力地寻求基督。看看这两件事情，你会明白为什么这样做是有充分理由的。

First: See what the Lord's covenant says, "I will be thy God and God of thy seed." Abraham he gets that of God in place of all other things. Christ is the only treasure and the only storehouse that the weary traveller can look unto so long as they are on their journey.
首先：看看主的约言是什么，“我将作你的上帝，也作你后裔的上帝。” 亚伯拉罕从上帝那里得到了这个，代替了其他一切。基督是唯一的宝藏和旅行者在旅途中可以仰望的唯一仓库。

Again, all these other things, beside Christ or without Him, they are nothing else but creatures. To seek forgiveness of sin, joy in the Holy Ghost, losing of a hard heart, &c., it is to seek the creature without the Creator. The learned call all these things objectum quo, but Christ is objectum quod. Christ is the only bolster whereon the wearied soul can rest itself. How little think ye would a soul sensible of Christ's presence, or His absence, be affected with anything that they could get, if so be they get not Christ Himself at a communion? It is good, indeed, to get the remission of sins, or strength to walk in His ways; but it is best of all to get Christ Himself. You know whoever marries a bridegroom they put a difference between himself and the rings, jewels, and other propines that are sent by him to her. Now all these things are so, being contradistinguished from Christ Himself. They are the gifts wherewith He pro-pined His bride, and so should love Himself above all these things.
再说，除了基督或没有基督，所有这些其他的东西都只是创造物。寻求罪恶的宽恕、圣灵的喜乐、心灵的净化等等，都是在寻求没有创造主的创造物。学者们称这些事物为 objectum quo，但基督是 objectum quod。基督是唯一的支撑，疲惫的灵魂可以依靠他。你们可曾想过，一个能感受到基督的存在或缺席的灵魂，对于他们所能得到的任何东西都会有多么的不在乎，如果他们没有在圣餐中得到基督自己？确实，得到罪恶的赦免或在他的道路上得到力量是好的；但最好的是得到基督自己。你们知道，无论谁嫁给新郎，他们都会把自己与戒指、珠宝和其他礼物区分开来。现在，所有这些东西与基督自己相对立。它们是他用来赠送给新娘的礼物，所以应该将自己的爱放在这一切之上。

Look unto two or three examples of this preferring Christ to all things else, Cant. 3. See how many the spouse of Christ had there to comfort her, and would not be comforted by any of them, but only by Himself. She was in her bed, and it would be thought her warm bed would comfort her, but it did not. Nor were there any in the streets that could comfort her, neither watchman nor virgins, but she says, "Saw ye Him whom my soul loves," so that she declares that Christ Himself is more to be desired than any other is. And Mary Magdalene (John 20) had odd company with her, five chief apostles. If she had been a Papist, she would have thought it better company to be at the holy grave. Beside these, she had the company of the angels and Christ Himself, but she took Him for the gardener. But all these could not comfort her. The angels and Christ ask her, "Woman, why weepest thou? What ails thee? Hadst thou not good company here, having the disciples, the angels, and the gardener?" But she says, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him, that I may take Him away." "A fig for them all!" would she say, "fra I want Christ."
看看这个将基督置于其他一切之上的例子，雅歌 3。看看基督的配偶有多少人来安慰她，但她不愿意接受任何人的安慰，只愿意接受基督的安慰。她躺在床上，人们可能会认为她温暖的床会给她安慰，但事实并非如此。街上也没有人能够安慰她，无论是守夜人还是处女，但她说：“你们看见我心爱的人吗？”因此，她宣称基督本身比任何其他人都更值得渴望。马利亚·玛大肋纳（约翰福音 20）与她在一起的是五位首要的使徒。如果她是天主教徒，她可能会认为与圣墓在一起是更好的陪伴。除此之外，她还有天使和基督的陪伴，但她把基督当作园丁。但所有这些都不能安慰她。天使和基督问她：“女人，你为什么哭泣？你有什么烦恼？在这里有好的陪伴，有门徒、天使和园丁。”但她说：“他们把我的主带走了，我不知道他们把他放在哪里，我要把他带走。”她可能会说：“对他们我一点兴趣都没有！因为我需要基督。”

Use: If God would give unto you all created pleasures and big you a Paradise of all created things, yet never be content until ye get Christ Himself. A soul that is sensible of Christ will be like one out of their own element without Christ. O! if thou kent what Christ were would thou count thy cothouse, or some of thy world's goods, or a pint or quart of blood over meikle to quit for Christ? Whoever does so knows not Christ rightly. O! to be in love with Christ and to love Himself for Himself. That would put some moderation upon our sorrow when we go away from the communion, not having so meikle faith, so meikle love, so meikle repentance, so meikle joy, &c., as we would wish having gotten some sense of Christ Himself coming into the soul. O! sound may they sleep the night who have gotten this. Lord, send it to them who want it, and confirm it to them who have gotten any measure of it. And to this, Lord Jesus, to His Father, and to our Father, and the Holy Spirit, be glory and praise for ever and ever.—Amen.
如果上帝将所有创造的快乐赐予你，并给你一个包含所有创造物的天堂，但你仍然不会满足，直到得到基督本人。一个能感知到基督的灵魂，没有基督就像是离开了自己的元素。哦！如果你知道基督是什么，你会为了基督而放弃你的小屋，或者你的一些世俗财物，或者一点或一升的血液吗？那些这样做的人并不真正了解基督。哦！爱上基督并且为他自己而爱他。当我们离开圣餐时，这将对我们的悲伤产生一些节制，因为我们没有像我们希望的那样拥有那么多的信仰、爱、悔改和喜乐，等等，但我们已经对基督本人进入灵魂有了一些感觉。哦！那些得到这个的人可以安然入睡。主啊，将它送给那些需要的人，并巩固给那些已经得到一些的人。愿荣耀和赞美归于主耶稣，归于他的父，归于我们的父，归于圣灵，直到永远。阿门。

-----

MONERGISM BOOKS
单一行动主义图书

Eighteen Quaint Sermons by Samuel Rutherford, Copyright © 2019
萨缪尔·拉瑟福德的《古雅的十八篇布道》，版权所有 © 2019

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Monergism Books.
根据国际和泛美版权公约，保留所有权利。通过支付所需费用，您已被授予非独占性、不可转让的权利，在屏幕上访问和阅读本电子书的文本。未经 Monergism Books 的书面许可，任何形式或任何方式，无论是电子的还是机械的，现在已知或今后发明的，都不得复制、传输、下载、反编译、逆向工程或存储在任何信息存储和检索系统中或引入其中。

ePub, .mobi & .pdf Editions February 2019 Requests for information should be addressed to: Monergism Books, PO Box 491, West Linn, OR 97068
2019 年 2 月版的 ePub、.mobi 和.pdf 版本。有关信息的请求请寄至：Monergism Books，PO Box 491，West Linn，OR 97068。