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your Father which is in heaven, and chearfully "fubfcribe to worship and obey him as ye do.

ALL this I take to be the true defign and meaning of our Saviour's precept here, and the reason upon which it is grounded. Let us now confider more distinctly,

I. WHAT thofe good works are, wherein it is expected we should become examples to all about us.S!

II. WHAT it is to be exemplary in those good works.

III. WHO they are, that are concerned to be thus exemplary in good works.

IV. How they may be faid to glorify God thereby.

11. WHAT thofe good works are wherein it is expected we should become examples to all about us. They are in general the fincere and conftant practice of the whole chriftian religion, but particularly of fuch duties and virtues as have been recommended to us in the foregoing Beatitudes. As,

(1.) HUMILITY, thinking and fpeaking modeftly of our felves, and of every thing relating to us; defpifing no man; condefcending to those below us; being courteous to all, and ready to give place, not only where it is duc, but fometimes where it is not, rather than contend for it: Sitting loose to all enjoyments of the world, not ambitious of power, or covetous of riches; not vain and haughty if we have them, nor eager in defiring more; but content with our condition whatever it is; bearing poverty without murmuring, and contempt without refentment.

(2.) AN hearty forrow for all our own fins, expreffed in a ready compliance with the discipline of the Church, and a careful avoidance of all temp

tations

tations for the future. A charitable concern, or a compaffionate grief for the fins or the calamities of others, but a great calmnefs and moderation with regard to any temporal evils of our own.

"

(3.) MEEKNESS under all fufferings from the hand of God or men. Obedience and reverence to the king, to magiftrates, to parents, hufbands, mafters, or any other to whom we fhould be fubject. Obliging behaviour and refpect to friends. Forbearance, patience, and doing good to enemies. Giving no wilful offence or provocation to any body. Not given to pofitiveness or contradiction. Not railing at or fpeaking evil of others, but covering the faults of our neighbours in converfation, and putting the best construction upon every thing that it will bear. And lastly, all manner of gentlenefs towards those who are under our government, or any way below us.

(4.) A generous aim at perfection, a mind not fatisfied with any certain ftint of goodness, but catching at all opportunities of growing wifer and better every day. Frequenting the publick prayers. and fermons at Church, and that with a fevere and clofe attention, a regular and decent piety, receiving as often as we can, the facrament of the Lord's fupper keeping up the exercife of religion alfo in our families by prayer, reading, and good inftructi ons. And together with all this, a prudent and induftrious zeal to make religion flourish in our neighbourhood, or where-ever elfe we can promote it.

(5.) A merciful difpofition to pity, fupport, and do all the good we can, to fuch as are in want and poverty, or any other affliction; weeping with those that weep, being kind and tender hearted; charitably giving or lending as there is occafion: Releafing debts where an honeft minded debtor is not able to pay; helping the oppreffed and fatherless to their right, fo far as it is in our power; and punishing offenders

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offenders (when the law calls for it) in fuch a manner as will fhew us far from an ill-natur'd delight in punishing.

(6.) AN honeft fimplicity in all our words and actions, without any difguife or double meanings, being fincere in all our friendships and all our civilities; fair and ingenious in all our dealings, plain and open in our promises, and juft to the performance of them. A ftrict purity in converfation, avoiding every thing obfcene or indecent; a chastity in our behaviour, free from not only all actual lewdness, but from alí lafcivious steps towards it. A conftant courfe of temperance and fobriety, abhorring even the moft remote degrees of drunkenness.

(7.) A peaceable temper with regard both to the Church and ftate; detefting all manner of fchifms in the one, and factions in the other; and labouring fo far as it may be any way in our power, to prevent or put an end to fuch disturbances, not affecting novelty, not raifing a duft againft every thing we do not like; but attending impartially to arguments on either fide, complying as far as we can, or retaining our different fentiments with charity and good nature; endeavouring alfo in our neighbourhood to make peace amongit others; and, as much as in us lies, to live peaceably with all men.

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(8.) CONSTANCY under perfecutions; holding faft the form of found words, the faith and doctrine of the Gofpel; going on with refolution and courage, in the difcharge of every christian duty, whatever fufferings, reproach, or danger may lie before us; and rejoicing under all, as having an eye to the bleffed recompence of reward.

THESE, and fuch other virtues and graces, make up that light which is to shine before men, the character of an accomplished exemplary Chrif 2 Tim. i. 13.

Rom. xii. 18.

tian. And can there be a more beautiful character in the world? Can there be a more illuftrious ornament to human nature, than one thus uniformly good?

LET us now confider,

II. WHAT it is to be exemplary in these good works; or what it is that is expected from us more than ordinary, with regard to them. And here,

(1.) WE must labour to be eminent in every virtue; not only to have more virtues than the generality of men, but to practise them in a greater height and perfection. We must do fomething extraordinary in religion; not contenting our felves with the common degrees of goodnels, or with juft fo much as may ferve to fatisfy the clamours of confcience, or be fufficient, as we think, to bring us to heaven. We must endeavour to be more humble, more meek, and peaceable, and merciful, &c. than those who have fome reputation in the world for being fo. We muft thus behave our felves, not only when there is no great temptation to the contrary, or when an occafion happens to us in the common road of things, but in the most difficult and trying inftances we must give a proof by our outward carriage, that the virtue we pretend to is owing to an inward principle, and is really habitual to us from the power and influence of our religion.

(2.) THE fetting a good example neceffarily implies that our virtues fhould be visible and confpicuous to the world. But here lies a material difficulty, fo to manage this point, as that pride and hypocrify fhall have no fhare in it. For our Saviour cannot be thought to tolerate hereby (much lefs to require) that pharifaical vanity and oftentation, which in fo many other paffages he condemns

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with

with all the earneftnefs imaginable. The meaning therefore of this precept, Let your light fo fhine before men, that they may fee your good works, cannot be, that our own glory and reputation fhould be the principle of what we do; or that we should have any defign at all upon the esteem of men, fo far as it concerns our felves. It is the virtue, and the divine inftitution of Chriftianity, from which that virtue flows, and not the virtuous man, which we fhould labour to recommend to the esteem of men by our lives. It is that they may glorify our Father which is in heaven, as the latter part of the verfe fufficiently explains it, The glory of God and the good of men, must be our only aim in producing our virtues or good actions to the publick view. We muft avoid, as much as is poffible, all felfish and unworthy fchemes of applaufe, refpect, or private intereft in them; referring all the honour to God, the Author and Infpirer of whatever good we can attain to; and defigning all the benefit (0ver and above our own falvation) to the fouls of ethers, who may thereby be wrought upon to come into the fame good measures of virtue and religion, which they fee us practife, and by confequence be brought at length to the fame eternal happiness which we hope for.

OUR next enquiry (tho' it may feem in part prevented) will demand fome neceffary enlargements. Let us confider therefore,

III. WHO they are that are thus concerned to be exemplary in good works. All Chriftians in general, every one who has profeffed himself by baptifm a difciple of the holy Jefus, is obliged by this precept to exemplarinefs; for it is to thefe (and not to his Apoftles only, or the clergy) that our Lord

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Vid. Introduction to Vol. I.

directs