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by the conftant familiarity of every day's attendance upon them, will be apt to take the strongest impreffions from their example, and to practise accordingly, when they fet forward in the world themselves. If a parent or mafter fhews himself pious and virtuous in all his conversation, 'tis to be hop'd, that all his dependants will hereafter, in ' their feveral families, purfue the fame good methods of keeping up religion by daily prayers, and reading of the holy Scriptures, by a ferious obfervation of the Lord's day, and bringing their children and fervants conftantly to Church, in which themselves have been train'd up, and propagating it to late pofterity.

THERE remains now only the fourth general head to be confidered; and that is,

IV. HOW we may be faid to glorify God by our good works. God is effential and eternal glory, to be himself is to be infinitely glorious, and glorious only from himself. His juftice, his mercy, his power, his wifdom, his truth, his unchangeablencfs, his every attribute, is a diftinct and perpetual ray, and fuch an abundant ftream of glory from his own divine and excellent nature, as renders it impoffible, for either men or angels, in a strict fenfe, to glorify him; that is, to add any new honour or luftre to him, by any thing they can fay or do. But though we cannot make him more glori ous than he is, we may fo declare his glory to our fellow-creatures, both by our words and actions, as may make them more deeply fenfible of it, and draw them to the like acknowledgment and admiration of him. And in this fenfe, I fuppofe it is, that we are fo frequently enjoined to * glorify God, and to do all to the glory of God. And we are

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told, not only in this paragraph of our Saviour's fermon, but in feveral other places of the New Teftament, that God is pleafed to look upon himfelf as then especially glorified by us, when by an holy converfation, fruitful in good works, we imitate him, and live according to his laws: Herein is my Father glorified, fays Chrift, that ye bear much fruit. So St. Paul alfo, Being fill'd with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Chrift Jefus unto the glory and praife of God. And St. Peter exhorts Chriftians, fo to behave themselves amongst the Gentiles, That by their good works, which thefe fhall behold, they may glorify God in the day of vifitation. Now God is glorified by our good works; or, in other terms, we do by our good works fet forth the glory of God, and recommend him to the veneration and efteem of our fellow

creatures.

(1.) As he is our Creator. He made mankind in his own image, and ftamp'd upon him the impreffions of his own holiness, goodness, and beneficence. By the fall we became wretchedly degenerate, and loft this likeness to him in which we were created; but by the affiftance of his grace given unto us in the new Covenant by Jefus Chrift, we are enabled in fome measure to recover it; and the more holy our converfations are, and the more beneficent we are to others, the more honourably we reprefent our great Creator, whofe image we were made to bear. Whatever goodness we have, muft neceffarily be derived from him: for the moral as well as natural excellence of our being, can be no more our own primary act or improvement, than our being it felf. If fo, the glorious God who made us must be infinitely good, or he could not have communicated any thing of goodness to us.

# John xv. 8.

|| Phil, i. 11.

Pet. ii. 12.

By

By our good works therefore, we reprefent, tho' imperfectly, the goodness of God who has ftamp'd his own image upon us, and who has qualified us for, and incites us to the practise of them. We glorify God thereby, as we lead men to the confideration of him, as the fountain of every excellence, the *author of every good and perfect gift; the main fpring of all the benefits which men receive from us, from one another, or from the miniftration of any other creature, as well as from the immediate hand of his own Providence. But,

(2.) By our holy converfation and good works, we also fet forth the glory of God as our redeemer, and law-giver. We are exprefly told by St Paul, what the defign of our redemption was: Chrift tgave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. And in another place, that we are created in Chrift Jefus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. Now when we anfwer the defign of our redemption, and walk in that order, and in the practife of those things which are prescribed to us thereupon, we may be faid to glorify our redeemer, as we publickly juftify his undertaking, acknowledge our felves to have been in a state of misery and condemnation, confefs the neceffity of his redeeming love, and that the method which he has appointed, is the only way to be fafe and happy. By our ready compliance with him on his own terms, we neceffarily imply all this, and by embracing the ftrict conditions of holiness, purely at his direction, against the current of our fenfual appetites, our natural paffions, and our worldly interefts; we plainly declare our eftimation and veneration of him, we fubfcribe to the wisdom of the

* James i. 17.

Tit. ii. 14.

Eph. ii. 1o.

law

law-giver, and to the excellence of his laws, and we recommend them by our example to the liking and obedience of others, as holy, just and good.

AND thus it is, that by our good works we glorify God. We add no glory to him, which he had not infinitely and effentially in himself before: But we declare his glory to the world, and recommend him to the love and admiration of our fellow creatures. Let us therefore, as we are bound by all the ties of gratitude and duty to God, and by the intereft of our eternal hopes, so cause the light of our chriftian and holy conversation to shine before men, that they feeing our good works, may glorify our Father which is in heaven.

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Of the Excellence of the Chriftian Morality above that of the Jews.

MATTH. V. 17, 18, 19, 20.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the Prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

For verily I Say unto you, Till heaven and. earth pass, one jot or one tittle fall in no wife pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Whofoever

Whofoever therefore shall break one of thefe leaft commandments, and shall teach men fo, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do, and teach them, the fame shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I fay unto you, That except your righte oufnefs fhall exceed the righteoufnefs of the Scribes and Pharifees, ye shall in no cafe enter into the kingdom of heaven.

UR bleffed Saviour being now about to correct certain errors, which were crept into the morality of the Jews; to enforce fome duties, which were not before look'd upon as obligatory, and to explain others which were not rightly understood; thought it neceffary to usher in these improvements with a proteftation, that he was not come to deftroy, but to fulfil the law and the Prophets; left either the Jews, who were always jealous of any innovations in their law, fhould be prejudiced againft, and offended at him, as derogating from their inftitution; or left his own Disciples fhould think, that because he gave them new precepts, he made void their obligation to the ancient fcriptural morality. He therefore adds, For verily I fay unto you, till beaven and earth pass, &c. as though he should fay, "The moral law, the precepts of piety, and vir“ tue, which ye have received from Mofes and the "Prophets, are of perpetual force, and your obligation to them cannot by any means be diffolved, "till the world it felf, and all things in it, have ❝ an end. Whofoever therefore fhall pretend a "liberty from my inftitution, to flight the leaft of "thofe commandments, and to teach men that

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