enemies, and hath obliged us to follow his conduct, in a SERM. holy warfare, against them, by most folemn facraments XXXV. and vows; of our best Friend, from whom we have received the greatest favours and benefits imaginable; of our moft gracious Saviour, who, for our fake, hath voluntarily fuftained moft bitter pains and fhameful contumelies; having facrificed his dearest heart-blood to redeem us from intolerable flaveries, and from extremities of horrible mifery; of him, to whom, in all refpects, we do owe the highest respect, love, and obfervance that can be. Now it is the nature and property both of respect and love (such as upon fo many grounds we owe to him) to beget, in the perfon respecting and loving, an endeavour, answerable to the degrees of thofe difpofitions, of conforming to, and resembling, the qualities and manners of the person respected or beloved. We fee how readily children do comply with the customs of their parents and tutors; fervants of their masters and patrons; fubjects of their princes and governors, with a ftudious earneftness compofing themselves to exprefs in their carriage, not only their good or their indifferent fashions and manners, but even their most palpable deformities and vices; infomuch, that a whole family, a city, a nation may be debauched from its fobriety, or reformed from its diffoluteness, even inftantly, by the example of one person, who, by his place, power, and authority, challengeth extraordinary reverence from men and much greater influence hath hearty love to transform our manners into an agreement with the manners of him we love: What a man loves, that he imi-o yàẹ áyxtateth fo much as lies in his power, faith Hierocles, truly. For love being founded on a good esteem, and a benevolent inclination thence refulting, engageth the affectionate person to admire the qualities of him he affecteth, to obferve his deportments, to make the most advantageous conftruction of what he doeth; to fancy he doeth all things with best reafon and difcretion; to deem, therefore, that all his actions deserve and require imitation : hence doth love either find, or foon produce, a competent fimilitude in the parties, (a fimilitude of mind, of will, of

πᾶ τις καὶ μιμεῖται ὅσον

r.Hier.

SERM. inclination, and affection, an eadem velle et nolle :) it doth XXXV. forcibly attract as to a vicinity of place and converse, so to an agreement of affections and actions; it uniteth the most distant, it reconcileth the most oppofite, it turneth the most discordant natures into a sweet consent and harmony of difpofition and demeanour. We then having the greatest reafon both to honour and love our Saviour, furely his example being duly studied and confidered by us, muft needs obtain a fuperlative influence upon our practice, and be very powerful to conform and affimilate it to his.

These confiderations may fuffice to fhew the peculiar excellency of our Saviour's example in virtue, and efficacy upon our practice; the fame more abundantly might be deduced from a furvey of the most confiderable particulars, in which we may and ought to imitate him. But the time will not fuffer us to launch forth into fo vast a fea of difcourfe. I fhall only, therefore, from the premifes, exhort, that if any earnest defire of happiness, any high esteem of virtue, any true affection to genuine fanctity do lodge in our breasts, we should apply this most excellent means of attaining them; the ftudy and endeavour of imitating the life of our Lord. If we have in us any truth and fincerity, and do not vainly prevaricate in our profeffion of being Christ's disciples, and votaries of that most holy inftitution, let us manifeft it by a real conformity to the practice of him who is our Master, and author of our faith. If we have in us any wisdom, or fober confideration of things, let us employ it in following the steps of that infallible Guide, defigned by Heaven to lead us in the straight, even, and pleasant ways of righteousness, unto the poffeffion of everlasting bliss. If we do verily like and approve the practice of Chrift, and are affected with the innocent, fweet, and lovely comeliness thereof, let us declare fuch our mind by a fedulous care to resemble it. If we bear any honour and reverence, any love and affection to Chrift; if we are at all fenfible of our relations, our manifold obligations, our duties to our great Lord, our best Friend, our most gracious Redeemer;

let us teftify it by a zealous care to become like to him: SERM. let a lively image of his moft righteous and innocent, moft XXXV. holy and pious, most pure and spotless life be ever present to our fancies; fo as to inform our judgments, to excite our affections, to quicken our endeavours, to regulate our purposes, to correct our mistakes, to direct, amend, and fanctify our whole lives. Let us, with inceffant diligence of study, meditate upon the beft of hiftories, wherein the tenor of his divine practice is represented to us; revolving frequently in our thoughts all the moft confiderable paffages thereof, entertaining them with devout paffions, impreffing them on our memories, and ftriving to express them in our converfations: let us endeavour continually to walk in the steps of our Lord, and to follow the Lamb whitherfoever he goeth; which that we may be able to do, do thou, O bleffed Redeemer, draw us; draw us by the cords of thy love; draw us by the sense of thy goodness; draw us by the incomparable worth and excellency of thy perfon; draw us by the unfpotted purity and beauty of thy example; draw us by the merit of thy precious death, and by the power of thy Holy Spirit; Draw us, good Lord, and we shall run after thee. Amen.

Eafter, 2.

Almighty God, who haft given thine only Son to be unto Coll, after us both a facrifice for fin, and also an enfample of godly life; give us grace, that we may always moft thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit; and alfo daily endeavour ourselves to follow the bleffed feps of his most holy life, through the fame Jefus Chrift our Lord. Amen.

VOL. II.

SERMON XXXVI.

OF SUBMISSION TO THE DIVINE WILL.

Matt. xxvi.

39.

SERM. XXXVI.

LUKE Xxii. 42.

Nevertheless let not my will, but thine, be done.

THE
great controverfy, managed with fuch earnestnefs
and obftinacy between God and man, is this, whose will
fhall take place, his or ours. Almighty God, by whofe
conftant protection and great mercy we fubfift, doth claim
to himself the authority of regulating our practice and
difpofing our fortunes: but we affect to be our own mas-
ters and carvers; not willingly admitting any law, not
patiently brooking any condition, which doth not fort
with our fancy and pleasure. To make good his right,
God bendeth all his forces, and applieth all proper means
both of sweetness and severity, (perfuading us by argu-
ments, foliciting us by entreaties, alluring us by fair pro-
mises, scaring us by fierce menaces, indulging ample be-
nefits to us, inflicting fore corrections on us, working in
us and upon us by fecret influences of grace, by visible
dispensations of providence ;) yet so it is, that commonly
nothing doth avail, our will oppofing itself with invincible

refolution and stiffness.

Here indeed the business pincheth; herein as the chief worth, so the main difficulty of religious practice confisteth, in bending that iron finew; in bringing our proud hearts to ftoop, and our sturdy humours to buckle, so as to furrender and refign our wills to the juft, the wife, the gracious will of our God, prescribing our duty, and affign

tom. v. Or.

28, 43.

ing our lot unto us. We may accufe our nature, but it SERM. is our pleasure; we may pretend weakness, but it is wil- XXXVI. fulness, which is the guilty caufe of our misdemeanors; Chryf. tom. for by God's help (which doth always prevent our needs, vi. Or. 12. and is never wanting to those who seriously defire it) we Or. 17. may be as good as we please, if we can please to be good; there is nothing within us that can refift, if our wills do yield themselves up to duty to conquer our reafon is not hard; for what reafon of man can withstand the infinite cogency of thofe motives, which induce to obedience? What can be more eafy, than by a thoufand arguments, clear as day, to convince any man, that to cross God's will is the greatest abfurdity in the world, and that there is no madness comparable thereto? Nor is it difficult, if we refolve upon it, to govern any other part or power of our nature a; for what cannot we do, if we are willing? What inclination cannot we check, what appetite cannot we reftrain, what paffion cannot we quell or moderate? What faculty of our foul, or member of our body, is not obfequious to our will? Even half the refolution, with which we pursue vanity and fin, would serve to engage us in the ways of wisdom and virtue.

Wherefore in overcoming our will the ftrefs lieth; this is that impregnable fortrefs, which everlastingly doth hold out against all the batteries of reason and of grace; which no force of perfuafion, no allurement of favour, no discouragement of terror can reduce: this puny, this impotent thing it is, which grappleth with Omnipotency, and often in a manner baffleth it: and no wonder, for that God doth not intend to overpower our will, or to make any violent impreffion on it, but only to draw it (as it is in the Pro- Hos. xi. 4. phet) with the cords of a man, or by rational inducements to win its consent and compliance: our fervice is not fo confiderable to him, that he fhould extort it from us; nor doth he value our happiness at fo low a rate, as to obtrude it on us. His victory indeed were no true victory over us, if he should gain it by main force, or without the

• Quodcunque fibi imperavit animus obtinuit. Sen. de Ira, ii. 12.