Uje 2.

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Aving fhewed you in the former fection what use you ought not to make of this doctrine, I will next fhew you what ufe you ought to make of it; and furely you cannot improve this point to a better purpose than from it to take warning, and look to yourselves, that you be not of that number who deceive themselves in their profeffion. If this be fo, fuffer me closely to press that great apoftolical caution, I Cor. x. 12. "Let him that thinks he ftands, take heed left "he fall." O profeffors! look carefully to your foundation; be not high-minded, but fear. You have, it may be, done and fuffered many things in and for religion; you have excellent gifts and sweet comforts; a warm zeal for God, and high confidence of your integrity: All this may be right (for ought I, or, it may be, you know ;) but yet it is poffible it may be falfe alfo You have fometimes judged yourselves, and pronounced yourselves upright; but remember your final fentence is not yet pronounced by your Judge. And what if God weigh you over again in his more equal balance, and should fay, Mene Tekel, thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting: What a confounded man wilt thou be under fuch a sentence ! Quae fplendent in confpectu hominis, fordent in confpectu Judicis: Things that are highly esteemed of men, are an abomination in the fight of God; he feeth not as man feeth.

Thy heart may be falfe, and thou not know it; yea, it may be falfe, and thou ftrongly confident of its integrity.

The faints may approve thee, and God condemn thee; Rev. iii. 1. "Thou haft a name that thou liveft, but thou art "dead." Men may fay, there is a true Nathaniel; and God may fay, there is a felf cozening Pharifee.

Reader, thou haft heard of Judas and Demas; of Ananias and Sapphira; of Hymeneus and Philetus; once renowned and famous profeffors, and thou hast heard what they proved at last.

Take heed their case be not thine own; do they not all, as it were, with one mouth cry to thee, O profeffor! if thou wilt not come where we are, do not cozen thyself as we did: if thou expecteft a better place and lot, be sure thou get a fincerer heart: Had we been more felf-fufpicious, we had been more fafe.

I would not scare you with needlefs jealoufies, but I would fain prevent fatal mistakes. Do not you find your hearts deceitful in many things? Do not you fhuffle over fecret du

ties? Do not you cenfure the fame evils in others, which you fcarce reprove in yourfelves? Are there not many by-ends in duties? Do not you find you are far lefs affected with a great deal of fervice and honour done to God by others, than with a little by yourselves?

Is it not hard to look upon other men's excellencies without envy, or upon your own without pride?

And are you not troubled with a buly devil, as well as with a bad heart? Hath not he that circuits the whole world, obferved you? Hath he not ftudied your conftitution fins, and found out that fin which most easily befets you? Hath he lefs malice against your fouls than others? Surely you are in the very thicket of temptations; thoufands of foares are round about you. O how difficultly are the righteous faved! How hard to be upright! How few even of the profeffing world

Win heaven at last!

O therefore fearch your hearts, profeffors, and let this caution go down to your very reins; "Let him that thinks he "stands, take heed left he fall."

Away with rash uncharitable cenfures of others, and be more juft and fevere in cenfuring yourtelves. Away with dry and unprofitable controverfies, and fpend your thoughts upon this great queftion, Am I found, or am I rotten at heart? Am I a new creature, or the old creature still in a new creature's dress and habit? Beg the Lord that you be not deceived in that great point (your integrity) whatever you may be mistaken in. Pray that you be not given up to an heedlefs, careless, and vain fpirit,, and then have religious duties for a rattle, to fill and quiet your confciences.

Surely that ground work can never be laid too fure, upon which fo great a ftrefs as thy foul and eternity mult depend. Ir will not repent thee, I dare promife, when thou comeft to die, that thou hast employed thy time and ftrength to this end? Whilft others are panting after the duft of the earth, and faying, Who will fhew us any good? be thou panting after the affurance of the love of God, and crying, Who will shew me how to make my calling and election fure?

O deceive not yourselves with names and notions! Think not, because you are for a flricter way of worthip, or because you affociate with, and are accordingly denominated, one of the more réformed profeffors, that therefore you are lafe enough: Alas! how fmall an interest have titles, modes, and denominations in religion? Suppofe a curious artist take a VOL. VII.

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lump of lead and refine it, and caft it into the mould, whence it comes forth fhining, and bearing fome noble figure, fuppofe of an eagle; yet it is but a leaden cagle. Suppose the figure of a man, and that in the most exact lineaments and proportions; yet ftill it is but a leaden man: Nay, let it bear the figure of an angel, it is but a leaden angel: For the bafe and ignoble matter is the fame it was, though the figure be not. Even fo, take an unregenerate carnal man, let his life be reformed, and his tongue refined, and call him a zealous Conformist, or a strict Non-conformist; call him a Presbyterian, an Independent, or what you will; he is all the while but a carnal Conformift, or Non-conformist; an unregenerate Presbyterian, a carnal Independent; for the nature is ftill the fame, though the flamp and figure his profeffion gives him be not the fame.

O my friends! believe it, fine names and brave words are of little value with God: God will no more ipare you for these, than Samuel did Agag for his delicate ornaments, and spruce appearance: Either make fure the root of the matter, or the leaves of a vain profeffion will not long cover you.

To be deceived by another is bad enough; but to deceive ourfelves, is a thoufand times worse..

To deceive ourselves in truths of the fuperftructure, is bad; and they that do so, shall fuffer lofs, 1 Cor. iii. 12. But to deceive ourselves in the foundation, is a defperate deceit, and Shipwrecks all our hopes and happiness at once.

If any man lofe his money by a cheat, it troubles him ; but to lose his foul by a cheat, will confound him. If a man lofe an eye, an ear, a hand, a foot, yet omnia Deus dedit duplicia, as Chryfoftome fpeaks; God hath given these members double, fo that there is another left; animam vero unam: But the foul is one, and only one; and if that be damned, you have not another to be faved.

O therefore be reftlefs till it be, and till you know it be, out of eternal danger I

Ufe 3. IN

SECT. VI.

N conclufion: If fo many profeffors of religion be cheated in their profeffion, let all that are well fatisfied and affured of their integrity, blefs the Lord whilft they live for that mercy. O it is a mercy that no unfanctified foul can have yea, and it is a mercy that many gracious fouls cannot obtain, though they feek it with tears, and would part with all the pleasant things they have in the world to enjoy it..

This is that mercy that gives fouls the highest pleasure this world is acquainted with, or the state of this mortality can bear; for let the well-affured foul but confider what it is affured of, Chrift, with the purchases of his blood. O what is this! "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine," Cant. ii. 16. What a vital, ravishing, over-powering efficacy is in that voice. of faith! let it but look back a few years, and compare what it was with what it is now; it was afar off, it is now made nigh, Eph. ii. 12, 13. It was not beloved, but is now beloved, Rom. ix. 25, 26. It had not obtained mercy, but now hath obtained mercy, 1 Pet. ii. 10. Or let the affured foul look forward, and compare what it now is, and hath, with what it shortly fhall be made, and put in poffeffion of: "Beloved, (faith the apostle) now are we the fons of God; but it doth not yet 66 appear what we fhall be: But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall fee him as he is," I John iii. 2.

I fay, let the affured foul but fteep its thoughts, by meditation, in these subjects, and it will be impoffible to keep him from the most agreeable tranfports of joy and delight.

O what a life have you in comparison of other men? Some have two hells, one prefent, another coming; you have two heavens, one in hand, the other in hope. Some of your own brethren in Chrift, that have been, it may be, many years panting after affurance, are still denied it; but God hath indulged fo peculiar a favour to you. Blefs ye the Lord, and make his praise glorious.

That true grace is exceeding precious, and greatly enricheth the foul that hath it: It is Chrift's gold.

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SECT. I I.

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HE Lord Jefus here chufeth the most pure, precious, refplendent, durable, and valuable thing, in all the furies and magazines of nature, to fhadow forth faving grace, which is infinitely more excellent: Certainly that must be the

beft thing, which the best things in nature can but imperfectly fhadow forth. What was the golden oil emptied through the. two golden pipes, Zech. iv. 12. but the precious graces of God, flowing through Chrift, into all his members: Gold is precious; but one drachm of faving grace is more precious than all the gold of Ophir: "It cannot be gotten for gold, neither fhall "filver be weighed for a price thereof," Job xxviii. 15. Surely gold and filver, fapphires, diamonds, and rubies, are not worth the mentioning, when faving grace is once mentioned, For confider it,

1. First, In its caufe and fountain from whence it flows, and you shall find it to be the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. v. 22. who, upon that account, is called the Spirit of grace, Heb. x. 29. It derives its original from the Moft High; it is fpirit born of Spirit John iii. 6 All the rules of morality, all human dili gence and industry can never produce one gracious habit or act alone; 2 Cor. iii. 5. "Not that we are fufficient of ourselves," &c.

Nay, we fpeak not becoming the incomparable worth of grace, when we lay, it is the fruit and birth of the Spirit; for fo are common gifts allo. There are feveral emanations from this fun, divers ftreams from this fountain; but of all his operations and productions, this of faving grace is the most noble and excellent. Gifts are from the Spirit as well as grace, but grace is more excellent than the best gifts, 1 Cor. xii 31. "Covet earnelly the best gifts, and yet fhew I unto you a more excellent way." Hence you read in Phil. i. o." Of things that are excellent," or as the original, a diaspora, might be rendered, things that differ, namely, in relpect of excellency, not as good and evil, but as lefs good and more good differ. Gifts have their value and precioufnefs, but the beft gifts differ as much from grace, as brats from gold, though both be generated by the influence of the fame fun. Gifts (as one faith) are dead graces but graces are living gifts; it is the most excellent production of the highest and most excellent cause.

2. Secondly, Confider it in its nature, and you will find it divine, 2 Pet. i. 4. “Partakers of the divine nature," viz. in our fanctification ; not that it gives us the properties of the divine nature, they are incommunicable; but the fimilitude and resemblance of it is ftamped upon our fouls, in the work of grace.

"The new man is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him," Col. iii. 19. The fchoolmen, and fome of the fathers, place this image or refemblance of God,