that I would my self publish it to all the world and instead of thinking it a disgrace and disparagement I would esteem it as an ornament for my innocence would be the more cleared and my good name vindicated by the means of it And so far would I be from sneaking and skulking in corners like one ashamed to shew his head that I would like a Prince with Heroick courage and confidence go up to the face of mine Enemy and expose and lay open my whole life before him Or rather we will read these Verses as the sence of them is expressed in a late excellent Paraphrase upon this Book Oh that the truth of all this that I have been accused of might be examined by some equal judge Behold I continue still to desire of God this favour And let him that can accuse me bring in his Libel in writing against me Surely I would not endeavour to obscure it but openly expose it to be read by all nay wear it as a singular ornament which would turn to mine honour when the world saw it disproved I my self would assist him to draw up his charge by declaring to him freely every action of my life I would approach him as undauntedly as a Prince who is assured of the goodness of his cause These words with many other of his sayings shew what a blessed Liberty the Soul of this Holy man was possessed with even whilest he was deprived of all his outward comforts and in the saddest and most dismal circumstances Thirdly Nothing will free a man from Trouble and Dejection of mind like the careful observance of the Laws of Righteousness This as it is a certain consequent of Fear and Shame it must needs free a man from as it freeth from those its Causes But it incomparably beyond any thing in the world cureth this Malady of a wounded spirit how or by whatsoever it be occasioned I have shewed that it is the fate of Sinners to feel great perturbation and disturbance of mind from their corrupt Affections by the law in their members warring against the law of their minds and also by reflecting upon their folly and madness and by the fearful expectations that their manifold bold transgressions of the Divine Laws do raise in them The wicked saith the Prophet are like the troubled Sea which cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Cain had no sooner given place to Envy and Revenge but his Countenance fell and the Disquiet of his mind was bewrayed by his looks But there is no such Lightsomness and Sprightfulness of Soul no such Pleasure and Self-satisfaction as that which results from true Religion Righteousness and Goodness It 's ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths peace Prov. 3. 17. Light is sown for the Righteous and joy for the Vpright in heart Psal. 97. 11. Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them Psal. 119. 165. The work of Rigteousness shall be peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Esay 32. 17. The Good man is free from self-accusations and from that gnawing Worm that is frequently felt in Guilty breasts He is not appalled in thinking of what is past nor cast down with the fore-thought of that which is to come His Soul is like a calm and clear River like the waters of Siloam which run softly without noise or murmur Whatsoever is Natural is for that reason highly pleasing but nothing so natural to the Heaven-born Soul of man nothing is so agreeable to our original Make as to live in conformity to the Laws of Righteousness Whilest this is our serious care we act according to our Highest principle that Principle which God and Nature designed for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Leader and Governour I mean the Reason of our Minds And therefore so long as we follow its Dictates and behave our selves like those on whose souls the Divine image is imprinted which consisteth in Righteousness and true Holiness so long I say we live in our own Element and therefore must necessarily have Self-enjoyment And we shall enjoy our selves more or less according as we are more or less diligent in works of Righteousness and Goodness The experience of every Good man will force him to subscribe to the truth of this no such man can withhold his assent from it or call it into question any more than he can his own Feeling Such a one feels such serenity of thoughts and such great delight and satisfaction of mind in the exercise of love to God and love to men in works of Piety Justice and Charity in the exercise of Humility Meekness Patience and Submission to the Divine will and all other Christian Graces and Virtues that while he is so employed all is as well within him as he can desire he accounts it a Heaven upon Earth to be so employed I fear that many a one who would be thought a Christian cannot receive this Doctrine that it seems to him a very strange Soloecism but I could tell him of many a Heathen of whom he may learn it as well as of Christians particularly Tully who hath this brave saying in his Tusculan Questions O Philosophy the Guide of our lives O thou seeker out of Virtues and expeller of Vices One day well spent and in obedience to thy precepts ought to be preferred before a sinning immortality And all those say for substance the self-same thing who tell us that Virtue is a Reward to it self The Good man feels also no small pleasure in reflecting upon the fruits of Righteousness he hath brought forth And much more in the Contemplation of that Glorious Reward which God for Christ's sake hath promised to those who patiently persevere in well-doing The fore-expectation whereof doth greatly support him under all the crosses and afflictions wherewith he is exercised in this life And makes him not only Patient under those Tribulations he meets with for Righteousness sake but even to Glory in them as the Apostles did and Primitive Christians And moreover he receiveth great Refreshment and Comfort more immediately from the Holy Ghost especially when he is called forth to any exceedingly great suffering or extraordinary service He then marvellously strengthens the Good man with strength in his Soul to bear the one and perform the other as becomes a servant of Iesus Christ. Which he doth chiefly by giving sensible clear and lively representations to the Good mans mind of the Glory of Heaven and by stedfastly fixing it upon the Crown of Righteousness and Life which his Blessed Lord hath promised to all those who are faithful to the Death Thus was the first Christian Martyr S. Stephen strengthened who being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God saw the Heavens opened as ready to receive him and the Son of man standing on the
Deliverance from the Dominion of Sin and our being instated in the Freedom we have discoursed of would be a mighty Motive to the doing our utmost to be set at Liberty What a Motive then is this Vast Additional Happiness which our Lord hath given us the most unquestionable Assurance of We can never be sufficiently affected with those words of the Apostle Rom. 6. 21 22. What fruit had ye then of those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness anâ— the end everlasting life Can we have such a Hope as this such a Blessed Hope as the Apostle calls it and not heartily endeavour to purifie our selves as God is pure S. Iohn tells us that he who hath this hope will do so Hath our most Gracious Lord made to his Free Servants such a promise as this of entering into his Rest his Glorious and Eternal Rest how should we fear lest by continuing in subjection to our vile Affections we should at last fall short of it Good Lord That such a prize as this should be set before us and we not press hard forward towards it That such Blessedness should be Purchased for and Offered to those who have no esteem or value for it But had much rather be wretched Bondslaves and Vassals to the Devil and their Lusts than Reign with Christ in his Everlasting Kingdom How many shall lament this inexpressible Folly in a sad Eternity And this brings me to the Last Motive I shall speak to viz. Sixthly If it be possible that this with the foregoing Motives should not prevail there is another behind which is suited to the most Disingenuous Stubborn and Inflexible Tempers and must needs subdue them if any thing will Namely The most Dismal Threatnings our Saviour hath pronounced against those who will not Accept the Liberty he offereth them and become his Freemen As such will be necessarily exceedingly miserable beyond what they are here when they leave this world through the Fury of their Corrupt Appetites there being no objects in the other state to appease it or to afford them the least satisfaction or gratification so our Lord hath declared that They shall be cast into outer Darkness where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Matth. 8. 12. That they shall be cast into a Furnace of Fire Matth. 13. 42. That He will say unto them at the last Day Depart from me ye cursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25. 41. And his Apostle S. Paul hath told such what their Doom shall be in 2 Thess. 1. 7 8 9. viz. That the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired of all them that believe Then shall we discern the vastest difference imaginable between the states of the Righteous and the Wicked of those who have through the Spirit mortified the deeds of the body and those who have lived after the flesh The Former sort of men as the same Apostle saith shall live that is a most inexpressibly Happy and Glorious life The Latter shall die that is the Second death or be Eternally Miserable One shall be taken and the other left One shall be saved the Other damned One shall be received into the Blessed Mansions above and crowned with Immortal Bliss and Glory the other shall be tumbled down into Hell and have his portion in the lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone Did I say that these Fearful Threatnings are designed to awaken the most Disingenuous Stupid and Obdurate Souls I fear there are Few who do not find that they have need sometimes of seriously considering them and laying them to heart And when we feel the principle of ingenuity most unactive as also that those Motives that excite our Hope have but a weak influence as it is possible we may at certain times be in so dull and heavy a Temper as that we may be but very little affected with them then should we rouse up our selves out of our Lethargick stupidity by employing our Thoughts upon the Terrors of the Lord the most Terrible Threatnings of the Gospel And now what think we Hath not our Blessed Lord done Abundantly enough to make us Free indeed To set us at Liberty from Sin and to Righteousness In that he hath not only shewn us What it is to be made Free and wherein our Liberty consisteth And given us the best Means by the use of which as we ought we shall be set at Liberty And purchased such Grace for us as whereby we may be successful in the use of those Means if we will not neglect them But also hath given us such Motives as those we have now discoursed of to prevail with our Wills not to receive that Grace in vain And as for these Motives can the Heart of Man conceive any more powerful No surely nor could it unassisted by Divine Revelation conceive any that are the thousandth part so powerful But besides all this as hath been intimated the Blessed Spirit of God is ready so to inforce these Motives upon us if we will endeavour to think seriously upon them as that they shall effectually do what they are designed for And not only so but he also begins with us and by his secret suggestions excites us to the due Consideration of them and the use of whatsoever Means we are directed to for the pulling down of strong holds and casting down every imagination and every high thing that advanceth it self against the Scepter and Government of Christ in our Souls and the bringing every thought and all that is within us to the obedience of Christ. And thus doth he work in us both to will and to do as to Do so to Will of his own good pleasure or of his free and undeserved mercy to us And therefore what encouragement have we to put the Apostles inference from that Doctrine into Practice namely To work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling That is to work out our own Deliverance from the Dominion of Sin and our Slavish subjection thereunto with great Diligence and Solicitude SECT III. Containing the Inferences from each of the Arguments of the foregoing Sections CHAP. X. Which treats of the First Inference from the First Proposition That the most Excellent Liberty doth consist in an Intire Compliance with the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness Or in Freedom from the Dominion of Sinful Affections Namely That those are most Vnreasonable and Depraved People who complain of the Divine Laws as intolerable Intrenchments upon their Liberty Where
said to be weak through the flesh or in regard of the impetuosity and violence of mens fleshly Appetites Rom. 8. 3. Nor is there any express mention in the Ceremonial Law of any necessity of purity of heart This was only represented by the divers legal washings and other Rites the mortification of corrupt Affections was signified by the cutting off the foreskin of the flesh and the great substantial duties were veiled under dark shadows So that a man might be very punctually observant of this Law according to the mere literal sence thereof and yet his Soul remain perfectly under the power of sinful Affections And the Learned Mr. Chillingworth in his Sermon on Gal. 5. 5. saith thus even of the Moral Duties of the two Tables as they are part of the Mosaical Jewish Law viz. That they required only an external obedience and conformity to the Affirmative Precepts thereof and an abstaining from an Outward practice of the Negative They did not reach unto the Conscience no more than the National Laws of other Kingdoms do So that for example when the law of Moses forbids Adultery upon pain of death he that should in his heart lust after a Woman could not be accounted a Transgressor of Moses his law neither was he liable to the punishment therein specified Whereas the Gospel requires not only an Outward and as I may say corporal obedience to God's Commandments but also an inward sanctification of the Soul and Conscience upon the same penalty of everlasting damnation with the former And what is now said proceeds he of the Moral Precepts as they are part of Moses his law by the same proportion likewise is to be understood of the Iudicial And as for the Promises of this Law they were only of Temporal good things and therefore the Gospel is called by the Author to the Hebrews The bringing in of a better hope Chap. 7. 19. And is said to be established upon better promises Chap. 8. 6. 'T is confessed that promises of Heavenly things were contained in those of Earthly as some of the latter were Types of the former particularly the land of Canaan of the Eternal Rest in Heaven and the promises of good things in the general had those of the other life implied in them but there is not the least express mention in this Law of any Life after this I do not say in any part of the Old Testament but in this Law Now then seeing it abounded with Temporal Promises and none but such being in express terms contained therein 't is no wonder if it became an occasion to the sensual Iews of their being the more eager and vehement in prosecuting the profits honours and pleasures of this life as it was of their being the more Mercenary in their obedience The like may be said of the Threatnings of this Law they are all so expressed as if they were only of Present Temporal Evils and the Iews for the most part looking no farther than the outward letter of these Threatnings it was not to be expected that they should be excited by them to obey from any higher motive than the mere fear of such evils as those that did not look beyond the letter of the Promises were obedient only from the hope of some sensual present good And by this means especially did this Law Gender to bondage as we read it did Gal. 4. 24. The terrible manner in which the Law was given and the Threatnings of Present death or other temporal Calamities upon the Transgression thereof did occasion that slavish sear which the Apostle calls the Spirit of bondage in those words Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear Rom. 8. 5. God dealt with the Iews as it was most fit to deal with such a carnal such a stiff-necked stubborn and disingenuous people who would not be wrought upon and overcome by love to himself or a sense of the loveliness of Virtue and true Goodness nor regard any Laws but such as were enforced with severe present Penalties or promises of sensual good things Which obedience of theirs was most truly and properly the obedience of Slaves a Servile and Mercenary Obedience So that this Law having been abused by the Iews to the so much the more captivating them to their fleshly lusts for this reason chiefly was it laid aside namely because the Liberty which consisteth in a thorough compliance with the Rules of Righteousness the Obligation of this Law would have greatly obstructed the promoting of And the things expresly required in this Law being such as had no internal goodness in them being weak and beggarly Elements as the Apostle calls them Gal. 4. 9. the imposition of many such must needs be apt to call away mens Minds and Affections from those that are essentially and immutably good whilest the spiritual meaning of those injunctions is either not understood or not attended to And that it had this effect upon the generality of the Iews by this means is a case too plain to need to be proved And though the great substantial duties which are in their own nature Good and Necessary and of Eternal obligation were inculcated upon them by all their Prophets as well as taught by Natural Light such as Doing Iustice loving Mercy walking humbly with God and the like yet they generally were so sottish as to think that He valued Sacrifices and the other Ceremonial and External Performances of the Law so much above such Duties nay though he had expresly also declared the quite contrary as that their exact and diligent observation of those would make expiation for their remisness in these and fully satisfie for gross immoralities They trusted in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these implying that their continual attendance on the services there performed according to the prescription of the Law would effectually secure them from Divine vengeance although they refused to amend their ways and were never so immoral in their Practices And their constant Trading in Sacrifices in Rituals and Ceremonial things occasioned their having but very little sense of things Morally good so that that distinction was almost lost among them of things Positively and Morally so or things good only because commanded and things commanded because good Their being so intent upon a many little things caused them to sleight and overlook the great ones as our Saviour told the Pharisees Luke 11. 42. Ye tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of Herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God And Mat. 23. 23. Ye pay tith of Mint and Anise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law judgment mercy and faith And their omitting these things was too plain an Argument alone though there is other proof of it of their having scarcely any notion of things Absolutely Immutably and Essentially Good and Evil which was occasioned as I said by their
account of such Disgrace Contempt and ill usage from Rude People as is not to be compared with that which He underwent When we consider how our Blessed Saviour Forgave those who Thirsted after his Bloud and were never satisfied till they had put him to the most shameful and most cruel Death and not only Forgave them himself but Entreated his Father and that even in the midst of his Torments when his Spirit one would think should be most highly exasperated to forgive them too I say when we consider this how can it be difficult to disswade our selves from Meditating Revenge upon any Provocations whatsoever Surely we must needs be very powerfully inclined to forgive our Enemies When we call to mind how He exprest his love to his very Murderers even so as to design the greatest good to them by the means of that whereby they designed the greatest evil to him can we be averse to the bearing Good will to those who are ill affected towards us to the Blessing of those that Curse us and Praying for those that despightfully use us When we consider how this Mighty Person humbled himself even to the washing his Disciples Feet and declared that He came not to be ministred unto but to minister can We contemptible Wretches cherish the least spark of Pride in our Souls Can We despise the meanest of our Fellow-creatures or think our selves too Great or too Good to condescend to the lowest Offices of Love whereby we may serve our Brethren When we consider with what submission to the Divine Will our Blessed Lord indured the most exquisite Pains both of Soul and Body though He never deserved them by the least offence but was always most perfectly obedient to his Father can this be other than a most forcible motive to us who have Merited so ill at the Hands of God quietly to submit to his good Pleasure in Afflicting us whenas in so doing he doth always punish us far less than our iniquities deserve When we consider how well satisfied our Saviour was to be in poor low Circumstances and not to have so much as a Cottage of his own to put his Head in though he was Lord of all Is it imaginable that We should aspire at High and Great things and having Food and Raiment not be Content who are less than the least of all God's mercies And lastly Will not the Consideration of our Saviour's being such a Man of sorrows and so acquainted with griefs exceedingly deaden our desires after Sensual Pleasures Surely it must necessarily so do Thus we see how greatly exciting the Example of our Saviour is to the perfect Mortifying of those Lusts which are most strong and vigorous to the loathing and abominating those which are naturally very dear to us and to the most restless endeavours to get our Souls possessed of those Virtues and Graces which are most supernatural Thirdly Another very prevalent Motive is the Assurance our Lord hath given us that He will not take such Advantage of our Frailties and Weaknesses or Sins we fall into by mere surprize and want of due Watchfulness as to cast us off for them so long as we allow not our selves in any evil way and it is the principal design of our lives to be conformed in all things to the Laws of Righteousness There is a Prophecy concerning the Messiah Isaiah 42. 3. which our Saviour applieth to himself Matth. 12. 20. A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall he not quench c. He will not crush under foot those who fall through weakness but whatsoever good he seeth in them he will still cherish My little children saith S. Iohn these things I write unto you that ye sin not But what if through the weakness of their Flesh they should at any time be overtaken is their state then desperate No by no means for it follows And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous c. 1 Epist. 2. 1. As there are Sins unto Death so there are Sins not unto Death according to that of the same Apostle 1 Epist. 5. 17. All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death Though all Unrighteousness be sin and the deserved wages of sin be Death yet such is the Goodness of God through Christ that all Sins shall not be unto Death but only Wilful and Presumptuous Sins And I add not these neither if not persevered in but throughly forsaken If we were liable to Eternal Ruine for such Faults as considering all our Circumstances in this state it is scarcely to be hoped we shall constantly avoid we should necessarily live in great Bondage through continual fear anxiety and disquieting thoughtfulness But on the other hand it conduceth exceedingly to the chearful pursuing our Great Work to be satisfied that it is not every Failure that shall endanger our final miscarrying And it is no small inducement to ingenuous Tempers to be so much the more solicitous to avoid Deliberate and Wilful sins because God through Christ is so ready to forgive and graciously pass by those that are not such Because he is pleased in his infinite Goodness to grant a pardon of course for these upon condition of their being in the general and habituals repented of And it is a great Motive also to such Tempers to be the more vigilant and watchful against all sins whatsoever against sins of daily incursion and infirmity as well as those which waste the Conscience And those are very ill natured and obdurate Sinners who can find in their hearts to Encourage themselves by this indulgence to sin the more freely Fourthly Another wonderful Encouragement to the careful use of the Means we are directed to for the subduing of our Lusts is our Saviours Mediation and Intercession There is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Iesus His oblation was begun on Earth but perfected in Heaven where He appears in the presence of God for us Heb. 9. 24. Those Prayers we put up in His name for things Agreeable to the Divine Will with honest and sincere hearts our Saviour inforceth with his own Intercession He ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7. 25. And for this reason as the Apostle saith in the former part of that Verse He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him That is to give them a full and complete Deliverance from the Slavery of sin and all the evil Consequents thereof Now we know that we ask what is according to the Will of God when we pray for his Grace to Mortifie our Corruptions and to set us more and more Free from their Dominion This is the Will of God even our Sanctification c. 1 Thess. 4. 3. There are many Temporal good things which God in his infinite Wisdom may see not to be good for us but He knows that whatsoever hath a necessary influence into
our Soul's welfare and the making us partakers of his own image and likeness can by no Circumstances whatsoever become unfit to be bestowed on those that heartily and sincerely seek it And therefore we are assured that those prayers that are put up for such things with a true heart and full assurance of faith in his Power and Goodness are seconded in Heaven by our Blessed Lord And him the Father heareth always John 11. 42. We have shewed that our Saviour hath purchased a Rich supply of Grace to help our Weakness and that his Holy Spirit is promised to those that ask him who will not fail to assist them whilest they carefully exert that power they are already in possession of But the most Honest Souls have so frequent experience of Heaviness Dulness and Distractions in their Addresses to God that they would be in great danger of despairing of the Success of their Prayers but for this Consideration that they have a no Less Friend in Heaven than the Only Begotten Son of God who is most powerful with his Father and supplies all the Defects of their Prayers by his own Intercession in their behalf I need not say what a marvellous incouragement this is of our Faith and Hope in the Divine Goodness which are so necessary to Animate us and to put Spirit and Life into all our Endeavours And the Mediation and Intercession of our Blessed Saviour conduceth exceedingly to the overcoming those inslaving Passions of Fearfulness and Shame which arise from Guilt and do naturally cause a great Averseness in Sinners from going into the Presence of God and disable them when they are there to behave themselves as they ought before him S. Paul tells the Ephesians that In Christ Iesus they have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him That is through Christ's Mediation those Believing Gentiles of whose Calling he was discoursing as great Sinners as they had been even dead in Trespasses and Sins have liberty of Approach to God with Confidence of a kind Reception and a Gracious Acceptance And the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 10. 19 c. doth thus encourage Sincere Souls to draw near to God Having therefore Brethren boldness or Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Iesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us in opposition to the dead shadows under the Law through the veil that is to say his Flesh Breaking through the veil of his Flesh being fain to die before he ascended into Heaven And having an High Priest over the House of God Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water That is being sincerely resolved against all sins both of Heart and Life As none that had touched any unclean thing under the Law till the Priest had sprinkled them with pure Water had Liberty to enter into the Congregation Fifthly The Reward which our Saviour hath purchased for and promised to those that shall get free from the power of their Lusts is another Motive than which a more Powerful one is not to be imagined He hath promised that such shall be with him where he is That because he lives they shall live also Hath assured them that He is gone to Heaven before to prepare a place for them That He is entered thither as their Forerunner That they shall behold the Glory there which his Father hath given him and that they shall be sharers also with him in that Glory That they shall sit with Him upon his Throne Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me upon my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his Throne That the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Matth. 13. 43. That their dead Bodies also being raised again shall be fashioned like to his own most Glorious Body according to the Mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3. 21. Of this Glory it is impossible we should speak much in this state worthily of it it far surpasseth our most Elevated Conâ—eptions and therefore our highest Expressions must needs fall excessively short of it It doth not yet appear what we shall be saith S. Iohn 1 Epist. 3. 2. only we know so much of the Heavenly Bliss as to be assured that it is astonishingly Great for as it follows this we know that when he appears we shall be like him like Him the infinitely Holy and Happy Being in his Holiness and Happiness for we shall see him as he is Which implieth such a clear distinct and vigorous knowledge of his most Glorious Perfections as will transform the Soul into His own Nature and fill it with His own Blessedness to the utmost extent of its capacity Could we now apprehend this Blessedness in any proportion to its transcendent Greatness and Excellency we should have no more Spirit left in us as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the Magnificence of Solomons Court Indeed there is such an Account given us of the Happiness prepared for Good men that we should find it impossible to believe it but that God which cannot lye hath promised it and that it is the purchase of a most inestimable price the Bloud of his Eternally Begotten Son And we have so great Evidence of its being promised by his Father and purchased by Himself given us by our Blessed Lord that our own Hearts can't wish for greater nay such as we could not have asked any comparable to it might we have had our own choice of Evidence viz. His innumerable Miraculous works His Resurrection from the Dead His Ascension into Heaven And afterwards exactly according to his promise His sending the Holy Ghost We have not more Evidence that Iesus is the Son of God than we have that All his sincere Disciples shall live with him in unspeakable and Eternal Blessedness for we have the self same for both The same Arguments which have abundantly demonstrated the truth of the former Proposition do equally prove the latter for they depend mutually upon each other As S. Paul hath shewed in 1 Cor. 5. 13 14. If there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen And if Christ be not risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain That is there will be no Resurrection of the Dead Now of what mighty force and efficacy are the exceeding great and precious promises of such a Glorious state as this to engage all the Powers of our Souls in the pursuance of that Holiness which is not only an indispensable Condition to precede the obtaining of it but like a necessary Qualification for it The Happiness which will naturally by proper Efficiency and necessary Consequence result from our