that they are past cure, for it is plain they are not: nay, certainly, they are in that very condition, which of all others makes them fittest for our care. If they had not been thus redeemed by Christ, they had been then so hopeless, that care would have been in vain on the other side, if his redemption had been such, that all men should be saved by it, though they live as they list, we should have thought it needless to take care for them, because they were safe without it. But it hath pleased God so to order it, that our care must be the means by which they must receive the good, even of all that Christ hath done for them.

XXV. And now, if after all that God hath done to save these souls of ours, we will not bestow a little care on them ourselves, we very well deserve to perish. If a physician should undertake a patient, that was in some desperate disease, and by his skill bring him so far out of it, that he was sure to recover if he would but take care of himself, and observe those rules the physician set him; would not you think that man weary of his life, that would refuse to do that? So certainly that man is weary of his soul, and wilfully casts it away, that will not consent to those easy conditions, by which he may save it.

XXVI. You see how great kindness God hath to these souls of ours; the whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, have all done their parts for them. The Father gave his only Son; the Son gave himself, left his glory, and endured the bitter death of the cross, merely to keep our souls from perishing; the Holy Ghost is become, as it were, our attendant, waits upon us with continual offers of his grace, to enable us to do that which may preserve them: nay, he is so desirous we should accept those offers of his, that he is said to be grieved when we refuse them, Ephes. iv. 30. Now what greater disgrace and affront can be put upon God, than to despise what he thus values? That those souls of

ours which Christ thought worthy every drop of his blood, we should not think worth any part of our care? We use, in things of the world, to rate them according to the opinion of those who are best skilled in them now certainly God, who made our souls, best knows the worth of them; and since he prizes them so highly, let us (if it be but in reverence to him) be ashamed to neglect them; especially now they are in so hopeful a condition, that nothing but our own carelessness can possibly destroy them.

XXVII. I have now briefly gone over those four motives of care I at first proposed, which are each of them such as never misses to stir it up towards the things of this world: and I have also showed you how much more reasonable, nay, necessary it is, they should do the like for the soul. And now,

what can I say more, but conclude in the words of Isaiah, xlvi. 8. Remember this, and show yourselves men; that is, deal with your soul as your reason teaches you to do with all other things that concern you. And sure this common justice binds you to; for the soul is that which furnishes you with that reason which you exercise in all your worldly business; and shall the soul itself receive no benefit from that reason which it affords you? This is, as if the master of the family, who provides food for his servants, should by them be kept from eating any himself, and so remain the only starved creature in his house.

XXVIII. And as justice ties you to this, so mercy doth likewise. You know the poor soul will fall into endless and unspeakable miseries if you continue to neglect it, and then it will be too late to consider it. The last refuge you can hope for is God's mercy; but that you have despised and abused, and with what face can you, in your greatest need, beg for his mercy to your souls, when you would not afford them your own? No, not that common charity of considering them, of bestowing upon them

a few of those idle hours, which you scarcely know how to pass away?

XXIX. Lay this to your hearts, as ever you hope for God's pity when you most want it; be sure in time to pity yourselves, by taking that due care of your precious souls which belongs to them.

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XXX. If what hath been said hath persuaded to this so necessary a duty, my next work will be to tell you how this care must be employed; and that, in a word, is the doing of all those things which tend to the making the soul happy, which is the end of our care: and what those are, I come now to show you.

Of the Duty of Man by the light of nature, by the light of Scripture: the three great branches of man's duty to God, ourselves, our neighbour : our duty to God; of faith, of the promises, of hope, of love, of fear, of trust.

I. THE benefits purchased for us by Christ, are such as will undoubtedly make the soul happy; for eternal happiness itself is one of them. But because these benefits belong not to us, till we perform the condition required of us, whoever desires the happiness of his soul, must set himself to the performing of that condition. What that is, I have already mentioned in the general, that it is the hearty, honest endeavour of obeying the whole will of God. But then that will of God containing under it many particulars, it is necessary we should also know what those are; that is, what are the several things that God now requires of us, our performance whereof will bring us to everlasting happiness, and the neglect to endless misery.

II. Of these things there are some which God hath so stamped upon our souls, that we Of the light naturally know them: that we should of nature. have known them to be our duty though we had never been told so by the Scripture. That this is so, we may see by those heathens who, having never heard of either Old or New Testament, do yet acknowledge themselves bound to some general duties, as to worship God, to be just, to honour their parents, and the like; and as St. Paul saith, Rom. ii. 15. Their consciences do in those things accuse or excuse them; that is, tell them whether they have done what they should in those particulars, or not.

III. Now though Christ hath brought greater light into the world, yet he never meant by it to put out any of that natural light, which God hath set up in

our souls therefore let me here, by the way, advise you not to walk contrary even to this lesser light; I mean, not to venture on any of those acts, which mere natural conscience will tell you are sins.

IV. It is just matter of sadness to any Christian heart, to see some in these days, who profess much of religion, and yet live in such sins as a mere heathen would abhor: men that, pretending to higher degrees of light and holiness than their brethren do, yet practise contrary to all the rules of common honesty, and make it a part of their Christian liberty so to do; of whose seducement it concerns all that love their souls to beware! And for that purpose, let this be laid as a foundation, that that religion or opinion cannot be of God, which allows men in any wickedness.

V. But though we must not put out this light, which God hath thus put into our souls, yet this is not the only way whereby God hath revealed his will; and therefore we are not to rest here, but proceed to the knowledge of those other things, which God hath by other means revealed.

VI. The way for us to come to know them is by The light of the Scriptures, wherein are set down Scripture. those several commands of God which he hath given to be a rule of our duty.

VII. Of those, some were given before Christ came into the world: such are those precepts we find scattered throughout the Old Testament, but especially contained in the Ten Commandments, and that excellent book of Deuteronomy; others were given by Christ, who added much, both to the law implanted in us by nature, and that of the Old Testament; and those you will find in the New Testament, in the several precepts given by him and his apostles, but especially in that divine Sermon on the Mount, set down in the vth, vith, and viith chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel.

VIII. All these should be severally spoken to;