CXXIV.

2 Pet. 2.

SERM. for some time, till meeting with difficulties and troubles in it, like seed scorched with the sun, they wither and fall away into their former course of life: to such I shall only say, and yet not I, but the Lord, in the words of His Apostle, 20, 21, 22. "If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."

But there are many who do not only hear and mind the word, but continue to do so for a great while together, perhaps all their life long, and yet are never the better for it, their hearts being all along overspread with the perplexing cares of this life, which, like so many thorns, choke the Word, and make it unfruitful: these hear only to hear, and mind only to know, not to do their duty. But I would Rom. 2. 13. desire such to consider what St. Paul saith, "For not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the James 1.22. Law shall be justified;" and what St. James adviseth, “Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves," for so certainly they do they do but deceive themselves, who think they are ever the better for hearing God's Word, unless they become better by it, so as to do John 13. 17. what they hear. Hear what Christ Himself saith," If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them;" if ye do them, not if ye only know them; for knowing without doing is so far from making you happy, that it will but make you more miserable: ye may be confident of it, for Christ HimLuke 12.47. self saith, "that the servant who knew his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."

:

God grant that this be not the case of any who hear me at this time, but that ye may all be in the number of the last sort of hearers in the parable, who practised what they heard, and brought forth fruit with patience. I hope there are some such among you; and therefore I have a few

things to say to them: whatsoever influence the Word of God hath had upon your minds, give Him the praise and honour of it; for though Paul himself "planted," and 1 Cor. 3. 6. Apollos watered, it was God that gave the increase;" and

as a testimony of your gratitude for it, acknowledge it to be the greatest blessing you ever did or can receive on this side Heaven, far greater than if He had given you all the crowns and sceptres upon earth, which, put all together, are not comparable to one grain of true grace and virtue and therefore, how little soever it be, prize it as your greatest treasure, for it is the pearl of great price.

14.

i.]

But, howsoever, do not content yourselves with the least quantity of it, but strive all ye can to increase and multiply it. If the good seed which was sown in your hearts, hath hitherto brought forth but thirty-fold, from this time forward let it bring forth sixty, and, if possible, an hundred-fold. Do as St. Paul did, "forgetting those things which are Phil. 3. 13, behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus:" as ye have hitherto walked so as to [1 Thess. 4. please God, now abound more and more: as considering that the more service ye do for God upon earth, the greater shall be the reward that He will give you in Heaven; as Luke 19.12, Christ Himself assures you in the parable of the nobleman, who gave to each of his servants one pound; that servant who made no use of his pound, had it taken from him; he that had gained five pounds with it, was made ruler over five cities; and he who had gained ten, was made ruler over ten cities. And so proportionally, the more good works the seed that is sown in your hearts produceth, the greater will be your crop of glory. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, [1 Cor. 15. be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

&c.

58.]

CC

SERMON CXXV.

THE BLESSING OF PURITY IN HEART.

SERM.
CXXV.

[Heb. 1. 1.]

MATT. V.
8.

Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.

"GOD, Who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son ;" Who being Himself also truly God as well as Man, whatsoever He spoke was spoken by God Himself: and all His sayings were so many oracles, or Divine truths, uttered immediately by Divinity and truth itself; which therefore ought to be hearkened to, received, and believed by us, with the greatest attention, the profoundest reverence, and the strongest faith, that our minds are capable of; insomuch, that whensoever we read or hear of any thing that Christ said, we ought not to doubt in the least of the truth or certainty of it, but conclude it impossible it should be otherwise than just as He said it; Who being of infinite wisdom, cannot be deceived Himself; and being of infinite goodness, cannot deceive us; or, as the [Tit. 1. 2.] Apostle words it, "Who cannot lie;" every falsehood being a contradiction to His very essence, which is justice, truth, and faithfulness itself.

And as all Christ's sayings were thus infallibly true and certain, so were they likewise of infinite weight and moment, and necessary to be known, believed, and observed by all that either heard them, or shall ever hear of them. For as He did not shed His blood, so neither did He ever spend His breath, in vain. He never spake, as we are apt to do, at random, and to no purpose; but every word that came

from His sacred mouth was sacred as Himself, apposite to the purpose, pertinent to the occasion, and of constant and perpetual use to those for whose sake He spake it so that as whatsoever He suffered was for the expiation of our sins, and whatsoever He did was for the confirmation of our faith, so whatsoever He said was some way or other for the edification and salvation of our souls: and therefore, we, who hope to be saved by Him, should take special notice of every thing which He said, as being confident it was for our sakes He said it, that we might thereby know what to believe and do, that we might be saved by Him; especially considering that this was the great reason wherefore His Divine sayings are so infallibly recorded and so faithfully transmitted to us, that we might receive the same benefit and comfort from them, as they did who heard them from His Own mouth; which, notwithstanding we can never do, unless we duly weigh, consider, and observe them with that care and diligence, as becometh those who believe them to be the words of the greatest Person, the best Friend, and the only Saviour they have in the whole world.

This I thought good to premise concerning Christ's words in general, the better to dispose and prepare your minds for those impressions which this Divine sentence of His that I have now read will make upon them, if you do but consider whose it is, and with how much majesty and authority He pronounced it for certainly His manner of speaking was every whit as Divine as the matter He spake. So that all they who were so near Him as to hear Him speak, justly "bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words Luke 4. 22. which proceeded out of His mouth;" yea, the very officers that were sent to take Him, when they had once heard Him, were themselves so taken with them, that they could

not but confess, that "never man spake like this Man;" and John 7. 46. had we stood by Him at the same time, we doubtless should have been of the same mind too, catching at every word that dropped from Him, and admiring at His way of speaking it, as well as the profound sense that appeared in it. And then how flat and insipid would all the discourses of the greatest philosophers have seemed to us, in comparison of His!

CXXV.

SERM. And what though we never heard Him speak? Yet nevertheless we ought to be as much affected with what He said, as they that did so; forasmuch as we have His Divine discourses and sayings exactly related to us, both by them who heard them from His Own mouth, and by the same Spirit wherewith He spake them. The only thing that may seem wanting to us, is His delivery, or the grave, majestic, and Divine way of demeaning Himself, and pronouncing His words when He spake: but this defect also may and ought to be supplied by a quick and lively faith, which, as it is the evidence of things not seen, so it represents to us words not heard now, in the same way manner wherein they were first spoken.

and

As we therefore believe that Christ Himself spake these words, let us, by the assistance of the same faith, conceive in our minds how He spake them: and for that purpose, let us apprehend the Infinite, Almighty, All-wise, and Eternal God, in the nature and likeness of man, sitting upon a mountain, with a great company of people about Him, and then on a sudden opening His sacred mouth, that all might hear Him, uttering these Divine sentences:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."

&c.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,"

Divine sentences indeed! Methinks I see the rays of Divinity shining in every one of them, and in the very voice too wherewith He pronounced them. Methinks I feel its power and authority working in my breast, and bearing down all before it: and we could not certainly but all do so, if we did but rightly consider and firmly believe that these words were spoken by Christ, by God Himself; and therefore must needs be spoken in the best manner that any tongue could speak them. But, howsoever, that they may