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fearful expectations of things to come, are the gnawings and bitings of the worm of conicience, at every bite whereof, damned fouls give a dreadful thrick; crying out, O the worm! the worm! Would any man, that is not forfaken by reason, run the hazard of thofe eternal miferies, for the bratifh pleasures of a moment?

Meditation 6. Bethink yourselves what inexcufable hypocrify it will be in you, to indulge yourselves in the private fatisfaction of your lufts, under a contrary profeffion of religion : you are a people that profefs holiness, and profeffedly own yourselves to be under the government and dominion of Chrift: and must the worthy name of Chrift be only used to cloak and cover your lufts and corruptions, which are fo hateful to him? God forbid. You daily pray against fin, you confefs it to God, you bewail it, you pour oat fupplications for pardoning and preventing grace; are you in jeft or earneft, in thefe folema duties of religion? Certainly, if all those duties produce no mortification, you do but flatter God with your lips, and put a dreadful cheat upon your own fouls. Nay do you not frequently cenfure and condemn thofe things in others, and dare you allow them in yourfelves? What horrid hypocrify is this? Chriflians are dead to fin, Rom. vi. 2. dead to it by profeffion, dead to it by obligation, dead to it by relation to Chrift, who died for them; and how shall they, that are so many ways dead to fin, live any longer therein? O think not that God hates fin the lefs in you, because you are his people, nay, that very confideration aggravates it the more, Amos iii. 2.

Meditation 7. Confider with yourselves what hard things fome Chriftians have chofen, to endure and fuffer, rather than they would defile themselves with guilt; and fhall every fmall temptation enfnare and take your fouls? Read over the xi. chapter to the Hebrews, and fee what the faints have endured to escape fin; no torments were fo terrible to them, as the displeasure of God, and woundings of confcience; and did God oblige them more by his grace and favour, than he hath obliged you? O Christians, how can you, that have found fuch mercies, mercies as free, pardons as full as ever any fouls found, fhow iefs care, lefs fear, lefs tenderness of grieving the Spirit of God than others have done; certainly, if you did fee fia with the fame eyes they faw it, you would hate it as 'deeply, watch against it as

The very faults and fins of the faithful are the objects of God's hatred and difpleafure, but this is merely a hatred of their fin, not of their perfons. Daven, on Col. i. Fo

SERM. XXVIII: carefully, and resist it as vigorously as any of the faints have done

before you.

Meditation 8. Confider with yourselves what fweet pleasure, rational and folid comfort is to be found in the mortification of fin: It is not the fulfilling of your lufts can give you the thoufandth part of that comfort, and contentment that the resistance of them, and victory over them will give you. Who can exprefs the comfort that is to be found in the chearing teftimony of an acquitting, and abfolving confcience? 2 Cor. i. 12. Remember what fatisfaction and peace it was to Hezekiah upon his fuppofed death-bead, when he turned to the wall, and faid, “Re"member, now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked "before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart ; and have done "that which is good in thy fight," Ifa. xxxviii. 3.

Fourth ufe, for examination.

In the next place, this point naturally puts us upon the exa mination, and trial of our own hearts, whether we, who so confidently claim a special interest in Chrift, have crucified the flesh with its affections and lufts. And because two forts of perfons will be concerned in this trial, viz. the weaker, and the stronger Chriftians; I fhall therefore lay down two forts of evidences of mortification, one respecting the fincerity, and truth, the other refpecting the ftrength, and progress of that work in confirmed and grown Chriftians, and both excluding falfe pretenders.

First, There are fome things that are evidential of the truth and fincerity of mortification, even in the weakest Christians :

as,

Firft, True tenderness of confcience in all known fins, one as well as another, is a good sign fin hath loft its dominion in the foul. O it is a special mercy to have a heart that shall smite and reprove us for thofe things that others make nothing of: To check, and admonish us for our fecret fins, which can never turn to our reproach among men: this is a good fign that we hate fin: However, through the weaknefs of the flesh we may be ensnared by it. Rom. vii. 15. "What I hate, that I do."

Secondly, The fincere and earneft defires of our fouls to God. in prayer for heart-purging, and fin-mortifying grace, is a good fign our fouls have no love for fin. Canft thou fay, poor believer, in the truth of thy heart; that if God would give thee, thy choice, it would pleafe thee better to have fin caft out, than to have the world caft in; that thy heart is not fo earnest with God for daily bread, as it is for heart-purging grace? This is a comfortable evidence that fin is nailed to the crofs of Christ.

Thirdly, Do you make confcience of guarding against the occafions of fin? Do you keep a daily watch over your hearts and fenfes, according to 1 John v. 18. Job xxxi. 1. This speaks a true defign and purpose of mortification alfo.

Fourthly, Do you rejoice, and bleis God from your hearts, when the providence of God orders any means for the prevention of fin? Thus did David, 1 Sam. xxv. 33. "And David "faid to Abigail, Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael which feut "thee this day to meet me, and blessed be thy advice, and bles"fed be thou which haft kept me this day from coming to "shed blood, and from avenging myself with my own hand.”

Fifthly, In a word, though the thoughts of death may be terrible in themfelves, yet if the expectation, and hope of your deliverance from fin thereby, do fweeten the thoughts of it to your fouls, it will turn unto you for a testimony, that you are not the fervants and friends of fin. And fo much briefly of the first fort of evidences.

Secondly, There are other figns, of a more deep and thorough mortification of fin, in more grown and confirmed believers, and fuch are these.

First, The more fubmiffive and quiet any man is under the will of God, in smart and afflicting providences, the more that man's heart is mortified unto fin, Pfál. cxix. 67, 71. Col. i. 11.

Secondly, The more able any one is to bear the reproaches, and rebukes of his fin, the more mortification there is in that man, Pfal. cxli. 5.

Thirdly, The more eafily any man can refign, and give up his dearest earthly comforts, at the call and command of God, the more progrefs that man hath made in the work of mortification, Heb. xi. 17. 2 Sam. xv. 25.

Fourthly, The more power any man hath to refift fin in the firft motions of it, and ftifle it in the birth; the greater degree of mortification that man hath attained, Rom. vii. 23, 24.

Fifthly, If great changes, upon our outward condition, make no change for the worse upon our fpirits, but we can bear prof. perous, and adverfe providences with an equal mind; then mortification is advanced far in our fouls, Phil. iv. 11, 12.

Sixthly, The more fixed, and steady our hearts are with God in duty, and the lefs they are infefted with wandering thoughts, and earthly interpofitions; the more mortification there is in that foul. And so much briefly of the evidences of mortifi

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Fifth ufe, for confolation.

It only remains, that I fhut up all with a few words of confolation unto all that are under the mortifying influence of the Spirit. Much might be faid for the comfort of fuch. In brief,

First, Mortified fin fhall never be your ruin: 'Tis only reigning in that is ruining fin, Rom. viii. 13. Mortified fios, and pardoned fins, fhall never lie down with us in the duft.

Secondly, If fin be dying, your fouls are living; for dying unto fin, and living unto God, are infeparably connected, Rom. vi.

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Thirdly, If fin be dying in you, it is certain that Chrift died for you, and you cannot defire a better evidence of it, Rom. vi. 5, 6.

Fourthly, If fin be dying under the mortifying influences of the Spirit, and it be your daily labour to refift and overcome it, you are then in the direct way to heaven, and eternal falvation; which few, very few in the world fhall find, Luke xiii. 24.

Fifthly, To thut up all, if you, through the Spirit, be daily mortifying the deeds of the body, then the death of Chrift is effectually applied by the Spirit unto your fouls, and your intereft in him is unquestionable: For they that are Chrift's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lufts, and they that have fo crucified the flesh with its affections and luft, are Chrift's.

Bleffed be God for a crucified Chrift.

**

SERMON

XXIX.

Of the Imitation of CHRIST, in holinefs of Life, and the neceffity of it in all Believers.

JOHN ii. 6. He that faith he abideth in him, ought himself also fa to walk, even as he walked.

TH

HE exprefs, and principal design of the apoftle in this chapter, is to propound marks and figas, both negative and pofitive, for the trial and examination of men's claims to Chrift; amongst which (not to spend time about the coherence my text is a principal one; a trial of mens intereft in Chrift, by their imitation of Chrift. It is fuppofed by fome expofitors, that the apoftle, in laying down this mark, had a fpecial defign

to overthrow the wicked doctrine of the Carpocratians, whe taught (as Epiphanius relates it) that men might have as much communion with God in fin, as in duty. In full opposition to which the apoftle lays down this propofition, wherein he asserts the neceffity of a Chrift-like converfation, in all that claim union with him, or interest in him. The words refolve themfelves into two parts, viz.

1. A claim to Christ supposed.

2. The only way to have our claim warranted.

First, We have here a claim to Chrift fuppofed; "if any man "fay he abideth in him :" Abiding in Chrift is an expreffion denoting proper, and real intereft in Chrift, and communion with him; for it is put in oppofition to those temporary, light, and tranfient effects of the gofpel, which are called a morning dew, or an early cloud; fuch a receiving of Chrift as that, Mat. xiii. 21. which is but a prefent flash, fudden and vanishing; abiding in Chrift notes a folid, durable, and effectual work of the Spirit, thoroughly and everlastingly joining the foul to Chrift. Now, if any man, whofoever he be (for this indefinite is equivalent to an univerfal term) let him never think his claim to be good, and valid, except he take this course to adjust it.

1

(2.) Secondly, The only way to have this claim warranted, and that must be by fo walking even as he walked; which words carry in them the neceffity of our imitation of Chrift. But it is not to be underflood indefinitely, and univerfally of all the works or actions-of Chrift, fome of which were extraordinary and miraculous; fome purely mediatory, and not imitable by us: In these paths no Christian can follow Chrift; nor may fo much as attempt to walk as he walked. But the words point at the ordinary, and imitable ways, and works of Chrift; there. in it must be the care of all to follow him, that profess and claim interest in him; they must fo walk as he walked, this [fo] is a very bearing word in this place; the emphasis of the text feems to lie in it; however, certain it is that this fo walking doth not imply an equality with Chrift in holiness, and obedience; for as he was filled with the Spirit without measure, and anointed with that oil of gladnefs above his fellows, fo the purity, holiness, and obedience of his life are never to be matched, or equalized by any of the faints. But this fo walking, only notes a fincere intention, defign, and endeavour to imitate and follow him in all the paths of holinefs, and obedience, according to the different measures of grace received. The life of Chrift is the believer's copy, and though the believer cannot

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