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piness of society, than these precepts of Christianity are? Several of which, as those of loving our enemies, of not revenging injuries, of rendering good for evil, though they have been esteemed reasonable by some of the wisest among the heathen, yet by reason of the degeneracy of the world, and of the obscurity and uncertainty of human reason, they never obtained the reputation and force of natural laws: so that we owe to Christianity the discovery of the most certain and perfect rule of life that ever the world was acquainted with.

III. The Christian religion proposes the most powerful arguments to persuade men to obey these laws. The gospel offers such considerations to us, as are fit to work very forcibly upon two of the most governing passions in the mind of man, our hopes and our fears: to encourage our hopes, it gives us the highest assurance of the greatest and most lasting happi-, ness, in case of obedience; and to awaken our fears, it threatens sinners with the most dreadful and durable torments: To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality, it promiseth eternal life; but unto them that obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, it threatens indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, Romans ii. 7, 8. And this is what makes the doctrine of the gospel so powerful an instrument for reforming the world, that it proposes such glorious rewards

and such terrible punishments as no religion ever did. And to make the consideration of them more effectual, it gives us far greater assurance of the certainty of these things than ever the world had before. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead hath given the world a full assurance of another life after this, and of a future judgment; for he whom God raised from the dead, declared, it was he who was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead, Acts x. 42. And the firm belief of a future judgment, which shall render to every man according to his deeds, is to a reasonable nature the most forcible motive of all other to a good life. So that the laws of Christianity have the finest sanction of any laws to secure the obedience and observance of them; for what can restrain men from sin, if the terrors of the Lord, and the evident danger of eternal destruction, will not? What encouragement can be given to goodness beyond the assurance of an endless happiness?

IV. The Christian Religion furnishes us with the best motives to patience and content under the evils and afflictions of this life. It sets before us an example that lies level to all mankind, of a man like ourselves, who had a tender sense of the least suffering, and yet patiently endured the greatest; of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despis

ing the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, Heb. xii. 2.

God thought it expedient that the first Christians should, by great hardships and persecutions, be trained up for glóry; and to encourage them hereto, the Captain of our salvation was crowned by sufferings, Heb. ii. 10. Much more should the consideration of this pattern arm us with patience against the ordinary calamities of this life; especially if we consider his example with this advantage, that though his sufferings were not for himself, but for us, yet he bore them patiently. But the main consideration is the glory which shall follow, as the reward of our sufferings, if they be for God and his cause; and, if upon any other innocent account, as a reward of our patience; Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17. And who would not be content to suffer upon terms of such advantage; to pass through many tribulations into the kingdom of God? And to endure a short affliction for an endless happiness?

These are the arguments which Christianity lays before us, and they are firm and sound at the bottom, and apt to work upon human nature, as the most ordinary understanding is capable of the force of them. In the strength and virtue of this great example, and in contemplation of this glorious reward, with what

resolution and cheerfulness did vast numbers of all sorts of people in the first ages of Christianity encounter all the rage and malice of the world, and embrace torments and death?

And now I have, as briefly and plainly as I could, endeavoured to represent the excellency of the Christian Religion, in respect both of the clear discoveries which it makes of the nature of God, and of the perfection of its laws, and the power of its arguments to persuade men to obey and suffer the will of God; by which you may see what the proper tendency of this religion is, and what the laws of it would make men, if they would but live according to them -substantially religious towards God-patient under, and contented with, the dispensation of his providence towards them-chaste and temperate—just and honest-kind and peaceable and good-natured towards one another. In a word the gospel describes God, in all respects, such a one as we would wish him to be; gives us such laws as every reasonable man would choose to live by; and lays down such arguments to persuade us to obey these laws, as no man that has any tenderness for his own interest and happiness, either in this world or the other, can refuse to be moved withal.

And do we not all profess to be of this excellent religion? but alas! who will believe we are so, that looks upon the actions, and considers the lives of the greatest part of us who call ourselves Christians! How grossly and openly do

many of us contradict the plain precepts of the gospel, by living intemperately, unjustly, or profanely! as if the grace of God which brings salvation, had never appeared to us! as if we had never heard of heaven or hell, or believed not one word of what the Scripture says concerning them! and as if we were in no expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, whom God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousness; and who will bestow mighty rewards upon those who faithfully serve him, but will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Let us not then deceive ourselves by pretending to this excellent knowledge o. Christ Jesus our Lord, if we do not frame our lives according to it; for though we know these things never so well, yet we are not happy unless we do them; nay, we are but the more miserable for knowing them if we do them not: therefore it concerns every one of us to consider seriously what we believe, and whether our belief of the Christian Religion have its due effect upon our lives; if not, all the precepts, promises, and threatenings of the gospel will rise up in judgment against us; the articles of our faith will be so many articles of accusation; and the great weight of our charge will be this, that we did not obey that gospel which we professed to believe; that we

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