made confession of the Christian faith, but lived like heathens. Not to believe the Christian Religion, after so great evidence and confirmation as God has given to it, is very unreasonable; but to believe it to be true, and yet live as if it were false, is the greatest contradiction that can be. He that believes Christianity, and yet lives contrary to it, knows that he has no reason for what he does, and is convinced he ought to do otherwise; and accordingly God will deal most severely with such persons. He will pardon a thousand defects in our understandings, if they do not proceed from gross neglect, but the faults of our wills have no excuse.

Dost thou believe that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men? And dost thou still allow thyself in ungodliness and wordly lusts? Art thou convinced that without holiness no man shall see the Lord? And dost thou still persist in a wicked course? Art thou fully persuaded that no whoremonger, nor adulterer, nor covetous, nor unrighteous person shall have any inheritance in the kingdom of God and Christ? And dost thou, for all that, continue to practise these vices? What canst thou say, man, why it should not be to thee according to thy faith? If it so fall out, that thou art miserable and undone for ever, thou hast no reason to be surprised as if some unexpected thing had hap

E

pened to thee: It is but with thee just as thou believedst it would be when thou didst these things; for how couldst thou expect that God should accept of thy good belief, when thou didst so notoriously contradict it by a bad life? How couldst thou but think that God should condemn thee for doing those things, for which thine own conscience condemned thee all the while thou wast doing of them? When we come into the other world there is no consideration that will sting our consciences more cruelly than this, that we did wickedly when we knew how to have done better, and chose to make ourselves miserable, when we understood the way to have been happy.

To conclude, we Christians have certainly the best and holiest, the wisest and most reasonable religion in the world; but then we are in the worst condition of all mankind, if the best religion in the world do not make us good.

SERMON IV.

THE PRECEPTS OF CHRISTIANITY NOT GRIEVOUS.

1 JOHN V. 3.

And his commandments are not grievous.

IN discoursing upon these words, I shall endeavour,

First, To convince you how reasonable the laws of God are; that is, how suitable they are

to our nature, and how advantageous to our interest.

Secondly, To show that we have sufficient power and ability for the performance of them; and,

Thirdly, That we have the greatest encouragements to this purpose.

I. I am to set before you how reasonable the laws of God are; that is, how suitable they are to our nature, and how advantageous to our interest. By the right which God has over us, as we are his creatures, he might, without injustice, have imposed difficult tasks upon us; but in making laws for us he has not made use of that right. He has commanded us nothing in the gospel that is either unsuitable to our reason, or prejudicial to our interest; nay, nothing that is severe and against the grain of our nature, but when either the apparent necessity of our interest requires it, or an extraordinary reward is promised to our obedience: He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? This is the sum of the natural law, that we should behave ourselves reverently and obediently towards the divine majesty; justly and charitably towards men; and that, in order to fit us for the better discharge of these duties, we should use sensual delights with temperance and moderation. And if we

go over the laws of Christianity, we shall find, that, excepting a very few particulars, they do but enjoin the same things, only they have made our duty more clear and certain.

As to the several parts of God's worshipprayer, thanksgiving, hearing and reading his word, receiving the sacrament, these are all no less for our own comfort, than for the honour of God and religion. And there is nothing of difficulty or trouble in the outward performance of them, but what hypocrisy can make tolerable to itself; and certainly they must not only be much more easy, but even delightful, when they are directed by our understandings, and accompanied with our hearts and affections.

As for those laws of religion which concern our duty to ourselves, as temperance and chastity; or to others, as the several branches of justice and charity, comprehended in those general rules of loving our neighbour as ourselves, and of doing to others as we would have them do to us; they enjoin nothing but what is most reasonable and fit to be done by us; nothing but what, if we were to consult our own interest and happiness, we would choose for ourselves; nothing but what is easy to be understood, and as easy to be practised, by an honest and a willing mind.

Now the practice of all these laws is suitable to our nature and understanding, proper to our condition in this world, and preparatory

to our happiness in the next. And no man's reason ever dictated to him the contrary; that it is fit for a creature not to love God; to be undutiful to his great Sovereign, and ungrateful to his best benefactor; that it is reasonable for a man to debauch himself by intemperance and brutish sensuality; to hate, defraud, and oppress other men: our very natural reason, if we will but listen to the dictates of it, is an enemy to all these sins, and a law against all these vices.

And as the practice of piety and virtue is agreeable to our reason, so is it likewise to our interest: some virtues plainly tend to the preservation of our health; others to the improvement and security of our estates; all to the peace and quiet of our minds, and even to the advancement of our reputation; for though the world be generally bad, and men are apt to approve nothing so much as what they do themselves; yet, I know not how it comes to pass, they are commonly so just to virtue, as to praise it in others, even when they do not practise it themselves.

As for these precepts of Christianity which seem to be most harsh and difficult, as repentance, restitution, mortifications of our lusts and passions, humility, patience and content, resignation of ourselves to the will of God, forgiving and loving our enemies, self-denial for the cause of God and religion; if we consider thoroughly the nature and tendency of them,