ufe of Gods mercies, as to be evill, becaufe he is good; to be fecure, because he is bountifull and unchangeable; what remaines then? but that cut of our duty to the command, out of cur fenfe of the advantage, out of our care to fhun the danger of the neglect, we fhould ftir up our felves,by all means poffible,to make our calling and election fure. Away with our poor and petty cares wherewith our hearts are commonly taken up: One cares to make his houfe, or his coffers fure with bolts and bars; another cares to make his mony fure by good bonds and Counter-bonds; another his eftate fure to his pofterity by conveyances and Fines; Another his adventure fure by a wary pre-contract; Alas what forry worthless things are thefe in comparison of eternity? And what a flippery fecurity is that which our utmost indeavours can procure us in these transitory and unfatisfying matters? Oh our miserable fottilhnefs if whiles we are ftudioufly carefull for thefe bale perishing affaires, we continue willing unthrifts in the main and everlafting provifion for our fouls!

Religion gives no countenance to ill-husbandry, be carefull to make your houfcs fure; but be more carefull to make fure of your eternall manfions; be carefull for your earthly wealth, but be more carefull of the treasures laid up in Heaven. Be carefull of your eftate here, but be more carefull of that glorious patrimony above.

Briefly, be careful to live well here, be more careful to live happily for ever.

Ye have feen that we may, and that we mult indeavour to make fure our calling and election: Our next work is to fhew how and by what means they may, and must be indeavoured to be affured.

In fome few Greek copies, which Rob. Steven had feen, or in two copies, as Beza found it, or in Aliquo codice, as Mariana,there is an addition of words to the text in ip; By good works: The vulgar reads it thus, and the Council of Trent cites it thus, and fome of ours; fo the text runs thus: Give diligence that by good works ye may make your calling and election fare: I inquire not how duly; but certainly there is no cause that we should fear, or dislike this reading: good works are a notable confirmation to the foul of the truth of our calling and election: Though Cardinal Bellarmine makes ill ufe of the place; ftriving hereupon to inferre that our certitude

is therefore but conjectural, because it is of works; For the folution whereof, justly may we wonder to hear of a conje&ural certitude. Certainly we may as well hear of a falfe-truth; what a plain implication is here of a palpable contradiction? Those things which we conjecture at, are only probable, and there can be no certainty in probability. Away with thefe blinde peradventures; had our Apoitle faid (and he knew how to fpeak) gueffe at your ca!ling and election by good works, his game here had been fair; but now when he faies: By good works indeavour to make your calling and election fure, how clearly doth he difclaim a dubious hit 1-miffe-1; and implies a fecible certainty. And indeed what hinders the connection of this affurance? Our works make good the truth of our faith, our faith makes good our effectual calling, our calling makes good our election, therefore even by good works we make our election fure. Neither can it hurt us,that the Cardinal faith we hold this certainty to be before our good works, not after them; and therefore that is not caufed by our good works. We ftand not nicely to diftinguith how things ftand in the order of nature; furely this certainty is both before, and after our works, before in the act of our faith;after in our works, confirming our faith; neither do we fay this certainty is caufed by our good works, but confirmed by them; neither doth this (Bain) imply alwaies a thing before uncertain (as learned Chamier well) but the completing and making up of a thing,fure before. To which alfo muft be added that thefe (i) good works muft be taken in the largest latitude; fo as to fetch in not only the outward good offices that fall from us in the way whether of our charity, juftice or devotion, but the very inmoft inclinations, and actions of the foul, tending towards God;our believing in him,our loving of him,our dreading of his infinite Majefty;our mortification of our corrupt affections, our joy in the holy Ghoft, & whatsoever elfe may argue or make us holy: Thefe are the means by which we may,and muft endeavor to make our calling & election fure. But to let this claufe paffe as litigious;the undoubted words of the text goe no lefs, If ye do thefe things ye foall never fall; (raia) these things, are the vertues precedently men-tioned; and not falling, is equivalent to afcertaining our calling and election. Not to inftance then, and urge thofe many graces which are here fpecified, I fhall content my felf with thofe three Theolo

gical vertues (fingled out from the reft) faith, hope, charity, for the makeing fure our calling and election.

For faith, how clear is that of our Saviour, He that believes in him that fent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but hath paled from death to life; Joh. 5. 24. This is the grace by which Chrift dwels in our hearts, Ephef. 3. 17. and whereby we have communion with Chrift, and an affured teftimony of and from him; For he that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself, 1 John 5. 10. And what witnefs is that? This is the record that God hath giv en us eternalllife, and this life is in his Son, verfe 11. He that hath the Son hath life, verfe. 12. See what a connection here is, Eternal life first this life eternal is in and by Chrift Jefus ; this Jefus is ours by faith; This Faith witneffeth to our fouls our affurance of Life Eternall.

Our hope is next, which is an (edonia) a thrusting out of the head to look for the performing of that which our faith apprehends; and this is fo fure a grace as that it is called by the name of that glory which it expecteth, Colef. 1. 5. For the hope fake which is laid up for you in heaven, that is, for the glory we hope for: Now both faith and hope are of a cleanfing nature; both agree in this,Purifying their hearts by faith, A.15.9.Every one that hath this hope purifyeb himself even as he is pure, 1 Job. 3. 3.The Devil is an unclean Spirit, he foules wherefoc ver he comes, and all fin is nafty, and beaftly: Faith and hope (like as neat hufwives when they come into a foul and fluttish houfe) cleanfe all the roomes of the foul; and make it a fit habitation for the Spirit of God. Are our hearts lifted then in a comfortable expectation of the performance of Gods merciful promifes and are they together with our lives swept and cleanfed from the wonted corruptions of our nature, and pollutitions of our fin this is an undoubted evidence of our calling and election.

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Charity is the laft which comprehends our love both to God and man, for from the reflection of Gods love to us, there ariseth a love from us to God again: The beloved Difciple can fay, we love him because he loved us first, 1 John 4. 19. And from both thefe, refulteth our love to our brethren, which is fo full an evidence that our Apoftle tells us, we know we are paffed from death to life, because we love the brethren, 1 Joh. 3. 14. For the love of the Father is infe

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parable from the love of the Son; he that loves him that begets, loves him that is begotten of him.

Shortly then, think not of a ladder to cl'mbe up into heaven to fearch the books of God.

First look into your own lives; thofe are most open, we need no locks or keyes to them: the Pfalmift in his fifthteenth, will tell you who is for that bliffeful Sion; are your lives innocent, are your works good and holy, do ye abound in the fruites of piety, jultice, Christian compaffion? Let thefe be your firft tryall, it is a flat and plain word of the divine Apostle, whosoever doth not righteousness, is not of God, 1 John 3. 10. Look fecondly into your own bofomes, open to none but your own eyes, If ye find there a true and lively faith in the Son of God,by whofe blood ye are cleanfed from all your fins; by vertue whereof ye can cry, Abba Father; a fure hope in Chrift purifying your fouls from your corruptions, a true and unfained love to your God and Saviour who hath done fo much for your foules, fo as you dare fay, with that fervent Apoftle, Lord thou knoweft that I love thee, and in him, and for his fake, a fincere love to his children, as fuch: Not as men, not as witty, wife, no-ble, rich, bountiful, ufeful, but as Chriftians fhowing it felf in all real expreffions: Thefe, these are excellent and irrefragable proofs, and evictions of your calling and election. Seek for these in your hearts and hands, and feek for them till ye finde them, and when ye have found them make much of them as the invaluable favours of God, and labour for a continual increase of them, and a growth in this heavenly affurance by them.

What need I urge any motives to ftir up your Chriftian care and diligence? Do but look firft behinde you,fee but how much pretious time we have already loft? how have we loitered hitherto in our great work? Bernards queftion is fit ftill to be asked by us of our fouls, Bernarde, ad quid venifti? Wherefore are we here upon earth? To pamper our Gut? To tend our hide? To wallow in all voluptuous courfes? To fcrape up the pelf of the World, As if the only end of our being were carnal pleasure, wordly profit? Oh bafe and unworthy thoughts! What do we with reafon if we be thus proftitutJ ed? It is for beafts, which have no foul, to be all for fenfe. For us, that have ratiocination, and pretend grace, we know we are here but in a thorowfare to another world, and all the main task

we have to do here in this life, is to provide for a better; Oh then, let us recollect our felves at the lalt, and redeem the time; and over-looking this vain and worthless World bend all our best indeavours to make fure work for eternity.

Look fecondly before you; and fee the shortnefs, and uncertainty of this, which we call a life; what day is there that may not be our last? what hour is there that we can make account of as certain? And think how many Worlds the dying Man would give (in the late confcience of a careless life) for but one day more to do his neglected work? and shall we wilfully be prodigall of this happy leafure and liberty, and knowingly hazard fo wofull, and irremediable a surprisall.

Look thirdly below you; and fee the horror of that dreadfull place of torment, which is the unavoydable portion of careless and unreclaimable finners; confider the extremity, the eternity of thofe tortures, which in vain the fecure heart fleightly hoped to avoid.

Look laftly, above you, and fee whether that Heaven (whose our-fide we behold ) be not worthy of our utmost ambition, of our most zealous, and effectuall endeavours;

Do we not think, there is pleasure, and happiness enough in that region of glory and bleffedness, to make abundant amends for all our felf-combats, for all our tasks of dutyfull fervice, for all our painfull excrcifes of mortification? Oh then, let us carnestly, and unweariably afpire thither, and think all the time loft, that we imploy not in the endeavour of making fure of that bleffed and eternall inheritance; To the full poffeffion whereof, he that hath purchased it for us by his moft precious blood in his good time happily bring us. Amen.

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