them; and then, I am fure, they will want no fitting comfort and fupport from us.

We enjoy, bleffed be the goodness of God to us, great peace and plenty, and freedom from evil and fuffering. And furely one of the best means to have these bleffings continued to us, and our tranquillity prolonged, is, to confider and relieve those who want the bleffings which we enjoy; and the readiest way to provoke God to deprive us of those bleffings, is, to fhut up the bowels of our compaffion from our diftreffed brethren. God can easily change the fcene, and make our fufferings, if not in the fame kind, yet in one kind or other, equal to theirs; and then we fhall remember the afflictions of Jofeph, and fay, as his brethren did, when they fell into trouble, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we faw the anguish of his foul when he befought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this diftrefs come up

on us.

God alone knows, what storms the devil may yet raise in the world, before the end of it: and therefore it concerns all Christians, in all times and places, who have taken upon them the profeffion of Chrift's religion, to confider well beforehand, and to calculate the dangers and fufferings it may expofe them to, and to arm ourfelves with refolution and patience against the fierceft affaults of temptation; confidering the shortness of all temporal afflictions and fufferings, in comparison of the eternal and glorious reward of them; and the lightness of them too, in comparison of the endless and intolerable torments of another world; to which every man expofeth himself, who forfakes God, and renounceth his truth, and wounds his confcience, to avoid temporal fufferings.

And though fear, in many cafes, especially if it be of death and extreme fufferings, be a great excufe for feveral actions, because it may cadere in conftantem virum, happen to a refolute man; yet in this cafe of renouncing our religion, (unless it be very fudden and furprifing, out of which a man recovers himfelf when he comes to himself, as St. Peter did; or the fuffering be fo extreme, as to put a man befides himself for the time, fo as to make him fay or do any thing); I fay, in this

cafe

Ser. 60. cafe of renouncing God, and his truth, God will not admit fear for a juft excufe of our apoftafy; which, if it be unrepented of, (and the fcripture speaks of repentance in that cafe as very difficult), will be our ruin. And the reason is, because God has given us fuch fair warning of it, that we may be prepared for it in the refolution of our minds: and we enter into religion upon thefe terms, with a profeffed expectation of fuffering, and a firm purpose to lay down our lives for the truth, if God fhall call us to it. If any man will be my difciple, (fays our Lord), let him deny himself, and take up his crofs, and follow me. And again, He that loveth life itSelf more than me, is not worthy of me. And if any man be afhamed of me, and of my words, in this unfaithful generation, of him will I be ashamed before my Father, and the holy angels.

And therefore, to mafter and fubdue this fear, our Saviour hath propounded great objects of terror to us, and a danger infinitely more to be dreaded; which every man runs himself wilfully upon, who fhall quit the profession of his religion, to avoid temporal fufferings: Luke xii. 4. 5. Fear not them that kill the body, but after that have nothing that they can do. But I will tell you whom you shall fear: Fear him, who, after he hath killed, can deftroy both body and foul in hell; yea, I fay unto you, Fear him. And to this dreadful hazard every man expofeth himfelf, who, for the fear of men, ventures thus to offend God. Thefe are the fearful and unbelievers fpoken of by St. John, who fhall have their portion in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the fecond death.

Thus you fee how we are to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, against all temptations and terrors of this world. I fhould now have proceeded to the next particular, namely, that we are to hold fast the profeffion of our faith, against all vain promifes of being put into a fafer condition, and groundless hopes of getting to heaven upon eafier terms, in fome other church and religion. But this I fhall not now enter upon.

SERMON

SER MON

93

LXI.

Of conftancy in the profeffion of the true religion.

HE B. X. 23.

Let us hold fast the profeffion of our faith without waver ing; for he is faithful that promifed.

The fourth fermon on this text.

'N these words, I have told you, are contained these two parts.

1. An exhortation to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.

2. An argument or encouragement thereto : Because he is faithful that promifed. I am yet upon the

First of these, the exhortation to Chriftians to be conftant and fteddy in the profeffion of their religion: Let us hold faft the profeffion of our faith without wavering. And that we might the better comprehend the true and full meaning of this exhortation, I showed,

First, Negatively, what is not meant and intended by it; and I mentioned these two particulars.

1. The Apostle doth not hereby intend, that those who are capable of inquiring into and examining the grounds and reasons of their religion, should not have the liberty to do it. Nor,

2. That when, upon due inquiry and examination, men are fettled, as they think and verily believe, in the true faith and religion, they fhould obftinately refuse to hear any reason that can be offered against their present perfuafion for reason, when it is fairly offered, is always to be heard. I proceeded, in the

Second place, pofitively, to explain the meaning of this exhortation. And to this purpose I propofed to confider,

I. What it is that we are to hold faft, viz. the confefsion or profession of our faith; the ancient Christian faith,

which every Chriftian makes profeffion of in his baptifm: not the doubtful and uncertain traditions of men, nor the imperious dictates and doctrines of any church (which are not contained in the holy fcriptures) impofed upon the Chriftian world, though with never fo confident a pretence of the antiquity of the doctrines, or of the infallibility of the propofers of them. And then I proceeded, in the

II. Second place, to fhew, How we are to hold fast the profeffion of our faith without wavering; and I mentioned thefe following particulars, as probably implied and comprehended in the Apostle's exhortation.

1. That we should hold faft the profession of our faith against the confidence of men, without fcripture or reafon to fupport that confidence.

2. And much more against the confidence of men, contrary to plain fcripture and reason, and the common fenfe of mankind. Under both which heads I gave feveral inftances of doctrines and practices impofed with great confidence upon the world, fome without, and others plainly againft fcripture and reafon, and the common fenfe of mankind.

3. Against all the temptations and terrors of the world; the temptations of fashion and example, and of worldly intereft and advantage; and against the terrors of perfecution and fuffering for the truth. Thus far I have gone. I fhall now proceed to the two other particulars, which remain to be spoken to.

4. We are to hold fast the profeffion of our faith, against all vain promises of being put into a fafer condition, and groundless hopes of getting to heaven upon eafier terms, in fome other church and religion. God hath plainly declared to us in the holy fcriptures, upon what terms and conditions we may obtain eternal life and happiness, and what will certainly exclude us from it; that except we repent, (i. e. without true contrition for our fins, and forfaking of them), we shall perish; that without holiness no man fhall fee the Lord; that no forninator, or adulterer, or idolater, or covetous perfon, nor any one that lives in the practice of fuch fins, fhall have any inheritance in the kingdom of God or Chrift. There is as great and unpaffable a gulf fixed between heaven and a

wicked man, as there is betwixt heaven and hell. And when men have done all they can to debauch and corrupt the Christian doctrine, it is impoffible to reconcile a wicked life with any reasonable and well-grounded hopes of happiness in another world. No church hath that privilege to fave a man upon any other terms, than those which our bleffed Saviour hath declared in his holy gofpel. All religions are equal in this, that a bad man can be faved in none of them.

The church of Rome pretends their church and religion to be the only fafe and fure way to falvation; and yet, if their doctrine be true concerning the intention of the priest, (and if it be not, they are much to blame in making it an article of their faith); I fay, if it be true, that the intention of the priest is neceffary to the validity and virtue of the facraments, then there is no religion in the world that runs the falvation of men upon more and greater hazards and uncertainties, and fuch as by no care and diligence of man, in working out his own falvation, are to be avoided and prevented.

As for the easier terms of falvation which they offer to men, they fignify nothing, if they be not able to make them good; which no man can reasonably believe they can do that hath read the Bible, and doth in any good measure understand the nature of God, and the defign of religion. For inftance: That after a long courfe of a moft lewd and flagitious life, a man may be reconciled to God, and have his fins forgiven at the last gafp, upon confeffion of them to the priest, with that imperfect degree of contrition for them, which they call attrition, together with the abfolution of the priest.

Now, attrition is a trouble for fin, merely for fear of the punishment of it. And this, together with confeffion, and the abfolution of the priest, without any hatred of fin for the evil and contrariety of it to the holy nature and law of God, and without the leaft fpark of love to God, will do the finner's bufinefs, and put him into a state of grace and falvation, without any other grace or difpofition for falvation, but only the fear of hell and damnation. This, I confefs, is eafy; but the great difficulty is to believe it to be true. And certainly, no man that ever feriously considered the nature of

God