"Vision, Love and Praife, will be thy unceffant cafe and pleafure; and thy endless work, will be thy endlefs zelt! De"part, O my foul, with peace and gladness! Thou leaveft not a world, where Wisdom and Picty, Juftice and Sobrety, Love, and Peace, and Order, do prevail; but a world of ignorance and and folly of bruitifh fenfuality and rage; of impiety and malignant enmity to good, a world of inju"ftice and oppreffion and of confufion and diftracting ftrifes! "Thou goeft not to a world of darkness, and of wrath but "of Light and Love! From hellish malice, to perfect amity; "from Bedlam rage, to perfect wisdom from mad confufion, to perfect order, to fweeteft unity and peace, even to the "fpirits of the juft made perfect, and to the celestial glorious City of God! Thou goeft not from Heaven to Earth, from holinefs to fin, from the fight of God, into an infernal dun"gcon; but from Earth to Heaven; from fin and impers "fection unto perfect holiness; and from palpable darkness, into the vital fplendour of the face of God! Thou goeft not amongst enemies, but to dearest friends; nor amongit meer ftrangers, but to many whom thou haft known by fight, and to more whom thou haft known by faith, and mult know by the sweetest communion for ever. Thou *goeft not to unfatisfied Juftice, nor to a condemning unre "conciled God; but to Love it felf, to infinite Goodness; the "fountain of all created and communicated goods to the

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Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of fouls; to him who preབ་ pared Heaven for thee, and now hath prepared thee for "Heaven! Go forth then in triumph, and not with térrour, "O my foul! The prize is won: Poffs the things which "thou haft fo long prayed for, and fought! Make hafte and enter into thy Mafters joy! Go view the glory which thou haft fo long heard of, and take thy place in the heavenly Chore, and bear thy part in their celeftial melody ! Sir "down with Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of "God! And receive that which Chrift in his Covenant did promife to give thee at the laft. Go boldly to that blessed "God, with whom thou haft fo powerful a Mediatour; and to the Throne of whofe grace, thou haft had fo oft and "fweet access. If Heaven be thy fear or forrow, what can

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"be thy joy? and where wilt thou hive refuge, if thou fly, "fro:n God? If perfect endless pleafures be thy terrour, "where then doft thou expe& content! If grace have taught, "thee long ago, to prefer the heavenly and durable felicity;. "refuse it not now when thou art fo near the port! if it have "taught thee long ago, to be as a ftranger in this Sodom, and. "to renounce this finful world and fleth; linger not now as, "unwilling to depart; repent not of thy choice, when all "that the world can do for thee is past, repent not of thy warfare, when thou haft got the victory; nor of thy voy"age, when thou art paft the forms and waves, and ready, "to land at the haven of felicity.

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Thus Faith may fing our Nunc dimitt, when the fl.h is, lotheft to be diffolved.

But we muft live by faith, if we would thus die by faith. Such a death doth not ufe to be the period of a fleshly worldly life; nor of a careless, dull and negligent life. Nature, which brought us into the world, without our forecaft or care, will turn us out of the world without it: But it will not give us a joyful paffage, nor bring us to a better world without it. It. cofteth worldlings no fmall care to die in an honourable or plentiful eftate, (that they may fall from an higher place than others, and may have something to make death more grie, vous and unwelcome to them, and may have a greater account to make at Judgement; and that their pallage to Heaven may be as a Camels through a Needle) And may a be-, lieving joyful death be expected, without the preparations of exercise and experience in a believing life? Nature is fo much afraid of dying, and an incorporated foul is fo incarcerated in fenfe, and fo hardly rifeth to ferious and fatisfying apprehenfions of the unfeen world, that even true Believers, do find. it a work of no small difficulty, to defire to depart, and be with Chrift, and to die in the joyful hopes of faith. A little abatement of the terrours of death, a little fupporting hope and peace, is all that the greater part of them attain, instead of the fervent defires, and triumphant joyes, which the lively belief of endless glory fhould produce. O therefore make it the work of your lives! of all your lives! your greateft work; your conftant work,to live by faith; that the faith which hath

firft conquered all the rest of your enemies, may be able alfo to overcome the laft; and may do your laft work well, when it hath done the reft.

CHAP. I.

Directions how to live by Faith: And firft how to ftrengthen Faith: And fecondly, the natural Truths prefuppofed to be confidered.

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He Directions which I fhall give you, as helps to live by Faith, are of two ranks. 1. Such as tend to the Strengthening of your Faith. 2. Such as tell you how to ufe it.

The firft is the greateft part of our task: for no man can ufe that faith which he hath not; nor can ufe more of it than he hath. And the commoneft reafon why we ufe but little, is because we have but little to use.

But on this fubje& (fuppofing it most weighty) I have written many Treatifes already (The fecond part of the Saints Reft: The Unreasonableness of Infidelity: And last of all, The Reasons of the Chriftian Religion: Befides others which handle it on the by.) And fomewhat is faid in the beginning of this difcourfe. But yet becaufe in fo great a matter I am more afraid of doing too little than too much; I will here give you an Index of fome of the chief Helps, to be close together before you for your memories, to be the conftant fuel of your Faith.

In the work of Faith, it is firft needful that you get all the prerequifite Helps of Natural Light, and be well acquainted with their Order and Evidence, and their Usefulness to befriend the fupernatural revelations: For it is fuppofed that we are. men before we are Chriftians: We were created before we were redeemed: And we muft know that there is a God, before we can know that we have offended him, or that we need a Saviour to reconcile us to him: And we muft know that we

have reafonable fouls, before we can know that fin hath cor. rupted them, or that grace muft fantifie them: And we muk know, that whatfoever God faith is true, before we can be lieve that the Scripture is true, as being his revelation. Faith is an act of Reafon; and Believing is a kind of knowing; even a knowing by the teftimony of him whom we believe; because we have fufficient reafon to believe him.

2. And next we must be well acquainted with the evidence of fupernatural Truth, which prefuppofeth the forefaid Natural Verities. I fhall fet both before you briefly in their order.

1. Think well of the nature of your fouls, of their faculties or Powers; their excellency, and their proper ufe: And then you will find, that you are not meer brutes, who know not their Creatour, nor live not by a Law; nor think not of another world; nor fear any fufferings after death: But that you have reafon, free-will, and executive power to know your Maker, and to live by Rule, and to hope for Reward in another life, and to fear a punishment hereafter. And that as no wife Artificer maketh any thing in vain, fo God is much lefs to be thought to have given you fuch fouls and faculties in vain.

2. Confider next how all the world declareth to you, that there is a God, who is infinitely powerful, wife and good. And thas it is not poffible that all things which we fee should have no caufe, or that the derived Power, and Wifdom, and Goodnes of the creature, fhould not proceed from that which is more excellent in the firft and total caufe: Or that God fhould give more than he had to give.

3. Confider next, in what Relation fuch a creature muft needs ftand to fuch a Creatour: If he made us of Nothing, it is not poffible, but that he must be our Owner, and we and all things abfolutely his Own: And if he be our Maker and Owner, and be infinitely powerful, wife and good; and we be Keafonable-free-agents, made to be guided by Laws or Moral Means unto our end; it is not poffible but that we should ftand related to him, as fubjects to their rightful Governour.. And if he be our Creatour, Owner and Ruler, and alfo infinitely Good, and the grand Benefador of the world; and if the

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nature of our fouls be, to Love Good as Good; it cannot be poffible, that he fhould not be our End, who is our Creatour; and that we should not be related to him as to the Chiefeft Good, both originally as our Benefallor, and finally as our End.

4. And then it is cafie for you next to fee, what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related. That if you are abfolutely bis Own, you should willingly be at his abfolute difpofe: And if he be your Soveraign Ruler, you should labour mos diligently to know his Laws, and abfolutely to obey them. And if he be infinitely Good, and your Benefactor and your End, you are abfolutely bound to Love him moft devotedly, and to place your own felicity in bis Love. All this is fo evidently the duty of man to God by nature, that nothing but madness can deny it. And this is it which we call Sandification, or Holineß to the Lord. And our cohabitation and relation to men, will tell us, that Juftice and Charity are our duty as to them. And when a man is fully fatisfied that Holiness, Juftice and Charity, are our duty, he hath a great advantage for his progress towards the Chriftian Faith.

To which let me add, that as to our felves alfo, it is undeniably our duty to take more care for our fouls, than for our bodies, and to rule our fenfes and paffions by, our Reason, and to fubje&t our lower faculties to the higher, and fo to ufe all fenfible and prefent things, as conduceth to the publick good, and to the advancement of our nobler part, and to our greateft benefit, though it cross our fenfual appetites.

All this being unquestionably our natural duty, we fee that man was made to live in Holines, Juftice, Charity, Temperance, and rational regularity in the world.

5. When you have gone thus far, confider next bom far men are generally from the performance of this duty: And how backward humane nature is to it,even while they cannot deny it to be their duty: And you will foon perceive that God who made it their duty, did never put in them this enmity thereto : nor ever made them without fome aptitude to perform it. And if any would infer that their indifpofedness proveth it to be none of their duty, the nature of man will fully confute him ; and the confcience and confeffion of all the fober part of the world. What wretch so blind (if he believe a Deity) who

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