or of human invention, but the pure fruits of the fpirit of Chrift working in them, as love, joy, peace, meeknefs, long-fuffering, temperance, brotherly-kindnefs, faith, patience, gentlenefs and goodness, against which there is no law; and they that have not this fpirit of Christ, and walk not in it, the apostle Paul has told us, are none of his; but the wrath of God, and condemnation of the law, will lie upon them. For if there is no condemnation to them that are in Chrift, who ⚫ walk not after the flesh, but after the fpirit',' which is Paul's doctrine; they that walk not according to that Holy Spirit, by his doctrine, are not in Chrift: that is, have no intereft in him, nor juft claim to falvation by him and confequently there is condemnation to fuch.

§. IX. And the truth is, the religion of the wicked is a lye: there is no peace, faith the prophet, to the wicked. Indeed there can be none, they are reproved in their own confciences, and condemned in their own hearts, in all their difobedience. Go where they will, rebukes go with them, and oftentimes terrors too for it is an offended God that pricks them, and who, by his light, fets their fins in order before them. Sometimes they strive to appease him, by their corporal framed devotion and worship, but in vain ; for true worshipping of God, is doing his will, which they tranfgrefs. The reft is a falfe compliment, like him that faid he would go, and did not. Sometimes they fly to sports and company, to drown the reprover's voice, and blunt his arrows, to chafe away troubled thoughts, and fecure themselves out of the reach of the difquieter of their pleasures: but the Almighty first or laft is fure to overtake them. There is no flying his final justice, for those that reject the terms of his mercy. Impenitent rebels to his law may then call to the mountains, and run to the caves of the earth for protection, but in vain: his all-fearching eye will penetrate their thickest coverings, and ftrike up a light

9 Gal. v. 22, 23. Mat. xxi. 39.

Rom. viii.

• Ifa. xlviii. 22.

in that obfcurity, which fhall terrify their guilty fouls; and which they shall never be able to extinguish. Indeed their accufer is with them, they can no more be rid of him, than of themselves; he is in the midst of them, and will stick close to them. That fpirit which bears witness with the fpirits of the juft, will bear witness against theirs. Nay, their own hearts will abundantly come in against them; and, If our heart condemn us, fays the apostle John, God is greater, and 'knows all things":' that is, there is no efcaping the judgments of God, whose power is infinite, if a man is not able to escape the condemnation of himself. It is at that day, proud and luxurious chriftians fhall learn, that God is no refpecter of perfons; that all fects and names shall be swallowed up in these two kinds, sheep and goats, juft and unjuft: and the very righteous must have a trial for it. Which made that holy man cry out, If the righteous fcarcely are faved, where fhall the wicked and ungodly appear?' If their thoughts, words, and works muft ftand the test, and come under fcrutiny before the impartial judge of heaven and earth, how then fhould the ungodly be exempted? No, we are told by him that cannot lye, many shall then even cry, Lord, Lord; fet forth their profeffion, and recount the works that they have done in his name, to make him propitious, and yet be rejected with this direful fentence, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not*.' As if he had faid, Get you gone, you evil doers; though you have profeffed me, I will not know you: your vain and evil lives have made you unfit for my holy kingdom: get you hence, and go to the gods whom you have ferved; your beloved lufts, which you have worshipped, and the evil world that you have fo much coveted and adored let them fave you now, if they can, from the wrath to come upon you, which is the wages of the deeds you have done. Here is the end of their work that build upon the fand, the breath of the judge will

،

* 1 John iii. 20.

W

w Pet. iv. 18.

× Mat. vii. 23. blow

blow it down; and woful will the fall thereof be. Oh, it is now, that the righteous have the better of the wicked! which made an apoftate cry in old time, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my laft • end be like unto his '.' For the fentence is changed, and the judge fmiles: he cafts the eye of love upon his own fheep, and invites them with a Come ye • bleffed of my Father,' that through patient continuance in well-doing, have long waited for immortality: you have been the true companions of my tribulations and crofs, and with unwearied faithfulness, in obedience to my holy will, valiantly endured to the end, looking to me, the author of your precious faith, for the recompence of reward, that I have promised to them that love me, and faint not: O enter ye into the joy of your Lord, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'

§. X. O Christendom! my foul moft fervently prays, that after all thy lofty profeffions of Chrift and his meek and holy religion, thy unfuitable and un-chrift-like life may not caft thee at that great affize of the world, and lofe thee fo great falvation at laft. Hear me once, I befeech thee. Can Chrift be thy Lord, and thou not obey him? Or, can thou be his fervant, and never serve him? Be not deceived, fuch as thou fowest shalt thou · reap "' he is none of thy Saviour, whilft thou rejecteft his grace in thy heart, by which he fhould fave thee. Come, what has he faved thee from? Has he faved thee from thy finful lufts, thy worldly affections and vain converfations? If not, then he is none of thy Saviour. For though he be offered a Saviour to all, yet he is actually a Saviour to thofe only, that are faved by him; and none are faved by him, that live in those evils, by which they are loft from God, and which he came to fave them from.

It is fin that Chrift is come to fave man from, and death and wrath, as the wages of it: but thofe that are not faved, that is, delivered by the power of Christ in

▾ Numb. xxiii. 10.

z Mat. xxv. 34.

a Gal. vi. 7.

their fouls, from the power that fin has had over them, can never be faved from the death and wrath, that ate the affured wages of the fin they live in.

So that look, how far people obtain victory over those evil difpofitions and fleshly lufts they have been addicted to, fo far they are truly faved, and are witneffes of the redemption that comes by Jefus Chrift. His name fhews this work: and thou shalt call his name Jefus, ' for he fhall fave his people from their fins '.' And

lo (faid John of Christ) the Lamb of God that takes ' away the fin of the world!' that is, behold him, whom God hath given to enlighten people, and for falvation to as many as receive him, and his light and grace in their hearts, and take up their daily crofs, and follow him fuch as rather deny themfelves the pleasure of fulfilling their lufts, than fin against the knowledge he has given them of his will; or do that they know they ought not to do.

CHA P. II.

§. 1. By this Christendom may fee her lapfe, how foul it is; and next, the worfe for her pretence of chriftianity. §. 2. But there is mercy with God upon repentance, and propitiation in the blood of Jefus. §. 3. He is the light of the world, that reproves the darkness, that is, the evil of the world; and he is to be known within. §. 4. Christendom, like the inn of old, is full of other guefts fhe is advised to believe in, receive and apply to Chrift. §. 5. Of the nature of true faith; it brings power to overcome every appearance of evil: this leads to confider the cross of Chrift, which has been fo much wanted. §. 6. The apoftolick ministry, and end of it; its bleffed effect; the character of apoftolick times. §. 7. The glory of the cross, and its triumph over the heathen world. A meafure to Christendom, what she is not, and fhould be. §. 8. Her declenfion, and cause of it. §. 9. The miserable effects that followed.

Mat, i. 21.

John i. 29.

VOL. II.

B

§. 10.

§. 10. From the confideration of the cause, the cure may be more eafily known, viz. not faithfully taking up the daily crofs; then faithfully taking it daily up, must be the remedy.

§. I.

BY

Y all which has been faid, O Chriftendom! and by that better help, if thou wouldst use it, the lamp the Lord has lighted in thee, not utterly extinct, it may evidently appear, firft, how great and foul thy backfliding has been, who, from the temple of the Lord, art become a cage of unclean birds; and of an house of prayer, a den of thieves, a fynagogue of Satan, and the receptacle of every defiled fpirit. Next that, under all this manifeft defection, thou haft nevertheless valued thy corrupt felf upon thy profeffion of christianity, and fearfully deluded thyfelf with the hopes of falvation. The firft makes thy difeafe dangerous, but the laft almost incurable.

§. II. Yet because there is mercy with the God of bowels, that he may be feared, and that he takes no delight in the eternal death of poor finners, no, though backfliders themselves, but is willing all should come to the knowledge and obedience of the truth, and be faved. He has fent forth his Son a propitiation, and given him a Saviour to take away the fins of the whole world, that thofe that believe and follow him may feel the righteousness of God in the remiffion of their fins, and blotting out their tranfgreffions for ever. Now, behold the remedy! an infallible cure, one of God's appointing; a precious elixir indeed, that never failed; and that univerfal medicine which no malady could ever escape.

§. III. But thou wilt fay, what is Chrift, and where is he to be found? And how received and applied in order to this mighty cure? I tell thee then: first, he is the great spiritual light of the world, that enlightens every one that comes into the world; by which he

* Ezek. xviii. 20, 23, 24. 25. Heb. ix. 24 to 28.

Mat. i. 21. Luke i. 77. Rom. iii. ▸ John ii. 1, 2.

manifefts