vocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins." Then we should press to- [Phil. 3. 14.] wards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, because it is written, "To him that overcometh Rev. 3. 21. will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." Yet, could we always live with a firm belief of what is written in God's Holy Word, we should live in the other world, while we are in this; "our conversations would be [Phil.3.20.] always in Heaven," our thoughts and affections would be still running upon Almighty God as present with us, or upon our Saviour as interceding for us, or upon the work that He hath set us, or upon the account that we must give Him of it, or upon the reward that He hath promised to those who do it faithfully, or upon something or other which we find there written; and so should steer an even course through all the changes and chances of this mortal life, till we come to the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls, through Jesus Christ our only Saviour, "to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for ever." Amen.

Now these things being thus plainly laid down before you, give me leave to deal freely with you concerning what you have now heard; for it concerns you all very much, infinitely more than any thing in this world can do. You cannot surely but know, that "without faith it is impossible [Heb.5.6.] to please God," that your sins can never be pardoned, nor your souls ever saved without it. Now by what you have now heard, you may easily perceive whether you have true faith or no, whether you believe the Gospel, as you are there required, to the saving of your souls. For if the word preached makes no impression upon you; if you hear sermon after sermon, as many do, to our shame be it spoken, and yet be never the wiser nor better for it; if you be not "doers of the Word, but hearers only, deceiving your own [James 1. souls" you may then conclude, that notwithstanding your profession of the Gospel, you do not believe it. You believe it no more than they who do not so much as profess it; and therefore are as yet in the same deplorable condition with them, even in the "gall of bitterness, and in the bond of [Acts 8.23.]

22.]

X.

SERM. iniquity." But if " the Word preached work effectually" in you; if it stirs up your hearts, and strengthens your resolutions to obey it; if it puts you upon constant and sincere endeavours to live according as you are there taught, you have then good ground to believe, that you do really believe it, and shall as certainly obtain what is there promised, as you sincerely perform what is commanded in it.

18.]

Wherefore, in the name of Christ our Saviour, I beseech you all not to satisfy yourselves any longer with the bare hearing of God's Word; but whensoever you hear it read or preached to you, "receive it as it is in truth the Word of God," and act your faith accordingly upon it, that so it may "work effectually" in you, both while you hear it, and whensoever you call it to mind again. As for example, you have lately heard, how you ought to worship and glorify God, and how to serve Him daily, in His house of Prayer, and often at His holy table; these things have been plainly delivered to you out of God's own Word.

Now, though you have hitherto seemed not to regard God's Holy Word, nor so much as to believe it to be His Word, in that you have not done it; yet now that you are [James 2. put in mind of it again, "shew your faith by your works,” manifest to the world, and to your own consciences, that you believe God's Word, by your constant performing the foresaid duties, and whatsoever else you hear to be there required of you. And whensoever you have the Gospel preached to you, do but receive it with faith, and you cannot but receive benefit and comfort from it: then every sermon you hear will do you good, and you will have cause to thank God for it; and so shall we also who preach God's Word unto you for then we may truly say to you, as the Apostle here saith to the Thessalonians; "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the Word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."

SERMON XI.

MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS.

2 COR. v. 20.

Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

We live in an age, and among a people that place a great part if not the whole of their religion in hearing sermons; and yet we find but few that are ever the more religious for all they hear, most contenting themselves with coming to Church, and continuing, or perhaps sitting down there all the while that the prayers are read, and a sermon preached, and then going home again, without ever concerning themselves any further about what they have heard, nor so much as thinking of it any more: and then it is no wonder that they are never the wiser, nor the better for it. But it may justly seem a great wonder, how it comes to pass, that the Word of God, which of itself" is sharper than any two-edged [Heb.4.12.] sword," should, notwithstanding, make so little impression

upon those who hear it: but though they hear it over and

over again, they are never "pricked in their hearts," as St. [Acts 2.37.] Peter's hearers were, nor any way touched or affected with it; but still continue just as they were, careless and unconcerned about their future state, and every thing relating to it, how plainly, how powerfully soever it is pressed upon

them.

This may justly seem strange to one that considers, how commonly "the Word" of God is preached among us, both in the city and country: but several reasons may be assigned for it; one of the chief is, that men in hearing the Word preached, usually look no further than to him who

XI.

SERM. preacheth it; taking what he saith to them as coming only from him their fellow-creature, a man of like passions with themselves; and therefore regard it no more than what is said by any other man: whereas if they really believed and considered, that the Word they hear, is the Word of God Himself; and that he who preacheth it, preacheth not in his own name, but God's, and accordingly received it as the Thessalonians did, "not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectually worketh in them that believe," they would soon find it "working effectually" also upon them: it would then come with that power and force upon them, that it would "cut them to the heart," and Acts 2. 37. make them cry out as St. Peter's hearers did, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

1 Thess. 2. 13.

[v. 18.]

[v. 19.]

This therefore is that which St. Paul, in my text, puts the Corinthians in mind of; and the better to prepare them for it, he first acquaints them in the foregoing verses, that God hath reconciled "Mankind to Himself by Jesus Christ," and that He hath committed the Word and ministry of this reconciliation to us, the Apostles and their successors in all ages; that we, in His name, and by His authority, might publish it to the world, and persuade men to accept of the peace which He now offers to them, so as to be reconciled to Him, as He is to them by Jesus Christ. And having said this, the Apostle draws this conclusion from it, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

This is a truth so necessary for all Christians to know that it is the first thing that St. Paul put those he wrote to in mind of in all his Epistles (which he wrote as from himself only, without joining any other with him), beginning them with saying," Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ," or " Paul called to be an Apostle," or the like; that they to whom he wrote might know, that he did not write to them as a private person, but as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, that is, as the word signifies, a legate or messenger of Christ, sent and empowered by Him to write: that so they might receive what he was about to write to them, not as coming from him, but from Christ Himself; an Apostle being in effect the same

with an Ambassador. But foreseeing that this name would in process of time be appropriated only to the twelve, and such as were called immediately by Christ Himself, as he and some others were; therefore in my text, speaking not only of these, but of such also as should succeed them in any part of their Apostolical office in all ages, he alters the phrase, not saying, we are Apostles, but we are Ambassadors for Christ. A word that is commonly known to signify such as are sent by a prince to a foreign country, to treat in his name about matters of state, as particularly about peace and war. And so Christ Himself useth the word, where, speaking of a king going to make war with another king, He saith, that "he sits down first, and consults whether he be Luke 14.32. able to meet him or no: or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage, and desireth conditions of peace." So here, although Almighty God can meet with us when He pleaseth, and we are no way able to withstand Him; yet howsoever, He is graciously pleased to send some men to treat with others in His name about peace with Him, to acquaint them with the easy conditions that He hath made and expects from them, and to assure them, that upon their performance of the said conditions, he will be reconciled to them, and at "peace" with them. And therefore all who are thus sent or commissioned by Him, to act in His name, are properly called Ambassadors, and, as the Apostle here saith, "Ambassadors for Christ," or in the place and stead of Christ. As it was He that procured this peace for mankind, so He is the chief manager of all things relating to it; therefore called, "the Angel;" or, as we translate it," the Messenger of the Covenant." Because He Mal. 3. 1. was sanctified and sent by the Father "to publish and de- John 6. 57; clare it to the world," and did it so faithfully, that before He went out of the world, He could truly say unto the Father, "I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which John 17. 6, Thou gavest Me out of the world, I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me." Where we may likewise observe, that like a wise and faithful "Ambassador," He kept strictly to the instructions, and

8.29; 10.36.

8.