the Scriptures, and from his nature and designs. You could not speak more agreeably to his mind. If he had hired you, and written down every word which he would have you speak, you could not more punctually obey him. Do you plead against holiness, and for a careless, ungodly life? Do you despise the righteous, and justify the wicked? Just so would the devil have you do. If he stood by you, and prompted you (a sindeed he doth, though you do not know it) those are the very words that he would have you say. Indeed when he is compelled the devil himself speaketh better than you, as in Acts xvi. 17. he saith, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation." These are better words than yours. But he is left to himself, and speaketh of his own, he speaketh just as you do. And shall we believe you when the devil sets you on, and you speak the words of the lying spirit?

19. And I the less believe you, when you say that the world is the worse for preaching and religiousness, because I know from whence this comes. You take that to be the best, that is the worst; and that to be the worst, that is indeed the best. You judge after the flesh, and take those for the best times when you have most prosperity, and may sin with the least contradiction and molestation, and be least troubled in your sensual course. These are your good days which wise men know to be your slavery and misery. It is never a good world with you, when your consciences are troubled, and your sores are lanced, and satan cannot keep his garrison in peace; and when you cannot be permitted to drink, and swear, and game, and revel without control. And if this be your good world, I had rather have a prison or a pair of stocks with Christ and the Gospel which you despise, and with the means and hopes of the world to come, than to have your good world, which is but the quietest passage to damnation. You are not yet to be believed. Stay till you see the end, and what becomes of it, and then tell us which was the good world.

20. Lastly, If all this will not serve, I will silence you and shame you, if you have any shame left. If religion and so much serving of God do make the world worse, and those be the worst times where there is most of these, then heaven would be worse than earth or hell, even the worst place in all the world. For no place hath so much holiness as heaven.

No where is there so much ado about the praise and service of God, as there is in heaven. There they do nothing else but that which you revile, and that in highest fervour and perfection. They rest not day or night saying, “ Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come;" Rev. iv.8. Dost thou know the man on earth that is most precise, and holy, and diligent for God? Why the lowest

of the saints in heaven go quite beyond him. And in good sadness, dost thou take heaven to be the worst place? and think that so much holiness will make it troublesome? Bear witness then against thyself. Out of thy own mouth art thou condemned. How canst thou expect to be admitted into heaven, that takest it for so bad a place? Thou teachest God to thrust thee back, and say to thee, 'Begone; here is nothing but holiness, which you could not abide. You shall go to a place where religion and holiness shall not trouble you.'

Well, sirs, consider now as men of reason, of all these twenty reasons which I have given you, and then tell me, whether that be not the better world, and the better soul, where there is the most faith and holiness.

CHAPTER VI.

Holiness is the only way of Safety.

I HAVE proved to you that holiness is best for commonwealths, and given you many general undeniable evidences, to prove that it is best for all men in particular. I shall now come to the particular evidences, and shew you wherein it is that it is best for all men.

There are three sorts of good that men have to look after. The first is the security of their life and being; the second is their moral wellbeing; and the third is their natural wellbeing. This last also is divided into three branches, and consisteth in our profit, our honour, and our pleasure.

So that here are five several sorts of goodness to be considered of, and you will find that holiness is best, beyond all comparison, in each respect. 1. In respect of Safety. 2. In

point of Honesty. 3. In point of Gain. 4. In point of Honour. And 5. In point of Pleasure or Delight. If I prove not every one of these, then tell me, I promised more than 1 could perform. But if I do prove them, I look that you that read it, should promise presently to come in to God, and a holy life, and faithfully perform it.

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1. And that HOLINESS IS THE SAFEST WAY, I prove thus. 1. That man is in a safer state that is delivered from the power of satan, than he that is in his bondage, and taken captive by him at his will. But all the unsanctified are in this captivity, and all the sanctified are delivered out of it; as the Scripture most expressly tell us, Ephes. ii. 1—3. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom we also had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fufilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind," &c. So 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26. 'In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,who are taken captive by him at his will.” And Acts xxvi. 17, 18. "I send thee to open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God." And Col. i. 13. "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Satan is the ruler and the jailor of the ungodly, that leadeth them to sin, and so to destruction, and keepeth them for torments at the day of wrath. And is he safe that is in the devil's power? If he should appear to thee, and lay hold of thee, thou wouldst not think that thou wert safe. But his possession of thy soul is far more dangerous. Thou dost not believe that thou art in his power. But thy blindness sheweth it; and thy enmity to the way of holiness sheweth it; and thy ungodly life doth fully shew it; and the Scripture affirmeth it of all such; and what need there any further proof? But the sanctified are all delivered from this slavery; and though the devil may rage against them, he shall not prevail.

2. Moreover, those that are united to Jesus Christ, and are become the living members of his body, are certainly

safer than those that are yet strangers to him, and have no special interest in him. But all that are sanctified are thus united to Christ, and made his members; and all the unsanctified have no part in him. "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life;" 1 John v. 12. John xv. 6, 7.9, 10. "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue in my love. If ye keep my love." commandments, ye shall abide in my 66 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you;" ver. 14. "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water, by the word; that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. No man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones;" Eph. v. 25-27.29.30.

Judge by these passages whether the sanctified are not safe. If the love of Christ, and his merits, and his power cannot keep them safe, then nothing can. If the Saviour cannot save them, none can. Is not the very flesh of Christ safe? Are not the members of his body safe? Are not his friends, his spouse, and beloved safe? If Christ can save us we are safe. For who can conquer him? or who can take us out of his hands? John x. 28. If he "be for us, who shall be against us?" and if he justify us, who shall condemn us? Rom. viii. 33-35.

But is it so with the ungodly? No; they have no part nor lot in this matter, but are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity, because "their heart is not right in the sight of God;" Acts viii. 21.23.

Moreover, he that hath escaped the curse of the law, and hath his sins forgiven him, and is justified from all things that could by the law be charged on him, is safer than he that is under the curse, and hath all his sins yet lying on his soul. But the first of these is certainly the case of the sanctified, and the other of the unsanctified. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written,

Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.-Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us;" Gal. iii. 10. 13. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Rom. iii. 23. And Mark iv. 12. shews, that the unconverted have not their sins forgiven them. "He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already;" John iii. 18. And Acts xxvi. 18. "To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me." "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit;" Rom. viii. 1. Abundance more such passages of holy Scripture do assure us that all the unsanctified are unpardoned, and all the sanctified are justified, and delivered from the curse. And which of these are in the safer state?

Did one of you owe ten thousand pounds more than you were worth, or had you committed twenty known felonies or murders, would you think yourselves safe without a pardon? Would you not be looking behind you, and afraid of almost every man you see, lest he came to apprehend you? O what a case is that man in that hath so many thousand sins to answer for! and hath such a load of guilt upon his soul! and so many terrible threatenings of the law in force against him? Do you not fear every hour, lest death arrest you, and bring you to the prison of the bottomless pit? But the sanctified is delivered from this danger. A thousand sins indeed were against us; but we have a pardon of them all to shew. In Christ we have "redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins;" 1 Col. i. 14. The law hath nothing now against us, and therefore we are safe.

4. Those are safer that are dearly beloved of the Lord, and reconciled to him, and taken for his children, than those that are his enemies, and hated by him, and under his displeasure. But most certainly the former is the state of all the sanctified, and the latter is the state of the ungodly.

You shall see both in the words of God, Psal. v. 4, 5. "Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all the works of iniquity." "My