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not injoined them, they might lawfully be let alone. And can any thing be more unreasonable, than fo pertinaciously to infift upon things fo hard, I may fay impoffible, to be defended or excufed; and which, by their own acknowledgment, are of no great weight and neceffity; in which we are certainly fafe in not doing them, if they fhould prove lawful; but if they do not prove fo, they are in a moft dangerous condition? So that here is certain fafety on the one hand, and the danger of damnation on the other; which is as great odds as is poffible.

And they must not tell us that they are in no danger, because they are infallible, and cannot be mistaken; they muft prove that point a great deal better than they have yet done, before it can fignify any thing either to our fatisfaction or their fafety..

I might have infifted more largely upon each of thefe particulars; any one of which is of weight to incline a man to that religion which hath fuch an advantage on its fide; but all of them together make fo powerful an argument to an unprejudiced perfon, as mult almoft irrefiftibly determine his choice: for most of the particulars are fo evident, that they cannot, upon the very mention and propofal of them, be denied to be clear advantages on our fide.

And now, to use the words of St. Peter, I teflify unto you, that this is the true grace of God wherein ye ftand; that the reformed religion which we profefs, and which, by the goodness of God, is by law eftablished in this nation, is the true ancient Chriftianity; the faith which was at firft delivered to the faints, and which is conveyed down to us in the writings of the Apostles and the Evangelifts of our Lord and Saviour. Remember therefore how ye have received and heard, and hold faft; for he is faithful that hath promifed; which is the Second part of the text, the encouragement which the Apoftle gives us to hold fast the profeffion of our faith without wavering: He is faithful that hath promifed to give us his Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth; to establifh, ftrengthen, and fettle us in the profeffion of it; to fupport and comfort us under all trials and temptations, and to feal us up to the day of redemption; and he is faithful that hath promised to reward

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our conftancy and fidelity to him and his truth, with a crown of everlasting life and glory. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye ftedfaft and unmoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, forafmuch as ye know that your labour fhall not be in vain in the Lord; for he is faithful that hath promifed. And let us provoke one another to charity and good works, which are the great ornament and glory of any religion; and fo much the more, because the day approacheth in which God will judge the belief and lives of men by Jefus Chrift; not according to the imperious and uncharitable dictates of any church, but accor ding to the gospel of his Son. To whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory now and for ever.

Now the God of peace which brought again from the dead the great fhepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good word and work, working in you that which is pleafing in his fight. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jefus Christ our Lord.

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SERMON

LXIV.

The Chriftian life a life of faith.

2 CO R. v. 7.

For we walk by faith, not by fight.

'N the latter part of the former chapter, the Apoftle declares what it was that was the great fupport of Chriftians under the perfecutions and fufferings which befel them, viz. the affurance of a bleffed refurrection to another life, y 14. Knowing, that he which raifed up the Lord Jefus, fhall raife up us alfo by Jefus : For which caufe (faith he, y16.) we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day: that is, though our bodies, by reafon of the hard

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fhips

Ser. 64. fhips and fufferings which we undergo, are continually decaying and declining; yet our minds grow every day more healthful and vigorous, and gain new strength and refolution, by contemplating the glory and reward of another world, and as it were feeding upon them by faith: For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not feen.

And he refumes the fame argument again at the beginning of this chapter: For we know, that if our earthly houfe of this tabernacle were diffolved, we have a building of God, an houfe not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; that is, we are firmly perfuaded, that when we die, we fhall but exchange thefe earthly and perishing bodies, these houfes of clay, for a heavenly mansion, which will never decay, nor come to ruin. From whence he concludes, y 6. Therefore we are always confident, (Japporles Ev TavTOTE, therefore, whatever happens to us, we are always of good courage, and fee no reafon to be afraid of death), knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are abfent from the Lord; that is, fince our continuance in the body is to our difadvantage, and while we live we are abfent from our happiness, and when we die we fhall then enter upon the poffeffion of it. That which gives us this confidence and good courage, is our faith: for though we be not actually poffelfed of this happinefs which we fpeak of; yet we have a firm perfuafion of the reality of it; which is enough to fupport our fpirits, and keep up our courage, under all afflictions and adverfities whatfoever: 7. For we walk by faith, not by fight.

Thefe words come in by way of parenthesis; in which the Apostle declares in general what is the fwaying and governing principle of a Chriftian life, not only in case of perfecution and affliction, but under all events, and in every condition of human life; and that is faith, in oppofition to fight and prefent enjoyment: We walk by faith, and not by fight. We walk by faith: whatever principle fways and governs a man's life and actions, he is faid to walk and live by it. And as here a Chriftian is faid to walk by faith, fo elsewhere the just is faid to live

by

by faith. Faith is the principle which animates all his refolutions and actions.

And not by fight. The word is sides, which fignifies the thing itself in prefent view and poffeffion, in oppofition to a firm perfuafion of things future and invifible. Sight is the thing in hand, and faith the thing only in hope and expectation. Sight is a clear view and apprehenfion of things prefent, and near to us; faith an obfcure discovery and apprehenfion of things at a distance. So the Apostle tells us, I Cor. xiii. 12. Now we fee through a glafs, darkly; this is faith: but then face to face; this is prefent fight, as one man fees another face to face. And thus likewise the fame Apostle distinguisheth betwixt hope and fight, Rom. viii. 24. 25. Hope that is feen is not hope: for what a man feeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we fee not, then do we with patience wait for it. Sight is poffeffion and enjoyment; faith is the firm perfuafion and expectation of a thing. And this the Apostle tells us was the governing principle of a Chriftian's life: For we walk by faith, and not by fight. From which words I fhall obferve these three things.

1. That faith is the governing principle, and that which bears the great fway in the life and actions of a Chriftian: We walk by faith; that is, we order and govern our lives in the power and virtue of this principle.

2. Faith is a degree of affent inferior to that of fenfe. This is fufficiently intimated in the oppofition betwixt faith and fight. He had faid before, that whilst we are at home in the body, we are abfent from the Lord; and gives this as a reafon and proof of our abfence from the Lord, For we walk by faith, and not by fight; that is, whilst we are in the body, we do not fee and enjoy, but believe and expect: if we were prefent with the Lord, then faith would ceafe, and be turned into fight: but though we have not that affurance of another world, which we fhall have when we come to fee and enjoy these things; yet we are firmly perfuaded of

them.

3. Notwithstanding faith be an inferior degree of affurance; yet it is a principle of fufficient power to go

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vern our lives: We walk by faith. It is fuch an affurance as hath an influence upon our lives.

I. That faith is the governing principle, and that which bears the great fway in the life and actions of a Chriftian: We walk by faith; that is, we order and govern our lives in the power and virtue of this principle. A Chriftian's life confifts in obedience to the will of God; that is, in a readinefs to do what he commands, and in a willingness to suffer what he calls us to and the great arguments and encouragements hereto, are fuch things as are the objects of faith, and not of sense ; fuch things as are abfent and future, and not prefent and in poffeffion; for inftance, the belief of an invifible God, of a fecret power and providence, that orders and governs all things, that can blefs or blast us, and all our defigns and undertakings, according as we demean ourselves towards him, and endeavour to approve ourselves to him; the perfuafion of a fecret aid and influence always ready at hand to keep us from evil, and to ftrengthen and affift us to that which is good; more efpecially, the firm belief and expectation of the happinefs of heaven, and the glorious rewards of another world; which though they be now at a distance, and invifible to us, yet, being grounded upon the promise of God that cannot lie, fhall certainly be made good.

And this faith, this firm perfuafion of abfent and invifible things, the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us, was the great principle of the piety and virtue of good men from the beginning of the world. This he calls, chap. xi. 1. the sugis, or the confident expectation of things hoped for, and the proof, or evidence, of things not feen, viz. a firm perfuafion of the being and providence of God, and of the truth and faithfulness of his promifes. Such was the faith of Abel: he believed that there was a God, and that he was a rewarder of those that faithful, ly ferve him. Such was the faith of Noah; who being warned of God of things at a great diftance, and not feen as yet, notwithstanding believed the divine prediEtion concerning the flood, and prepared an ark. Such alfo was the faith of Abraham, concerning a numerous pofterity by Ifaac, and the inheritance of the land of Canaan. And fuch likewife was the faith of Mofes:

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