thor, and that word which was inspired by it, and sanctifies them to obedience. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Î John ii. 4.

Now this Spirit which sanctifieth, and sanctifieth to obedience, is within us the evidence of our election, and the earnest of our salvation. And whoso are not sanctified and led by this Spirit, the Apostle tells us what is their condition. Rom. viii. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his.

Let us not delude ourselves: this is a truth, if there be any in religion; they who are not made Saints in the state of grace, shall never be Saints in glory.

The stones which are appointed for that glorious temple above, are hewn and polished, and prepared for it here; as the stones were wrought and prepared in the mountains, for building the temple at Jerusalem.

This is God's order: Psalm lxxxiv. 12. He gives grace and glory. Moralists can tell us, that the way to the temple of honor, is through the temple of virtue. They that think they are bound for heaven in the ways of sin, have either found a new way untrodden by all that are gone thither, or will find themselves deceived in the end. We need not then that poor shift for the pressing of holiness and obedience upon men, to represent it to them as the meriting cause of salvation. This is not at all to the purpose, seeing that without it the necessity of holiness to salvation is pressing enough; for holiness is no less necessary to salvation, than if it were the meriting cause of it; it is as inseparably tied to it in the purpose of God. And in the order of performance, godliness is as certainly before salvation, as if salvation did wholly and altogether depend upon it, and were in point of justice deserved by it. Seeing, then, there is no other way to happiness but by holiness, no assurance of the love of God without it, take the Apostle's advice; study it, seek it, follow earnestly after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

Grace unto you, and Peace be multiplied.

It hath always been a civil custom amongst men, to season their intercourse with good wishes one for another; this the Apostles use in their epistles, in a spiritual divine way, suitable to their holy writings. It well becomes the messengers of grace and peace, to wish both, and to make their salutation conform to the main scope and subject of their discourse. The Hebrew word of salutation we have here-Peace, and that which is the spring both of this and all good things, in the other word of salutation used by the Greeks-Grace. All right rejoicing and prosperity, and happiness, flow from this source, and from this alone, and are sought elsewhere in vain.

In general, this is the character of a Christian spirit, to have a

heart filled with blessing, with this sweet good-will and good wishing to all, especially to those who are their brethren in the same profession of religion. And this charity is a precious balm, diffusing itself in the wise and seasonable expressions of it, upon fit occasions; and those expressions must be cordial and sincere, not like what you call court holy-water, in which there is nothing else but falsehood, or vanity at the best. This manifests men to be the sons of blessing, and of the ever-blessed God, the father of all blessing, when in his name they bless one another: yea, our Saviour's rule goes higher, to bless those that curse them, and urges it by that relation to God as their Father, that in this they may resemble him: That ye may be the children of your Futher which is in Heaven.

Peace with God.

From our sense of this peace, or reconcilement with God, arises that which is our inward peace, a calm and quiet temper of mind. This peace which we have with God in Christ, is inviolable; but because the sense and persuasion of it may be interrupted, the soul that is truly at peace with God, may for a time be disquieted in itself, through weakness of faith, or the strength of temptation, or the darkness of desertion, losing sight of that grace, that love and light of God's countenance, on which its tranquillity and joy depend. Thou didst hide thy face, saith David, and I was troubled. But when these eclipses are over, the soul is revived with new consolation, as the face of the earth is renewed and made to smile with the return of the sun in the spring; and this ought always to uphold Christians in the saddest times, viz., that the grace and love of God towards them, depend not on their sense, nor upon any thing in them, but is still in itself incapable of the smallest alteration.

It is natural to men to desire their own peace, the quietness and contentment of their minds: but most men miss their way to it; and therefore find it not; for there is no way to it, indeed, but this one, wherein few seek it, viz., reconcilement and peace with God. The persuasion of that alone makes the mind clear and serene, like your fairest summer days. My peace I give you, saith Christ, not as the world. Let not your hearts be troubled. All the peace and favor of the world cannot calm a trouled heart; but where this peace is which Christ gives, all the trouble and disquiet of the world cannot disturb it. When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only. (See also for this, Psalm xlvi. cxxiii.) All outward distress to a mind thus at peace, is but as the rattling of the hail upon the tiles, to him that sits within the house at a sumptuous feast. A good conscience is styled a feast, and with an advantage

which no other feast can have, nor, were it possible, could men endure it. A few hours of feasting will weary the most professed epicure; but a conscience thus at peace, is a continual feast, with continual unwearied delight. What makes the world take up such a prejudice against religion as a sour unpleasant thing? They see the afflictions and griefs of Christians, but they do not see their joys, the inward pleasure of mind that they can possess in a very hard estate. Have you not tried other ways enough? Hath not he tried them who had more ability and skill for it than you, and found them not only vanity but vexation of spirit? If you have any belief of holy truth, put but this once upon the trial, seek peace in the way of grace. This inward peace is too precious a liquor to be poured into a filthy vessel. A holy heart, that gladly entertains grace, shall find that it and peace cannot dwell asunder.

An ungodly man may sleep to death in the lethargy of carnal presumption and impenitency; but a truc, lively, solid peace, he cannot have. There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God, Isa. lvii. 21. And if He say, there is none, speak peace who will, if all the world with one voice should speak it, it shall prove none.

SPIRITUAL THANKSGIVING AND JOY.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the res urrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. 1 Pet. 1: 3, 4.

It is a cold lifeless thing to speak of spiritual things upon mere report but they that speak of them as their own, as having share and interest in them, and some experience of their sweetness, their discourse of them is enlivened with firm belief, and ardent affection; they cannot mention them, but their hearts are straight taken with such gladness, as they are forced to vent in praises. Thus our Apostle here, and St. Paul, and often elsewhere, when they considered these things wherewith they were about to comfort the godly to whom they wrote, they were suddenly elevated with the joy of them, and broke forth into thanksgiving; so teaching us, by their example, what real joy there is in the consolations of the Gospel, and what praise is due from all the saints to the God of those consolations. This is such an inheritance, that the very thoughts and hopes of it are able to sweeten the greatest griefs and afflictions. What then shall the possession of it be, wherein there shall be no rupture, nor the least drop of any grief at all? The main subject of these verses is, that which is the main comfort that supports the spirits of the Godly in all conditions.

As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as_vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart. Prov.

xxv. 20. Worldly mirth is so far from curing spiritual grief, that even worldly grief, where it is great and takes deep root, is not allayed but increased by it. A man who is full of inward heaviness, the more he is encompassed about with mirth, it exasperates and enrages his grief the more; like ineffectual weak physic, which removes not the humor, but stirs it and makes it more unquiet; but spiritual joy is seasonable for all estates: in prosperity, it is pertinent to crown and sanctify all other enjoyments, with this which so far surpasses them; and in distress, it is the only Nepenthe, the cordial of fainting spirits: so, Ps. iv. 7, He hath put joy into my heart. This mirth makes way for itself, which other mirth cannot do. These songs are sweetest in the night of distress. Therefore the Apostle, writing to his scattered afflicted brethren, begins his Epistle with this song of praise, Blessed be the God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Inheritance of the Saints.

God is bountiful to all, gives to all men all that they have, health, riches, honor, strength, beauty, and wit, but these things he scatters (as it were) with an indifferent hand. Upon others he looks, as well as upon his beloved children; but the inheritance is peculiarly theirs. Inheritance is convertible with Sonship; Abraham gave gifts to Keturah's sons, and dismissed them, Gen. xxv. 5; but the inheritance was for the Son of the promise. When we see a man rising in preferment or estate, or admired for excellent gifts and endowments of mind, we think there is a happy man: but we consider not that none of all those things are matter of inheritance; within a while he is to be turned out of all, and if he have not somewhat beyond all those to look to, he is but a miserable man, and so much the more miserable, that once he seemed and was reputed happy. There is a certain time wherein heirs come to possess: thus it is with this inheritance too. There is mention made by the Apostles of a perfect man,— unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, Eph. iv. 13. And though the inheritance is rich and honorable, yet the heir, being young, is held under discipline, and is more strictly dealt with, possibly, than the servants,-sharply corrected for that which is let pass in them; but still, even then, in regard of that which he is born to, his condition is much better than theirs, and all the correction he suffers prejudices him not, but fits him for inheriting. The love of our heavenly Father is beyond the love of mothers in tenderness, and yet beyond the love of fathers (who are usually said to love more wisely) in point of wisdom. He will not undo his children, his heirs, with too much indulgence. It is one of his heavy judgments upon the foolish children of disobedience, that Ease shall slay them, and their prosperity shall prove their destruction.

While the children of God are childish and weak in faith, they are like some great heirs before they come to years of understanding: they consider not their inheritance, and what they are to come to, have not their spirits elevated to thoughts worthy of their estate, and their behaviour conformed to it; but as they grow up in years, they come, by little and little, to be sensible of those things, and the nearer they come to possession, the more apprehensive they are of their quality, and of what doth answerably become them to do. And this is the duty of such as are indeed heirs of glory;-to grow in the understanding and consideration of that which is prepared for them, and to suit themselves, as they are able, to those great hopes. This is what the Apostle St. Paul prays for, on behalf of his Ephesians, ch. i. ver. 18. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints. This would make them holy and heavenly, to have their conversation in Heaven, from whence they look for a Saviour. That we may, then, the better know somewhat of the dignity and riches of this inheritance, let us consider the description which is here given us of it. And, first, It is

Incorruptible.

Although this seems to be much the same with the third quality, That fadeth not away, (which is a borrowed expression for the illustrating of its incorruptibleness,) yet, I conceive that there is some difference, and that in these three qualities there is a gradation. Thus it is called incorruptible; that is, it perisheth not, cannot come to nothing, is an estate that cannot be spent; but though it were abiding, yet it might be such as that the continuance of it were not very desirable; it would be but a misery at best, to continue always in this life. Plotinus thanked God that his soul was not tied to an immortal body. Then, undefiled; it is not stained with the least spot: this signifies the purity and perfection of it, as that the perpetuity of it. It doth not only abide, and is pure, but both together, it abideth always in its integrity. And lastly, it fadeth not away; it doth not fade nor wither at all, is not sometimes more, sometimes less pleasant, but ever the same, still like itself; and this constitutes the immutability of it.

As it is incorruptible, it carries away the palm from all earthly possessions and inheritances; for all those epithets are intended to signify its opposition to the things of this world, and to shew how far it excels them all; and in this comparative light we are to consider it. For as divines say of the knowledge of God which we have here, that the negative notion makes up a great part of it-we know rather what He is not than what he is, infinite, incomprehensible, immutable, &c., so it is of this happiness, this inheritance; and indeed it is no other than God. We cannot tell you