unto God, and wait diligently upon him for the affiftance of his Grace, to do what he requires from us. Let us do this and we need not fear but our Souls fhall live. If we leave this undone we our felves fhall be undone for ever. And therefore let me advise all to dally no longer in a matter of fuch consequence as this is, but now we know the way to Heaven to turn immediately into it, and walk conftantly in it. Though the way be narrow it is not long, and though the Gate be ftrait, it opens into eternal Life. And therefore to conclude. Let us remember we have now been told how to get to Heaven, it is not in my power to force Men thither whether they will or no, I can only fhew them the way. It is their Intereft as well as Duty to walk in it, which if they do I dare affure them, in the name of Chrift, it is not long but they will be admitted into the Choir of Heaven, to fing Halleluja's for ever more. Thoughts Thoughts upon the Imitation of Chrift. F we feriously confider with our felves that Wonder of all Wonders, that Myftery of all Myfteries, the Incarnation of the Son of God, it may juftly ftrike us into Astonishment, and an Admiration what fhould be the reafon and the end of it; why the great and glorious, the almighty and éternal God, fhould take our weak and finite Nature into his infinite and incomprehenfible Perfon; why the Creator of all things fhould himfelf become a Creature; and he that made the World be him-) felf made into it; why the fupreme Being of all Beings, that gives Effence and Existence to all things in the World, whofe Glory the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain, fhould cloath himfelf with Flefh, and become Man, of the felf fame Nature and Substance with us, who live and move and have our Being in him! Certainly it was not upon any frivolous or ordinary account, that the most high God manifefted himself to the Sons of Men in fo wonderful and extraordinary a manner as this was. But he did it queftionless upon fome Defign that was as great and glorious as the Act it felf. And if we would know 231 what his End and Defign in coming into the World was, the Scripture affures us in general, that it was for the Salvation of Mankind, whofe Nature he affumed: For this is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Chrift Jefus came into the World to fave finners, 1 Tim. i. 15. And he himself tells us, That God so loved. the World, that be fent his only begotten Son, that whofoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, John iii. 16. Now for the accomplishment of this no less glorious than gracious Defign, there are two things which it was neceflary he should do for us, whilft he was upon Earth, even expiate our former Sins, and direct unto Holiness for the future; both which he hath effected for us: the one by his Death and the other by his Life. FOR by his Death he hath paid that Debt which we owed to God, having made complete fatisfaction to God's Juftice for thofe Sins, whereby we have incurred his Difpleasure For Death was threatned to all Mankind in cafe of Difobedience, and by confequence all Mankind being difobedient, are obnoxious to it. Neither would it ftand with the Juftice of God, to falfify his Word, nor yet with his Glory, to put up the Injuries that we have committed against him, without having fatisfaction made made unto him for them. But it being impoffible that a finite Creature fhould fatif fy for thofe Sins which were commited a gainst the infinite God: Hence the infinite God himself was pleafed to undertake it for us, even to fatify himfelf for those Sins which were committed against him; which he did, by undergoing that Death which he had threaten'd to us in our own Nature, united to the Perfon of his own and only Son, God coequal, coeffential, coeternal with himself, who is therefore said to be a propitiation for our fins, 1 John ii. 2. Neither can there any reafon imaginable be alledged, why the Son of God himself fhould fuffer Death, unlefs it was upon our account, and in our ftead, whofe Nature he affumed, and in which he fuffered it. But not to infift upon that now. The humane Nature in general; having thus fuffered that Death in the Perfon of the Son of God, which all Mankind was otherwife bound to have undergone in their own Perfons; hence it comes to pafs, that we are all in a Capacity of avoiding that Death which we have deferved by our Sins, if we do but rightly believe in Christ, and apply his Sufferings to our felves. AND as Chrift by his Death and Paffions hath thus fatisfied for our Sins, fo hath he by his Life and Actions, given us an ex act act Pattern of true Piety and Vertue. And although I cannot fay it was the only, yet queftionless one great End wherefore he continued fo long on Earth, and converfed fo much amongst Men, and that fo many of his Actions are delivered to us with fo many Circumftances as they are, was, that we by his Example, might learn how to carry and behave our felves in this lower World. For as from that time to this, fo from the beginning of the World to that time, there had been never a Man upon the face of the Earth, that had lived fo conformably to the Law of God, that it was fafe or lawful for another to follow him in all things. For all Flefh was corrupt, and the very best of Men were still but Men, fubject to failures in their Lives as well as to Errors in their Judgments; yea thofe very Perfons whom the Scriptures record, and God himself attefteth to have been eminent in their Generations for Piety and Justice, did oftentimes fail in both. Noah is afferted by God himself, to have been righteous in his Generation, Abraham to be the Eather of the Faithful, Mofes to be the meekeft Man upon Earth, David to be à Man after God's own Heart, Solomon to have been the wifeft Man that ever liv'd, and Fob to be a perfect and upright Man, one that feared God and efchewed Evil: yet |