SERMON X.

A BELIEVER's GOLDEN CHAIN. CAN T. V. 16. He his altogether Lovely. Doctrine, Jefus Chrift is Infinitely and Superlatively Lovely.

I

COME now to the fecond use, and that is a use of exhortation; and here I fhall make a golden chain of twelve links, for believers to wear about their necks.

I. Hear the best men. Read the best books. Keep the beft company.

Hear the beft men: O firs, liften to a foul-enriching and foul-winning Minifter, one that declareth the whole council of God, that gives the Father fon and Holy Ghost his due; one that maketh hard things eafy, and dark things plain. Many there are, who inftead of making hard things eafy to the peole, fpeak in unknown tongues, which they underland not, and all to work a vain admiration of them in the ignorant; but how unlike to Chrift, the Prophets and Apoftles, thefe are, I will leave you to judge.

This is as if a man fhould make a scaffold as high as a steeple, when his work is done upon the ground.

Ministers

be

Ministers are called angels, because we fhould be as fuch in our lives; but if Angels fall, they turn devils! O we should be holy as they. Jefus Chrift taught them, as they were able to bear and hear, 1 Mark iv. 33. Paul was excellent at this, I had rather Speak five words in a known tongue, than ten thousand in an unknown. A man may a good fcholar, and yet a great finner, Judas the traitor, was a preacher: Therefore let me befeech you, for your poor fouls fake, hear thofe minifters that come nearest to Chrift, the Prophets and Apoftles; he is the best preacher that doth molt good, and wins molt fouls.

Read the best books, for in them you will find comfort to your fouls; and compare what is spoken in the books of man, with what is written in the book of God.

Keep the best company, be much with them that are with God, Truly our fellowShip is with the Father, and with his Son Jefus Chrift, 1 John i. 3. Forfake all bad company, and join yourself with good; let them be thy choice companions that have made Chrift theirs; carry them in your bofom by love, who fhall be carried by Angels into Abraham's bofom; let Chrift's dove be your love: Believers fhould be with none but themselves, you know what our English proverb is, "birds of a feather flock together; being let go they went to their

Own

own company," Acts iv. 25. Indeed to fee a faint and a finner, affociating with one aanother, is to fee the dead and the living keep houfe together; carnal men, though, they be naturally alive, yet they are fpiritually dead; 'tis better to be with Lazarus though in his rags, than to be Dives, though in his robes; He that walketh with the wife, Jhall be wife, Prov. xiii. 20. O dwell where God dwells, make them your companions on earth, who fhall be yours in heaven.

II. Meditate often, and think on the four laft things; death which, is most certain; judgment moft ftrict, hell moft doleful; heaven moft delightful. delightful. Meditate upon death, which is molt certain; He hath appointed unto all men once to die, Heb. ix. 27. Out of duft was man formed, and unto duft fhall he return; to think of death, is a death to fome; but beloved, meditate on death, the meditation of which, will put fin to death. Death to the wicked is the end of all comfort, and the beginning of all mifery; but to the godly, it is the outlet to fin and forrow, and the inlet to peace and happiness; the faints enjoyment fhall be incomparable, when the finners torments fhall be intolerable; when a believer's foul fhall go out of his own bofom, it goeth into Abraham's; when a believer dies, he leaves all his bad behind him; and carries his good with him; when a finner dies, he

carries

carries his bad with him, and leaves his good behind him; the one goeth from evil to good, the other from good to evil :When a faint leaves the world, his flesh returns to duft, and his fpirit to reft ;-when a finner leaves the world, his body goes to worms to be confumed, and his foul to the flames to be tormented; the one goes to Abraham's bofom, the other to Belzebubs. The chaff to the fire, and the wheat to the barn. O! therefore meditate upon death. When you come into the world, you only live to die again; when you go out of it, you do but die to live again.

An old finner is nearer the fecond death, than he is to the fecond birth; his body is nearer to corruption, than his foul is unto falvation; death levelleth the highest mountains with the loweft vallies; the robes of Princes, and the rags of beggars, are both laid up together in the wardrobe of the grave. The reason why men fo little prepare for death, is becaufe they fo little think of it; when they feel ficknefs arrefting them, then they fear death approaching-The grave is a bed to reft in, but not a fhop to trade in; when the foul in death takes its flight from its loving mate, they fhall meet no more till the general affize. When you are putting off your cloaths, think of putting off your tabernacles; go to your beds, as if you were going to your graves; and

fo

fo close your eyes in one world, as you would open them in another. Remember, christians, that God can as eafily turn you into the duft, as he could take you out of it.

Meditate upon judgment, which is most ftrict, We must all ppear before the judgment Jeat of Chrift. They who will not come before his mercy-feat, fhall be forced to come before his judgment-feat; they who will not hear his word, fhall feel his fword ; they who are graceless in this day, will be fpeechlefs in that. At the world's end fuch will be at their wits end, to fee the earth flaming, the heavens melting, the ftars falling, the graves opening, the judgment haftening, the fun and moon mourning, and Chrift and his Angels coming: He that comes to raise the dead, will alfo come to judge them. O firs, that great day to finners, will be terrible, when they fhall fee Christ coming in the clouds, who hath the person of a man, but the power of God, being crowned with dignity, and guarded with Angels, and inraged with anger, and enabled with power, to bring all Kings and Nobles, high and low, rich and power, to his bar; and there he will judge them, not by the witness of their countenances, but by the blackness of their confciences; he that was guarded to the cross with a band of foldiers, fhall be escorted to the bench with a guard of Angels; you that make no account of his coming