II. Doing so hath a reasonableness and decency ground- SERM, ed upon our relations to Chrift: it is fit and comely that XXXV. the manners of the difciple fhould be regulated by those of his mafter; that the fervant fhould not, in his garb and demeanour, diffent or vary from his lord; that the subject fhould conform his humour to the fashion of his prince; especially that we should thus comply and conform to fuch a Mafter, fuch a Lord, fuch a Prince, whom (upon highest confiderations) by a moft voluntary choice, and in a moft folemn manner, we have abfolutely devoted ourfelves unto this reafon our Lord doth himself urge: Ye, faith he to his difciples, call me Mafter, and Lord; and John xiii. ye fay well, for fo I am: if I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye alfo ought to wash one another's feet. 13, 14. III. Following Chrift's example is requifite to demonftrate the fincerity of our faith, love, and reverence to him. It is the most natural way of teftifying affection and respect, to imitate the manners of those perfons, who are the objects of thofe acts and difpofitions, to esteem what they approve, to delight in what they affect, and confequently (fince actions do proceed from affections) to do as they do. Contrary actions are plain arguments of contrary judgments, inclinations, and affections. Who can imagine we fincerely believe in Chrift, or heartily love him, or truly honour him, that feeth us to loathe what he liked, or affect what he detefted; to contemn what he prized, or value what he despised; to neglect what he pursued, or embrace what he avoided? But if our lives resemble his, any man will thence collect our refpect and affection to him: this argument our Saviour doth alfo intimate: By this, faith he, fhall all men know John xiii. ye are my difciples, if ye love one another; that is, it will 35. be an evident fign and strong argument, that ye really do believe in, love, and honour me, if ye imitate me in my charity. IV. By pretending to be Chriftians we acknowledge the tranfcendent goodnefs, worth, and excellency of our Saviour; that he was incomparably better and wiser than ปี 2 SERM. any perfon ever was, or could be; that he always acted XXXV. with the highest reason, out of the most excellent difpofi tion of mind, in order to the best purposes; and that his practice therefore reasonably fhould be the rule and pattern of ours. For the best and exacteft in every kind is the measure of the reft. All that would obtain exquifite skill in any art or faculty, think beft to imitate the works of the best masters therein: a painter, to draw after the pieces of Zeuxis or Apelles, of Raphael or Titian; an orator, to speak in the ftyle of Cicero or Demofthenes; a foldier, to emulate the military achievements of Hannibal or Cæfar: in like manner, reafon requireth, if we would live well and happily, that we should endeavour to conform our practice to that of our Saviour, the most perfect mirror of all virtue and goodness. V. The practice of our Saviour did throughly agree with his doctrine and law; he required nothing of us, which he did not eminently perform himself. He fulfilled in deed, as well as taught in word, all righteousness. He was not ignava opera, philofopha fententia; like those mafters of philofophy, fo frequently taxed and derided by the Satyrifts; who, by a horrid garb, fupercilious looks, and loud declamations, would feem to discountenance thofe vices which themselves practifed; nor like those hypocritical lawyers in the Gofpel, who laded other Luke xi. 46. men with heavy burdens, fuch as themselves would not touch with one of their fingers: no, he impofed nothing on us, which he did not first bear upon his own shoulders: the ftrictnefs of his life did, in all refpects, correfpond with the feverity of his precepts, or rather did indeed much exceed them. They therefore who pretend to believe his doctrine, and avow themselves bound to obferve his law, are confequently engaged to follow his practice, in which his doctrine and law are fignally exemplified. VI. It being the defign of divine goodness, in fending * Οὐδὲν ψυχρότερον τοῦ κατὰ λόγους φιλοσοφοῦντος. Chryf. Τῶν τὸ βῆμα τοῦ τρόπου κατήγορον. Νaz. our Saviour, to render us good and happy, to deliver us SERM. from fin and mifery, to inftruct us in the knowledge and XXXV. excite us to the practice of all virtue, and thereby to qualify us for the enjoyment of a blessed immortality; effecting all this in a way agreeable to our natural condition and capacity; there could not be devised any more powerful means, or more convenient method, of accomplishing those excellent purposes, than by propounding fuch an example, and obliging us to comply therewith: the which may appear, 1. by confidering in general the advantage and efficacy that good example is apt to have upon practice; 2. by weighing the peculiar excellency of our Saviour's example above all others, in order to those ends; and, 3. by furveying the particular inftances of imitable goodness represented in the life of our Saviour. 1. Good example is naturally an effectual inftrument of good practice; for that it doth most compendiously, pleasantly, and easily instruct; representing things to be done at one view, in a full body, clothed with all their modes and circumftances; it recommends them to us by the most plain and plaufible way of reasoning, (and withal the most fure and fafe,) the authority of wife and good men; it encourageth by evidently declaring the practicableness of rules prescribed; it kindleth and rouseth men's courage, by a kind of contagion, as one flame doth kindle another; it raiseth a worthy emulation of doing laudable things, which we fee done; or of obtaining a fhare in the commendations and rewards of virtue. It urgeth modefty, breeding shame and regret in them who act contrarily thereto; it awakeneth curiofity, thereby producing a defire to make trial of what it propofeth; it affecteth and pleaseth the fancy, thereby infinuating an approbation, admiration, and liking of the good things, which it reprefenteth: briefly, it exciteth and engageth all our paffions, fetting on work all those powerful springs of activity; it confequently is, in its own nature, an efficacious mean of good practice. This we may in general fay of all good example; but, 2. More especially the example of Chrift doth, in effi SERM. cacy and influence upon good practice, furpass all others; upon feveral accounts. XXXV. First, In that it is a fure and infallible rule, an entire and perfect rule of practice; deficient in no part, fwerving in no circumftance from truth and right, which privileges are competent to no other example. The practice of the best men is not always to be imitated, nor ever absolutely as a certain ground of action; it is to be (fo far as we have ability) confidered, examined, and compared to more certain rules, (the divine laws and the principles of right reafon,) according to their agreement with which they are to be followed: they are indeed (before trial of the cafe) probable arguments of what is done by them being good and lawful; they do outweigh flender and obfcure reafonings about the goodness of things; they may, when opportunity, leifure, or ability of farther inquiry and judgment about things are wanting, ferve to direct us; but they are not throughly sure rules, or perfect measures of our duty. We fhould beware left we be feduced even by holy perfons; and, therefore, with circumfpection and caution fhould peruse their story, and contemplate their demeanour; whereof those which are explicitly commended, or allowed by the divine judgment, we may, being affured that we are in the fame circumstances, fafely follow, (taking them for monitories, encouragements, and excitements to our duty :) but those that are directly condemned by the fame fentence, or apparently devious from God's law, we as carefully fhould avoid; 'fuch as are of a doubtful and unaccountable nature we are to fufpend about, and not to ground upon; nor to argue from the fact to the rightfulness of them; the safeft way being always (as we are able) to have recourfe to the fimple, plain, and perfpicuous precepts of God, and dictates of reason. For the best men have been always subject to errors and infirmities; the fountain of original corruption in them was never fo dried up, or clofely ftopped, but that fome impure ftreams have bubbled forth; the fire 1 It was ill faid of Seneca: Catoni ebrietas objecta eft, et facilius efficiet, quifquis objecerit hoc crimen, honeftum, quam turpem Catonem. of natural concupifcence was never fo utterly quenched, SERM. but that sometimes it would blaze, or fmoke out in bad XXXV. actions; that inteftine enemy, the flesh, was never throughly fubdued, nor the body of fin quite slain and mortified in any other mortal man. Good men have ever had fome foul spots, or deforming wrinkles, appearing in the beauteous face of their converfation; they have had their inequalities and indifpofitions of humour, their ebbs of devotion, their fits of floth, their wanton freaks, their flips often, and sometimes their falls; they have been subject to be deluded by mistake, to be surprised by inadvertency, to be transported by paffion, to be fwayed by temper, to be biaffed by intereft, to be allured by temptation into falfe and unwarrantable proceedings; they might fometimes fail in the fubftance, oftener in the degree, in the manner, in the circumftances of action; we find them often complaining of their pronenefs to do amifs, bemoaning the wretched frailty of their state; yea, often repenting and bitterly mourning for their actual transgresfions: there hardly is any faint, recorded in Scripture, without fome blemish in his actions; which thews our weakness, and engageth us to be wary. They were, indeed, endowed with fufficient competences of divine light, and graces fuitable to their private needs, or to the public exigences of their times, places, occafions, and affairs; but not with the perfection and extreme degrees thereof, requifite to preserve them from all miscarriage; fo that we are not always, or in all cafes, to conform our actions to their examples: we must not learn to equivocate of Abraham; nor to circumvent of Jacob; nor to be choleric of Moses, (so as in our excefs of paffion to break the tables of the divine law;) nor of Eli to be fondly affectionate or indulgent to our relations; nor of David to utter uncharitable imprecations; nor to diffemble of St. Peter; nor of St. Paul to revile magiftrates. The use we are to make of many practices of moft eminently pious men, is not to be mifguided by them into wrong paths; not by them to authorize or excufe our prefumptuous misdeeds; but to make us to admire and to rely upon the |