that any virtue can be shewn, any praise attained, by faint hearts and feeble hands: or indeed by any but those who pursue the same course with the great apostle of the Gentiles; I, says he, "so run not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away."

By the same discipline is every good soldier of Christ, to inure himself to endure hardship. Confirmed and strengthened by this, he will be able not only to renounce the works of darkness, but every appetite too, and every affection, which is not subject to the law of God. For "every one," saith St. John, "who hath this hope, pu. rifieth himself even as he is pure." It is his daily care, by the grace of God in Christ, and through the blood of the covenant, to purge the inmost recesses of his soul, from the lusts that before possessed and defiled it; from uncleanness, and envy, and malice, and wrath, from every passion and temper, that is after the flesh, that either springs from, or cherishes his native corruption as well knowing, that he whose very body is the temple of God, ought to admit into it nothing common or unclean; and that holiness becometh that house forever, where the Spirit of holiness vouchsafes to dwell.

Sermon on Rom. ii. 29.

THE EXCELLENCY AND

LOVE.

NATURE OF DIVINE

Love is the fulfilling of the law, the end of the commandment. Very excellent things are spoken of love; it is the essence, the spirit, the life of all virtue. It is not only the first and great command, but it is all the commandments in one. Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are amiable, or honourable; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, they are all comprised in this one word, love. In this is perfection, and glory, and happiness: The royal law of heaven and earth is this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.

Not that this forbids us to love any thing besides God. It implies, that we love our brother also. Nor yet does it forbid us (as some have strangely imagined) to take pleasure in any thing but God. To suppose this, is to suppose the Fountain of Holiness is directly the Author of sin since he has inseparably annexed pleasure to the use of those creatures, which are necessary to sustain the life he has given us.

This, therefore, can never be the meaning of his command. What the real sense of it is, both our blessed Lord and his ap stles tell us too frequently and too plainly to be misunder

stood. They all with one mouth bear witness, that the true meaning of those several declarations, The Lord thy God is one Lord. Thou

shalt have no other Gods but me: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy strength: Thou shalt cleave unto him. The desire of thy soul shall be to his name; is no other than this. The one perfect good shall be your one ultimate end. One thing shall ye desire for its own sake, the fruition of him that is All in All. One happiness will ye propose to your souls, even a union with him that made them: the having of fellowship with the Father and the Son: the being joined to the Lord in one spirit. One design ye are to pursue to the end of time, the enjoyment of God in time and in eternity. Desire other things so far as they tend to this. Love the creature-as it leads to the Creator. But in every step you take, be this the glorious point that terminates your view. Let every affection, and thought, and word, and work, be subordinate to this. Whatever ye desire or fear, whatever ye seek or shun, whatever ye think, speak, or do, be it in order to your happiness in God, the sole end as well as source of your being.

Serm. on Rom. ii. 29.

PATIENCE.

But what is Patience? We do not now speak of a Heathen Virtue: neither of a natural indolence: but of a gracious temper wrought in the heart of a believer, by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is a disposition to suffer whatever pleases God, in the manner and for the time that pleases him. We thereby hold the middle way, neither despising our sufferings, making little of them, passing over them lightly, as if they were owing to chance, or second causes: nor on the other hand affected too much, unnerved, dissolved, sinking under them. We may observe, the proper object of Patience is suffering, either in body or mind. Patience does not imply the not feeling this: it is Apathy or Insensibility. It is at the utmost distance from Stoical Stupidity! yea, and at an equal distance from fretfulness or dejection. The patient believer is preserved from falling into either of these extremes, by considering who is the Author of all his suffering, even God his Father: what is the motive of his giving us to suffer?-Not so properly his Justice as his love and what is the end of it? Our profit, that we may be partakers of his Holi

ness.

Sermon on James i. 4.

ALL CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE UNITED IN LOVE, THOUGH THEY MAY DIFFER IN OPINIONS, OR MODES OF WORSHIP.

Although a difference in opinions or modes of worship, may prevent an entire external union, Why need it prevent our union in affection? Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion! Without all doubt we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences. These remaining as they are, they may forward one another, in love, and in good works.

Although therefore every follower of Christ is obliged, by the very nature of the Christian institution, to be a member of some particular congregation or other, some church, as it is usually termed, (which implies a particular manner of worshipping God;) for two cannot walk together unless they be agreed; yet none can be obliged by any power on earth, but that of his own conscience, to prefer this or that congregation to another, this or that particular manner of worship. I know it is commonly supposed, That the place of our birth fixes the church to which we ought to belong: that one, for instance, who is born in England ought to be a member of that which is stiled The Church of England, and consequently to worship God in