by the Spirit endued with a new life from God : ' You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins,' Eph. ii. 2. A noble principle of high extrac- tion, given you on a high design, that you should live up to that principle in righteousness and holiness. When God breathed a rational soul into man, he intended not that he should live with the beasts, and as the beasts ; nor that thou shouldst have thy conversation as a mere carnal man doth ; but that ' as thou hast received Christ, so thou shouldst walk in him,' Col. ii. 6. The apostle blames the Corinthians for living below themselves, and like the poor-spirited men of the world in their corrupt passions : ' Are ye not carnal, and walk as men ?' 1 Cor. iii. 3. When thou, Christian, actest unholily, thou sinnest at a high rate indeed : others sin against the light of God in their consciences, there is the furthest they can go ; but thou sinnest against the life of God in thy very heart. The more unnatural any act is, the more horrid. It is unnatural for a man to be cruel to his own flesh ; for a Avoman to go about to kill the child in her womb ; O how your ears tingle at such a flagitious act! What then art thou going to do, when by thy unholy walking thou art killing the babe of grace in thy soul? Is not Herod marked for a bloody man that would have butchered Christ newly born in the world ? and canst thou, without horror, attempt the murdering of Christ newly formed in thy heart ?
Section IV. — Fourthly, It is the great design God drives at in his word and ordinances, to make his people holy and righteous. The word of God is both seed to beget, and food to nourish, holiness begotten in the heart ; every part of it contributes to this design abundantly. The preceptive part affords a perfect rule of holiness for the saint to walk by, not accommodated to the humours of any, as men's laws are, who make their laws as tailors their gar- ments, to fit tlie crooked bodies they are for, so they, the crooked minds of men. The commands of God gratify the lusts of none ; they are suited to the holy nature of God, not the unholy hearts of men. The promises present us with admirable encouragements to allure us on in the way of holiness ; all of them so warily laid, that an unholy heart cannot, without violence to his con- science, lay claim to any one of them, God having set that flaming sword, con- science, in the sinner's bosom, to keep him off" from touching or tasting the fruit of this tree of life ; and if any profane heart be so bold, while he is walk- ing in the ways of unrighteousness, to finger any of the treasure that is locked up in the promises, it doth not long stay in their hands, but God sooner or later makes them throw it away, as Judas his thirty pieces, their consciences telling them they are not the I'ight owners. False comforts from the promises, like riches, which Solomon speaks of, ' make themselves wings, and fly away ' from the unholy wretch, when he thinks he is most sure of them. Again : the threatenings, the minatory part of the word, this runs like a devouring gulf on either side of the narrow path of holiness and righteousness, ready to swallow up every soul that walks not therein, Rom. i. 18 : 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.' To the promissory, and minatory, is annexed the exemplary part of the word, as cases to confirm our faith concerning the truth and certainty of both. The promises are backed with the examples of holy men and women, who have beaten the path of holiness for us ; and through faith and patience in their holy course, have at last obtained the comfort of the promises in heaven's bliss, to the unspeakable encouragement of all that are ascending the hill after them. To the threatenings are annexed many sad examples of unholy souls, who have xmdone themselves, and damned their own souls in imholy wa3's ; whose carcasses are, as it were, thrown upon the shore of the word, and exposed to our view in reading and hearing of it, that we may be kept from being engulfed in those sins that were their perdition, 1 Cor. x. 6 : ' These were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.' Thus we see how the whole composure of the Scripture befi-iends ho- liness, and speaks what the design of God therein is, which, yet to carry on the more strongly, God hath appointed many holy ordinances to quicken the word upon our hearts. Indeed all of them are but the word in several forms. Hearing, prayer, sacraments, meditation, holy conference, — the word is the subject-matter of them all ; only as a wise physician doth prepare the same drug several ways, sometimes to be taken one way, sometimes another, to make it
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