O brethren, never was the heathen world acquainted with such arguments to deter them from sin; never acquainted with such motives to urge them to holiness, as I shall this day acquaint you with. My request is, to give up both your hearts and lives to glorify the Father, Son, and Spirit, whose you are, by the holi- ness and heavenliness of them. Other things are expected from you than from other men. See that you turn not all this grace that hath sounded in your ears into wantonness. Think not be- cause Christ hath done so much for you, you may sit still ; much less indulge yourselves in sin, because Christ hath offered up such an excellent sacrifice for the expiation of it. No, though Christ came to be a curse, he did not come to be a cloak for your sins. " If one died for all then were all dead; that they that live, " should not henceforth live to themselves, but to him that died " for them,11 2 Cor. v. 15. O keep your lives pure and clean. Do not make fresh work for the blood of Christ every day. " If " you live in the Spirit, see that you walk in the Spirit, Gal. v. 25.
SERM. XLII. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 537
i. e. (saith * Cornelius a Lapide very solidly) " Let us shape and " order our lives and actions according to the dicates, instinct, " and impulses of the Spirit, and of that grace of the Spirit put " within us, and planted in our hearts, which tendeth to practical " holiness.'" O let the grace which is in your hearts, issue out into all your religious, civil, and natural actions. Let the faith that is in your hearts appear in your prayers ; the obedience of your hearts in hearing ; the meekness of your hearts in suffering ; the mercifulness of your hearts in distributing ; the truth and righte- ousness of your hearts in trading; the sobriety and temperance of your hearts in eating and drinking. These be the fruits of Christ's sufferings indeed, they are sweet fruits. Let grace refine, ennoble, and elevate all your actions ; that you may say, " Truly our con- " versation is in heaven.v' Let grace have the ordering of your tongues, and of your hands ; the moulding of your whole conver- sation. Let not humility appear in some actions, and pride in others ; holy seriousness in some companies, and vain frothiness in others. Suffer not the fountain of corrruption to mingle with, or pollute the streams of grace. Write as exactly as you can, after your copy, Christ. O let there not be (as -f one well expresses it) here a line, and there a blank ; here a word, and there a blot. One word of God, and two of the world. Now a spiritual rapture, and then a fleshly frolic. This day an advance towards heaven, and to-morrow a slide back again towards hell. But be you in the fear of the Lord all the day long. Let there be a due proportion betwixt all the parts of your conversation. Approve yourselves the servants of Christ in all things. " By pureness, by knowledge, by " long-suffering, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word " of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness, " on the right-hand, and on the left," 2 Cor. vi. 6. See then how accurately you walk. — Cut off occasion from them that desire occa- sion; and in well doing commit yourselves to God, and commend religion to the world. That this is your great concernment and duty, I shall evidence to your consciences, by these following con- siderations. That of all persons in the world, the redeemed of the Lord are most obliged to be holy ; most assisted for a life of holi- ness; and that God intends to make great use of their lives, both for the conviction and conversion of others.
Consider, First, God hath more obliged them to live pure and strict lives. I know the command obliges all men to it, even those that cast away the cords of the commands, and break Christ's
* Secundum dictamen, instinctum, impulsion Spiritus eo gratia vn?nis$cr, et indike nobis a Spiritu Sancto. f R. A. VindicicB Pictatis.
53S THE FOUNTAIN" OF LI1 £. SERM. XLH.
bonds asunder, are yet bound by them ; and cannot plead a dis- pensation to live as they do. Yea, and it is not unusual for them to feel the obligations of the command upon their consciences, even ■when their impetuous lusts hurry them on to the violation of them ; but there are special ties upon your souls, that oblige you to holi- niore than others. Many special and peculiar engagements you are under. First, from God. Secondly, from yourselves. Thirdly, from your brethren. Fourthly, from your enemies.
First, God hath peculiarly obliged you to purity and strictness
of life.. Yea, every Person in the blessed Trinity hath cast his
cord over your souls, to bind up your hearts and lives to the most
strict and precise obedience of his commands.
Obligations from The Father hath obliged you, and that not the Father. only by the common tie of creation, which is
yet of great efficacy in itself; for, is it reason- able that God should create and form so excellent a piece, and that it should be employed against him ? That he should plant the tree, and another eat the fruit of it ? But, besides this common engage- ment, he hath obliged you to holiness of life.
First, By his wise and merciful designs and counsels for your re- covery and salvation by Jesus Christ. It was he that laid the corner-stone of your salvation with his own hands. The first mo- tion sprang out of his breast. If God had not designed the Re- deemer for you, the world had never seen him ; he had never left that sweet Bosom for you. It was the act of the Father to give you to the Son to be redeemed, and then to give the Son to be a Redeemer to you. Both of them stupendous and astonishing acts of grace. And in both God acted as a most free Agent. When he gave you to Christ before the beginning of time, there was nothing out of himself that could in the least move him -to it. When the Father, Son, and Spirit sat (as I may say) at the council-table, contriving and laying the design for the salvation of a few out of many of Adam's degenerate offspring, there was none came before him to speak one word for thee; but such was the divine Pleasure to insert thy name in that catalogue of the saved. Oh how much owest thou to the Lord for this. And what an engagement doth it leave upon thy soul, to obey, please, and glorify him ?
Secondly, By his bountiful remunerations of your obedience, which have been wonderful. What service didst thou ever perform for him, for which he hath not paid thee a thousand times more than it is worth. Didst thou ever seek him diligently, and not find him a bountiful rewarder ? none seek him in vain, unless such only as seek him vainly, Heb. xi. 6. Didst thou ever give a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, and not receive a disciple's reward ? Matt x. 42. Hast thou not found inward peace and comfort flowing into thy soul, upon every piece of sincere obedi-
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