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VI.

πᾶ τις καὶ

Hier.

love to transform our manners into an agreement S ER M. with the manners of him we love: What a man loves, that he imitateth fo much as lies in his power, faith Hierocles, truly. For love being founded on a good ́o yàgàyaefteem, and a benevolent inclination thence refulting, engageth the affectionate perfon to admire the qualities of him he affecteth, to obferve his deportments, to make the most advantageous conftruction of what he doeth; to fancy he doeth all things with beft reafon and difcretion; to deem, therefore, that all his actions deferve and require imitation: hence doth love either find, or foon produce, a competent fimilitude in the parties, (a fimilitude of mind, of will, of inclination, and affection, an eadem velle et nolle :) it doth forcibly attract as to a vicinity of place and converse, so to an agreement of affections and actions; it uniteth the most distant, it reconcileth the most oppofite, it turneth the moft difcordant natures into a fweet confent and harmony of difpofition and demeanour. We then having the greatest reafon both to honour and love our Saviour, furely his example being duly ftudied and confidered by us, muft needs obtain a fuperlative influence upon our practice, and be very powerful to conform and affimilate it to his.

These confiderations may fuffice, to fhew the peculiar excellency of our Saviour's example in virtue, and efficacy upon our practice; the fame more abundantly might be deduced from a furvey of the most confiderable particulars, in which we may and ought to imitate him. But the time will not fuffer us to launch forth into fo vaft a fea of difcourfe. I fhall only, therefore, from the premifes, exhort, that if any earnest defire of happiness, any high efteem of virtue, any true affection to genuine fanctity do lodge in our breafts, we fhould apply this most excellent means of attaining them; the ftudy and endeavour of imitating the life of our Lord. If we have in us any truth and fincerity, and do not vainly prevaricate

VOL. II.

M

VI.

SER M. varicate in our profeffion of being Chrift's difciples, and votaries of that moft holy inftitution, let us manifeft it by a real conformity to the practice of him who is our Mafter, and author of our faith. If we have in us any wifdom, or fober confideration of things, let us employ it in following the fteps of that infallible guide, defigned by heaven to lead us in the ftraight, even, and pleafant ways of righteoufnefs, unto the poffeffion of everlasting blifs. If we do verily like and approve the practice of Chrift, and are affected with the innocent, fweet, and lovely comelinefs thereof, let us declare fuch our mind by a fedulous care to refemble it. If we bear any honour and reverence, any love and affection to Chrift; if we are at all fenfible of our relations, our manifold obligations, our duties to our great Lord, our beft Friend, our most gracious Redeemer; let us teftify it by a zealous care to become like to him: let a lively image of his moft righteous and innocent, moft holy and pious, moft pure and fpotlefs life be ever prefent to our fancies; fo as to inform our judgments, to excite our affections, to quicken our endeavours, to regulate our purposes, to correct our mistakes, to direct, amend, and fanctify our whole lives. Let us, with inceffant diligence of ftudy, meditate upon the best of hiftories, wherein the tenour of his divine practice is reprefented to us; revolving frequently in our thoughts all the moft confiderable paffages thereof, entertaining them with devout paffions, impreffing them on our memories, and striving to exprefs them in our converfations: let us endeavour continually to walk in the fteps of our Lord, and to follow the Lamb whitherfoever he goeth; which that we may be able to do, do thou, O bleffed Redeemer, draw us, draw us by the cords of thy love; draw us by the sense of thy goodness; draw us by the incomparable worth and excellency of thy perfon; draw us by the unipotted purity and beauty of thy example; draw us by the merit of thy precious death,

and

and by the power of thy holy Spirit; Draw us, good S ER M. Lord, and we fall run after thee.

Amen.

VI.

Eafter.

Almighty God, who haft given thine only Son to be unto Coll, for 2d us both a facrifice for fin, and alfo an enfample of Sund, after godly life; give us grace, that we may always mest thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit; and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blefed feps of his moft holy life, through the fame Jefus Chrift cur Lord. Amen.

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SERMON VII.

The Danger and Mischief of delaying
Repentance.

PSALM CXix. 60.

I made hafte, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

TH

HIS Pfalm (no lefs excellent in virtue, than s E R M. large in bulk) containeth manifold reflections VII. upon the nature, the properties, the adjuncts and effects of God's law; many sprightly ejaculations about it (conceived in different forms of fpeech; fome in way of petition, fome of thanksgiving, fome of refolution, fome of affertion or aphorifm;) many useful directions, many zealous exhortations to the obfervance of it; the which are not ranged in any ftrict order, but (like a variety of fair flowers and wholefome herbs in a wide field) do with a grateful confufion lie difperfed, as they freely did spring up in the heart, or were fuggested by the devout fpirit of him, who indited the Pfalm; whence no coherence of fentences being defigned, we may confider any one of them abfolutely, or fingly by itself.

Among them, that which I have picked out for the fubject of my difcourfe, implieth an excellent rule of practice, authorifed by the Pfalmift's exam

M 3

ple:

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