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IIdly, Of the Comfort and Satisfaction that will arrive to us from the Confideration of having. perfected this great and neceflary Work.

This is a Point on which it were as easy to speak great things, as I think 'tis needlefs fo to do. If to Live in a State of Friendship with God, and to be able to look forward into Eternity with Comfort; If to be freed from the ftings of Confcience, and the Terrors of Everlasting Punishment, and inftead thereof to be full of a well grounded Confidence that Heaven and all its Glories fhall be one day Ours; in fhort, If there be any fuch thing as a Felicity to be attain'd either in this World or in the Next, fuch a Chriftian as this poffeffes it all; For he enjoys the Love, the Favour of that God, who is the Great difpenfer of all Good both in Heaven and Earth.

O the Peace and the Tranquility! The Pleafure and the Satisfaction of that Man, who lives in fuch a State as this! Whofe Confcience acquits him; whofe Innocence fupports him in the midst of Dangres; whofe Piety and Virtue chear his Soul, and fill it with the most excellent Comforts; whofe Prefent Condition is full of Hope, and whofe Future Prospect is to be for Ever Happy.

How will fuch a Chriftian as this Triumph over all the Miferies, and defpife the Blandifhments of a vain, uncertain, finful World? Even Death itself the laft, and greatest of Terrors, will not be able to amaze him: But rather He will welcome it with a chearful Mind, and with St. Paul defire to depart, and to be with Chrift; whilft able with him to cry out; I have fought a good fight,I have finish'd my Courfe, I have N

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Phil. i. 23.

2 Tim. iv. 7.

kept

kept the Faith; Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness, which God the Righteous Fudge fhall give me at that day.

But O Wretched Sinner! Who by thy unrea fonable Delays in a matter of fuch vaft concernment both to thy Present and Eternal Happiness, not only expofeft thy felf to the danger of Damnation in the other World, but depriveft thy felf of the only true and real Felicity of this!

Men indeed may flatter themselves in their Evil doings, and find a great deal of feeming fatisfaction in their ways of Wicked nefs. But when all is done, the remembrance of this one thing, That in a little time they muft die, and come to Judgment, will ever and anon come in and embitter all their Enjoyments; and convince them that Prov, iii. 17. 'tis the way of Piety that alone is the way of pleasantness, and her paths the

paths of peace.

But I maft not purfue thefe Reflections any farther; I will therefore conclude this whole Argument, with thofe excellent Words of the Son of Sirach, Eccluf. v. xviii.

Eccl. 5. 7.

1b. xviii. 20.

-21.

Make no long tarrying to turn unto the Lord, and put not off from day to day.

Before Judgment, examine thy felf,and in the day of Vifitation thou shalt find mercy.

Humble thy felf before thou be fick,and in the time of fins show repentance.

Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy Vows in due time, and defer not until Death, to be justified.

SERMON

SERMON VIII.

An Exhortation to Mutual Charity and Union among Proteftants.

Preach'd before the King and Queen at Hampton-Court, May 21. 1689.

ROMANS XV. 5, 6, 7.

Now the God of patience and confolation, grant you to be like-minded one towards another, ac cording to Chrift Jefus: That ye may with one mind, and one mouth, glorifie God, even the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift.

Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also receiv'd us, to the glory of God.:

T

HE Words are part of that affecti onate Application, which the Apostle here makes of his excellent Dif courfe concerning the

Exercife of Christian See ch. xiv. 1.
Charity, in that great

Inftance of Condefcenfion to the Infirmities of our
Weaker Brethren, in the foregoing Chapter.

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The

The Occafion of it was this:

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There were in thofe firft times; many among the Jews, who 'tho they were converted to the Christian Faith, yet ftill continued zealous for the Law; and not only carefully obferved themselves all the Rites and Ceremonies of it, but would alfo by any means impofe upon all others alfo, the obfervance of them. And how earnest they were upon this account, and how much Acts xv. 19 they hated the Gentile Converts, upon 28. Gal. V whom the Apostles did not think fit to lay any fuch burden,many Paffages both in the Acts and in St. Paul's Epiftles, do fufficiently declare.

1, &c.

V.

But as in all other differences it feldom happens that the whole heat of the Controverfie refts only on one fide; fo here, 'tho the Jewish Converts were both the first beginners of this Difpute, and the more zealous purfuers of it, yet neither were the Gentile Chriftians utterly without fault in it; but fo far frood fast in that liberty wherewith Chrift had made them free, as not only to defpife the weakness and ignorance of the others, but to be ready almost even to cut them off from

Gal. v. I.

Rom. xi. 18, Si.

their Communion.

.

I need not fay how dangerous fuch a Controverfie as this might have prov'd, nor what a stop it might have put to the progrefs of Christianity, in thofe firft beginnings of the Gofpel. Great were the difficulties which the Apoftles underwent on this occafion; whilft they endeavoured fo to manage themselves between these two Parties, as not only to offend either, but, if it were poffible, to bring them Both to fuch a temper with one another,

ther, that neither the Gentile Convert might despise the weakness of his Judaizing Brother; nor the Jewish Votary judge too feverely of the Liberty of the Gentile Christian.

And this was the defign of St Paul in the Chapter before my Text. Where addreffing himself, as indeed he seems to have done this whole Epistle, to the Gentile Chriftians; and whom, as having the truer Notion of their Christian Liberty as to this matter, he therefore calls the Suvari,

the strong in the Faith: ver. 1. he ex- Rom. XV. 1. horts them in a most admirable Dif

courfe on this Subject throughout the whole Chapter, to bear the Infirmities Ibid. of the Weak; i. e. not to grieve_nor

defpife them for their mistaken Zeal, but by complying a little, and condefcending to their Infirmities, to endeavour, if it fhould please God, to draw them out of their Error. Let

every one of us please his neighbour for Verse 2. his good to Edification. And then

concludes all in the words of the Text, wherein we have,

Firft, A hearty Prayer to God Almighty, That he would infpire them fo effectually with a Spirit of Unity and Charity, that notwithstanding all their differences, they may join unanimously, both Jews and Gentiles, not only in the fame common Worship of God, but with the fame hearty affection to one another :

Now the God of patience and confolation, grant you to be like-minded one towards another, according to Chrift Fefus; that ye may with one Mind and one Mouth glorifie God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

N 3

And

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