And as it was the Goodness and Wisdom of God, to make us capable of everlasting duration; fo we should be injurious to both, if we did not fuppofe, that God hath order'd and appointed means, whereby it's poffible to fave our felves from the wrath to come.

He that takes a view of God's Proceedings and Dealings with Men, ever fince the Creation of the World, cannot but ftand amazed at the coft, and labour, and pains, and means, and motives, and arguments God hath used, to make Men fenfible of their everlasting Intereft, and to engage them to a ferious preparation for that World they must live for ever in.

This ferious Preparation must neceffarily be a holy, blameless, spotlefs Life; for the Means must ever be futable and agreeable to the nature of the End. And Heaven being a Holy Place, perfect Holiness reigning there, it's not to be imagin'd how perfection of Holinefs can be entered upon, without a confiderable progrefs in Holinefs here, no Man reaching the highest step of a Ladder without the lowermoft; and one might as well flatter himself, that his Trade by fuch a time will bring him in ten thoufand Pounds, when he is fo far from minding his Trade, that he contrives only how to run with others into excefs of Riot.

Whoever hoped for a Crop of Corn without fowing any? Or who ever expected Tulips fhould grow in his Garden without planting fuch Roots as mult produce them? The Innocence which is above, is to compleat what is begun here; and what Purity there is in thofe everlasting Manfions, is to crown that Sanctity the Soul arrived

to

to here; and the Light that shines there, is only to mingle with that which did illuminate the Soul in this lower World; fo that if there be no Light in our Spirits here, there can no Light mingle with it hereafter: for God is Light, and his Heaven is nothing elfe but Light; and as Light cannot mingle with Darknets, nor Fire with Snow; fo Holinefs hereafter can mingle with no Soul but what comes attended with the light of Holiness.

And indeed to plant this Holiness in Men, the means have been fo various, fo numerous, fo potent before the Law, under the Law, and under the Gofpel, that one may juftly admire the whole World doth not stand Candidate for Heaven, and all the Inhabitants of the Earth do not take the Kingdom of God by Violence.

Before the Law, the continual Pleadings of the long-liv'd Patriarchs with finful Men, to improve the Light of Nature, that Primar of Divinity, the many Vifions, Revelations, Dreams, Signs, Wonders, Voices from Heaven, the Miniftry of Angels, God's Patience, Forbearance, Long-fuffering, and fometimes exemplary Justice, the Examples of Holy Men, God's Love to thofe that honoured him, and the fignal Bleffings he beftow'd on thofe that made him their highest and chiefeft good; what were all these but fo many Calls and Entreaties, that Men would by Holiness, prepare for a future Happiness?

No fooner did the World drop into Luxury and contempt of the fupreme Law-giver, but God raised and fent forth Preachers of Righteoufnefs,

B 3

ousness, to give them notice of his Will, and their Duty; and when all Flesh had corrupted its ways, Noah and his Sons, in all likelihood, became Preachers Itinerant, who, in those 120 Years, which God allotted the Rebels for Repentance, travelled about the habitable World, and forewarned every Man, and bid them by Prayer, and ferious turning to God, fecure his Favour here, and his more neceffary Mercy hereafter. And fo after the Flood, when Vice and Folly had! made Men forget the ftupendous Deluge the Almighty had fent on their Fathers to cool their hellish Lufts; Abraham is fet up as a mark of God's Love and Bounty, and on him are conferred both the upper and neather fprings of Mercy, that by his pious Example, the ViciousGeneration might be recalled from their evil ways, and perfuaded into ferious thoughts of another World, and fo on till Mofes his time; in a word, in Abraham's Pofterity were fuch Wonders wrought, as were enough, had not Men fhut their Eyes, to engage them to all that ftrictness and circumfpection, which Heaven and a better Life requires.

Under the Law, God was fo far from being weary of ufing means, and taking pains with Men in order to this end, that he seemed to have referved thofe Ages for larger and fuller Demonftrations of his Power and Munificence; and if the People of Lyftra had any ground for their Exclamation, the Jews had far greater reason to cry out, That God was come down to them in the likeness of Men. For while other Countries were left in Darkness, and like Moles, fuffered to wander in the fhadow and

Acts 14:

II.

1

ས་ན་

valley of Death, they, as if they had been made of purer Clay, feemed to be the Darlings of Providence, and the Favourites of Heaven. Heaven bowed to them, and under its Protection they went, as under a Canopy of State, and might with greater reafon than the Sultan, have challenged that lofty Title, The Shadow of God; and with that Perfian Emperour, ftiled themfelves, Kinsmen of the Stars, Their Eyes faw Miracles almost every day; and with their daily Bread they received daily Prodigies. Six hundred thousand Men faw the Red Sea divided. They faw how with the blaft of God's Noftrils, the Waters were gathered together, how the Floods ftood upright as an heap, and the Depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea. The Enemy faid, I will purfue, I will overtake, I will divide the fpoil; my Luft fhall be fatisfied upon them, I will draw my Sword, my Hand fhall, deftroy them. But the Almighty blew with his Wind, the Sea covered them, they funk as Lead in the mighty Waters..

This the Hebrews faw, They faw it and rebelled, and yet, which was the greater Miracle, in the midft of their Rebellion, God, like the Sun, when smiling through a cloud, fhewed them a merciful Face; not that he approved of their Impiety, but because by thefe Beams he would warm their Hearts into Obedience. Their Bleffings came down upon them, not in drops, but in fhowers; and their Profperity, like the Cinnamon-tree, was fo fragrant, that Strangers might fmell it a great way off, before they faw it: The Waters of Life were continually flowing

B 4

into

into their bofoms; and tho' God now and then frowned upon them, (what Father would not fometimes chide his Son) yet his Indignation, which, like Flints, fent out Fire, upon their penitential Tears, ftraight-way returned to its former coldness. The Rocks poured them out Rivers of Oil, they washed their Feet in Butter, and one might fay of their Land,as* he *En. Syl- of the lile of Rhodes, They were blessed vius. with a continual Sun-fhine. Their Prophets, what mighty, what powerful Men were they? Men that, like Lamps, confumed their own Oil,to light their Auditors to Heaven; or, like Silk-worms, fpun out their own Bowels, to deck their Hearers with Garments of Righteousness. Where Words could not prevail, Tears were the means to fupple and affect them; and, it feems, †There is not stronger Rhetorick in the World than thefe. Here one Prophet spoke like an Orator, there another like a Logician. Here one endeavoured by Eloquence to charm them, there another by clear Reafon to convince them. Here one threatned, there another promifed. Here one wooed, there another thundred.Here one came with a Scepter of Love, there another with a Trumpet of War. Here one called to them from Mount Ebal, there another from Mount Gerizim. Here one adjured them by the Bleffings of the Basket and the Store,there another by the Fruit of their Bodies, and the Fruit of their Ground. Here one made them feel the Fiery Law, there another invited them by Wine and Milk without Money, and without Price. Here one fhewed them the Bread and

+ Philo.

Water