ESSAY for our Sins, and bereby we know that we know III. him, if we keep his Commandments: And it is by keeping or obeying his Word, that we know we are in him.

Anfw. 6. Works of Holiness, a new Heart and new Obedience, are needful to fit and prepare us for the actual Poffeffion and Bleffedness of Heaven, for without Holiness no Man fhall fee God And in this View a fincere Re turn to God with Obedience to his Commands, is a neceffary Requifite, in order to our final Salvation, Heb. xii. 14. This blifsful Vifion of God is referved only for the pure in Heart, Matt. v. 8., Sanctification is the beginning of cur Salvation, and 'tis eternally neceffary to continue it. We can never be happy in the Prefence of God till we are like him in Holinefs. Nor can we be fit Company for the holy Angels, or the Spirits

*Note, when I fpeak of Good Works, or Works of Holiness, as neceffary toward our final Salvation, or our complete Poffeffion of heavenly Bleffednefs, I mean all the inward Exercifes of holy Fear, and Love, and Hope, and Obedience, and Dependance, and Patience in the Heart, &c. as well as the outward Performances of the Acts of Religion and Righteoufnefs in the Life: But it muft ftill be understood with this Limitation, viz. They are neceffary where there is Time and Room, Opportunity and Capacity for the Performance of them; fo that this doth not exclude Infants from Salvation, who are not capable of exercising the Principles of Grace: Nor doth it exclude dying Penitents who have no fpace of Time allow'd them for living a Life of Holinefs.

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of the Juft made perfect, unless we are con- ESSAY. formable to their Temper. III.

And it should be obferved alfo, that this Preparation or Fitnefs for Heaven, may be fometimes reprefented as a Right to the Bleffednefs of it, because the Promifes of Heaven are fometimes made to thofe who are thus qualify'd and prepared, and thefe Promiles give them a Right to it*. Matt. v. 3, 5, 6, 8, &c. Blessed are the pure in Heart, for they fhall fee God, &c. Rev. xxii. 14. Bleled are they that do his Commandments, that they may have Right to the Tree of Life, and may enter through the Gates into the City. Yet it may be remember'd what I faid before, that thefe Commandments do not fignify directly the ten Commandments of the Law, but rather the Commands of Jefus Chrift, or of God in the Gofpel, which indeed include a fincere Obedience to the moral Law, and fomething more (viz.) Repentance and Faith in Chrift.

*Some Divines have here diftinguifh'd (as I have elsewhere fhewn) between a fus hæreditatis, or a Right of Heirship through Faith in Chrift, whereby we become the Sons of God, and have a Title to Heaven, and a Jus aptitudinis, that is, a Right of Fitness, whereby we are actually prepared, by Sanctification and Holinefs, for the Poffeffion of this Heavenly Inheritance. He that is an Heir by Birth or by Adoption, has a Title to an Estate or a Crowns but he acquires a Right to the actual Poffeffion, by being train'd up to a Fitness. for it, at the time appointed, by him who is his natu ral Father, or his Adopter.

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ESSAY Anfw. 7. I might add, in the last place, III. that Holiness of Life or Obedience to the Commands of God, is necessary in order to make the Process of the last Judgment appear equitable and righteous in the Eyes of all Mankind; for Chrift the Judge fhall render to every one according to their Works, Rev. xxii. 12. Řom. ii. 5, 6. 1 Cor. xv. 58. And indeed this is one chief Defign of God's appointing fuch a folemn and publick Tranfaction as the laft Judgment, that all the Creation may fee the Equity or Righteoufnefs of the Dealings of God with Men, that he awards the eternal Recompenfe to Saints and Sinners, according to their different Characters of Vice and Virtue, Sin and Holiness, The Veffels of Wrath are by their own Rebellion and Impenitence fitted to Deftruction, and the Vef fels of Mercy are by fanctifying Grace and Holinefs before prepar'd unto Glory, Rom. ix. 22, 23.

Though our own Works are by no means fufficient to atone for Sin, or to procure the Favour of God or Eternal Life, for fuch guilty Creatures as we are, yet there is (as Dr. Owen, I think in his Book of Justification, calls it) a rewardable Condecency in the Works of Holiness, and there is many a Promife of heavenly Rewards made to them in the New Teftament: Now when Christ shall adjudge the Wicked to Hell, and the Saints to Heaven, the whole Creation must approve

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the Equity of his Dealings with Men. In the ESSAY mean time the Saints fhall admire the Grace III, of God, and the Mediation of Chrift, while they fee how unworthy they and their Works are of fuch a glorious Reward.

Thus we find there is abundant Reafon for our Obedience to the Commands of the moral Law, tho' it is not made the proper Condition, or prefcribed Term of our Acceptance with God, and of obtaining Happiness by the Gofpel; for 'tis only perfect Obedience to thefe Commands in Thought, Word and Deed, can give us a Right to Eternal Life, according to the Law. And yet a fincere Endeavour after univerfal Obedience to them, is one neceffary Requifite of our being approved by Chrift at laft, and our actual Entrance into Heaven, according to the Gospel: Hereupon I am bold to affirm, that thofe Perfons whom all thefe Reafons cannot draw to the fincere Practice of Holiness, may be fure they never believed in Chrift, and are not Partakers of the Salvation of the Gofpel; for the great and neceffary Duty of Chriftianity is Faith which works by Love, Gal. v. 6. The Heart is purify'd by true Faith, Acts xv. 9. And Faith without Works is dead, and is unable to fave us, Jam. ii. 20, 26.

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III.

SECT. V.

REFLEXIONS.

1. Reflexion. It is a dangerous thing to miftake the great Design of Christ's Miniftry here on Earth. Let us learn from this Discourse, that our Saviour often preached to Sinners the Gospel of Grace and Forgiveness, of Repentance and Faith in himself; yet that his chief Business here, was not to preach the Gofpel conftantly, nor to preach it in its full Light, Perfection and Glory; but rather to prepare the way for it when he had laid the Foundation in his own Death and Refurrec tion, and when his Kingdom fhould be fet up in the World in his Apoftles, and by his Spirit, and built upon this Foundation. He prepared the Way for his Spirit, and his Apoftles, even as John the Baptift prepared the Way for him.

The great Bufinefs of Chrift in this Life on Earth, was to appear with the Characters of the Meffiab on him; to anfwer the Types and Prophefies that went before concerning him; to pafs thro' the Stages of Life without Sin as our Example; to yield a perfect Obedience to the Law, and fulfil all thofe Precepts in Perfection which we could never fulfil; to preach the Law in the Spirituality and Perfection of its Demands, and begin to open the Gofpel; to refign and fubmit himself to

Death,