SERM. own; this is proper to convince all that hear and see him, that God is indeed great, and greatly to be feared.

XCIII.

[Heb. 4. 13.]

Chap. 34.

21.

And God is glorified by such a confession, and men are made more careful, and fearful of offending against His Almighty power, while they see the greatest sinners humbling themselves before His Majesty; professing themselves overcome and conquered, and their stubborn hearts subdued by the fear of the Lord.

Secondly; we give glory to God, by confessing His infinite knowledge, and that nothing is hid from Him. When men are about to commit works of darkness, they hope such deeds will never come to light; and yet all the care they can take to conceal their crimes only serves to convince them, (if they have any grace,) that there is no place so secret, no contrivance so cunning, no night so dark, no corner so remote, but where the eye of the Lord is present, to bring to light the hidden things of darkness: and that all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. When sinners, (I say,) after all their pains to conceal their crimes, are forced to own this, others will be apt to glorify God, and to acknowledge, with holy Job, "that His eyes are upon the ways of man, and that He understandeth all his goings."

Thirdly; sinners glorify God when they confess His justice in bringing upon them that shame, those punishments, those sorrows, which they have justly deserved; so that as men [Fs. 58. 11.] shall have reason to say, verily, there is a reward for the righteous; so shall they be forced to own, verily, there is a God that judgeth the world.

Fourthly; they that confess their faults, and turn from their evil ways, do glorify God, in acknowledging the wisdom of God, and the goodness of His laws. They have found by sad experience, and they freely confess it, that there is no solid happiness to be found in the ways of impiety; and that when men forsake the ways of God, they forsake their own happiness. And when we own this to the world, others will conclude, that however bewitching some sins may be, yet they are to be abhorred, forasmuch as bitterness will be the end of them, and sorrow, at the best, their reward.

Lastly; we give glory to God in confessing and forsaking our sins, inasmuch as we shew the power of faith in His

promises. For who could leave the pleasures of sin, though they are but for a season? Who could prevail with himself to despise the present temptations of a naughty world, to which he has been long accustomed, but by the power of faith; by which he sees, and is persuaded, that the blessedness of the world to come is not to be forfeited for some short and foolish pleasure he may meet with in this life; and by which faith he is verily persuaded, that God will forgive, and receive, and bless with eternal happiness, all such as with hearty repentance turn unto Him, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Thus you see, that every one that repenteth, and confesseth his faults, by doing so, giveth glory to God and this is the best amends that a sinner can make; and this too is matter of the greatest comfort to sinners, who would otherwise despair of mercy, but that it is for the glory of God that they repent and turn from their evil ways.

But, after all, the greatest glory we can give to God, is, to live in obedience to His laws, to avoid all scandalous sins, and the temptations that lead to them.

And here let me, for God's sake, prevail with all that now hear me, to take up serious resolutions of living more soberly and circumspectly for the time to come. Will people never take warning, by the misfortunes of others, to prevent their own?

How many good estates have been squandered and come to nothing, by the idleness and intemperance of their owners! How many hopeful people have been corrupted by keeping base and unworthy company! How many base blots have been brought into worthy families, by persons indulging themselves, in drunkenness first, and then in whoredom!

But it were well if this were all for how many souls have not we reason to fear have been lost, by people's giving themselves up to voluptuousness; who, because God has given them estates, think they have a right to do with them what they please, though to the dishonour of God their benefactor!

I do the more earnestly press this upon you, because I am persuaded, that company-keeping, and tippling, is the very beginning of most men's misfortunes; it is this which

XCIII.

SERM. makes men very often to prefer an ale-house to the house of God; it is this which provokes God to leave men very often to themselves, and their own heart's lusts; it is this which insensibly sinks the best estates, and crumbles them into pieces; lastly, it is this vice which is generally the occasion of, and is for the most part offered as an excuse for, the most scandalous crimes.

Good God! what a pass is religion come to, when those very sins, which the Word of God declares will shut men for ever out of heaven, are looked upon as no crimes !

I will not reckon up some other vile things which this sin has led others into, because I would hope that seasonable reproof will not always be lost upon men who are otherwise of good understanding: but this I must add, that we are all by nature so subject to temptations, to sin, and to misfortunes, that a man had need to have his reason and his senses always about him, to prevent his misery and shame in this world, and, in the world to come, eternal damnation; especially when we consider, that the good Spirit of God, and His holy angels, can never delight to attend, and to protect, such as are given to this vice. They are not fit company for good men, much less for good angels.

I dare appeal to all that hear me, let them but call themselves to an account, and they will find, that drinking and intemperance have led them into the greatest crimes they have fallen into. And, indeed, when a man is in drink, no one can answer for him what he will attempt before he returns to his reason and right mind.

But though he should recover his senses without hurting his neighbour, without prejudicing his estate, and it may be his health too, yet he has one sin more to answer for; and every Christian man ought to know that his soul, which lies at stake, is of more concern to him than all other considerations.

I will add no more now upon this head, because I would hope that people of thought and modesty will lay it to heart; and my design is not so much to upbraid men, as to endeavour to amend what I find amiss.

II. I come now to the second head of my discourse, viz. that when a man's conscience is truly awake, and well in

formed, he will not scruple to confess his sins, and take shame

to himself. "Be not ashamed when it concerneth thy soul," Ecclus. 4. was the advice of a Wise Man.

If any thing concerns a man's soul, the bringing him to a sense of his errors, the persuading him to give glory to God in an humble confession of them, the making him an example of repentance to others, does certainly concern the soul of every one who has fallen into any grievous sins. And yet how few are there, who do, out of choice, take this way (when there is scarce any other) of appeasing the anger of God! And how many are there who will venture their souls, rather than cheerfully submit to the wholesome discipline of the Church of Christ? What strange unthoughtfulness is this!

A man that sins without blushing will yet pretend to be ashamed to do penance; he will not scruple to offend God, but he thinks it too much to let the world know that he is sorry for it. But then we are sure that such a man's conscience is neither well informed, nor well awake. For a man that believes the Gospel will hardly imagine that the hiding or the disowning his sins in this world will make his account the less hereafter.

20.

Now, this being a matter of great concern to the souls of men, it will become me to be very plain and particular upon this head of Church censures, and the necessity there lies upon all who have deserved them of submitting to them out of a principle of conscience, and not out of a fear of fines or imprisonments. And I am the more obliged to do this, because this matter is not well understood by many, and not well received by most, who should understand better things. And in the first place, St. Paul saith expressly, "that the 2 Cor. 13. governors of the Church have a power from Christ;" what 10. this power is, we learn from other places of the Scripture. First, it is a spiritual power: the princes of the Gentiles exercise authority over them, (saith Christ,) but it shall not Matt. 20, be so among you. Your authority shall be purely spiritual; a spiritual house, as the Church of Christ is called by 1 Pet. 2. 5. St. Peter, must have spiritual governors.

And their power, as is plain from the Gospel, consists in these following particulars: they are to receive into the house or Church of God, such as are fit to be members

25, 26.

XCIII.

SERM. of so holy a society. For this end they had the keys of the kingdom of heaven (that is, of the Church of Christ) given them, to admit such as are worthy and desirous to enter into it.

Matt. 18. 18.

After this, their duty is (for they have a duty and burden as well as a power), their duty is, to teach and to exhort with wholesome doctrine; to tell men what they ought to do to be saved; to pray for the souls committed to their charge; to support, and to comfort the weak; to offer to God the oblations of the people; and to administer those sacraments, without which we cannot hope to be saved.

Besides these parts of their office, they have power given them by Christ, who well foresaw, that many would embrace Christianity who would afterwards be a scandal to it; He therefore gave the governors of His Church power, after they have rebuked, admonished, withstood the disobedient and profane, to cast them out of His family, the Church; with this assurance, that whatever they did on earth in the way of their duty, should be made good in heaven.

In the time of the apostles, and a long time after, Christians were so far convinced of this, that sinners durst not live in disobedience to their spiritual pastors, in matters relating to their spiritual welfare; though there was then no law to punish them for such contempt. Nay, the laws and government then encouraged men to despise and resist their spiritual guides, whom they punished with imprisonment, fines, and death. And yet Christians were more afraid of their censures then, than now men are of imprisonment.

An instance we have, in the fifth chapter of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, of this submission. A man who had embraced Christianity, led by his former lusts, would needs marry his father's widow. He was censured for this fault, and turned out of the Church; he had no dependence in the world upon them that did this; all that they could do was to represent to him the dangerous condition into which he had brought himself; and, if he had pleased, he might have despised their counsel, and taken his own ways. But observe what he did; he was so well satisfied that what his spiritual governors had done would most certainly shut him out of heaven, and that whilst he was out of the Church he