SERM. ry doubtful and fcrupulous, whether he XIV. is in a State of Salvation, and question

his happy Condition in another World and, certainly, if any Man can be affured of his Salvation in this Life, if there is any Perfon fo happy as to have this Seal fet upon him, and be affured by the Teftimony of the Holy Spirit, that he is chofen for a Veffel of Honour; it must be fuch a Man who has been remarkable for his Piety and Devotion, through the whole Course of his Life who in his Infancy has been dedicated to God, and feasoned with the Principles of our Holy Religion; who, by an early Piety, has made it evident he is under the immediate Conduct of God's Holy Spirit, and through the whole Course of his Life has been preferved free from prefumptuous Sins; fuch a Man as this may hope to have fome Glimpfe of the beatifical Vifion in this Life, and receive the Earneft here of eternal Happiness hereafter. It is fuch a Man as this alone, who with St. Paul can wish to be dif Jolved and to be with Chrift, which is much better. It is he alone who may expect that 'Eudavacía, so much wifhed for by the Heathens, which may be Englished in the Phrafe of the Prophet Baalam, Dying the

Death

Death of the Righteous: Oh! that I might SERM. die the Death of the Righteous, and that XIV. my latter End might be like his. Whereas thofe Perfons who have led wicked and ungodly Lives, and, for fome confiderable Time, have been led Captive by their Lufts, and lived under the Dominion of the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit that works in the Children of Difobedience, though fuch Men may repent of their Sins, and turn from the Evil of their Ways, and finally obtain eternal Happiness; yet for the most Part, as they have m..ny Checks and Mifgivings of Confcience, during their whole Lives, fo, when they are leaving this World and entering upon a State of Eternity, their Minds mifgive them, and their Confciences bring their old Sins to their Remembrance; they fuffer great Throws and Agonies of Mind, and are very apt to call in Queftion the Sincerity of their Repentance; and therefore it behoves every one one who defires to die peaceably and quietly, with full Peace with God and his own Confcience, and comfortable Hopes of Happiness hereafter, to take Care that he be not guilty of any wilful or prefumptuous Sin; and that he doth not contract any vicious Habit. And if fo, how foolish a Thing then it is, to go on in a X 24 finful

11.

SERM. finful Courfe of Life, on this Suppofition, XIV. that we shall have Time to repent hereafter, and to make our Peace with God upon a Death-bed? For, granting the Suppofition, that we fhall have both Time and Will to repent (which feldom, very feldom, happens) how much Trouble and Anxiety of Mind will it coft us? How many Terrors of Confcience, how many Sighs and Tears, and, as the Apostle defcribes the 2 Cor. vii. Condition of a fincere Penitent, For, behold, this felf-fame Thing that ye forrowed after a godly Sort, what Carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what Clearing of your felves, yea, what Indignation, yea, what Fear, yea, what vehement Defire, yea, what Zeal, yea, what Revenge? This is the Condition of a Man who is roufed from the Bed of Security, and has a lively Sense of his Sins imprinted upon his Confcience. How shall we accufe and condemn our own Folly, that we should do a Thing, which now we heartily wish were undone again, or that we never had done it; that we should grieve that Holy Spirit, and force him to withdraw himself from us, in whose Society our Happiness doth confift, and in whofe Prefence there is Fulnefs of Joy? And would but the Sinner, for once, be wife and confider what the Confequence of

Things will be, it is impoffible that he SERM. fhould be so desperately mad, and stupidly XIV. foolish, as to continue in the Commiffion of any known Sin. For, did he lay the Pleasure of the most grateful and acceptable Luft in the one Scale, and in the other that Trouble and Anxiety of Mind which it will coft him, even in this World, if ever repented of, he would find the Disproportion fo great, that it would utterly discourage him from buying fo poor and tranfitory a Pleasure at fo dear a Rate. But, if the Punishment of Sin is fo great in this Life, how intolerable muft it needs be in the Life to come, where the Worm dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched? And where these Torments are not only infinitely more intenfe, but also equally eternal, as to their Duration, with that God who inflicts them? From which God of his infinite Mercy keep us all, for Jefus Chrift his Sake.

SERM.
XV.

SERMON

XV.

The Hazard and Folly of depriving ourfelves wholly of the Influences of God's Holy Spirit.

T

1 THESS. V. 19.

Quench not the Spirit.

HERE is no Head of Divini ty which is more frequently infifted on, by practical Writers, than that which treats of the Gifts and Graces of God's Holy Spirit; and yet there is none which is lefs underftood, or more grofly abused.

IF foberly confidered, and according to the Analogy of Faith, it yields excellent Matter of Inftruction and Edification, Comfort and Support; but if handled ir reverently and presumptuously, after the Manner of fome modern Enthusiasts, it