490 WHAT LIGHT MUST further the faithful preaching and practicing of the holy faith, and to unite and strengthen the ministers and churches, and to suppress iniquity, and to be a terror to evil doers, it taketh Satan's great advantage out of his hand, and worketh on carnal men by such means as they can feel and understand. Not that God needs the help of man, but that he bath settled officers andu natural Order, by which he usually worketfi in the world: and as it cannot be expected that an unholy, parent and master should have a holy family, or an unholy pastor a holy church, unless by extraordinary mercy; no more can we expect that ungodly magistrates should have a godly kiggdom or commonwealth, of which the sacred history of the Jewish and Israelitish kings doth give you a full confirmation. But this I must now say no more of. And thud I have told you, in twenty particulars, what are those good works in which the light of Christians must shine before mer to the glorify- ing of God. Object. Doth not Matt. v. 10-12. contradict all this ? "Bless- ed are ye when men revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." Ans. No. You must here distinguish, first, of men ; secondly, of righteousness and good works. I. The men that we have to do with are, first, ordinary,;natural men, corrupted by original sin, but yet not hardened to serpentine malignity, as some are; secondly; or theyare men that, by sinning against nature and common light, are forsaken and ,given up to malignant minds. Il. The good works which natural light and human interest can discern and commend, dó differ from those which are merely evangelical, of supernatural revelation. 1. Malignant, persons, hardened in enmity, will scorn and per- secute holiness itself, 'and even that good which reason 'justifies, and therefore are called unreasonable, wicked men; 2 Thess. iii. 2. Good works with these men make us odious, unless theyare such as gratify their lusts. 2. But there are natural men not yet so hardened and forsaken, who are usually then, that the gospel doth convert ; and these have not yet so blinded,nature, nor lost all sense of good and evil, but that theyhonor him that dóth good in all the twenty particu- lars which I have named, and think ill of those that do the con- trary, thoughyet they relish not the Christian righteousness, and things of supernatural revelation, for want of faith. Let us briefly now apply it. Use 1. This informs us what an honorable state Christianity and true godliness is. When God hath made us to be the lights of the world, to shine before men to the glory of his holiness, as iae sun and stars do to the glory of his power, no wonder if in
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