BAXTER'S, FAREWELL SERMON. 533 peaceably with all men : all men are mortal, both oppressors and oppressed : stay a little, and mortality will change the scene : God's time is best.. Martyrdom seldom killeth the hundredth part so many as wars do ; and he is no true believer that taketh mar- tyrdom to be his .loss ; and Christ is more interested in his gospel, chureh,'and honor, than we. Queen Mary's cruelties, and the bishops' bonfires, made religion universally received the more easily when her short reign was ended. We may learn wit of the fool, that, seeing great guns and muskets, asked what they were to do; and the answerer said, to ' kill men :' saith he, ' Do not men die here without killing ? In our country, they will die of themselves.' VIII. Be sure that you keép up family religion; especially in the careful education of youth, Keep them from evil company and from temptations and especially of idleness, fullness, and baits of lust. Read the Scripture, and good books, and call upon God, and sing his praise; and recreate youth with reading the history of the church, and the lives of holy men and martyrs: instruct them in catechisms and fundamentals. IX. Above all, live in love to God and man ; and let not selfish- ness andworldliness prevail against it. Think of God's goodness, as equal to his greatness and wisdom; and take yourselvesas mem- bers of the same body with all true Christians. Blessed are they that faithfully practice those three grand principles whichall profess, viz..1. To love. 6od as God above all, (and so to obey him.) 2. To love our neighbors as ourselves. 3. And to do as we would be done by: Love is not envious, malignant, censorious ; it slander- eth not; it persecuteth not; it oppresseth not; it defraudeth not; it striveth not to gain by another's loss : get men once to love their neighbors m themselves, and you may easily prognosticate peace, quietness, and concord'; happiness to the land ; and salvation to the people's souls. Finally, brethren, live in love, and the God of love andpeace shall be among you. The Lord save you from the evils of which I have here, and often warned you. Remember, with thankful- ness, the mány'years of abundant mercy which we have enjoyed, (though too much mixed with our sins, and vilified by some.) "Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do ; and I beseech you, brethren, to know themwhich labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love, for their work sake, and be at peace among yourselves;" 1 Thess. v. 11 -13. And the Lord deeply write on all our hearts these blessed words, " We have known and believed the love that God bath to us: God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him ;" 1 John iv. 16. And remember, "Seeing all these things
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