72 SERMONS upon the Serm. XII. God. Our great inquiryis,váhether our Rate be pleafing or difpleafing to him, and our great aim is, that it may be pleafing. z. AChriJlians work; we labour,that whetheö prefent or abfent. There take notice of two things. I. their Earnejl and ajiduous diligence. In the word, pAwriu,úymeStt, we are ambitious of this Honour; the Word is ufed in two other Scriptures, Rom.1 g. zo. Striving to preach the Gofpel where Lhrift was not named And r The! 4. i t. Study to be quiet. Affeâ this honour,or purfue after it, as men do after preferment, honours and dignities in the World. So that this word is three ways rendred, labour, flrive, Jludy. Ambition mightily prevail - eth with fenfual men, and maketh them reftlefs and unwearyed in their purfuits, till they get at top. This is the holy and laudable ambition of a Chriftian to Rand right in the fa. your of God and be accepted with him at the laft. z. The Severalflares in which this defign mull be carryed on ; whether 'relent or abfent. Whether we be at home, and continue in this Earthly Body of ours, or whether we be gone out of the Body ; the Happinefs of this World and the next lyeth in our acceptance with God. Living and dying, a Chrifian muff fee that he be in a flue of well pleating, Rom. lq. 7,8. Our hearts are pretty well at cafe while we are in the body, if we may know that we are accepted of God. However that mull be our Scope. Now it muff be the defign of our obedience, and hereafter it will be the grounds of our re- ward. 'Twill be our Solace in our Pilgrimage,andit will be our happinefs when we die and . go out of the body, if Chrift will own us at the Taft. Do&. The great ambition,deftgn and endeavour of a true Chriflian is,that living änd dy inghe may be fach as Godmay like and well approve of. r. I'hall give you the Emphafis, ofthie point as it lyeth in the Text. z. Some reafons of the point. I. Let me illuflrate this point as it lyeth in this Scripture. Mark,this mull be ourgreat defign and Scope, we muff not only do things which are Deograta ,acceptable to God for the matter, but this mutt be our fixed end and Scope which we muff propound to our felves. Chriftianity and true Godlinefs is fet forth in Scripture by three things. Some- times by the Internal Principle of it, the Spirit of God,or the Divine Nature,z Pet. 1. 4 or the feed ofGodabiding in us, 1 john. 3. q. Sometimes by the intention of the true end, which is thepleafing ofGod,andthe fruition of God withChrift and his Bleffed ones for ever in Heaven, when the heart is fet upon that, Mat. 6. zo, z 1. But lay tip foryour felves trea fares in heaven, where neither moth nor ruff doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor fleal.For whereyour treafureis, there willyour heart be allo. And z. Cor. 4.18. While we look not at the things which are feen, but at the things which are not feen: for the things which arefeen, are temporal; but the things which are not feen, are eternal. Sometimes by the reception of the true rule,when that is ingrafted in our hearts,andfo im- preffed upon our hearts, that it cannot be defaced, Fled. 8. to. I will put my Laws into their mind, and write them in their Hearts. And Pfa. 37. 31. The Law of God is in my Heart. I now am tofpeak of the Second,which is the true aim, fcope and tendency of the life of godlinefs,or of thofe who profefs faith in Chrift,namely, that we may be fo approved of God, that we may injoy him for ever among his Bleffed ones. I !hall prove it by three arguments, that his muft be our conftant fcope, taken from the many advantages which redound to us thereby: 1. We cannot be fincere, unlefs this be our great aim and Scope that wemay approve our felves to God.One main differencebetween the fincere and the H} pocriteis in the end and fcope.The one feeketh the approbation ofinen,and the other the approbation of God; the one is flefhly wifdom, the other Godly fimplicity and fincerity, z Cor. s. 1 z. The one ads to be feen of men,the other maketh God his Witnefs,Approver and Judg.So elfewhere the Spiritual life is negatively a not living to our felves, and poficively a living to God, and both carryed on by the power and Influence of an holy and fincere love to God, z Cor.5. 04,15. For the Love ofChriflconjlraineth us,becaufe we thus judge, that if one dyed for all,then were all dead, And that he dyed for all, that they which live /kould not henceforth live unto themfelves, but unto him which dyed for them, and rofe again. Love aáeth molt purely for God'whillt it defigneth him as the end of all things ; our Rudy to pleafe, delire to injoy him, keepeth us upright. The more fixed our end is, and the more we renew the intention of it, and daily profecute it, the more fincere we are. If we keep the right mark in our eye it maketh us level right, but he that mifiaketh his Z.
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