j3irea. I QfSan5ij zcattes. t9_ fo do to them in all things that concern their honour, life, chaftity, worldly wealth, credit and content, whatever we would that men fnould do to us in the like condition, Matth. vii. 12. This fpiritual univer. fal obedience is the great end, to the attainment whereof I am direEing you. And that you may not reje& mine enterprixe as impu;íiible, obferve, that the molt I promife is no more than an acceptable per- formance of thefe duties of the law, fuch as our gras eious merciful God will certainly delight in-, and be pleafed with, during our ftate of imperfeaion in this world, and fuch as will end in perfection of ho- linefs, and all happinefs in the world to come. Before I proceed further, flay your thoughts a while in the contemplation of the great dignity and excellency of thefe duties of the law, that you may aim at the performance of them, as your end, with fo high an efl:eem, as may cart an amiable luftre upon the enfuing difcovery of the means. ' The prim cipal duties of love to God above all, and to each other for his fake, from whence all the other duties flow, are fo exce, lent, that I cannot imagine any niore noble work for the holy angels in their g'ori- ous fphere. They are the chief works for which we were at Exit framed in the image of God, en- graven upon man at the firft creation, and for which that beautiful image is renewed upon us in our new creation and fau&ification by jefus Chrilt, and Mall be perfeaed in our glorification. They are works which depend not merely on the fovereignty of the will of God, to be commanded or forbidden, or left indifferent, or changed, or abolifhed at his pleafure, as other works that belong either to the judicial or ceremonial law, or to the means of fat- nation prefcribed by the gofpeI ; but they are, in their own nature, holy, juft and good, Rom. vii. 12. and meet for us to perform, becaufe of our natural relation to our Creator anil fellow-creatures, Ls that they have an infeparable dependance upon Cz
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