Serie, LXIX. evd its confitence with free Grace. 509 on, how fpecious and glorious foever it be, if it be deftitute ofthe fruits of Obe- dience and a holy Life, will by no means avail to bring us to Heaven. No pro- feffion of Faith in Chrift, noSubje&ion tohim, tho' webe baptized in his Name, and lift our felves in the number of his Difciples and Followers, tho' we have made a confiant Profeffion of all the Articles of the Chriflian Faith, and have per- formed all the external parts and duties of Religion, have gone conftantly to Church, and frequented the Service of God, and have joined in publick Prayers toGod with great appearance of Devotion, and have heard his Word with great Reverence and Attention, and received the bleffed Sacrament with all imaginable expreonsof Love and Gratitude to our bleffed Redeemer ; nay tho' we had heard our bleffed Saviour himfelf teach in our _greets, and had eaten and drunken in his prefence; yet if all this while we have not done the will of God, and obey'd his Laws, none of all thefe things will lignifie any thing to bring us to Heaven, and make us Partakers of that Salvation, whichhe bath purchafed for Mankind. But we cannot plead fo much for our felves, as thofe did, of whom our Savi- our fpeaks. None of us (hall be able to alledge for our (elves at the great day, that we had prophefied in his Name, and in his name had call out Devils, and in his namehad done vsany wonderfdlWorks 5 and yet if we could alledgeall this, it would do us no good. All that fuch can fay for themfelves is, that they have call'd him Lord, Lord, that is, they have made profeflion of his Religion, and been call'd by his Name, that they have paid an outward Honour and refile& to him, and declared a mighty, Love and Affe&ion for him ; but they have not done his will, but have hated to be reformed, and havecal his commandments behind their backs, they have only born the Leaves of an outward Profeflion, but have brought forth no fruit unto Holinef, and therefore can have no reafonable expectation, that their end fhould be everlafring Life. So that when thefe Men (hall appear before the great and terrible Judge of the World, they tltall have nothing to fay but thofe vain Words, Lord, Lord; to which our Saviour will anfwer in that Day, why call ye me Lord, Lord, whenye would not do the things which I faid ? Notwithftanding all your profeflion of Faith inme, and fubje&ion to me, ye have been workers of Ini- quity, therefore 'depart fromme, I know ye not whence ye are. Secondly, The confideration of what hath been faid (hould fir us up to a thank- ful acknowledgment of what the Author of our Salvation bath done for us; and there is great reafon for thankfulnefs, whether we confider the greatnefs of the Benefit conferred upon us, or the way and manner in which it was purchafed, or the eafie and reafonable terms upon which it may be obtained. rf1, If we confider the greatnefs of the Benefit conferred upon us, and that is Salvation, eternal Salvation, which comprehends in it all the Bleflings and Bene- fits of the Gofpel, botifthe Means and the End, our Happinefs, and the Way to it, by flying na from our Sins; from the guilt of them, by ourJuftification in the Bloodof Chrift ; and from the Power andDominion of them, by the fan&ifying grace and virtue of the Holy Ghoft. And it comprehends the End, our Deliverance from Hell and the Wrath to come, and thebellowing of Happinefs upon us, a great and lafting Happinefs, great as our Withes, and Immortal as our Souls; all this is comprehended in eternal Salvation. ad/y, If weconfider the way and manner in which this great Benefit was pur- chafed and procured for us; in a way of infinite Kindnefs and Condefcenlon, in the loweft Humiliation, and the unparallel'd Sufferings of the Son of God ; for never was there anyforrow like unto this forrow, wherewith theLord a f fiit/ed him in the day of his fierce Anger; in his takingupon him the form ofa Servant, and the perfon of a Sinner, and his becoming obedient to death, even the death of the Crofr, which was the Piani(hment of the vileft Slaves, and the molt hainous Malefa&ors. The Son ofGod came down from Heaven, from the highefl pitch of Glory and Hap- pinefs, into this lower World, this Vale of Tears, and finkof Sin and Sorrow; and was contented himfelf to fuffer, to fave us from eternal Ruin ; to be the molt de- fpicable, and the molt miferable Man that ever was, that he might ralle us to Glory and Honour, and advance us to a italic of the greateft Happinefs that Hu-, manNature is capable of. idly,
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