624 The Duty of improving ligion, and advance daily in the pra&ice of it ; that we fhould work awhile it is day, and that the more light we have, the better our lives fhould be. For this is to walk in the light; to make ufe of the prefect advantages and opportunities, and to be alive and induftrious to work out our .own falvation ; to bbe fruitful in everygood -ward and work, and to abound in all the fruits of righteoufnef, which are by jefscs Chrili to the glory andpraife of God. The Apoftle Sr. Peter tells us at large, what obligation the knowledge of the Gofpei lays uponall Chriffians, to make anfwera- ble improvement in all goodnefs and virtue, 2 Pet. T. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. According as his divinepower bath given unta us all things thatpertain unto life andgodlinefs, through the knowledge of him that loath called us to glory and vertue ; whereby are given unto us exceeding great andprecious promifs, that by thefe you might bepar- takers of the divinenature, having efcaped the corruption that is in the world through lull. And betides this, giving all diligence, add toyourfaith, vertue; and tovertue, knowledge;, and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and topa- tience, godlinefr; and togodlinefs, brotherly kindnefs ; and to brotherly kindnefs, cha- rity. For if thefe things be inyou, and abound, they make you that ye(hall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge ofour Lord7efits Chr /. But be that lack- eth theft things, is blind, and cannot feefar off; andbath forgotten that he was pur- gedfrom his oldfins. If the Gofpel have not this effe& upon us, if we make na ufe ofthe light of it, we do not confider that the proper effe& of the Chriftian Re- ligion, is to purge men from thofe fins and vices which reigned in them before; and if it have not this effe& upon us, it had beenbetter for us, to have been with- out this light and knowledge. So the fame Apofile declares Chap. 2. 21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteoufnefr, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. I pro- ceed to the Fourth particular, That if we make no improvementof thefe happyadvantages and opportunities, we may juftly apprehend the like danger, and difmal confequences, ofbeing deprived of them. Walk whileye havethelight, left darknefs come upon you: for he that walketb in darknefs knoweth not whither he goeth. God's dealing with the Yews upon this provocation was very terrible, and, as the Apoftle faith upon another occafion , it fervesfor an example andadmonition to us ; upon whom the ends ofthe world are come. They who not only oppofed and reje&ed that light which God fent among them, but did what in them lay to extinguifh andput it out, by putting to death the Son of God, deferved tohave beenimmediately deprivedof that light, and to have been left inutter darknefs : butGod was pleafedin his great mer- cy togranta reprieve to them, and to continue the great bleflingof theGofpel to them for forty years longer : but when, notwithftandingthis, theyftill continued impe- nitent,God at Taft withdrew this light, and by aparticular Providencegave warning to the Chriftians to flee fromyerufalem, juft before the liege was laid to it; and then darknefs came upon them indeed, and they knew not whither theywent, nor what they did; the things of theirpeace were then bidfrom their eyes, becaufe they would not know the time of their vifitation. They fell into the greateft diforders and confu- lions, and , by the jufi judgment of God , were ftrangely blinded and hardened to their own ruin, and being forfaken of God , and of his glorious Gofpel, which they had related, they exercifed all forts ofviolence and cruelty upon one another, and were abandoned to all manner of wickednefs and folly g not only offending a- gainft their own law, for which they pretended fo great a veneration, but committing things contrary to all laws of nature and humanity; as may be feenat large in the hiftory of the liege of .7erufalem, written by 7ofephus, who lived in that time; And there is the like danger, I do not fay of the very fame Judgments, (for there was fomething peculiar in their cafe, they not only relatingand abufing the Gofpel, but killing and crucifying theSon ofGod, who brought thofe glad tidings to them ;) but of very great and difmal calamities, if ever we provoke Godby our a- bufe of the Gofpel, and great unfruitfulnefs under it, to deprive usof fo invaluable a blaring. Whenever that leaves us we may expe& the moft difn:al Judgments and Calamities tobreak in upon us. $ For
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