SERM. XVII.) A RATIONAL DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL. 93 Jesus himself preached hell and terror to sinners with a sacred vehemence, and set everlasting fire in a clearer and more dreadful light than ever had been done by all the philosophers in the world. The soul ofevery saint has been in some measure a witness of this truth, when it lay under the work of divine conviction. And not only the horrid nature and evil of sin, and the dreadful consequences of it, are powerful motives to make us stand afar off, and fear it; but "The sweet and constraining influence of the love of Christ does most effectually incline me, saith the believer, to hate every sin, and to follow after universal holiness : Shall I build up again the things which my Saviour died to destroy ? This would be to make him suffer agonies in vain, and run counter to all the designs of his bleeding love, and the voluntary sacrifice of his soul !" " I have also the glorious and perfect example of my blessed Lord : Never did virtue and religion shine -sci bright, and look so-amiable as in 'his life; and he has set it before me as my pattern : I feel theattractive and di- vine power' of it : Where my Lord leads, I must follow ; for I would fain be like him." " He draws me by his example, and he draws me too by his heavenly promises. He spreads the glories and the joys of heaven before me, to allure my hope; I see those sacred glories, I long after the possession of these unfading joys, and I must and will keep the path that leads to paradise, that where my Lord is, I may be also." " The rules and precepts of holiness, which my Lord has taught me, are more pure, more clean, more per- fect, more divine and godlike, than ever any other scheme of rules and duties was; and the joyful and dreadful motives given me to press after this holiness, are infinitely beyond all the motives that any doctrine or religion has proposed. Blessed be God that I ever learnt those holy rules, that I ever felt the power of these divine motives, and am become a lover of holi- ness." 4. Thus the gospel prepares the saint for heaven, and fits every power of his soul for the business and blessed- ness of those happy regions. " Once, says he, I had no delight in spiritual things; I had no relish of spiritual u
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