constant, not frail and mutable, as when it depended upon the life of the first Adam, and not of the second.

Thirdly, The kingdom of Christ is ours also. Now his kingdom is not perishable, but eternal: A kingdom which cannot be shaken,' or destroyed, as the apostle speaks, Heb. xii. 28.

b

Fourthly, The sonship, and, by consequence, inheritance of Christ is ours. I speak not of his personal sonship by eternal generation, but of that dignity and honour which he had as the first-born of every creature, and heir of all things. That sonship which he had, as he was born from the dead; "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten theec", namely in the resurrection, in which respect he is called 'the first born,' and 'the first begotten of the dead.' In this dignity of Christ, of being heirs, and a kind of first-born unto God, do we in our measure partake; for we are called the church of the first-born, and a kind of first-fruits of his creatures for though those attributes may be limited to the Jews in regard of precedency to the Gentiles; yet in regard of the inheritance (which was usually and properly to descend to the first-born) they may be applied to all; for of all believers the apostle saith, If ye are sons, then are ye heirs, coheirs with Christ. We hold in chief under his guardianship and protection, as his sequel and dependent. Now from hence our Saviour's argument may bring much comfort and assurance; The son abideth in the house for ever; and the house of God is his church, not in Heaven * only, but on earth' likewise, as the apostle shews.

Fifthly, Christ's victories are ours. He overcame the world", and temptations", and enemies, and sins P for us. And therefore they shall not be able to overcome him in us. He is able to succour them, that are tempted 9. He who once overcame them for us, will certainly subdue them in us: he that will overcome the last enemy', will overcome all that are before; for if any be left, the last is not overcome.

Lastly, We have the benefit of Christ's intercession; "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." It is spoken of a saving faith, as the learned prove at large; and I have shewed before, that particular promises in Scripture are universally appliable to any man, whose case is parallel to that particular. If then Peter's sin did not, by reason of this prayer of Christ, overturn his salvation, or bring a total deficiency upon his faith; why should any man, who is truly and deeply humbled with the sense of a relapse, or consciousness of some sin, not of ordinary guilt, or daily incursion, but indeed very heinous, and therefore to be repented of with tears of blood,—yet why should he, in this case of sound humiliation, stagger in the hope of forgiveness, or mistrust God's mercy, since a greater sin than Peter's, in the gross matter of it, can, I think, hardly be committed by any justified man?

These are the comforts, which may secure the life of Christ in a lapsed but repenting sinner. The sum of all is this. Since we stand not like Adam, upon our own bottom, but are branches of such a vine as never withers; members of such a head as never dies; sharers in such a spirit as cleanseth, healeth, and purifieth the heart; partakers of such promises, as are sealed with the oath of God; since we live not by our own life, but by the life of Christ; are not led or sealed by our own spirit, but by the spirit of Christ; do not obtain mercy by our own prayers, but by the intercession of Christ; stand not reconciled unto God by our own endeavours, but by the propitiation wrought by Christ, 'who loved us when we were enemies, and in our blood;' who is both willing and able to save us to the uttermost,' and to preserve his own mercies in us; to whose office it belongs to take order that none who are given unto him, be lost:undoubtedly that life of Christ in us, which is thus underpropped, though it be not privileged from temptations, no

с

D. Reynolds Confer. with Hart, c. 7. Divis. 8.-D. Abbot in Thompson. diatrib. cap. 18. Falsa est, (inquit Maldonatus Jesuita) opinio eorum, qui putant Petrum fidem negando perdidisse; in loc. z Quod dicit Petro, toti Ecclesiæ dictum putandum est. Jesuita ibid. a Rogavit ut haberet in fide liberrimam, fortissimam, invictissimam, perseverantissimam voluntatem. Aug. de corb Consuetudinarii reatus. Salvian.-Quotidianæ c John vi. 39.

rupt. et grat. cap. 8.

ncursionis. Tertul.

not from back-slidings, yet is an abiding life: he who raised our soul from death, will either preserve our feet from falling; or, if we do fall, will heal our backslidings, and will save us freely.

Infinitely therefore doth it concern the soul of every man to be restless and unsatisfied with any other good thing, till he find himself entitled unto this happy communion with the life of Christ, which will never fail him. As all the creatures in the world, so man especially hath in him a twofold desire; a desire of perfection, and a desire of perpetuity; a desire to advance, and a desire to preserve his being. Now then till a man's soul, after many rovings and inquisitions, hath at last fixed itself upon some such good thing, as hath compass enough to satiate and replenish the vastness of these two desires; impossible it is for that soul, though otherwise filled with a confluence of all the glory, wealth, wisdom, learning, and curiosity of Solomon himself, to have solid contentment enough to withstand the fears of the smallest danger, or to outface the accusations of the smallest sin.

Now then let us suppose, that any good things of this world, without the life of Christ, were able to satisfy one of these two desires, to perfect and advance our natures: though indeed it be far otherwise, since, without Christ, they are all but like a stone in a serpent's head, or a pearl in an oyster; not our perfections, but our diseases; like Cleopatra her precious stone; when she wore it, a jewel; but when she drank it, an excrement. I may boldly say, that as long as a man is out of Christ, he were better be a beggar or an idiot, than to be the steward of riches, honours, learning, and wisdom, which should have been improved to the glory of him that gave them, and yet to be able to give up, at that great day of accounts, no other reckoning unto

f Hos. xiv. 14.

d Hos. xi. 7, 11. e Psal. lvi. 13. g Fecisti nos ad te; et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te. Aug. Conf. 1. 1. cap. 1.-Dum beati esse omnes homines volunt; si verè volunt, profectò esse immortales volunt; aliter enim beati esse non possunt. Aug. de Trin. 1. 13. c. S. -Cujus jam non difficulter occurrit utroque conjuncto effici beatitudinem, quam recto proposito intellectualis natura desiderat : hoc est, ut bono incommutabili, quod Deus est, sine ulla molestia perfruatur, et in eo se in æternum esse mansurum, nec ulla dubitatione cunctetur, nec ullo errore fallatur. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 11. cap. 13.

God but this Thy riches have been the authors of my covetousness and oppression; thy honours, the steps of my haughtiness and ambition; thy learning and wisdom, the fuel of my pride.'-But now I say, suppose that nature could receive any true advancement by these things; yet alas, when a man shall begin to think with himself, May not God this night take me away, like the fool in the Gospel, from all these things, or all these from me? May I not, nay must I not within these few years, instead of mine honour, be laid under men's feet? Instead of my purple and scarlet, be clothed with rottenness? Instead of my luxury and delicacies, become myself the food of worms? Is not the poor soul in my bosom an immortal soul? must it not have a being, as long as there is a God who is able to support it? And will not my bags and titles, my pleasures and preferments, my learning and natural endowments, every thing, save my sins, and my adversaries, and mine own conscience, forsake me, when I once enter into that immortality?— When a man (I say) shall begin to summon his heart unto such sad accounts as these, how will his face gather blackness, and his knees tremble, and his heart be even damped and blasted with amazement, in the midst of all the vanities and lies of this present world! What a fearful thing is it for an eternal soul to have nothing between it and eternal misery to rest upon, but that which will moulder away and crumble into dust under it, and so leave it alone to sink into bottomless calamity! O beloved, when men shall have passed many millions of years in another world, which no millions of years can shorten or diminish; what accession of comfort can then come to those glorious joys, which we shall be filled with in Heaven? or what diminution or mitigation of that unsupportable anguish, which, without ease or end, must be suffered in Hell, by the remembrance of those few hours of transitory contentments, which we have here, not without the mixture of much sorrow and alloy, enjoyed? What smack or relish think you hath Dives now left him of all his delicacies, or Esau of his pottage? What pleasure hath the Rich Fool of his full barns, or the young man of his great possessions? What delight hath Jezebel in her paint, or Ahab in the vineyard, purchased with the innocent blood of him that owned it? How much policy hath

Ahithophel, or how much pomp hath Herod, or how much rhetoric hath Tertullus left, to escape or to bribe the torments, which, out of Christ, they must for ever suffer? O how infinitely doth it concern the soul of every man to find this life of Christ to rest upon, which will never forsake him till it bring him to that day of redemption, wherein he shall be filled with blessedness infinitely proportionable to the most vast and unlimited capacities of the creature!

And now, when we can secure our consciences in the inward, true, and spiritual renovation of our heart, in this invincible and unperishable obsignation of the Spirit, who knitteth us as really (though mystically) unto Christ, as his sinews and joints do fasten the parts of his sacred body together; how may our heads be crowned with joy, and our hearts sweetly bathe themselves in the prefruition and preoccupation of those rivers of glory, which attend that Spirit, whithersoever he goeth! Many things, I know, there are, which may extremely dishearten us in this interim of mortality; many things, which therein encounter and oppose our progress. The rage, malice, and subtilty of Satan; the frowns, flatteries, threats, and insinuations of this present world; the impatience and stubbornness of our own flesh; the strugglings and counter-lustings of our own potent corruptions; the daily consciousness of our falls and infirmities; the continual intercourse of our doubts and fears; the ebbing and languishing, decaying, and even expiring of our faith and graces; the frequent experience of God's just displeasure, and spiritual desertions, leaving the soul to its own dumps and darkness. Sometimes, like froward children, we throw ourselves down and will not stand; and sometimes there comes a tempest, which blows us down, that we cannot stand. And now whither should a poor soul, which is thus on all sides environed with fears and dangers, betake itself? Surely so long as it looks either within or about itself, no marvel if it be ready to sink under the concurrent opposition of so many assaults.

But though there be nothing in thee, nor about thee, yet there is something above thee which can hold thee up. If there be strength in the merit, life, kingdom, victories, intercession of the Lord Jesus; if there be comfort in the covenant, promises, and oath of God; believe, and all this