the fincere and real practice of it. Why call ye me Lord, Lord, (fays our Saviour) and do not the things which I fay? The fcripture hath no where faid, he that is baptized fhall be faved; but he that believeth and is baptized, he that repenteth and is baptized, fhall be faved. This deferves to be ferioufly confidered by a great many Chriftians, who have nothing to fhew for their Chriftianity, but their names; whofe beft title to heaven is their baptifm, an engagement entred into by others in their name, but never confirmed and made good by an act of their own; a thing which was done before they remember, and which hath no other effect upon their hearts and lives, than if it were quite forgotten. 2dly, There are others who have attained to a good degree of knowledge in religion, and they hope that will fave them. But if our knowledge in religion, though never fo clear and great, do not defcend into our hearts and lives, and govern our actions, all our hopes of heaven are built upon a falfe and fandy foundation. So our Saviour tells us, Matth. vii. 26. Every one that heareth thefe fayings of mine, and doth them not, fhall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the fand. And John xiii. 17. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. There is not a greater cheat in religion, nothing wherein men do more grofsly impofe upon themfelves, than in this matter; as if the knowledge of religion, without the practice of it, would bring men to heaven. How diligent are many in reading and hearing the word of God, who yet take no care to practife it in their lives! Like thofe in the Prophet, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. of whom God complains, They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they fit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them. None do fo foolishly, and yet fo defervedly mifs of happinefs, as those who are very careful to learn the way to heaven, and when they have done, will take no pains at all to get thither. 3dly, There are others who find themselves much affected with the word of God, and the preaching of VOL. VI. P it i it; and this they take for a very good fign, that it hath its due effect upon them. And this happens very frequently, that the word of God makes confiderable impreffions upon men for the prefent, and they are greatly affected with it, and troubled for their fins, and afraid of the judgments of God, and the terrible vengeance of another world; and upon this they take up fome refolutions of a better course, which after a little while vanish and come to nothing. This was the temper of the people of Ifrael, they delighted to hear the Prophet fpeak to thein in the name of God, Ezek. xxxiii. 32. And le, thou art unto them as a very lovely fong of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an inftrument : for they hear thy words, but they do them not. Mark vi. 20. it is faid that Herod had a great reverence for John the Baptift, that he obferved him, and heard him gladly; but yet for all that, he continued the fame cruel and bad man that he was before. And in the parable of the fower, Matth. xiii. 20. there are one fort of hearers mentioned, who, when they heard the word, received it with joy; but having no root in themselves, they endured but for a while, and when tribulation or perfecution arifeth, because of the word, prefently they are offended. There are many men who have fudden motions in religion, and are mightily affected for the prefent; but it muft be a rooted and fixt principle, that will endure and hold out against great difficulties and oppofition. Acts xxiv. 25. it is faid, that when St. Paul reafoned of righteousness, and temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled: And nothing is more frequent, than for men to be mightily ftartled at the preaching of the word, when their judgments are convinced and born down, and their confciences touched to the quick a lively reprefentation of the evil of fin, and the infinite danger of a finful courfe, may ftir up the paffions of grief and fear, and dart fuch ftings into the confciences of men, as may make them extremely reftlefs and unquiet, and work fome good thoughts and inclinations in them towards a better courfe; and yet like metals, when the heat is over, they may be the harder for having been melted down. 4thly, Others fhew great ftrictnefs and devotion in the worship of God, and this they hope will be accepted, and cannot fail to bring them to heaven: and yet fome of the worst of men have been very eminent for this. The Pharifees were the most exac people in the world in matter of external ceremony and devotion: and yet for all this, our Saviour plainly tells them, that they were farther from the kingdom of God, than those who seemed to be fartheft, than publicans and harlots; and that because they were fo very bad, under fo great a pretence of devotion, therefore they should receive the greater damnation. Not but that external devotion is a neceffary expreffion of religion, and highly acceptable to God, when it proceeds from a pious and devout mind, and when men are really fuch in their hearts and lives as their external devotion represents them to be: But when the outward garb of religion is only made a cloak for fin and wickedness; when there is nothing within to answer all the fhew that we fee without, nothing is more odious and abominable to God. These are mere engines and puppets in religion: all the motions we fee without proceed from an artificial contrivance, and not from any inward principle of life; and as no creature is more ridiculous than an ape, because the beast makes fome pretence to human fhape, fo nothing is more fulfome than this hypocritical devotion, because it looks like religion, but is the fartheft from it of any thing in the world. 5thly, Others confide very much in their being members of the only true church, in which alone falvation is to be had, and in the manifold privileges and advantages which they have thereby above others, of getting to heaven. Thus the Jews confined falvation to themselves, and looked upon all the reft of the world as excluded from it. And not only fo, but they believed that by one means or other every Ifraelite fhould be faved. So that they were the P 2 Jewish Ser. 125. Jewish catholick church, out of which there was no hope of falvation for any. The fame pretence is made by fome Christians at this day, who engrofs falvation to themselves, and will allow none to go to heaven out of the communion of their church; and have fo ordered the matter, that hardly any that are in it can mifcarry. They are members of an infallible church, which cannot poffibly err in matters of faith: they have not only eat and drunk in Chrift's prefence, but have eat and drunk his very corporal prefence, the natural fubftance of his flesh and blood; they have not only our bleffed Saviour, but innumerable other intercef fors in heaven; they have not only their own merits to plead for them, but in cafe they be defective, they may have the merits of others afligned and made over to them out of the infinite ftock and treasure of the church, upon which they may challenge eternal life, as of right and due belonging to them; and by a due courfe of confeffion and abfolution, may quit fcores with God for all their fins from time to time. Or if they have neglected all this, they may, after the moft flagitious courfe of life, upon attrition (that is, upon fome trouble for fin, out of fear of hell and damnation) joined with confeffion and abfolution, get to heaven at laft; provided the Priest mean honeftly, and do not, for want of intention, deprive them of the faving benefit and effect of this facrament. But is it poffible men can be deluded at this rate; as to think that confidence of their own good condition, and want of charity to others, will carry them to heaven? That any church hath the privilege to fave impenitent finners? And they are really impenitent, who do not exercife fuch a repentance as the gofpel plainly requires: and if men dy in this ftate, whatever church they are of, the great Judge of the world hath told us, that he will not know them, but will bid them to depart from him, because they have been workers of iniquity. 6thly, Others think that their zeal for God and his true religion will certainly fave them. But zeal, if it be not according to knowledge, if it be mistaken in its object, object, or be irregular and exceffive in the degree, is fo far from being a virtue, that it may be a great fin and fault; and though it be for the truth, yet if. it be deftitute of charity, and feparated from the vir tues of a good life, it will not avail us. So St. Paul tells us, that though a man shall give his body to be burnt; yet if he have not charity, it is nothing. 7thly, Others go a great way in the real practice of religion, and this fure will do the business. And it is very true, and certain in experience, that religion may have a confiderable awe and influence upon mens hearts and lives, and yet they may fall fhort of happiness. Men may in many confiderable inftances perform their duty to God and man; and yet the retaining of one luft, the practice of any one known fin, may hinder them from entring in at the ftrait gate. Herod did not only hear John gladly, but did many things in obedience to his doctrine; and yet he was a very bad man. The Pharifee thanked God (and it may be truly) that he was not like other men, an extortioner, or unjust, or an adulterer; and yet the penitent Publican was juftified before him. The young man who came to our Saviour to know what he fhould do to enter into life, and of whom our Saviour teftifies, that he was not far from the kingdom of God, and that he wanted but one thing; yet for want of that he mifcarried. And St. James affures us, that if a man keep the whole law, and yet. fail in one point, he is guilty of all. If we be workers of iniquity in any one kind, Chrift will difown. us, and bid us depart from him. 8thly, Others rely upon the fincerity of their repentance and converfion, whereby they are put into a ftate of grace, from whence they can never finally fall. They did once very heartily repent of their wicked lives, and did change their courfe, and were really reformed, and continued a great while in that good courfe. And all this may be certainly true, but it is as certain that they are relapfed into their former evil courfe and if fo, the Prophet hath told us their doom, that if the righteous man forfake his righteousnefs, his righteousness fhall not be remembered; but in P 3 the |