Chap. 3. hath linked it in with Christ, Promises, Faith, Heaven, and Salvation, that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other; till Chrift can be divided, his Sacrifice from his Scepter; till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts, to which they are annexed; till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience; till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them: till then, an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness. In all this we fee, how high a respect God hath for Holinefs.

Now what remains, but that Chriftians, who have this glorious Attribute fet before them, fhould bethink themselves, what manner of perfons they ought to be. God acts like himself; Should not they do fo? their decorum ftands in an holy Affimilation to him. Christianity is, as an Ancient hath it, quolors, a likeness to God, to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving, merciful, holy, patient, as He is, is to be, and act like themselves. One Virtue of God or other should be ftill breaking forth from them, to tell the World that they are Christians: Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures, should speak their fenfe of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of: Their patience under injuries fhould carry a resemblance of thofe Riches of goodness and forbearance, which God hath spent upon themselves: All their holy Graces fhould appear as fo many Rays and little Images of Him, who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holinefs. For them to walk worthy of God, and in imitation of him, is to walk condecently to themselves, and in correfpondence to Christianity. Again, God doth all

things for Himself, his own Glory, and this must be Chap. 3. the aim of Chriftians: To be a Center to themselves, they must not do it; an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be. It is naturally juft, that He, who is the first Principle of all things, fhould be the laft End. That Axiom, That God in all things must be glorified, is fundamental Divinity; that is the very thing, which they must look to as their ultimate fcope. They fhould put away the by-glances at Self, and the unbecoming Squints at bafe and false Ends; that they may have a fingle Eye, and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things. This is the very life and marrow of Religion: it fanctifies holy Duties; it fpiritualizes civil and natural Actions; it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things, and by confecrating the Actions unto God, gives them a kind of Immortality. It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature, that it becomes one fpirit with the Lord, and falls in with the fame Will and End with him. If we will be like Chriftians, the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and felf. All thofe things, which are off from the true End and Center, must be in our eyes as fo many impertinent follies: the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a confecration to that Eternal Defign, The Glory of God bleffed for ever. Moreover, God hath an hatred of fin, and a love of Holiness; and what is the work of Chriftians, but to follow him? Sin is fo vile an evil, that it cannot but be worthy of hatred. To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion; to the World it is a Curfe, a blast of Vanity; to the Soul an Ataxy,

ture.

Chap. 3. turpitude, and corruption; to the Lord Chrift as Nails, a bloody Cross, and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is, and to be hated accordingly; a meer evil without mixture of good, and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love. An All-evil oppofite to God the All-goodness, and to be hated with all-hatred: not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing elfe. All of it in the most intenfe degree and measure should be poured out upon it; in what place or time foever it be, ftill it is evil, and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places. And indeed, if we do bethink our felves, the groans of the poor creatures, which are conftant and everywhere round about us, do very strongly move us hereunto; the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us, that we must hate it, as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits. The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour, cry out for Juftice and Vengeance to be executed upon it. And, if we have any love for him, we must crucifie it and caft it away as an accurfed thing. On the other hand, Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love. It is a pure thing let down from Heaven; and, if our love be there, it can do no less than embrace fo divine an off-fpring as that is. It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls, that which fets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things: and for that reason, more love is to bet fet upon it, than that which is due to our own Souls. Though in man it be but a little Ray or fpark; yet, because of its divine Nature, it doth in little resemble him, who is all Holinefs and Pu

rity; and upon that account, our love, which in its Chap. 3. highest measures afcends up to Him, must in proportion be due to it. The amiableness of it in the Letter, made the Holy man cry out, Oh how I love thy Law! Pfalm 119. 97; and how illuftrious and attractive must it be, when it is in its proper Ubi, living and breathing in the fpirits of men? Rather than it should not revive there, God would be manifeft in the flesh, and die in it. And how should we die to our felves and the World, that it may live in us? Which, when it doth, we live indeed, and that a life more divine and of higher Excellency, than is the life of meer Senfe or Reason; nay, this life is complicated with Happinefs, and makes us meet for life Eternal. If we would live for ever in Blifs and Glory, we must follow after Holinefs; heart and life must be confecrated unto God, elfe Heaven will not be capable to receive us, nor fhall we be fit to enter in there.

42 Chap. 4.

dicatrix in Deo

ours.

CHAP. I V.

Gods Punitive Justice afferted from Scripture and Nature. It was neceffary that there should be a Satif faction for Sin: Rectoral Justice required it. Unlefs Chrifts Sufferings were fatisfactory, no good account can be given of them. It's not enough to fay, That he was an Example of Patience; That he confirmed the Covenant; That Gods immense Love was manifefted therein, or that his Refurrection affured Gods Justice appears, in that He, though of infinite Mercy, inflicted thofe Sufferings on Chrift; In that Chrift, the Patient, was Man, the Son of God, an holy Innocent One; In that the Sufferings of Chrift were proportionable to the finning-powers in Man; To the Law; To the fin and sufferings of a World. The fruits of his Sufferings as to HimSelf, and as to Us. The Dreadfulness of fin, in respect of the Sufferings of Chrift, and the miferable end of impenitent Sinners.

AVING difcourfed of Gods Holiness, I

HAV

now come to his Vindictive Justice; which, as a learned man faith, is a Branch or Emanation from the other. That pure Effence which cannot Juftitia vin- but hate fin, must needs have a propensity to pufanétitatis&nish it. That propenfity cannot be feparated from famme rectitu- the hatred of fin, nor that hatred from infinite Redinis pars que titude. The Socinians, that they might raze Chrifts oppola, Tur- Satisfaction to the very foundation, deny this At-ret. de fatif- tribute: This Juftice, fay they, is not an Attri

dam eft, & à

fact.

bute