divine promises to be delivered in the imperative mood, to signify, that if that be done which God commands, his promise is sure and certain, and presently performed: there remains no more to do, but, as it were, to put forth the hand and gather the fruit, and receive the effect of the promise: to this purpose see Isaiah Iv. 2. Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

To reap in mercy is to receive the reward of righteousness from the free and abundant goodness and mercy of God. Indeed some think, the mercy here spoken of may be understood of human mercy, or the exercise of mercy by men to men; and so that to reap in mercy is to receive our reward according to the mercy we have shewn to others. This interpretation (it is confessed) contains a sound truth, and is safe enough; but I choose rather to go with the stream of the most learned interpreters, who expound the mercy here mentioned, of the divine mercy, the mercy of God, the fountain from whence the reward of all our righteousness flows. And certainly the virtue of human mercy is comprehended under that universal righteousness mentioned in the former clause, Sow to yourselves in righteousness, and is part of the duty of man there enjoined; but the mercy here mentioned belongs to the promise of reward, or the reaping of the fruit of that righteousness from God, and so is most fitly understood of the divine mercy.

And this may suffice for the explanation of my text, the sense whereof now appears to be this: Do

and practise the works of righteousness, of piety to God, and of justice and charity towards men, and you shall certainly receive the reward of that righteousness from the mercy of God, an abundant reward, suitable to the infinite goodness and mercy of God that bestows it. I now proceed to raise my observations from the text, which are these two:

Observ. 1. We must not expect to reap in mercy, unless we sow in righteousness; that is, we must not hope for the gracious reward which God hath promised, without the practice of those works of righteousness which God hath commanded.

Observ. 2. When we have sown in righteousness, that is, done righteous works, we must not plead any merit of our own in having so done, but must look for the reward of our righteousness only from the free grace and mercy of God.

Of these in their order; and first, of the first. We must not expect to reap in mercy, unless we sow in righteousness, &c.

For the order in my text is to be observed; first, sow in righteousness, and then (not before, or otherwise) reap in mercy. It would be as absurd for a man to expect that God's mercy should save him without works of righteousness, as for the husbandman to look for a harvest without ever ploughing and sowing his ground. He were a madman in his husbandry that should do this, and he is no less infatuated in his religion that doth the other. The same thing under the same metaphor St. Paul teacheth us, Gal. vi. 7, 8. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to

the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Which great truth the Scripture delivers in proper terms, when it tells us (as it often doth) that God will render to, or reward, every man according to his works. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord, saith the divine author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. xii. 14. Without a holy life here, no man ought to expect or hope for a happy life hereafter.

God indeed is infinitely good and merciful, and it is out of that infinite goodness and mercy that he bestows the gift of eternal life upon any man; but God is also infinitely wise, and righteous, and holy; and therefore he will not (I think I may say he cannot) confer the rich donative upon any unholy or unrighteous person. St. Paul seems to count it strange that any Christian, any man that hath been taught the truth as it is in Jesus, should either not know, or not believe, or not consider this. For thus he bespeaks his Corinthians, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Know ye not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God: as if he had said, Is it possible you should be ignorant of so great a truth as this, so often and so plainly taught you by the Gospel of Christ? Certainly if you know not this, you know nothing in Christianity. And yet, alas! in this our age, how many, among those that call themselves Christians, seem to be wholly ignorant of this great fundamental principle of our religion! A principle more

fundamental (if I may so speak) than any article of our creed; for all those articles are fundamental only in order to this; that is, they are necessary to be believed, because they have an influence upon our practices; and without the belief of them we cannot reasonably live a Christian life. They therefore that are ignorant of or disbelieve the necessity of a holy life, are ignorant of or deny that article, upon the supposition of which the necessity of all other articles of our religion depends. He indeed that thinks himself not obliged by the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, as expounded by our Saviour Christ, may at the same time as reasonably throw away his whole creed. For if it be not necessary to live according to the precepts of Christ, it cannot be necessary to believe any proposition or doctrine in Christianity. If there be no danger in an ill life, there can be no danger in a wrong belief. And yet, I say, how many are there among those on whom the name of Christ is called, and who glory in that name, who seem not yet convinced or persuaded of this great and manifest article! It is a sad truth, (but a truth it is,) that the very principles of Christianity are perverted and corrupted by the professed disciples of that religion, yea (which is yet worse) by the very doctors and teachers of it too. And here

Iliacos intra muros peccatur, et extra.

Protestants and papists are both to blame. To begin with ourselves first. Among us protestants there have been many (too too many) that have taught for pure, yea the purest Gospel, such doctrines as these: "That the faith whereby we are justified, is nothing else but a recumbence or reliance upon

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"Christ, or (which is a worse definition) that it is

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only a firm belief and persuasion, that our sins "are already pardoned, and we already justified; "and consequently, that the justification spoken of "in Scripture is nothing else but the sense and "knowledge of our justification past, decreed from "eternity: that Christ obeyed the law, and suffered "in our persons, and that his righteousness is for

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mally ours, and consequently that there is no "necessity of any righteousness in ourselves in order "to our salvation: that the moral law" (though Christ himself hath taken the pains to explain and press it on us) "concerns not us Christians, as a law obliging us sub periculo animæ, ' under penalty of "damnation;' but is only a contrivance to frighten "sinners, to convince them of their sins, and to shew "them their impotence and weakness: that we are "to work, not for life, but from life, as they phrase "it; and consequently, that all our good works are

(after a sort) works of supererogation, to which no "necessity obligeth us, but only gratitude freely in"clines us." The men that taught these sad propositions were called antinomians; whose name indeed is now every where odious and decried; but the doctrines themselves have taken such deep root in the hearts of the people, (who greedily entertained them, as grateful and pleasing to their carnal appetites,) that multitudes still perish upon the confidence of the same principles. And there being some obscurer places of holy writ, that seem to sound this way, and to favour the forementioned errors, they pertinaciously adhere to them; though there be five hundred texts of Scripture that in the most express and plainest terms teach the contrary. Yet