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and the rest of the apostles went to heaven in, and this way will not serve men's turns, but will run a hundred ways instead of this one: and they must make new ways which the apostles of Christ were never acquainted with.

If God had loaded your memories with many things you might possibly have said, we cannot remember them all; but he hath set you finally but one thing to remember, even to lay hold on everlasting life, and press on to the crown that is set before you; and he hath an ill memory that cannot remember one thing, and such a thing as this too.

It may be you are ignorant and cannot learn many things; but God hath set you but this one thing to learn as of absolute necessity: and he is dull indeed that cannot learn one thing, and such a thing too. If you cannot understand the depths of sciences, nor reach the height of learning that others do attain, yet learn this one thing, to know God in the Redeemer; and if you know this, you know all. Paul was not only contented with this knowledge, but "resolved to know nothing else but Christ and him crucified ;” that is, nothing that is wholly alien to this: nothing but what doth keep its due subordination to this, and so may be reduced to the knowledge of Christ; 1 Cor. ii. 2. He would not own any other knowledge as knowledge, but disclaimeth it as ignorance and foolishness, though it seemed wisdom in the eyes of the world: chap. iii. 19. This seeming knowledge and wisdom of the world, that is totally disjunct from Christ, is part of the all that we must sell to buy the pearl, if we will obtain it; Matt. xiii. 46. And part of the "all things" which Paul accounted dung and loss, that he might " win Christ and be found in him;" Phil. iii. 7—10. For they that know not this one thing, know nothing, whatsoever they may seem to know: and they that would go beyond the knowledge of Christ, and think it too low for them, and trouble their brains and the church with their speculations, they do not know indeed, but dream. And if they would see their faces in the glass of Scripturę, 1 Tim. vi.4. "They are proud, knowing nothing, but doating about questions and strifes of words; whence cometh envy, railing, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth."

Moreover, if your strength. be so small that it will not

suffice for every thing, at least you should lay it out on this one thing.

Your time, I know, is small, your lives are short, and therefore you may say, We have not time for many things; but when you have but one thing given you to do, that must be done, you may sure find time for this, for which you have

your time.

If you set your servant to work, and bid him be sure to do one thing, whatever else he do, you will not take it well if that one shall be neglected. If you send him on an errand, and bid him be sure to remember one thing whatsoever he forget, you will not take it well if he forget that one. If you trust him but with one thing, and bid him be sure to keep that one, you will not take it well if that be lost; especially if he wilfully throw it away.

O consider whether this be not your case. God hath sent you into this world but on one errand, even to make sure of everlasting life, and will you neglect that one? He hath trusted you with one thing, and will you cast away that one? He hath given you one lesson to learn, even to please him and to save your souls, and will you not learn and remember that one. If you had forgot your food and raiment, or forgot the houses you dwell in, it had been a small matter in comparison; but to forget that one work that must be done, that one friend that you must always trust to, that one place that you must live in for ever, this is most unreasonable; and when you have recovered your understandings, you shall confess it to be so.

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3. Consider further, that this one thing is that good part: you see it is here called so. Mary hath chosen that good part-." Other things seem good to sense, and to perverted reason that is blinded by sense; but this is it that seemeth good to reason illuminated by the spirit of faith. Other things seem good for a while, but this is that good that will still be good.

I may not only say, that the good of other things is small in comparison of this, but that it is nothing at all, but as it is related unto this. This is that good that makes all things else good that are good. As they come from God, and reveal God to us, and lead us up to God, and are means to this eternal life, so they are good; but otherwise there is no goodness in them.

And therefore, seeing that goodness is naturally the object of man's will, one would think you should quickly be resolved of your choice. Sensual good is but a nominal good, if it reach not higher. All that you hunt after so eagerly in the world, is nothing but real vanity and vexation, a shadow of good, a picture of profit, a dream of delight, which one frown of God will turn into astonishing horror and despair: like a tender flower that is nipt with one frosty night, or withered with one scorching day: but it is only this one thing, that is the solid, substantial, and enduring good. The pleasure of the flesh is a good that is common to men with brutes; they can eat, and drink, and play, and satisfy their lusts, and master one another as well as you. But it is the spiritual good that is proper to a reasonable creature. The pleasure of the flesh may melt you into foolish mirth, and make you like drunken men, that are gallant fellows in their own eyes, while sober men are ashamed of them, or pity them, or they become a laughingstock to others. But it is this one thing only which is that good which wisdom itself will justify. A man that is tickled may laugh more than he that is possessed of a kingdom, or hath the desires of his heart; but he is not therefore to be accounted the happier man, nor will any wise man so account him. O sirs, one would think that to men that have read and heard what we have done, and have had that experience which we have had, these things should be plain and past all question; and that spiritual, heavenly, everlasting things. should be confessed by us all to be that good part that should possess all the fervent desires of the soul.

But O that we could see the truth of this belief in the choice of your wills, and the drift of your endeavours! If God would open your eyes and shew you things as they are, and save you from your wilful blindness, you would then see which is the better part, and you would be ashamed that ever you should make any question of it. That is the good part, which beareth the most lively image of God, which is goodness itself, yea, which possesseth us of this good. That is the good part which will make us good, and not that which deceiveth us and makes us worse. That is the good part which the wisest and best men judge to be so, yea, which God himself doth judge to be so; and not that

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which the most blind, deluded sinners do judge the best. That is the good part which is best at last, and which is an enduring good, and not that which perisheth in the using, and flieth from us when we have greatest need. That is the good part which all men will say is good in the conclusion; which the wicked themselves, that are now of another mind, will confess at last to be the best; and not that which is commended only in prosperity, while the frensy or dream of sensuality doth beguile men, and which they will all cry out against at last. If you would know which is the best part, take counsel of God, and see what he saith, and ask men of wisdom and of greatest experience, that have tried both, and men that have staid the end, and seen what fleshly pleasures, and profits, and honours can do for them: for how can men make so true a judgment that do not either stay the end, or else foresee the end by faith? Do not take their judgments that are drunk with their sensual delights, and that will confess they must repent themselves, and therefore confess they must be of another mind. Take not their judgments that neither have seen, nor yet foresee the end; the worst is yet to come with them. Their states and minds are near a change. The day is near when they will say, that heaven was the better part, and be convinced by punishment, that would not be convinced by instruction.

Surely, sirs, it is so easy a question to reason itself, where sin hath not blinded it, whether God or the world be the better part, that one would think there should be left no room for doubting. Dare any of you speak out and say, that earth is better than heaven, or sin than grace, or temporal pleasure than eternal happiness? I think you dare not. Shame will forbid you, and conscience will contradict you, if you should say so. And will you commend God by your words, and discommend him by your lives? Will you say heaven is best, and yet seek the world before it; and not let it have the best of your affections and endeavours? Shall it be highest in your mouths, and lowest in your hearts and lives? Shall it have the first place in your prayers, and the last in your labours? Why then you commend God but to his dishonour, and your condemnation. You extol heaven and heavenly things but to the confusion of your own faces, that your own confessions may be brought in hereaf

ter as witnesses against you. In the name of God therefore I charge you, if you know which is the better part, condemn not yourselves by making choice against your knowledge.

4. Consider also, that this good part is offered you, and you have your choice, whether God or the world, whether heaven or earth shall be your portion.

It is not purchasing, or proper meriting, but choosing the good part, that you are called to. It is not, Mary hath purchased or merited the better part, but, hath chosen the better part.

Two things are here contained. (1.) That it is not matter of impossibility that you are called to: you are not excluded from the hopes of salvation, by any exceptions that God hath put in against you in his promises; but it is conditionally made as well to you as to others.

(2.) And the condition is not any thing unreasonable, but your own consent. Christ and salvation are offered to your choice. If you will but prefer them before the trifles of the world, you may have them. The door of grace is open to you as well as to others. If you will but enter you may live. You are not left in a remediless case, nor given over to desperation. You cannot say, 'Repenting and believing will do us no good; we cannot have Christ though we were never so willing.' You cannot say, 'We would fain have Christ and his Spirit to sanctify us, but we cannot; we are willing to be his disciples, but he is not willing to accept us, and to be our Saviour.' You cannot say so, and say truly. You cannot say he is set to sale to you, and that he expecteth such a price as you are unable to give; for you are called to take him freely; and though this be sometimes called buying, yet it is "a buying without money and without price;" Isa. lv. 1-4. And though you must "sell all you have" for this valuable pearl (Matt. xiii. 46.), yet that is but a metaphorical selling, a parting with your sin and fleshly pleasure, as troubles and impediments that would keep you from salvation. As a sick man sells his diseases for health; or at least, as he hath health by forbearing some hurtful things that please him; or as a prisoner purchaseth the liberty that is freely given him, by consenting to come forth and cast off his fetters. Your hands are full of dirt, and God offers you gold, and you cannot receive it till you throw away the dirt. This is your

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