[SERM. of Atheism, yet are introduced and countenanced under great Pretenfions to Religion, and are more eafily imbibed than the most serious Truths of Religion itself, meeting with such a Friend within as our own Lufts are. Examples of fuch DoEtrines are thefe: 1. That all Mankind from all Eternity had their Fate allotted them, without any Regard to their own Merits or Demerits; and that this ftands unalterable, fo as no Diligence or Negligence of ours can reverse it. 2. That God doth not determine Men's final Happiness or Mifery equitably by the Rules of his revealed Will, but arbitrarily by his own fecret Pleasure. 3. That a Man, who, by the Grace of God, has once been reformed from his evil Courfes, can never totally and finally fall away into the Ways of Sin. 4. That evil Habits, wilfully continued in, are reconcilable with a State of Grace. 5. That Repentance is nothing but a Sorrow for Sin, and that we may have true Repentance without Amendment of Life. 6. That God is all Mercy; and tho' he threatens Hell and Damnation to Sinners, to bring them and bind them to their better Behaviour; yet fure he will be more merciful than to put it in Execution. 7. That a Deathbed Repentance may be fafely enough relied upThese and the like Doctrines, which carnal Men do very greedily fuck in, have a mighty Aptnefs and Tendency in them to lull the Čonfcience afleep, and to prevent those Pains and Uneafineffes which the Salt of heavenly Doctrine would give us in the seasoning our own Minds, and preferving them from Corruption, and which we must give to others, before we can thoroughly awake them to a Sense of their Duty,

on.

429 2. Endeavour thoroughly to understand, firmly to believe, and to be poffeffed with a lively Senfe of the great Truths of Religion. It is very much to be lamented, that fo many take upon them the Chriftian Profeffion, without troubling themselves to enquire into the Truth of its particular Doctrines. They are Chriftians by Birth, as they would have been Mahometans, if they had been born of Mahometan Parents; and never trouble themselves to enquire or examine afterwards into the Truth or Falfhood, the Slightness or Importance of the Doctrines they have fo fwallowed in the Lump. Certainly it is not enough that we are thus Believers in grofs, unless we understand and believe the particular Articles of the Chriftian Faith; nor is the bare Belief of them fufficient, unless we have a lively Sense of them upon our Spirits, fuch as will ftir us up to a Diligence in all Duty. And this lively Senfe can't be come at, but by frequent and ferious Meditation, and putting ourselves under the Power and Influence of divine Truths.

3. Let us take all Care to keep our Minds in a conftant good Frame and Temper, which is done by a regular Practice of Piety and Devotion, and by a continual Watchfulness against Temptations. The Morning's Refolution, and the Evening's Examination, with frequent devoting ourselves to God in the holy Sacrament, with Prayer and Meditation, are great Means to keep the Mind in this good Temper; and this will both season our own Minds with good Notions, and enable us fo to administer to others, as to preserve them from Corruption.

4. Laftly,

4. Lastly, Let us take a near Profpect of Death, and of the future State of Rewards and Punishments, and confider how little this World will avail us when we come to die, unless we have taken Care to lay up Treafure in Heaven, by doing a great deal of Good in our Life-time. The Time is fhortly a coming on, when it will avail us nothing at all to have been great or rich in this World, except we have been as good as great. It is a ftrange Thing how Satan does lull us fo faft afleep, that the providing for the few Days or Years we have to live here, employs our Thoughts and Time more than the providing for that vaft Eternity into which we are fhortly to enter. The Meditations of it would of all Things the most effectually feafon our Minds with good Thoughts and Refolutions, and prompt us to exert our Faculties to the utmoft, to rescue as many others as we can from the common Corruption.

Now God of his infinite Mercy feafon our Hearts with his Grace, and preferve us all from the Pollutions which are in the World through Luft, and fo fit us for his everlafting Kingdom, by the Merits and Mediation of his dear Son, Jefus Chrift, our Lord. To whom, &c.

SERMON

SERMON XXVI.

MAT. V. 14.

Ye are the Light of the World. A City that is fet

on an Hill cannot be bid.

Ver. 15. Neither do Men light a Candle, and put it under a Bufhel: But on a Candleftick, and it giveth Light to all that are in the Houfe.

Ver. 16. Let your Light so shine before Men, that they may fee your good Works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.

The Third Sermon on this Text.

A

S our Saviour's Doctrine is truly admirable in all the Parts of it, fo if we may be allowed to take Notice of one fhi

ning Jewel in his Difcourfe, where there are fo many, I think nothing can be more beautiful or luminous, nothing more pertinent and appofite to the Purpose, than all his Parables and Similitudes; in which, from Things plain and obvious to the Understanding of the meaneft, he explains the greatest and noblest Truths, but in a Manner which has nothing of the Sordidness and Meannefs of thofe Comparisons, which are every where to be met with in human Authors.

Our Saviour's Defign in this Part of his Sermon which I have now read, is to ftir up Chri

[SERM. ftians to a bright and exemplary Piety. In order to this, he makes ufe of two fuch Similitudes, the Salt of the Earth, and the Light of the World, as are very apt to put them in Mind of that extraordinary Exemplarinefs in their own Lives, and Zeal in reforming the Lives of the rest of Mankind, which he expected of them.

Having fpoke to the firft, the Salt of the Earth, I go on now to the fecond, Ye are the Light of the World; where, first, we are to remember, that it is the fame re to whom he had addreffed himself at the 11th Verfe, Bleffed are ye when Men fhall revile you, and perfecute you; and to whom he addreffes himself all throughout the Sermon, that is to fay, all Chriftians. And let no Man wonder that fuch high Titles as these, the Salt of the Earth, and the Light of the World, fhould be given to Chriftians: This is ufual in the New Teftament. St. Peter, 1 Pet. ii. 9. addreffes them thus: But ye are a chofen Generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy Nation, a peculiar People. And St. Paul, Phil. ii. 15. exhorts the Philippians to be blameless and harmless, the Sons of God without Rebuke, in the mids of a crooked and perverfe Nation; among whom, fays he, ye fine, or, as it is in the Margin of our Bibles, fhine ye as Lights in the World. For we are not to take our Notions of a Chriftian from what the Generality of thofe called Chriftians are now a-days, but from what they were then, when there was nothing to tempt them to diffemble, and when the Life and Profeffion of a Chriftian kept equal Pace. It is the forgetting of this, that induces fo many Writers in the Church of Rome to appropriate many Things which are spoke in the holy