thing, and that it is purchased by the death of Christ, and so, attainable by coming unto him for it. 2. By this, the soul finding itself ready to sink under the burden of its own sins, is persuaded to go to him, and lay over that load on him; and itself withal resolves to rest on him for this forgiveness. This is to believe in him who is the Lord our righteousness. 3. Upon this believing on him for forgiveness, follows a reflex believing of that forgiveness; not continually and inseparably, especially if we take the degree of assurance somewhat high, but yet, in itself, it is apt to follow, and often, in God's gracious dispensation, doth follow upon that former act of believing, through the clearness and strength of faith in the soul, and sometimes withal, is backed with an express, peculiar testimony of God's own Spirit. To believe, and to grow stronger in believing, and to aspire to the assurance of faith, is our constant duty; but that immediate testimony of the Spirit, is an arbitrary beam that God reserves in His own hand, yet, such a gift as we may not only lawfully seek, but do foolishly prejudice ourselves and slight it, if we neglect to seek it, and want so rich a blessing for want of asking, and withal, labouring to keep our hearts in a due disposition and frame for entertaining it. The keeping of our consciences pure, as much as may be, doth not only keep the comfortable evidence of pardon clearest and least interrupted within us, but is the likeliest to receive those pure joys which flow immediately into the soul from the Spirit of God. The testimony of our conscience is, if we damp it not ourselves, our continual feast; but that testimony of the Spirit is a superadded taste of higher comfort out of God's own hand, as it were a piece of Heaven in the soul, which He sometimes cheers it withal, where He hath first given much love and ardent desires after Himself: they are short of that light, in the fulness whereof we hope to dwell hereafter. But besides that God is most free in that particular, and knows what is fittest for us, the greatest part even of true Christians, yet do not so walk, nor attend to that spiritualness that is capable of such visits.

VOL. IV.

D

The resurrection of the body.] The comfort of these privileges, is opposed to those grand evils that we feel or fear: sanctification, to the power of sin; justification or forgiveness, to the guilt of sin; the resurrection, to temporal death; and life eternal, to the second or eternal death.

This is the raising of the self-same body that is laid in the dust; otherwise, the giving of a body to the soul again, must have some other name, for resurrection it cannot be called.

That God can do this, notwithstanding all imaginable difficulties in it, have we not proof enough in what He hath done? Surely, that which He did in the beginning of time, the framing of the whole world of nothing, is more than a sufficient pledge of this which is to be done in the end of time.

That He will do it, we have His own word for it, and the pledge of it in raising His Son Jesus; therefore called, The first begotten from the dead, Col. i. 18, this as relating to believers, who are one with him. The resurrection of the dead in general, is an act of power: but, to the godly, it is an act of grace, to the wicked, of justice. Both shall rise by the power of Christ, but, to the one, as a Judge, and a Judge who shall condemn them; to the other, as their Head, and their Saviour. Joseph's two fellow-prisoners were both taken out of the prison, and at the same time; but the one to the court, the other to the gallows. So shall it be in the resurrection. John v. 29.

The confession of faith being of such things as belong to believers and are their happiness, therefore, their resurrection is particularly here intended, as we see eternal life and glory is subjoined to it.

Our bodies are raised, which were companions and partakers of our good and evil in our abode upon earth, that they may in eternity be companions and partakers of our reward. Those of the ungodly, to suit their condemned souls, shall be filled with shame, and vileness, and misery; and those that were, in their lower estate here, temples of the Holy Ghost, shall be filled with that fulness of joy that shall run over from the soul unto

them: they shall be conformable to the happy and glorious souls to which they shall be united, yea, to the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. There shall then be nothing but beauty, and glory, and immortality, in them which are now frail and mortal, and being dead, do putrefy and turn to dust. He shall change our vile bodies, and make them like unto his most glorious body. Phil. iii. 21. But, as St. Bernard says well, If we would be sure of this, that our bodies shall be conformed to his in the glory to come, let us see that our souls be here conformed to his, in that humility which he so much manifested whilst he dwelt among men: if we would that then our vile body be made like his glorious body, let our proud heart now be made like his humble heart.

Life eternal.] Our Confession of faith ends in that which is the end of our faith, our everlasting salvation, or eternal life. Of which, all that we can say is but stammering, and all our knowledge and conceiting of it but ignorance, in regard of what it is; yet, so much we know, or may know of it, as, if we knew aright, would certainly draw us more into the desires and pursuit of it. The very name of life is sweet, but then especially as it is here meant, in the purest and sweetest sense, for a truly happy life. Non est vivere, sed valere, vita. For a life full of misery is scarcely worth the name of life, and the longer it were, the worse; therefore, the miserable estate of damned souls, though immortal in it, is called death. So then, by this life, true and full blessedness being meant, and then that added, that it is eternal life, what can be imagined more to make it desirable? So happy, that there shall not be the smallest drop of any evil or bitterness in it, pure unmixed bliss; nothing present in it that is displeasing, nor any thing wanting that is delightful; and everlasting, that when millions of years (if there were any such reckoning there) are rolled about, it shall be as far from ending as at the first.

A very little knowledge of this blessed life, would make us clean out of love with the life that now we make such account of. What can it be that ties us here? The known shortness

of this life, were it more happy than it is to any, might make it of less esteem with us. But then withal, being so full of miseries and sins, so stuffed with sorrows round about us, and within ourselves, that if the longest of it can be called long, it is only the multitude of miseries in it, that can challenge that name for it. Such a world of bodily diseases, here one's head paining him, another his stomach-Quam male nobis convenit, nunc de ventre, nunc de capite, &c., hoc contingere solet in alieno habitantibus. [SENECA.] some complaining of this part, some of that, and the same party sometimes of one malady, sometimes of another; what disappointments, and disgraces, and cross encounters of affairs; what personal and what public calamities; and then, sin, the worst of all! And yet, all cannot wean us! We cannot endure to hear nor to think of removing; and the true reason is, unbelief of this eternal life, and the neglect of those ways that lead to it. that lead to it. Be persuaded at length to call in your heart from the foolish chase of vanity, and consider this glorious life that is set before you. Do you think the provision you make for this wretched present life, worth so many hours' daily pains, and give eternal life scarcely half a thought in many hours, possibly not a fixed, serious thought in many days? Surely, if you believe there is such a thing, you cannot but be convinced that it is a most preposterous, unwise course you take, in the expense of your time and pains upon any thing else more than on life eternal. Think, what a sad thing it will be, when your soul must remove out of that little cottage wherein it now dwells, not to be bettered by the removal, but thrust out into utter darkness. Whereas, if ye would give up with sin, and embrace Jesus Christ as your joy and your life, in him you would presently be put into a sure, unfailing right to this eternal life. It is a pure life, and purity of life here, is the only way to it. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

AN EXPOSITION

OF

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

MATT. vi. 9.

After this manner, therefore, pray ye.

THE malice and craft of Satan, in reference to good actions, works first in attempting wholly to divert us from them; but, if that take not, the next is, to pervert their use, and corrupt them so in doing, that they lose their acceptance with God, and we consequently lose the fruit and comfort of them. And as there is no religious exercise that he hath more quarrel at, and owes greater enmity to, than Prayer, being the most constant crosser of his designs, there is none from which he more endeavours to estrange men, either wholly to lay it down, or to frequent cessations; or, if that cannot be, but the light of conscience still calls for somewhat at least that may pass with a man for Prayer, yet, if Satan can get it turned to hypocrisy and formality, he knows he needs not fear it, for so it wants the life of prayer, and remains nothing but a dead carcass, and therefore can neither please the living God, nor hurt him who is its enemy.

Therefore, our Saviour here warns his disciples to avoid, in praying, these two evils, the vain ostentation of hypocrites, and the vain repetition of the Heathen; not to think it Prayer, to tumble out a multitude of empty words; and upon that, takes occasion to set this matchless copy of way prayer, the example being the shortest and liveliest way of teaching.

of