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entrusted thee with his blessings; and hadst made thee" friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when all fail, they might receive thee into the everlasting habitations." Drop not now and then a scant and grudging alms, as if thou wert a loser by it, and God must be beholden to thee; but believe that the greatest gain is to thyself, and look after such bargains, and do good as readily, and gladly, and liberally, as one that verily expecteth a full reward in heaven. This is part of the service of God that we exhort you to, even to visit, and relieve, and love Christ, in his members and brethren, (Matt. xxv.) and is there any thing of doubt or controversy in all this?

8. Moreover, God will be served with love, and willingness, and delight. It is the most gainful, honourable, blessed, and pleasant work in the world, which he hath appointed you, and not a toilsome task, or slavery. And, therefore, it is not a melancholy, pining, troublesome course of life that we persuade you to, under the name of godliness; but it is to rejoice in the Lord, and to live in the joyful expectations of eternal life, and in the sense and assurance of the love of God. If you could show us any probability of a more pleasant and joyful life on earth, than that which serious holiness doth afford, I should be glad with all my heart to hearken I am ready to tell you what is the ground of our comforts, which faith revealeth. If you will come, and soberly debate the case, and show us the matter and ground of your comforts, which you have, or hope for, in any other way: if yours prove greater, and better, and surer than the joys of faith,

to you.

we will hearken to you, and be of your mind and

side.

The matter of the joys of a believer is, that all his sins are pardoned; that God is reconciled to him. in Christ; that he hath the promise of God, that all things, even the greatest sufferings, shall work together for his good; that he is always in the love, and care, and hands of God; that he hath leave to draw near to him by holy prayer, and open his heart to him in all his straits and wants; that he may solace himself in his praise and thanksgiving, and in other parts of holy worship; that he may read and hear his holy Word, the sure discovery of the will of God, and revelation of the things unseen, and the charter of his inheritance; that he may exercise his soul in the serious believing thoughts of the love of God revealed in the wonderful work of our Redeemer, and of the person, and office, and grace of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; and that he may love that God that hath so wonderfully loved him; that he hath the Spirit of God to quicken and actuate his soul, to supply his spiritual defects, and kill his sins, and help him to believe, to love, to rejoice, to pray: that this Spirit is God's seal upon him, and the earnest of everlasting life; that death shall not kill his hopes, nor end his happiness; but that bis felicity and fullest joy begin, when all the comfort of worldlings hath an end, and their endless misery begins; that he is delivered from everlasting torment by the redemption of Christ, and the sanctification of the Spirit; that angels will attend his departing soul into the presence of his Father; that he shall be with his glorified Redeemer, and behold his glory; that

his body shall be raised to everlasting life: that he shall be justified by Christ from all the accusations of the devil, and all the slanders of the malicious world; that he shall live with God in endless glory, and see and enjoy the glory of his Creator, and shall never more be troubled with enemies, with sin or sorrow; but among his holy ones, shall perfectly and most joyfully love and praise the Lord for ever.

These are the matter of a believer's joy: these purchased by Christ, revealed in his word, sealed by his miracles, his blood, his sacraments, and his Spirit, are our comfort. This is the religion, the labour that we invite you to: it is not to despair, nor to some dry, unprofitable toil, nor to self-troubling, grieving, miserable, melancholy, costly sacrifices, or idle ceremonies, or irrational service, such as the heathens offered to their idols; it is not to cast away all cheerfulness and comfort, and to turn unsociable and morose, but it is to the greatest joys that the world alloweth, and nature is here capable of, and reason can discern and own. It is to begin a truly happy, sociable life. It is to flee from fear and sorrow, in fleeing from sin and hell, and from the consuming wrath of God; it is to the foretaste of everlasting joys, and to the beginnings of eternal life. This is the labour, the religion which we would have you follow with all your might.

If you have better things to seek, and follow, and find, let us see them, that we may be as wise as you. If you have not, for your soul's sake, make not choice of vanity, which will deceive you in the day of your necessity.

But you must not think to make us believe that

a great house, or a horse, or a feast, or a flatterer, or fine clothes, or any childish toys, or brutish filthiness, are more comfortable things than Christ, and everlasting life: or that it is sweeter and better to love lands or money, than to love God, and grace, and glory nor that any thing that will go no further than the grave with you, is as good as that which will endure to eternity; nor that any pleasure which an animal hath, is equal to the delights of the angels of heaven: if you would have us of your mind, you must not be of this mind, nor persuade us to such horrible things as these. But we profess to you and all the world, that we are not so in love with sorrows, nor so fallen out with joy and pleasures, as to choose a life of miserable sadness, or refuse a life of true delight. If we could hear from any man, or find by the most diligent inquiry, that there is a more full, and sweet, and rational, and satisfactory, and durable delight to be had in any other way than that of serious faith and holiness, which Christ, in Scripture, hath revealed to us, we are like enough to hearken to it.

But can the distracted sensual world believe that it is sweeter and happier to ruffle it out in fleshly gallantry and sport, and to rage against the godly for a while, till the vengeance of God lay hold upon them, and give them their reward, than to live in the love of God, and wait in patience for the performance of God's promise of everlasting joy? O what a thing is fleshly passion, and raging sensuality, and blind unbelief! The Lord have mercy upon deluded sinners; the devil's business is to turn the world into a bedlam; and, alas, how strangely hath

he prevailed! That so many men can take their greatest misery for their happiness, and the only happiness for an intolerable life? Yea, and be so angry with all that are not of their mind, and will not set as much by filth and foolery, and as little by God and glory as they! Like the nobleman that was lunatic, or mad by fits, and whenever he was mad, he would swear all were mad that said not as he said, and would make all his servants be sent to bedlam that would not imitate him, and there they must lie as madmen till their lord was recovered from his madness. So are God's servants used and talked of in the world, as if they were beside themselves, as long as the world is uncured of its madness. As the man is, so is his judgment, and such is his relish, and desire, and delight. When I was a child, I had far more desire to fill my pin-box, than now I have to fill my purse, and accounted it a greater treasure, and had much more delight and contentment in it. And, alas, we may remember since we were strangers to the relish of heavenly things, that we found more pleasure in that of which we are now ashamed, than we did in the most high and excellent things. Let us, therefore, pity and pray for those that are distempered with the same disease.

I have been longer on this than I thought to have been, because men think that we call them from all joy, and pleasure, to a heavy, melancholy life, when we call them to serious diligence for their salvation. As if levity and folly were the only friends to pleasure, and it were only to be found in childish, worthless, transitory things. And as if the greatest

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