SBR M. Measure of our Stature in Jefus Chrift; XIII. the only Stature to which we can add fe

veral Cubits by taking Thought: And we may venture to pronounce the State of that Man to be dangerous, and that he will never arrive at Heaven, who fits down, either under a lazy and affected Defpondency of being able to proceed no farther; under a vain and impious Prefumption of having already gone far enough.

or

2. A fecond Confideration arifes from the Advantages we fhall reap from the progreffive State, The First whereof is, that it will fuperfede the Truft and Confidence which too many are apt to repofe in Repentance: Whereon, it is to be feared, a much greater Strefs is laid than it will be able to bear. Indeed Repentance, at the first Publication of the Gofpel, was required as a neceffary Qualification for fuch of the Gentiles as embraced Chriftianity; but after they became Chriftians, higher Terms of Duty were preffed upon them. They were to leave Repentance as a firft Principle, like as Men do the Rudiments of any Science, and enjoined to go on to Perfection. The Heathen World was funk in fuch Degrees of Wickedness, that the Change to Chriftianity was a Kind of moral Refurrection. You who were dead in Trefpaffes and Sins - -bath be quickned. The Powers of the Mind

at

XIIL

at this fpiritual Birth, bore a Resemblance SER m. to the Powers of the Body at their natural Birth; and had they advanced no farther, they had ftill continued Babes in Chrift. Leaving Vice is one Thing, and Improvement in Virtue, another; and nothing is more clear from the whole Tenour of the New Teftament, than that the Lives of Chriftians were to be as different from the Lives of Heathens, as Light is from Darkness: And therefore we may conclude, that it never could be the Design of the Gospel, that Men fhould live in that ambiguous, divided, and distracted State of finning and repenting; of being Heathens and Chriftians by Turns. No, Doubt can be made but Chriftians, by the Help of a good Education, and early Impreffion of Religion upon their Minds, may live free from the Habits of all Sin, and from every fuch fingle Act of it as is grofs and enormous. And after Men have indulged themfelves in vicious Liberties, with a View of making Repentance their Refuge; it may be queftioned, whether the most sincere Repentance will not be fuch as they may have Reason to repent of. The Wound in their Confcience may be healed in fome Sort, but it will always refemble the Cafe of other Wounds; where there is never fuch an Union and Incorporation as there was in the original Compofition.

Now

SERM.
XIII.

But

Now nothing will more effectually prevent any Danger of this Kind (and this is the leaft Danger that attends a Reliance on Repentance) than being actuated by those more generous Principles which accompany the progreffive State. If Men form fuch faint Refolutions of Perfeverance in their Duty, as to leave fome fecret Referve for the Admiffion of Sin, it is more than probable they will foon have Occasion for such an Expedient; when our Actions fpring from mean Motives, it is no Wonder if they are confined within narrow Limits, and conclude in inglorious Atchievements. when the Fear of Punishment becomes but a fubordinate Incentive to moral Attainments, and the Love of Virtue takes the Lead in our Inclinations; when our Duty is not performed with the heartless Thought of it's being cur Duty, but when it becomes a free-will Offering, and prefents itself as a Kind of Temptation to our Defires; when the Pleasure we have experienced from the Progrefs we have made, adds Life and Vigour to our farther Purfuits; when we are not driven forwards by the Rebukes of an evil Confcience, but led on by the Acclamation and Applaufe of a good one: then will the Soul be confcious of her innate Greatness and Dignity, and we shall be fo far from finking into

the

the Dregs of Vice, that, as a Philofopher S ER M. faid of his Mafter, we fhall almoft blush XIII. to find ourselves in the Body.

And as the progreffive State is the best Means for bringing us to a uniform and unreferved Obedience; fo, which is a' Second Advantage, it is the beft, if not the only Security for our Perfeverance in it. It is not allowed us, in this unstable Condition of Things, to arrive at fuch a Situation as we may expect to enjoy without any farther Care or Concern. Like an Arrow fhot up into the Air, if we do not continue to afcend higher in the Scale of moral and religious Duties, we shall foon defcend to fomething below them. The Mind then is to be kept continually upon the Stretch, our Attention excited, and our Affections enlivened by divine Contemplations; our Refolutions enforced by the View of higher Advantages, our good Habits farther ftrengthened and confirmed by the frequent Exercise of good Actions. We are, as it were, failing against the Wind; and if we remit any Thing of our Strength or Activity, so as not to proceed, we must of Course be driven back. The Faculties of the Mind, as well as the Members of the Body, by frequent Ufe, gain a Kind of mechanick Ease and Readiness; and, by Remiffion and Difufe, abate of that Skill

SER M. and Aptnefs in the Performance. By inXIII. termitting our Converfe with Things of a

fpiritual Nature, we lofe our Taste and Relifh for them; a Sort of Indifpofition is bred in the Soul, the Parent of a vitiated and depraved Appetite. And hence it comes to pass, that the Lives of most. Men take their Turns, like the Sea, of an alternate Ebbing and Flowing; whereas they ought to refemble the Course of a River, which is receiving perpetual Supplies Which, at the fame Time that they augment it's Streams, add Weight to it's Flow, till it finally terminates in the Ocean.

But, farther, what is confequent upon, and crowneth all other Advantages, the progref five State is the best Testimony we can have of our being in a falvable Condition. There are fome who would perfuade us, that our Converfion to a regenerate State is performed in a Moment, in the Twinkling of an Eye; and manifefted by fome extraordinary Feeling, Experience, or Impulse. This indeed is a fhort Way, but the Security of it may be much queftioned. High and extraordinary Pretenfions, where we fee no competent Foundation for them, juftly alarm us with a Sufpicion, that the Perfons who lay Claim to them, are either themselves deceived, or defign to deceive

others.