the world, so as to excel all of other professions in piety, in justice, in humility, in temperance, in patience, in purity, in charity, in every thing that is commendable and praiseworthy.

31.

By this means we shall shew forth the virtues and praises [1 Pet. 2. 9.] of Him, who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light, and so do Him all the service we can upon earth. And verily, He being our "Lord and Master," we are all bound in duty and conscience, thus to serve and glorify Him in every thing we do, according to that of the Apostle: "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, 1 Cor. 10. do all to the glory of God." "And whatsoever ye do, in Col. 3. 17. word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus." And that too, not only through the whole course of our life, but when we be called to it, in our death also; "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we Rom. 14. 8. die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's." We are wholly His, and therefore should be wholly at His devotion and service: and to encourage

us to it, let us hear what our Lord Himself saith, "If any John 12. 26. man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour." And what can we desire more? What greater happiness can we have, than to live with our Lord Himself, in whose presence is fulness of joy? What greater honour than to be honoured by Him, whom all things in the world honour? Yet, this happiness, this honour have all they who serve the Lord Christ, in truth and sincerity of heart: which therefore God grant we may all for the future do.

I am sure it highly concerns us all to do it. For, is Jesus Christ our "Lord and Master?" Then be sure He will one day call us to an account, how we have served Him, and reward or punish us according as we have, or have not done it as we ought. We may be confident of it, for He Himself hath said He will, and hath told us withal, that they who serve Him truly and faithfully upon earth, shall be advanced to His kingdom and glory; but that every idle and unprofitable servant shall be cast into utter 30.]

[Matt. 25.

XXXIII.

SERM. darkness. And therefore we had need look about us, and make it the whole study and business of our lives, to do Him all the service we can, to improve all those opportunities and talents which He put into our hands, for His use, and to finish the work which He hath given us to do, even to glorify Him upon earth. "Blessed is that servant, whom His Lord when He cometh, shall find so doing."

[Luke 12.

43.]

SERMON XXXIV.

THE BLESSED ESTATE OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN CHRIST.

JOHN XX. 29.

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

1 Pet. 4.

ALL the Holy Scriptures being given by Divine inspira- [2 Tim. 3. 16.] tion, may truly, upon that account, be called "the oracles [Rom. 3. 2; of God." But so much of them as was spoken by Christ, Heb. 5. 12; when He was upon earth, hath another great title also unto 11.] that name, in that it was not only inspired or dictated by the Spirit, but uttered also by the mouth of God Himself; for so was every thing that He spoke: it was spoken by God Himself, with His own, though an human mouth. And therefore it is no wonder, that so much wisdom and goodness, as well as truth, appears in all His sayings, more than in any other whatsoever; as might easily be shewn in many respects: I shall mention, at present, only one: which is, that when He spoke, as He often did, only upon some particular occasion, He ordered His words so, that they were not only proper and pertinent to that occasion, but likewise of constant and general use to all mankind, that all might be some way or other edified by every thing He said to any. As when some told Him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifice, He said, "Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above [Luke 13. all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay:" which was sufficient for the present purpose, to shew, that those Galileans should not be censured or judged

SERM.

to be greater sinners, because they suffered more than XXXIV. others: and then He adds, for the perpetual instruction of Luke 13. 3. all men, "But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." When some asked Him, whether it was lawful [Matt. 22. to give tribute unto Cæsar? He, upon the sight of a piece 17.]

ver. 21.

of money current among them, with a Cæsar's head upon it, gave them a general rule to be observed, not only by them in this, but by all men in every thing relating either to God or the king, saying, "Render therefore unto Cæsar, the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God, the things that are God's." When He heard a certain woman crying out, and saying to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked;" He told her and all others, who are rather to be esteemed happy, how they Luke 11.28. may all become so, saying, "Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it." The same may be observed all along in the Gospels. Whatsoever our

ver. 25.

ver. 27.

Saviour said, though the occasion of His saying it was ever so private and particular, yet He still said something or other upon it, that was generally necessary for all mankind to know.

66

:

This I have observed here, because it will serve as a key to open and explain the words of my text, spoken by our Lord upon a particular occasion, which was this: He being risen from the dead, upon the first day of the week, the same day at evening appeared to all His Apostles, except St. Thomas, who happened not to be with them. The rest soon after meeting with him, told him they had seen the Lord but he was so far from believing it, that he said, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my fingers into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." The Apostle little thought that his Lord heard and knew what he said, as He most certainly did: for eight days after appearing again to His Apostles, St. Thomas also being with them, He singles him out from among the rest, and bids him try the experiment, without which, he had said, that he would not believe; saying to him, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing." Which

St. Thomas having accordingly done, he presently professed his belief, by saying to Him, "My Lord and my God." Whereupon, Jesus saith unto him, "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

Where He first gives the Apostle a tacit reproof for his not believing without seeing; "Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed:" implying, that this was not believing Him or His other Apostles, but his own eyes. Which though it may be truly called, as it is here, believing; yet it is such believing, as is of little value with men, of less with God, in that it is not grounded upon His authority, but upon a man's own senses. But having said this to His Apostle, our Saviour, according to His usual Divine manner, before spoken of, turns His discourse from him to all mankind, that all may know what that true faith is, which hath blessedness entailed upon it; and how blessed a thing it is to believe those things which we never saw, saying, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." He speaks indefinitely, not of believing only His resurrection, which gave Him the occasion of saying it, but of believing in general whatsoever God hath revealed; and we are therefore bound to believe, although we never saw it, nor have any other ground to believe it, but only His Word.

This therefore is that which I shall now endeavour, by His assistance, to explain; not that the words themselves. need any explaining, for they are as plain as any words can make them, but that the truth contained in them may be set in such a light, that we may all see into the bottom of it, and thereby know how we may attain to true blessedness: for which purpose, we shall first consider what it is to believe things which we never saw, and what ground we have to do it; and then wherein they, who do so, are blessed. As for the first, I need not tell you what it is to believe in general; for you all know, that we are said to believe a thing when we do not doubt, but are fully persuaded of it. This is the usual signification of the word, both in our common conversation, and likewise in the Holy Scriptures, where faith or believing is commonly opposed to doubting: as where our Saviour saith to St. Peter, "O thou of little

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