to fpeak properly, by that to which he hath the greatest Averfion and Antipathy. But in true speaking, Heaven to fuch a Man, (I am fure that Heaven that is promifed in the Scripture) would be fo far from being a Place of Happiness, that, bating the corporeal Pains, it would, in all Refpects, be Hell itself,

Nor will it here help the Matter, to fay, that the Righteoufnefs of Chrift is imputed to all Believers; and that by Virtue thereof, they are to all Intents and Purposes made Righteous, even as much, as if they were Righteous in their own Perfons: I fay, this will not help the Matter. For fo long as Sin and Wickednefs are not mere Names, but real Things, and have their immutable Properties: Let Chrift's Righteoufnefs be never fo much imputed to us, yet fo long as they remain in us, they will be Evils, they will make us Miferable, they will put an eternal Bar to our Enjoyment of God. And we can no more hope to remedy this, by the Imputation of anothers Righteousness, *than a Blind Man can hope to fee by the Eyes of another; than a Man in the Fit of the Stone or Gout, can hope to find Eafe by the Help of his Physician; than a crooked deformed Perfon can hope to be made Straight and Beautiful by the Comeliness of his Friend.

But

But to come to our Second Head of Discourse. As the deftroying the Works of the Devil from among Men, and the making them fincerely Righteous, and Holy, and Good, was a Design most worthy of the Son of God to undertake: So, in the Second Place, his whole Tranfactions upon Earth, and the Religion he fet on Foot in the World, were fo contrived in every Part of them, as to be a manifeft Purfuance of this Defign.

This is the Second Thing I am to fpeak to; and for the making it Good, there needs no more to be done, than only to defire any Man to caft his Eyes, either on the Precepts which our Lord delivered; or on the Doctrines he taught; or on the Life he lead; or on the Death he suffered; or Laftly, on what he hath been doing for Men at the Right Hand of God ever fince: All which taken together, do make up the entire Hiftory of our Saviour, and the whole Scheme of his Inftitution. If now it do appear, that the natural Tendency of every one of these was to make Men Good; and that that was the End they all aimed at; then I hope our Propofition is fufficiently proved.

To go over all thefe Particulars at this Time, would prove too great an Exercise of your Patience, which I would not willingly injure; and therefore I fhall confine my felf to the Three Firft of them, and thofe too I fhall treat of very briefly and generally, N 3 And

And first of all, that this was the Defign of all our Saviour's Precepts, and the Laws that he gave us, is evident beyond Contradiction. There is not one of them which is not either an Injunction of fome moral Vertue, or a Prohibition of fome Vice, or a Recommendation of the Means by which fome Vertue is to be acquired, or fome Sin to be mortified.

Whatever other Liberties the Gospel may have indulged unto Men, it is certain it grants none to their Vices. Never was Vertue taught in fuch Perfection, or exacted with fuch Severity, as we there find it. Never did any Man fet the Duties of Human Life, in all its Relations, towards God, towards our Neighbours, and towards our felves, at fo high a Pitch, as our Saviour hath there fet them. All the Gentile World cannot fhew us, out of all their great Mafters of Morality, their moft refined Philofophers, fuch a Colletion of fublime and accurate Precepts of Living, as are delivered in one fingle Sermon of our Saviour's: That, I mean, upon the Mount.

So far is he from giving Countenance to any fort of Wickedness or Impurity in the Practices of Mankind, that he hath forbid all the Tendencies and Approaches to it in the very Thoughts; having, put Reftraints upon the most fecret and undifcernable Workings of our Minds towards

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wards every Thing that is Evil. To look upon a Woman to luft after her, is in his Account to commit Adultery. To be rashly and uncharitably angry, is forbid by him as a Degree of Murder. Not to forgive an Injury, is by his Law a Sin, as well as to do one.

I own that there is the greateft Encouragement given by our Saviour to all repenting Sinners that is poffible; nay, though they have been the greatest of Sinners. But then he requires both a thorough Change of their Minds, and a thorough Reformation of their Manners too, before they must hope for any Benefit from him.

I own likewise, that there is in the Gofpel all the Allowance made for the natural unavoidable Frailties and Weakneffes of Mankind, that can be defired. But then it fuppofes, the Perfons to whom this Allowance is made, to be fincerely (though not perfectly) pure and upright, both in their Minds and Lives; that they harbour no Iniquity in their Hearts, nor practise any known Sin in their Converfation; nay, and that they do their beft Endeavours likewise to overcome their very Infirmities.

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In a Word, it is the fundamental Law of the Gofpel, that without Holiness no Man fhall fee God; and all the particular Precepts we there meet with, do exactly anfwer

N 4

anfwer this general one, and are a purfuance of it.

Nor, in the Second Place, is this Design of making Men Vertuous more confpicuous in our Saviour's Precepts, than in the Doctrines he delivered to Mankind. Those Truths (I mean) which he revealed from God to be believed by all those that fhould Embrace his Religion. There was none of them calculated for the Gratification of Men's idle Curiofities, the bufying and amufing them with airy and useless Speculations, Much lefs were they intended for an Exercise of our Credulity, or a Tryal how far we could bring our Reasons to fubmit to our Faith. But as on one Hand, they were plain and fimple, and fuch as by their Agreeableness to the rational Faculties of Mankind, did highly recommend themselves to our Belief; fo, on the other Hand, they had an immediate Relation to Practice; and were the genuine Principles and Foundations upon which all Human and Divine Virtues were naturally to be fuperftructed.

The Doctrines which our Saviour delivered, will all of them fall under one of thefe Three Heads.

They were either in order to the clearing, improving and confirming the great Truths of natural Religion, without which a Vertuous, Holy Life could not be ylead..

Or