have said, The only way to seek peace and pursue it, is to depart from evil and do good:" by this means thou wilt be at peace with thyself, with thine own conscience, yea, and with God Himself; so that "the peace of God which pass- Phil. 4. 7. eth all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus." And if God be once at peace with thee, thou mayest be confident He will never leave thee nor forsake thee; His love and favour will always stick by thee; thy riches may fail thee, thy honours may fail thee, thy pleasures, thy wisdom, thy friends upon earth, may all fail thee, but be sure God will never fail thee, but always speak peace and comfort unto thee. 7. Lastly, "do good," and thou shalt live long. This is that which I dare say you all desire, but none can have it, but only such as "depart from evil and do good." Hence David in my text joins these two together; "Depart from evil and do good, and dwell for evermore." Not only live, but dwell, so as to live safely in a quiet habitation for evermore; and verily, although the other arguments which I have produced may not have done the work, this consideration, methinks, should effectually excite and engage you all to "depart from evil and do good;" for I am sure here is never a soul amongst you but desires to live, yea, to live for ever; but that you can never do, unless ye "depart from evil and do good," which if you will for the future do, I dare assure you in the Name of the Most High God, in Whose presence you now are, you shall always live. I do not say you shall never die, but this I say, that you shall always live. One death you must undergo: death did I say? No, it shall not be so much death to you, as an entrance into a better life; though thy soul may be separated from thy body, neither soul nor body shall ever be separated from thy God; but thou shalt live in the continual contemplation and enjoyment of His Divine perfections for evermore. So that if you do good," in time, in and through Christ, you shall both receive, and enjoy, all manner of good unto eternity. Now put these things together, and consider seriously with yourselves what extraordinary advantages and benefits will accrue unto you, if you "depart from evil and do good;" CXLIV. SERM. how that then you will be possessed of the truest riches, transported with the greatest pleasures, invested with the highest honours, endowed with the only wisdom, beloved of the surest friends, blessed with the best peace, and advanced to eternal life. Consider these things, I say, and tell me, whether you do not really think it worth your while to learn and practise this profitable, as well as noble and pleasant art of doing good? For my part, if such considerations as these are will not prevail upon you to do it, I know not what can. But I have more charity for you than to think that any of you are so ignorant and insensible of your own interest, as to stand out any longer against such considerations as these are; and therefore I hope you are already resolved within yourselves to do the best of your endeavours for the future, to "depart from evil and do good;" which none of you but may yet attain to; for God is ready, for Christ's sake, to accept of what you sincerely do, and to assist your weak endeavours with His Own grace. Do you, therefore, but what you can, and trust in the merit and Mediation of Jesus Christ for God's assistance and acceptance of you, and neither of them will be ever denied unto you; but you will soon be enabled to do whatsoever good is required of you, and so to attain to whatsoever good is promised to you. And then what happy, what glorious creatures will you soon be! Never a soul of you, but what would ere long be a glorified Saint in Heaven. Which, that you may all be, let me advise you not to be hearers only, but doers of the word. Begin this day, this hour, to set yourselves in good earnest to "depart from evil and do good," and then you have God's word for it, that you shall dwell with Him for evermore. SERMON CXLV. OF PRAYER. ACTS x. 4. And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Of all the arts and sciences which it is possible for any one to learn, there is none like that of doing good, the art of refining all our actions into good works, which there is never a soul amongst us but by nature is capable of, and by Christ may attain unto, if ye would but seriously set yourselves about it; for the Scriptures do clearly discover to you the several qualifications which are necessarily required to the making of any action good; all which may briefly be reduced to these heads, that whatsoever we do be agreeable to the revealed will of God, at least no way forbidden by it, or contrary to what is commanded in it, and then that we do not only what God commands, but therefore do it because God commands it; that all our actions proceed from a principle of obedience to the Supreme Governor of the world: and as what we do must be according to God's will, so we must do it with our own wills too, still observing David's rule, to serve the Lord with a perfect heart, and a willing mind," [1 Chron. so as to do every thing we set upon, with all our hearts, yea, and "with all our might" and mind, so as to make God's [Eccl. 9. glory the ultimate end of all our actions, and not to intend [1 Cor. 10. any thing of carnal pleasure, profit, or applause in doing of 31.] them; neither to pride ourselves in them when done, but when we have done all, still to account ourselves "but as io.] 28.9.] 10.] [Luke 17. CXLV. SERM. unprofitable servants," and therefore rely and depend only upon the merit of Jesus Christ, for the acceptance of what we do in the sight of God, humbly confiding, that in and through Christ, God will pardon the manifold imperfections of our best performances, and accept of our sincere, though weak endeavours. And if we thus do what we can, although our actions be not so perfectly good as the Law of God requires, God, for Christ's sake, will accept of what we do as good, by reason of that perfect, extraordinary, and Divine obedience, Which His Own Son for our sakes performed unto Him. By this means, therefore, we may do good works, such as are and will be acceptable unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. [Ps. 34. And verily, if we mind either our present interest, or the eternal concerns of our immortal souls, we must endeavour unto the utmost of our power thus to "do good," without which it is impossible for us ever to be happy either in this life or that which is to come. For unless we be and do good, whatsoever earthly riches we may fancy ourselves to have, we are really but poor and empty creatures, destitute of every thing that is truly good for us. Whatsoever sen sual pleasures we may have to gratify our flesh, we are altogether strangers to all true joy and happiness. Whatsoever worldly honours may be conferred upon us, we are still but vile and despicable sinners; we may please ourselves with the conceit of our cunning and subtilty, but we are still mere naturals, no better than fools and madmen in God's account. And whatsoever friends we may have on earth, be sure we have none in Heaven. Whatsoever outward peace we may enjoy, we can have none either with God, or our own consciences. And though we may rub on for a while, we are continually subject both to temporal and eternal death, to have our souls separated from our bodies, and both [Isa. 59. 2.] soul and body separated from God and goodness. Whereas, on the other side, if we really be, and sincerely endeavour always to do good, nothing really evil can befall us, nothing truly good will be withholden from us: we may have no earthly, but as for heavenly and everlasting riches, we shall have them in abundance; we may have nothing to please our senses, but all things imaginable to satisfy and delight our souls; we may be despised by men, but we shall be honoured by Saints and Angels, yea, by God Himself, Who is the only fountain of all true honour. At present we may be reckoned fools and idiots, but at long run we shall be acknowledged by all to be the wisest of men; all about us may be our enemies, but we shall have two good friends which will always stand by us, God above and our own consciences within us, with which we shall always be at peace, whatsoever bustles or tumults happen in the world; and how long or short soever our lives be upon earth, we are sure to live for evermore in Heaven; so that if you be either covetous of lasting riches, desirous of satisfying pleasures, or ambitious of real honours, if you would be either instructed in true wisdom, beloved of faithful friends, blessed with inward peace, or advanced to eternal life, do good, and your desires shall be all fulfilled, yea, you will most certainly have infinitely more than as yet it is possible for you to imagine, or by consequence to desire. Now these things being duly and truly weighed, I hope you are all resolved, by the assistance and blessing of the Most High God, to be always doing good for the future unto the utmost of your power, wherein I shall endeavour, as God shall enable me, to be further assistant to you; and for that end, having shewn you how to do good in general, for your better understanding the nature and practice of good works, I shall explain unto you some of those particular acts wherein you are all bound in a more especial manner to be always doing good; whereof you have two mentioned in my text, with a particular approbation of God Himself; and they are prayers and alms, which are here recorded in a peculiar manner to be had in remembrance before God; "and he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." For the opening of which words, we must know, that in Our Saviour and His Apostles' time, and a long while after, Palestine or Judea was subject to the Roman empire, and therefore was governed by a president sent from Rome, who resided at Cæsarea, at that time the metropolis of Judæa, formerly called Στράτωνος πύργος ; but when Herod had enlarged and adorned it, in honour of Cæsar, Emperor of Rome, he |