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fing upon the City and Country where they live. They would be the Horsemen of Ifrael, and the Chariots thereof. Peace, and Love, and Friendfhip, good Rulers, and good Subjects, good Neighbourhood, and all manner of Bleffings, would attend the Exercife of Chriftian Virtues.

3. Innumerable are the Bleffings this confcientious Discharge of our Duty will bring upon our own Souls. It produces an inward Tranquillity of Mind, and Peace of Conscience; it cafts great Light into the Understanding, which is commonly muddied with the Fumes of Wine and Luft, and strangely biaffed with Self-love; it makes the Will inclinable to good Things, and keeps a great Regularity among the Paffions and Affections; it fills the Mind with joyful Hopes, and even Affurance of Heaven, and makes the Troubles of Life easy to be born; the Heart of fuch a Perfon being firft refigned unto God. It is the fure Way to obtain greater Measures of Grace, by making fo good Ufe of what we had; and it is the best Sign of our Sincerity, that our Faith is not a dead, but a lively Faith, and that it brings forth the Fruits of all Chriftian Duties and Virtues.

V. The fifth and principal Observation I should have made from the Words, is the Diftinction of the different Sorts of Hearers, which gives us a Description of good and bad Christians; and the Application of the Similitude of wife and foolish Builders to them, according as their Hopes are right or wrong founded. But this being a Thing which will require a longer Confideration, I must refer it to another Opportunity.

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The beft Ufe we can make of all that has been faid, is to ftir up ourselves to vigorous Endeavours of living according to the Direction of our Saviour's Precepts; particularly to tranfcribe this divine Sermon on the Mount into our Hearts and Lives, that from this our Saviour's Promife, we may, through the Grace of God, entertain a well-grounded Hope of eternal Life. cy, &c.

Which God of his infinite Mer

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SERMON XXI.

MAT. VII. 24.

Therefore whofoever heareth thefe Sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wife Man, which built his House upon a Rock : V. 25. And the Rain defcended, and the Floods came, and the Winds blew, and beat upon that Houfe: and it fell not, for it was founded upon a Rock.

V. 26. And every one that heareth thefe Sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish Man, which built his Houfe upon -the Sand.

V. 27. And the Rain defcended, and the Floods came, and the Winds blew, and beat upon that Houfe: and it fell, and great was the Fall of it.

IN

The Second Sermon on this Text.

Na former Difcourfe from these Words, I fhewed you how aptly this concluding Simile, concerning the Wifdom of adding Practice to the Knowledge of our Duty, follows from what went immediately before, concerning the Day of Judgment, and our Saviour's disowning in it all the Workers of Iniquity. I obferved to you likewife,

likewise, what a compleat Syftem of Duties we have in this Sermon on the Mount; for that he who reduces the Doctrine thereof into Fractice, is compared to the wife Builder, whofe Labours in Religion fhall, through the Mercy of God, stand the Teft both of all Tryals in this World, and of the great Judgment in the World to come. I obferved, Thirdly, the Univerfality both of the Duties and of the Promifes contained in this Sermon, that they are freely propofed to all, and that none is excluded from them; And, Fourthly, how all this Business of our Salvation is put upon Practice. I proceed now to another, which is indeed the moft material Obfervation of all from the Words.

V. Fifthly then, the greatest and most proper Obfervation we are to make from this whole Parable or Simile, is concerning the two Sorts of Hearers; one, whofe Hearing is attended with a fuitable Practice, of whom our Saviour affirms, that he is like a wife Builder, whofe Work will answer the End of his Labour, and hold out in the Day of Trial and Temptation; the other, whofe Hearing doth not bring forth good Life or holy Practice, whom our Saviour compares to a foolish Builder, whofe Labour proved all in vain, and his Work ended in a great Ruin.

This is the Obfervation we are now to purfue; and that I may discourse it in fome Order, I fhall diftinctly confider these two Things. We have here the Description both of a good and of a bad Chriftian; with the Succefs of the Labours

[SERM. bours of the one, and the Unfuccessfulness of the Labours of the other. To begin with the first:

1. The Description here given of a good Chriftian, it is very plain and fhort; he is one that heareth and doth thefe Sayings of our Saviour's.

2. His Felicity; his Labours in Religion shall prove folid, and fhall, through the Mercy of God, ftand good, both against Temptations here, and the great Trial in the Day of Judgment hereafter.

I. The First Thing we are to confider here is, the Description of a good Chriftian; he is one that heareth these Sayings of our Saviour's, and doeth them; that is, he is a Man both well-inftructed in the Chriftian Doctrine, and one that frames his Life and Conversation according to the Direction thereof. There are two Things you fee concur to this Defcription: The First relating to his Inftruction; the next, relating to the goodness of his Life and Converfation. Some part of his Duty and Character we may learn from each of these.

1. From that Part which relates to hearing of Christ's Doctrine, we are to learn the Duty of Hearers; for we must not think that by this part of the Defcription of good Chriftians, Whofoever heareth thefe fayings of mine, are to be meant only the immediate Hearers of these bleffed Sayings, from our Saviour's own Mouth; the Words, I doubt not, have a much further Profpect, even to all that should in any time thereafter come to be acquainted with that fame Doctrine of Chriftianity, whether by his own teaching

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