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a Prize in view, to contend for, ineftimable, s ERM and worthy of all our Pains and Industry; XVIII. that is, eternal Glory and Happiness. We have a Day fet, in which we must finish this Course; the present Life; and, after this short Day, the Night of Death cometh, in which no Man can run. We have a Judge, infinitely knowing and righteous, to determine our Condition according to our Endeavours in this Race, viz. the great GOD, who is not to be impofed upon, and cannot be biaffed: and, after Judgment given, there is an Eternal State for us to live in, either of Reward or Punishment. And these are not light Matters; but fuch as deserve many of our Thoughts, and much of our Time. Let us behave ourselves like Men under the Influence of fuch momentous Truths; and then, We fhall fo run our Chriftian Race, that we fhall obtain that incorruptible Crown, which is the Prize we are contending for.

The

The Best CHRISTIANS, unprofitable

SERVANT S.

SERMON XIX.

LUKE XVII. ver. 10.

So likewife ye, when ye shall have done all those Things which are commanded you, fay, We are Unprofitable Servants, We have done that which was our Duty to do.

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HERE are two Extremes Men have s E RM. run into, in the Matter of Good xIx. Works, and in their rating the Service They pay, and the Duty They perform, to Almighty God. On the one Side, Some have put fuch a Value upon the Good Works of Chriftians, as to make them meritorious of that Salvation, which is promised in the Gofpel. And, on the other fide, Some, who have thought this impious, and injurious to the Mercy of GoD, and the Merits of Jefus Chrift, have departed as far from it as they could;

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SER M. and have brought down the Price of Good XIX. Works fo low, and made them to bear fo inconfiderable a Part, in the great Affair of Salvation, as almost inevitably to lead incautious Men of bad Inclinations to think them hardly worth the Care, or to deserve any of the Regard, of a Chriftian. The Church of Rome teaches the Merit of Good Works, in our Claim to the Rewards of Chriftians: And Others, in oppofition to That, teach us, in effect, that Good Works fignify fo little to our Juftification, that we are not fo much as to bring Them into the Account; nay, That We muft caft them from Us, when we would plead our Title to Heaven.

The Truth apparently lies betwixt these Two, and may be thus expreffed; That, though our good Actions do, by no means, deferve the exceeding Happiness promifed in the Gofpel; and come greatly fhort of fuch a Reward, as is fet before Us in That: yet, They are not fo inconfiderable, or of fo little. account, but that our Title to the Heaven of the Gospel, cannot be pleaded without them; nor our Station in it be affigned Us, without the Confideration of them. The Merits of Chrift, indeed, that is, His Obedience, and Life and Death here below, are faid to purchase this Reward for us; and, if He had not humbled himself

himself for our Benefit, our Good Works s ERM. could have given us no Expectation of fuch xIx. Rewards, as He propofes. He fuffered, that We might be exceedingly happy, upon the Terms of his Covenant with Mankind; and that Covenant is, That We fhould abound in Good Works, Or, in all the Inftances of Virtue and Righteoufnefs. Nay, whatever it be, that He has merited for Us; it is all fufficiently declared to be of no Importance to Us, but on Condition that we fhew forth in our Lives fuch Good Works as He has commanded. And therefore, though We are faid to arrive at Heaven for the Sake of Him, who came to reftore Us to the Favor of GOD; yet, we must arrive at it, through such a Life of Good Works, as He himself has made indispensably neceffary to the obtaining of it; and no otherwife, as far as He has reveled his Father's Will to Us.

Which of the Two Errors I have mentioned, is of the worft Account before God, may be judged of, by confidering which, of them leads to the most pernicious Confequences.

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It is a foolish and groundless Boaft, to fay that all the best Works, of Any Man, collected together, can poffibly merit, at the Hands of God, thofe eternal Rewards promised to Chriftians, which bear too great a Proportion to the poor Services of our Cc 2 whole

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