suitable means to a certain end; II. the express ‹ nature of that end.

I. For for this cause was the gospel preached. There is a particular end, and that very important, for which the preaching of the gospel is intended: this end many consider not, hearing it as if it were to no end, or not propounding a fixed determined end in their hearing. How sounds it, to many of us at least, but as a well-contrived story, whose use is to amuse us and possibly delight us a little, and there is an end-and indeed no end, for this turns the most serious and most glorious of all messages into an empty sound. If we keep awake and give it a hearing, it is much; but for any thing further, how few deeply beforehand consider-I have a dead heart; therefore will I go unto the word of life, that it may be quickened. It is frozen; I will go and lay it before the warm beams of that sun which shines in the gospel. My corruptions are mighty and strong, and grace, if there be any in my heart, is exceeding weak; but there is in the gospel a power to weaken and kill sin, and to strengthen grace, and this being the intent of my wise God in appointing it, it shall be my desire and purpose in resorting to it, to find it to me according to his gracious design; to have faith in Christ, the fountain of my life, more strengthened and made more active; to have my heart more refined and spiritualized, and to have the sluice of repentance opened, and my affections to divine things enlarged, more hatred of sin, and more love of God and communion with him.

Ask yourselves concerning former times; and, to take yourselves even now, inquire within, Why came I hither this day? What had I in mine eye and desires this morning ere I came forth, and in my ways as I was coming? Did I seriously propound an end, or not? and what was my end? Nor doth the mere custom of mentioning this in prayer satisfy the question; for this, as other such things usually do in our hand, may turn to a lifeless form, and have no heat of spiritual affection, none of David's panting and breathing after God in his ordinances; such desires as will not be stilled without a measure of attain

ment.

And then again, being returned home, reflect on your hearts-Much hath been heard, but is there any thing done by it? Have I gained my point? It was not simply to pass a little time that I went, or to pass it with delight in hearing. It was not to have my ear pleased, but my heart changed; not to learn some new notions, and carry them cold in my head, but to be quickened, and purified, and renewed in the spirit of my mind. Is this done? Think I now with greater esteem of Christ, and the life of faith, and the happiness of a Christian? And are such thoughts solid and abiding with me? What sin have I left behind? What grace of the Spirit have I brought home? Or what new degree, or, at least, new desire of it, a living desire, that will follow its point? O this were good repetition!

It is a strange folly in multitudes of us to set ourselves no mark, to propound no end in the hearing of the gospel. The merchant sails not merely that he may sail, but for traffic, and traffics that he may be rich. The husbandman plows not merely to keep himself busy with no further end, but plows that he may sow, and sows that he may reap with advantage. And shall we do the most excellent and fruitful work fruitlessly, hear only to hear, and look no further? This is indeed a great vanity and a great misery, to lose that labor and gain nothing by it, which, duly used, would be of all others most advantageous and gainful and yet all meetings are full of this!

To them that are dead; by which, I conceive, he intends such as had heard and believed the gospel, when it came to them and now were dead. And this, I think, he doth to strengthen those brethren to whom he writes; he commends the gospel, to the intent that they might not think the condition and end of it hard; as our Saviour mollifies the matter of outward sufferings thus ; So persecuted they the prophets that were before you. And the apostle afterwards in this chapter uses the same reason in the same subject. So here, that they might not judge the point of mortification he presses so grievous, as naturally men will do, he tells them, it is the constant end of the gospel, and that they who have been saved by it went that Div. No. VII.

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same way he points out to them. They that are dead before you, died in this way that I press on you, before they died; and the gospel was preached to them for this very end.

Men pass away and others succeed, but the gospel is still the same, bath the same tenor and substance and the same ends. So Solomon speaks of the heavens and earth, that they remain the same, while one generation passeth and another cometh. The gospel surpasses both in its stability, as our Saviour testifies; They shall pass away, but not one jot of this word. And indeed they wear and wax old, as the apostle teaches us; but the gospel is from one age to another, of most unalterable integrity, hath still the same vigor and powerful influence as at the first.

This is our season of enjoying the sweetness of the gospel. Others heard it before us in the places which now we fill; and now they are removed, and we must remove shortly, and leave our places to others, to speak and hear in. It is high time we were considering what we do here, to what end we speak and hear; high time to lay hold on that salvation which is held forth unto us, and that we may lay hold on it, to let go our hold of sin and those perishing things that we hold so firm and cleave so fast to. Do they that are dead, who heard and obeyed the gospel, now repent of their repentance and mortifying of the flesh? Or rather do they not think ten thousand times more pains, were it for many ages, all too little for a moment of that which now they enjoy, and shall enjoy to eternity? And they that are dead, who heard the gospel and slighted it, if such a thing might be, what would they give for one of those opportunities which now we daily have, and daily lose, and have no fruit or esteem of them!

Think therefore wisely of these two things, of what is the proper end of the gospel and of the approaching end of thy days; and let thy certainty of this latter drive thee to seek more certainty of the former, that thou mayest partake of it; and then this again will make the thoughts of the other sweet to thee. That visage of death, that is so terrible to unchanged sinners, shall be amiable to,

thine eye. Having found a life in the gospel as happy and lasting as this is miserable and vanishing, and seeing the perfection of that life on the other side of death, thou wilt long for the passage.

Be more serious in this matter of daily hearing the gospel. Consider why it is sent to thee, and what it brings; and think, It is too long I have slighted its message, and many who have done so are cut off and shall hear it no more. I have it once more inviting me, and to me this may be the last invitation. And in these thoughts, ere you come, bow your knee to the Father of spirits, that this one thing may be granted you, that your souls may find at length the lively and mighty power of his Spirit upon yours, in the hearing of this gospel, that you may be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

II. Thus is the particular nature of that end expressed. And not to perplex you with various senses, the apostle intends, I conceive, no other than the dying to the world and sin, and living unto God, which is his main subject and scope in the foregoing discourse. That death was before called a suffering in the flesh, which is in effect the same; and therefore, though the words may be drawn another way, yet it is strange that interpreters have been so far wide of this their genuine and agreeable sense, and that they have been by almost all of them taken in some other import.

:

To be judged in the flesh, in the present sense, is to die to sin, or to have sin die in us: and it is thus expressed suitably to the nature of it; it is to the flesh a violent death, and it is according to a sentence judicially pronounced against it. Sin must die in order that the soul may live it must be crucified in us and we to it, that we may partake of the life of Christ and of happiness in him. And this is called to be judged in the flesh, to have this sentence executed. The thing is the rather spoken of here under the term of being judged, in counter-balance of that judgment mentioned immediately before, ver. 5, the last judgment of quick and dead, wherein they who would not be thus judged, but mocked and despised those "that were, shall fall under a far more terrible judgment,

and the sentence of a heavy death indeed, even everlasting death; though they think they shall escape and enjoy liberty in living in sin. And that clause, To be judged according to men, is, I conceive, added to signify the connaturalness of the life of sin to a man's corrupt nature; that men do judge it a death indeed to be severed and pulled from their sins, and that a cruel death; and the sentence of it in the gospel is a heavy sentence, a hard saying to a carnal heart, that he must give up all his sinful delights, must die indeed in self denial, must be sepa rated from himself, which is to die, if he will be joined with Christ and live in him. Thus men judge that they are adjudged to a painful death by the sentence of the gospel. Although it is that they may truly and happily live, yet they understand it not so. They see the death, the parting with sin and all its pleasures; but the life they see not, nor can any know it till they partake of it: it is known to him in whom it exists; it is hid with Christ in God. And therefore the opposition here is very fitly thus represented, that the death is according to men in the flesh, but the life is according to God in the Spirit.

As the Christian is adjudged to this death in the flesh by the gospel, so he is looked on and accounted, by car. nal men, as dead, for that he enjoys not with them what they esteem their life, and think they could not live without. One that cannot carouse and swear with profane men is a silly dead creature, good for nothing; and he that can bear wrongs, and love him that injured him, is a poor spiritless fool, hath no mettle or life in him, in the world's account. Thus is he judged according to men in the flesh, he is as a dead man; but he lives ac+ cording to God in the Spirit; dead to men and alive to God.

Now if this life be in thee, it will act. It will be moving towards God, often seeking to him, making still towards him as its principle and fountain, exerting itself in holy and affectionate thoughts of him, sometimes on one of his sweet attributes, sometimes on another, as the bee amongst the flowers. And as it will thus act within, so it will be outwardly laying hold on all occasions, yea,