to believe Christ's excellency in himself, and his love to us, and our interest in him, and this will kindle such a fire in the heart, as will make it ascend in a sacrifice of love to him.

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This is the message of the gospel, and that which the ministry aims at; and therefore the ministers ought to be suitors, not for themselves, but for Christ, to espouse souls to him and to bring in many hearts to love him. And certainly, this is the most compendious way to persuade to all other Christian duties, for this is to converse with Jesus Christ, and where his love is, no other incentive will be needful; for love delights in the presence and converse of the party loved. If we are to persuade to duties of the second table, the sum of those is, love to our brethren, resulting from the love of Christ, which diffuseth such a sweetness into the soul, that it is all love, and meekness, and gentleness, and long-suffering.

If times be for suffering, love will make the soul not only bear but welcome the bitterest afflictions of life, and the hardest kinds of death for his sake. In a word, there is in love a sweet constraint or tying of the heart to all obedience and duty.

You that have made choice of Christ for your love, let not your hearts slip out, to renew your wonted base familiarity with sin; for that will bring new bitterness to your souls, and, at least for some time, will deprive you of the sensible favor of your beloved Jesus. Delight always in God, and give him your whole heart; for he deserves it all and is a satisfying good to it. The largest heart is all of it too strait for the riches of consolation which he brings with him. Seek to increase in this love; and though it is at first weak, yet labor to find it daily rise higher, and burn hotter and clearer, and consume the dross of earthly desires.

Receiving the end of your faith. Although the soul that believes and loves is put in present possession of God, as far as it is capable in its sojourning here, yet it de sires a full enjoyment, which it cannot attain to without removing hence. While we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord. And because they are assured of that happy exchange, that being untied and freed

from this body, they shall be present with the Lord, having his own word for it, that where he is they shall be also -this begets such an assured hope, as bears the name of possession. Therefore it is said here, Receiving the end of your faith.

This receiving likewise flows from faith. Faith apprebends the present truth of the divine promises, and so makes the things to come, present; and hope looks out to their after accomplishment, which, if the promises be true as faith avers, then hope hath good reason firmly to expect. This desire and hope are the very wheels of the soul which carry it on, and faith is the common axis on which they rest.

In these words there are two things; I. the good hoped for in Christ so believed on and loved; II. the assuredness of the hope itself.

I. As for the good hoped for, it consists, 1. in the nature of it, the salvation of the soul; 2. in a relative property of it, the end of their faith.

1. The nature of it is salvation, and the salvation of the soul. It imports full deliverance from all kinds of misery and the safe possession of perfect happiness, when the soul shall be out of the reach of all adversaries and adverse accidents, no more subjected to those evils which are properly its own, namely, the conscience of sin, and fear of wrath, and sad defections; nor yet subject to those other evils which it endured by society with the body, outward distresses and afflictions, persecutions, poverty, diseases.

It is called the salvation of the soul; not excluding the body from the society of that glory, when it shall be raised and re-united to the soul; but because the soul is of itself an immortal substance, and both the more noble part of man and the prime subject both of grace and glory, and because it arrives first at that blesseduess, and for a time leaves the body in the dust to do homage to its original, therefore it is alone named here. But Jesus is the Saviour of the body too, and he shall, at his coming, change our vile bodies, and make them like his glorious body.

2. We have the relative property of this hope, the end

of your faith, the end or reward; for it is both. It is the end, either at which faith aims or wherein it ceaseth. It is the reward, not of their works, nor of faith as a work deserving it, but as the condition of the new covenant which God, according to the tenor of that covenant, first works in his own, and then rewards as if it were their work. And this salvation, or fruition of Christ, is the proper reward of faith, which believes in him unseen, and so obtains that happy sight. It is the proper work of faith to believe what thou seest not, and the reward of faith to see what thou hast believed.

II. This is the certainty of their hope, that it is as if they had already received it. If the promise of God and the merit of Christ hold good, then they who believe in him and love him, are made sure of salvation. The promises of God in Christ are not yea and nay; but they are in him yea, and in him amen. Sooner may the rivers run backward, and the course of the heavens change, and the frame of nature be dissolved, than any one soul that is united to Jesus Christ by faith and love, can be severed from him, and so fall short of the salvation hoped for in him; and this is the matter of their rejoicing.

Having said somewhat already of the causes of this spiritual joy, which the apostle here speaks of, it remains that we consider these two things; 1. how joy ariseth from these causes; 2. the excellency of this joy, as it is here expressed.

1. There is bere a solid sufficient good, and the heart is made sure of it, being partly put in present possession of it, and having a most certain hope of all the rest. And what more can be required to make it joyful—Jesus Christ, the treasure of all blessings, received and united to the soul, by faith, and love, and hope?

But to the end we may rejoice in Christ, we must find him ours; otherwise the more excellent he is, the more cause hath the heart to be sad, while it hath no portion in him. My spirit hath rejoiced, said the blessed virgin, in God my Saviour. Thus, having spoken of our communion with Christ, the apostle adds, 1 John i, 4, These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. Faith worketh this joy by uniting the soul to Christ and apply

ing his merits, from the application of which arises the pardon of sin; and so that load of misery, which was the great cause of sorrow, is removed; and so soon as the soul finds itself lightened of that burden which was sinking it into hell, it cannot choose but leap for joy in the ease and refreshment it finds. Therefore that psalm which David begins with the doctrine of the pardon of sin, he ends with an exhortation to rejoicing. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, Psal. xxxii, 1; thus he begins, but he ends, Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. St. Peter speaks to his hearers, of the remission of sins, Acts ii, 38, and at ver. 41, it is added, They received his words gladly. And our Saviour joins these two together, Be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee. Think with what joy the long imprisoned debtor, drowned in debt, receives a full discharge, and his liberty, or a condemned malefactor the news of his pardon; and this will somewhat resemble it, but yet fall far short of the joy which faith brings, by bringing Christ to the soul, and so forgiveness of sins in him.

But this is not all. The believing soul is not only a debtor acquitted and set free, but enriched besides with a new and great estate; not only a pardoned malefactor, but withal highly preferred and advanced to honor, having a right by the promises to the unsearchable riches of Christ, as the apostle speaks, and is received into favor with God, and unto the dignity of sonship, taken from the dunghill, and set with princes.

As there is joy from faith, so also from love. Though this is in itself the most sweet and delightful passion of the soul, yet, as we foolishly misplace it, it proves often full of bitterness; but being set upon Jesus Christ, the only right and worthy object, it causes this unspeakable delight and rejoicing. It is matter of joy to have bestowed our love so worthily. Our love to Christ gives us also assurance of his to us, so that we have not only chosen worthily, but shall not be frustrated and disappointed; and it assures us of his, not as following, but as preceding and causing ours; for our love to Jesus

Christ is no other than the reflex of his on us.Wine maketh 'glad the heart, but thy love is better than wine, saith the spouse. And having this persuasion, that he hath loved us, and washed us in his blood, and forgets us not in our conflicts, that though he himself is in his glory, yet that he intercedes for us there and will bring us thither, what condition can befal us so hard, but we may rejoice in it, seeing we are sure to arrive at that full salva tion and the fruition of him who hath purchased it? C

Then there is the third cause of our rejoicing, our hope. Now hope is our anchor fixed within the vail, which stays us against all the storms that beat upon us in this troublesome sea that we are tossed upon. The soul which strongly believes and loves, may confidently hope to see what it believes, and to enjoy what it loves, and in that it may rejoice. It may say, Whatsoever hazards, whether outward or inward, whatsoever afflictions and temptations I endure, yet this one thing puts me out of hazard, and in that I will rejoice, that the salvation of my soul depends not upon my own strength, but is in my Saviour's hand; 'My life is hid with Christ in God; and when he who is my life shall appear, I likewise shall ap pear with him in glory. The childish world are hunting shadows, and gaping and hoping after they know not what; but the believer can say, I know whom I have trusted, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Now we must have not only a right to these things, but withal there must be frequent consideration of them to produce joy. The soul must often view them, and so rejoice. My meditation of him shall be sweet, saith David. The godly, failing in this, deprive themselves of much of that joy they might have and they who are most in these sublime thoughts, have the highest and truest joy. a * 2. The excellency of this joy, the apostle here expresseth by these two words, unspeakable and full of glory.

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That it is unspeakable, no wonder, seeing the matter of it is inconceivable. It is an infinite good. God reconciled in Jesus Christ, and testifying and sealing his love unto the soul, and giving assured hope of that blessed vision of eternitywhat more unspeakable than this?