can be in the way to it. The soul that is persuaded of this, in the midst of storms and tempests enjoys a calm, triumphs in disgraces, grows richer by all its losses, and by death itself attains this immortal life.

Happy are they who have their eye fixed upon this salvation, and are longing and waiting for it; who see so much of its brightness and glory, as darkens all the lustre of earthly things to them, and, makes them tram ple upon those things which formerly they admired and doated on with the rest of the foolish world. Those things we account so much of are but as rotten wood, or glow-worms that shine only in the night of our ignorance and vanity. So soon as the light-beam of this salvation enters into the soul, it cannot much esteem or affect any thing below it; and if those glauces of it which shine in the word, and in the soul of a Christain, be so bright and powerful, what then shall the full sight and real possession of it be?

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2. The gospel is represented as the doctrine of the sufferings and glory of Christ, as the means of salvation. The worker of this salvation, whom the prophets and apostles make the sum of all their doctrine, is Jesus Christ, and the sum of that work of redemption is this humiliation and exaltation, his sufferings and the glory that followed thereupon. Now though this may serve an encouragement to Christians in their sufferings, that this is the way by which their Lord went into his glory, and is true also of Christ mystical, the head with the members, as the scriptures often teach us, yet I conit is here mainly intended as a summary of the work of our redemption by Jesus Christ, relating to the salvation mentioned, ver. 10; and as the cause for the effect, so it is put for it here. The prophets inquired, and prophesied of that salvation-how? By searching out, and foretelling the sufferings and glory of Christ. His sufferings then and his after-glories are our salvation, His suffering is the purchase of our salvation, and his glory is our assurance of it: he as our head having triumphed and being crowned, makes us likewise sure of victory and triumph; his having entered on the possession of glory, makes our hope certain. This is his prayer, that where he is, there we may be also, and this

his own assertion, The glory which thou gavest me I have given them. This is his promise, Because I live, ye shall live also. Christ and believers are one; this is that great mystery the Apostle speaks of, Ephes. v, 30. By virtue of that union, their sins were accounted his and Christ's sufferings are accounted theirs, and, by consequence, his glory, the consequent of his sufferings, is likewise theirs. There is an indissoluble connexion betwixt the life of Christ and of a believer. Our life is hid with Christ in God; and therefore while we remain there, our life is there, though hid, and when he who is our life shall appear, we likewise shall appear with him in glory. Seeing the sufferings and glory of our Redeemer are the main subject of the gospel, and the causes of our salvation and of our comfortable persuasion of it, it is a wonder that they are not more the matter of our thoughts. Ought we not daily to consider the bitterness of that cup of wrath he drank for us, and be wrought to repentance and hatred of sin, to have sin imbittered to us by that consideration, and find the sweetness of his love bin that he did drink it, and by that be deeply possessed with love to him? These things we now and then speak of, but they sink not into our minds, as our Saviour exhorts, where he is speaking of those same sufferings. O that they were engraven on our hearts, and that sin w crucified in us, and the world crucified to us, and w unto the world, by the cross of Christ! edt ei eidt jadi. And let us be frequently considering the glory wherein he is, and have our eye often upon that, and our hearts solacing and refreshing themselves frequently with the thoughts of that place and condition wherein Christ is, and where our hopes are, ere long to behold him, both to see his glory and to be glorified with him. Is it not reason? Yea, it is necessary, it cannot be otherwise, if our treasure ailand Head be there, that our hearts be there likewise, Coloss. iii, 1, 2. zenol-19s eid btis ned agains has 3.The third expression here of the gospel is, that, it is the doctrine of grace. The work of redemption itself lo and the several parts of it, and the doctrine revealing it, shave all the name of grace, because they all flow from enfree grace; that is their spring and first cause. And it

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stu is this wherein the doctrine of salvation is mainly comfortable, that it is free; Ye are saved by grace. It is true, God requires faith; it is through faith; but he that requires faith, gives it too; it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

i Free grace being rightly apprehended, is that which stays the heart in all estates, and keeps it from fainting even in its saddest times. What, though there is nothing in myself but matter of sorrow and discomfort? it cannot be otherwise; it is not from myself that I look for.comfort at any time, but from my God and his free grace. Here is comfort enough for all times. When I am at the best, I ought not, I dare not, rely upon myself; when I am at the worst, I may and should rely upon Christ and his sufficient grace. Though I be the vilest sinner that ever came to him, yet I know he is more gracious than I am sinful; yea, the more my sin is, the more glory will it be to his grace to pardon it; it will appear the richer. Doth not David argue thus, Psal. xxv, 11.? For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. But it is an empty fruitless notion of grace to consider it only in the general and in a wandering way:, we are to look upon it particularly, as addressed to us; and it is not enough that it comes to us in the message. of him that brings it only to our ear, but, that we may know what it is, it must come into us; then it is ours indeed. But if it come to us in the message only and we send it away again, if it shall so depart, we had better never have heard of it; it will leave a guiltiness behind it, that will make all our sins weigh much heavier than before.

Inquire whether you have entertained this grace or not; whether it be come to you and into you, or not; whether the kingdom of God be within you. It is the most woful condition that can be, not to be far from the kingdom of God, and yet to fall short and miss of it. The grace of God revealed in the gospel, is entreating you daily to receive it; is willing to become yours, if you rejeet it not. Were your eyes open to behold the beauty and excellency of this grace, there would need no deliberation; yea, you would endure none. Desire your eyes

to be opened and enlightened from above, that you may know it; and your hearts opened, that you may be happy by receiving it.

III. We have spoken already of the author and subject of this salvation; now we come to say something concerning the worth of those who are employed about it, as well in administering to it as in admiring it. And these are the prophets and the apostles: the first foretold what was to come, the second preached them when they came to pass.

In the prophets, there are three things here remarked 1. their diligence; 2. the success of it; 3. the extent of its usefulness.

1. This their diligence disparages not their extraordinary visions and revelations, and that which is added, that the Spirit of Christ was in them and did foretel the things to come.

It was their constant duty, and they, being sensible of their duty, made it their constant exercise; to search into divine mysteries by meditation and prayer; yea, and by reading such holy writers as were already extant in their times, as Daniel ix, 3; x, 11. 11. And in this diligent way they constantly waited for those revelations which sometimes, when it seemed good unto the Spirit of God, were imparted unto them.

Were the prophets therefore not exempted from the pains of search and inquiry, who had the Spirit of God not only in a high measure, but after a singular manner? How unbeseeming then are slothfulness and idleness in us! Whether is it, that we judge ourselves advantaged with more of the Spirit than those holy men, or that we esteem the doctrine and mysteries of salvation, on which they bestowed so much of their labor, unworthy of ours? These are both so gross, that we shall be 'loth to own either of them; and yet our laziness and negligence in searching after these things, seems to charge us with some such thought as one of those.

You will say, This concerns those who succeed to the work of the prophets and apostles, the ministers of the gospel. And it doth indeed fall first upon them. It' is their task indeed to be diligent, and, as the apostle

exborts his son Timothy, to attend on reading, but, above all, to study to have much experimental knowledge of God and his Son Jesus Christ, and, for this end, to disentangle and free themselves, as much as possible, from lower things, in order to the search of heavenly mysteries. As they are called angels, so ought they to be, as much as they can attain to it, in a constant nearness unto God and attendance on him, like unto the angels, and to look much into these things as the angels here are said to do; to endeavour to have their souls purified from the affections of sin, that the light of divine truth may shine clearly in them; to have the impressions of God clearly written in their breasts, not mixed and defaced with earthly characters; seasoning all their readings and studies with much prayer and divine meditation. They who converse most with the king know most of the affairs of state, and certainly those of God's messengers who are oftenest with him, cannot but understand their business best, and know most of his meaning and the affairs of his kingdom. To this end, it is confessed, that singular diligence is required in them. But seeing the Lord hath said without exception, that his secret is with them that fear him, and that he will reveal himself and his saving truths to those that humbly seek them, do not any, of you so much injury to yourselves, as to debar yourselves from sharing in your measure of the search of these same things, which were the study of the prophets, and which, by their study and publishing them, are made the more accessible and easy to us. Consider that they do concern us universally, if we would be saved; for it is salvation that they studied. Search the scriptures, says our Saviour, and this is the motive, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And it is to be found in them, Christ is this salvation and this eternal life. And he adds further, It is they, these Scriptures, that testify of me. These are the golden mines in which alone the abiding treasures of eternity are to be found, and therefore worthy all the digging and pains we can bestow on them.

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Besides their industry in this inquiry and search, there are here expressed their ardent affection to the thing they