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good Thoughts or Purposes, or now and then an Act of Repentance, or a Fit of Devotion, or fome faint languid Endeavours to be good. Alas! who ever fucceeded in any worldly Defign without more Diligence? Who ever got an Estate, or attained to any compleat Degree of Learning or Knowledge, but was more eager and induftrious in the Purfuit of it than this amounts to? And can we think that Heaven and eternal Happiness can be purchafed at a lefs Price than a fmall perishing Good? Can we imagine that God will be fo lavish of the greatest Bleffings he can bestow, that he will let them be earn'd with a lefs Degree of Application than will fuffice to compass thofe Bleffings that he fets the leaft Value upon, and which he vouchfafes often, in the Course of his Providence, to the worft of Mankind?

No; if ever we mean to fecure that ineftimable Treasure to ourselves, we must lay out our whole felves upon it; it must have the firft Place in our Efteem and in our Affections: It must be the daily Object of our Thoughts, and Defires, and Meditations; we muft hunger and thirst after it; we must study, and contrive, and take Pains, all the Ways we can, to get ourfelves poffeffed of it. We must make it the great Business and Design of our Lives, and not only a Work by the by, a Work to be difpatched at leifure Hours, when

we

we have nothing elfe to do; in a Word, we must fell all we have to purchase it. This, I am fure, is that which our Saviour tells us, Matt. xiii. 4, 5. The Kingdom of Heaven, faith he, is like unto a Merchantman feeking goodly Pearls, who, when he had found one of great Price, went and fold all that he had, and bought it. And again he tells us, That the Kingdom of Heaven fuf- Matt. 11. fereth Violence, and the Violent take it by Force. It is fuch a Kingdom as cannot be enter'd, but by Affault and Storm; that is to fay, it will require the utmost of our Refolution, and Vigour, and Vigilance, and Conftancy, for the attaining of it.

There is another Thing that feems to be implied in this Phrase of giving all Dili gence to make our Calling and Election fure; and that is, a Concernment and Sollicitude about it, in Oppofition to Prefumption and vain Confidence. He that ufeth that Diligence about his Salvation, that fo weighty a Matter calls for, will not, upon flight Grounds and little Appearances, think himself to have fecured it, and fo give over all further Concern about it. On the contrary, he will be poffeffed with great Apprehenfions and Anxiety, left he should mifcarry: He will be jealous over himself, left he should not do his Part towards the attaining of it; he will think all his Care and Thoughtfulness little enough to infure to himself fo invaluable a Bleffing. Dd 3 This

12.

20.

Heb. 12.

Heb. 4. I.

This is that Temper of Mind which the Apostles do fo often recommend to us, Phil. 2.12. when they bid us work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling: When they bid Rom. 11.us not be high-minded, but fear: When they bid us ferve God with Reverence and 28. godly Fear: When they bid us pass the 1Pet.1.17. Time of our fojourning here in Fear: Laftly, when they bid us fear, left a Promife being left us of entring into Reft, any of us should fall fhort of it. But, Oh! how contrary to this is the Method that fome among us have taken up, who, inftead of this religious Fear and Trembling, with which the Apostles exhort us to work out our Salvation, make it their Bufinefs to free themfelves from all Concern in this Matter. They will not allow themfelves fo much as to doubt of their Salvation; or if at any time they do, they blame themselves for it, and look upon it as a Sin, as an Inftance of their Unbelief and Want of Faith; for they place their very Title to Heaven, in believing that they have a Title to it. If they can but be perfuaded ftrongly enough, that Chrift's dying for them in particular, and that he fulfilled the Law in their ftead, and can but apply with Confidence all his Merits to themselves, and reft upon him alone for Salvation, without any Works of their own, they think they have done all that is required under the new Covenant; and whoever talks of more,

doth

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doth not understand the Doctrine of Free
Grace, as it is there held forth. But then
St. Paul was ignorant of the Free Grace of
the Gofpel. Did not he understand the
Terms upon which we are to be faved?
Yet fee with what Anxiety and Sollicitude
he expreffeth himself, even as to his own
Particular in this Matter of his Salvation :
If by any means, fays he, I may attain to Phil.3. 11.
the Refurrection of the Dead, (that is, of
the Fuft) not as tho' I had already attained, v.12.
or were already perfect: But I follow after,
that I may apprehend that for which alfo
I am apprehended of Chrift Jefus. Brethren, v.13.
I count not myself to have apprehended; but
this one Thing I do, forgetting thofe Things
which are behind, and reaching forth unto
thofe Things which are before, I press for- v. 14.
ward towards the Mark for the Prize of the
High-calling of God in Chrift Fefus. Thus
doth the holy Apoftle declare his great
Concern and follicitous Care that he used
for the faving his own Soul, when yet un-
doubtedly he had already as much Affu-
rance of it, as any of us can now a-days
pretend to And if fo much Care was ftill
neceffary for him, will it not, at least, be as
neceffary for us? Shall we prefume to think
of our gaining the Prize upon easier Terms
than he durft truft to? And thus much let
it fuffice to have spoken of our third gene-
ral Head in my propofed Method.

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IV. I come to the fourth and laft, and that is, to ftir you up to the Practice of the Apostle's Exhortation in my Text, viz. that you would give all Diligence to make your Calling and Election fure.

Let me therefore, in the Name of the Lord Jefus, call upon all of you, that have been hitherto negligent and careless in this Matter, that you would now at least feriously fet about it. As you love your Souls, leave not this Affair any longer at random: Do not fit down fatisfied with the vain and uncertain Hopes that you may do well enough hereafter, that you live in as good a Condition as your Neighbours, but with your whole Might and Strength apply yourselves to the working out that Salvation, which God hath called and elected you to.

And in order hereunto, let me defire you ferioufly to think of what vaft Importance and Concernment this Bufinefs is to you. It is no trifling Matter. It is not a Thing that may be done, or left undone; but the Happiness or Mifery of your whole Life, and that to all Eternity, depends upon it. The fecuring our future Salvation is a Concern truly infinite. All the other Affairs we have to take Care of in the World are but Trifles to it. And ought not our Care then and Diligence in this Matter to bear fome Proportion with the Greatness of the Concern we have in it? Is

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