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demned in the judgment of the law of sincerity. But though this resolution includes in it the being and reality of all Christian virtue, yet doth it not include the utmost possibility of it; nor doth it at all follow, that because I am sincerely resolved to conduct my life by the laws of piety and virtue, therefore I must be in all respects as pious and virtuous as it is possible for me to be, considering my present state and circumstances. I may be sincerely resolved, and yet not be always equally diligent and active. I may now be exceeding vigilant and watchful; and what I am now I may always be, if I always exert the utmost of my possibility: yet it may so happen anon, that though I am sincerely resolved still, I may be more remiss, supine, and inadvertent, and in this posture a temptation may surprise me before I am aware, and hurry me into an action against which I am firmly resolved: and there is no doubt, but even the best of men might have been much better than they are, had they always kept pace with their possibilities, and applied themselves with their utmost skill and diligence to the methods and ministries of improvement. Now though not to exert our utmost power in the avoidance of evil and the improvement of ourselves in virtue and goodness, is doubtless a sin, yet it is only a sin against the law of perfection, the penalty of which is only deprivation of some degree of our future reward; but so long as we keep up a prevailing resolution in our wills to govern our lives by the laws of piety and virtue, we stand clear in the eye of the law of sincerity, the penalty of which is no less than everlasting exile from the presence of God into the dark and horrible regions of endless misery

and despair: only this proviso it admits, that if after we have sinned against it we reassume our good resolution, and heartily repent and amend, we shall be released from the obligation to this dreadful penalty, and be restored to that happy state of grace and favour from whence we fell by our transgression. So that the great difference between the law of perfection and the law of sincerity is this, that the penalty of the latter is much more severe, but the duty of the former much more comprehensive. Having thus given this brief account of our Saviour's legislation and laws, I proceed to the

II. Of those regal acts which Christ hath performed in his kingdom once for all; and that is, his mission of the Holy Spirit to subdue men's minds to the obedience of his laws, and to govern them by them. For so the apostle makes the mission of the Spirit to succeed the triumphal progress of our Saviour to his coronation in heaven, Eph. iv. 8. He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men; where by the gifts which he gave we are to understand the Holy Spirit, and in him all those extraordinary gifts which he poured out upon his church on the day of Pentecost: for so, Acts ii. 33. St. Peter makes the effusion of the Spirit by Christ to be the consequence of his advancement to his universal royalty; Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. Now the end for which he sent his Spirit was to supply his room when he went from earth, and in his absence to preside as his vicegerent in his kingdom below. Since therefore this blessed Spirit acts

as our Saviour's agent, whatsoever he doth, that our Saviour doth by him. So that all those operations he performs, in order to the subduing us to the obedience of Christ, and to the governing of us when we are subdued, are truly the operations of Christ himself. It is he that conquers and governs us by his Spirit, our hearts are the territories which Christ invades by him, and his inspirations are the victorious arms by which Christ conquers and subdues them. Our wills are the thrones on which Christ sits, and rules, and governs by him, and his holy suggestions are the awful powers by which Christ himself commands our obedience. But what it is that this blessed Spirit doth and hath done in order to the subduing men to Christ's laws, and governing them by them, hath been already shewn at large: and therefore of this I shall need say no more at present.

III. And lastly; Therefore, another of those regal acts which Christ hath once for all performed in his heavenly kingdom is, his erecting in it an external polity and government. What this polity is, and what are the functions of it, hath been shewn at large, and it is as well by this external government as by the internal ministry of his Spirit, that Christ now rules his kingdom; for in all just and lawful things the lawful governors of his church do act by his commission and authority, as being substituted by him the visible representatives of his person, and the executors and administrators of his power and dominion. Whilst therefore they act within the compass of their commission, they act in his stead, and as his vicegerents; and whatsoever they bind he binds, and whatsoever they loose he looses; their commands are his, their decrees and sentences

are his; and all their authoritative acts carry with them the same force and obligation, as if they had been performed by him in his own person. For it is he that wills, and speaks, and acts by them, because they will, and speak, and act by his authority. For so he himself declares to them, Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me, i. e. because I speak by you; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me; because my authority is in you even as my Father is in me; and therefore he who despises mine in you, despises my Father's in me, whence mine in you is derived. Your authority is mine, and mine is my Father's; and therefore he who rejects yours doth therein reject both my Father's and mine. And this authority is given them by Christ for the same end that his authority was given him by the Father; for he came into the world to seek and to save lost souls, Luke xix. 10. He came not to judge the world, but to save the world, John xii. 47. and to call sinners to repentance, Mark ii. 17. And upon the very same errand he sent all those whom he appointed to propagate and govern his kingdom in his absence; for he set them up as so many lights to the benighted world, to reduce men from those dangerous paths in which they were wandering to eternal misery, and shew them the way to everlasting happiness; and all the power he devolved upon them was for edification, and not for destruction, 2 Cor. xiii. 10. and to them he hath committed the care and charge of souls, whose blood he will one day require at their hands, if they miscarry through their neglect or default, Heb. xiii. 17. And that he might the better secure these precious beings,

for whom he shed his blood, from miscarrying for ever, he placed this spiritual polity in a subordination of officers, and made the inferior accountable for their charge to the superior officers, as well as both accountable to himself. So that whereas had he placed it in coordinate hands, there had been only one soul accountable to him for each particular cure or charge of souls, because then each single pastor would have been supreme in his particular cure, and consequently no other pastor or pastors would have been accountable for not calling him to account: now each particular cure of souls is under the charge and inspection of several orders and degrees of pastors; who in their several stations are all accountable for it to the tribunal of Christ. For first the inferior pastor, who hath the immediate charge of it, and is obliged by his office to teach and instruct it by good example and doctrine, and to administer to it the holy ordinances of Christianity, stands accountable to Christ for every soul in it that miscarries through his neglect or omission; next, the bishop stands accountable for not correcting the neglects and misdemeanours of the inferior pastor; and then the metropolitan for not taking cognizance of the default of the bishop. Thus in that excellent form of government which Christ hath established in his kingdom, he hath made all possible provision for the safety and welfare of souls; for according to this economy he hath taken no less than a threefold security, every one of which is as much as a soul amounts to, that every soul within every cure shall be plentifully supplied with the means of salvation; that so none of them might miscarry, but such as are incorrigibly obsti

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