So that here we have in these words,

ift, The hardship and difficulties of virtue and holinefs on one fide, laid against the joys of heaven on the other. And,

2dly, The pleasures of fin in this life compared, with the torments of hell hereafter.

And therefore, to carry on this motive of our Saviour's, and render it of as great efficacy as we can; let us in each of these inftances confider the great difproportion between the lofs there is on one hand, and the gain on the other.

I. As to the first then; the great difproportion between the difficulties of virtue and holiness, and the advantages obtained by them will appear, if we confider these three things.

I. That fince it is even poffible to secure our innocency and to be virtuous and holy; let the hardships and difficulties be what they will, yet they are nothing to what is gained by them. If it had been utterly impoffible for us to attain that virtue and holiness, which is neceffary to qualify us for heaven and happinefs, then all our reasonable wishes had been that God would only put it in our power; nay, we had defired no more in order to obtain heaven; and whatever the difficulties were, we should appear willing to undergo them. What is it we should not be willing to do in fuch a cafe, in order to procure the everlasting joys of a future ftate? Now this very wish we have obtained; it is in our power; and by the unspeakable goodness of God we are

left

left in the hand of our council; life and death SER M. is before us, we have a perfect freedom of XXIII. choofing either one or the other; and the worst we can imagine is what our Saviour supposes here, that we voluntarily undergo fome pain and uneafiness for the prevention of a Sin.

And therefore, were we all literally to cut off our hands and feet, and that God required we should actually pluck out our eyes to preferve our innocence, yet this would be but a small and eafy condition for obtaining those unfpeakable joys of another life. Men will do all this for a little health, and suffer the torture of cutting off their limbs only to prolong their life, and fupport a finking carcafs a few years longer in this world: They will have one limb cut off after another, and die by piecemeal rather than go off all at once. What is more usual than for people to undergo the feverest methods of cure, and endure the fearing, the cutting, and burning of their flesh, in order to their health and easy living a-while longer here?

And if men will do all this for a little health, and to continue perhaps a crazy fickly carcass in life, only a few days longer; then how much rather fhould they undergo this, to preserve that health and innocence of foul, which places them in a condition of entering into the kingdom of God, where there is fulness of joy, and unconceivable pleasures for evermore; nay, if we were to cut off a limb (if it were poffible) every day, and pluck out an VOL. II.

M

eye;

SER M. eye; yet this would bear no proportion to that XXIII. weight of glory which shall be revealed in us.

Now though this be not required from us in any general precept, and that no one may exercise fuch unnatural violence upon himself, yet (as it is with the health of the body) men may fall into fuch circumstances, that there is no preserving their fouls in virtue and innocence, without yielding their members to be cut off, and their very eyes to be pluckt out, if the enemies of religion and virtue fhould make use of these methods of cruelty. If we cannot keep them without a fin, without tranfgreffing fome of the commands of God, or denying the faith of Chrift; we must yield them up to the tormentors: All natural affection must cease, even to the members of our own body; and we muft caft them from us with indignation, for the effects of wilful and deliberate guilt upon the foul are as real, and of as fatal a confequence, as that of a fpreading gangrene in the body, and will as furely prove mortal in the end; and when once it comes to this fatal cafe, there is no other method of cure.

So that then the question is often literally, as our Saviour puts it; whether it be not better to cut off their hands and feet, and pluck out their eyes, or being maimed here, or fuffering a painful and violent death to enter into the kingdom of God; than by preferving their life or limbs to be caft into hell fire, where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quench

ed?

ed? And accordingly we find many who have S ERM. been actually reduced to this extremity whofe XXIII. lot, or rather whofe great glory and happiness' it was, to be thought worthy to fuffer for the truth, have made the better choice; to whom this precept of our Saviour was practicable in its ftricteft fenfe. Who having their eyes upon that recompence of reward, in the midft of racks and tortures, have rejoiced in hope of the glory of God. If it fhould come to this with us, yet it is no more than what hath been done before us, by those who were tortured not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better refurrection; they were ftoned, they were fawn afunder, flain with the fword, were deftitute, afflicted, tormented. The hiftories of the primitive church abound with examples of multitudes who underwent great variety of torments for the faith of Chrift, and the preservation of a good confcience; and we need not look far back for large catalogues of martyrs who endured cutting, and racking, and burning, and all that the malice of their enemies could inflict upon them, or the body of man could fuffer; and all upon this principle, that it is better to enter into life maimed, than by fparing their life and limbs to run the hazard of eternal death.

II. The difproportion between the difficulty of virtue and holiness here, and the joys of heaven, will hereafter appear, if we confider that the difficulty is not fo great as we imagine; for the greatest difficulty in religion (except

M 2

SER M. (excepting the cafe of perfecution only) is, XXIII. the first curbing our vitious inclinations, and

breaking the force of our evil habits: This indeed is difficult to flesh and blood, for many of those inclinations are now in one fenfe natural to us; we are fhapen in wickedness, and in fin hath our mother conceived us. The evil tendencies of our nature are part of ourfelves, which is the reason why they are here expreft by cutting off a hand, or a foot, and plucking out an eye, and they are still more rivetted and confirmed by custom and habits, which are as a fecond nature to us; and therefore it cannot but be a matter of great difficulty; nay, it is fo great, that the fcriptures exprefs it by that of a natural impoffibility, as of the Ethiopian changing of his fkin, and the Leopard his fpots: And in truth it is fo hard, that is utterly impoffible for us by meer natural ftrength to get over the first difficulty, it is too ftrong for all the power of human refolution; and therefore it is, that the fupernatural affiftance of God's preventing grace is afforded us. And though we have this, yet our own experience may tell us, what a mighty conflict there is between the flesh and the fpirit, between the grace of God, and our own reafon on the one hand, and the law of fin in our members on the other; when we attempt to oppofe and contradict the finful appetites of our body, or vitious inclination of our mind, we meet with mighty opposition and reluctances; the temp