lamentation, how little his love to God is in comparison of what it should be; how short all falls below our duty, below the glorious majesty of God; below the precious love of Christ; below the worth of precious souls; below the weight of endless glory; below the mercies that should warm our hearts; below the great necessity that is on us ; and consequently below their own desires. Look, therefore, after greater things, while you may attain them.

10. Lastly, consider what abundance of great engagements are on you, that are sincere believers, more than upon others.

(1.) You are more nearly related to Christ than any others are. And, therefore, you should be more tender of offending him, and more eminent in love and service to him. You are his household-servants; and will you not labour for him and stick to him? You are his friends; and should a friend abuse him? should not a friend be faithful? You are his dear, adopted children, and his spouse; and should not you be faithful to him to the death? Should not all the love and service that you have be his? Isa. i. 2,3. Mal. i. 10. Gal. v. 4.

(2.) You have bound yourselves to him by more serious frequent vows and covenants than other men have done. How many persons, and places, and necessities of yours, can witness against you, if you be not firm and forward for the Lord. As Joshua said to Israel, "Behold this stone, it shall be a witness unto you, lest you deny your God;" Josh. xxiv. 27. So I may say, the places where you have kneeled, and prayed, and promised, will be witnesses against you, if you be not firm to God. The churches that you have assembled in, the places you have walked in, in your solitary meditations; the persons that have heard your promises and professions; the world about you that hath seen your forwardness, will all witness against you if you be not firm.

(3.) It is you that have the life and kernel of mercies; others have but the crumbs that fall from your tables. Others have common mercies, but you have the great and special mercies that accompany salvation. "All things are yours," and should not you be Christ's? 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22. Of you it is that God is so exceeding tender, that he chargeth your enemies not to touch you, and tells them that touch you, that they "touch the apple of his eye;" Zech.

ii. 8. And should not you abound in love and holiness? and should you not be as tender of his favour, and his law, and honour, as of the apple of your eye? Should not he that toucheth the name, and law, and honour of God, by profaning them by sin, be as one that toucheth the apple of your eye?

(4.) You have a Spirit, and heavenly life within you, which the rest of the world are unacquainted with. And can you think it is not something extraordinary, that God must needs expect from you? Will you not "walk in the Spirit," which is given you, and mortify the flesh by it? Gal. v. 16, 17. 24. Is there not more expected from the living than the dead? Surely he that hath made you new creatures, and made you partakers of the Divine Nature, doth expect somewhat divine in your affections and devotions, and that you be somewhat more than men.

(5.) Moreover, it is you above others, for whom the word and messengers of God are sent! We must speak to all: but it is you that God's special eye is upon; it is your salvation that he intends to accomplish by us. There were many widows in the days of Elias, and many lepers in the days of Elisha; Luke iv. 26, 27.

But it was but to one of them that the prophet was sent! We make the ungodly multitude even rage against us, and ministers are hated for magnifying the grace of God to you, and declaring his special love to you above others. When Christ himself had spoken to you the forecited the words, it is said in the next verses, 28, 29. that "all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong." This was the entertainment of Christ himself, when he did but declare how few it is that God will save, and for whose sakes he specially sends his messengers. And must we incur all this for magnifying you, and will you dishonour yourselves? Is all our study and labour for you, and our lives for you, and all things for you, and will not you be wholly, and to the utmost of your strength for God? Are you called out of all the world for salvation, and will you not answer this admirable, differencing grace, by an admirable difference from those that must

perish, and by an admirable excellency in meekness, bumility, self-denial, and heavenliness, above other men?

(6.) Moreover, you know more, and have a greater experience to assist you than others have; and, therefore, you should excel them accordingly. Others have but heard of the odiousness of sin, but you have seen and felt it. Others have heard of God's displeasure, but you have tasted it to the breaking or bruising of your hearts! You have been warned at the very quick, as if Christ had spoken to your very flesh and bones, "Go thy way, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." And as Ezra said (chap. ix. 13.), "After all that is come upon us, should we again break thy commandments; wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hast consumed us?" So, if after all your spiritual experiences, after so many tastes of the bitterness of sin, and groans, and prayers, and cries against it, you shall yet live as like to the wicked as you dare, and be familiar with that which hath cost you so dear! How do you think that God must take this at your hands? You have tasted of the sweetness of the love of Christ, and wondered at the unspeakable riches of his grace! You have tasted the sweetness of the hopes of glory, and of the powers of the world to come! You have perceived the necessity and excellency of holiness, by inward experience! And if, after all this, you will draggle on the earth, and live below your own experiences, contenting yourselves with an infancy of love, and life, and fruitfulness, how much do you then transgress against the rules of reason, and of equity!

(7.) Moreover, all the world expecteth much more from you, than from any others. God expecteth more from you, for he hath given you more, and meaneth to do more for you. Must you be in the eternal joys of heaven, when all your unsanctified neighbours are in torments, and yet will you not more endeavour to excel them? Is it not unreasonable to expect to be set eternally at so vast a distance from the ungodly world, even as far as heaven is from hell, and yet to be content to differ here but a little from them in holiness? The Lord knows that poor, forsaken, impenitent sinners will do no better, but rage, and be confident, till they are past remedy; he looks for no better from them than to neglect him, and slight his Son, and word, and ways; and

to go on in worldliness and fleshly living; to be filthy still, and careless, and presumptuous, and self-conceited still. But it is higher matters that he expects from you; and good reason, he hath done more for you, and prepared you for better things! The ministers of Christ do look for little better from many of their poor, ignorant, ungodly neighbours, but even to rub out their days in security, and selfdeceit, and to be barren after all their labours, if not to hate us for seeking to have saved them. But it is you that their eyes are most upon, and you that their hearts are most upon. Their comfort, and the fruit of their lives, lies much in your hands saith Paul, " Brethren, we were comforted over you in all our afflictions and distress, by your faith. For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord! For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God. Night and day praying exceedingly, that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith;" 1 Thess. iii. 7-9. You see here, that your pastors' lives are in your hands. If you stand fast, they live. For the end of life is more than life; and your salvation is the end of our lives. If the impenitent world reproach us, and abuse and persecute us, we suffer it joyfully, as long as our work goeth on with you. But when you are at a stand, when you are barren, and scandalous, and passionate, and dishonour your profession, and put us in fears, lest we have bestowed all our labour on you in vain; this breaks our hearts above any worldly crosses whatsoever. O when the people that we should rejoice and glory in should prove unruly, self-conceited, peevish, proud, every one running his own way, falling into divisions, contentions, or scandals, this is the killing of the comforts of your ministers. When the ungodly shall hit us in the teeth with your scandals and divisions, and say, 'These are the godly people that you boasted of, see now what is become of them,' this is the smoke to our eyes, and the gall and vinegar that is given us by the adversary. And though still we know that our reward is with the Lord, yet can we not choose but be wounded for your sakes, and for the sake of the cause and the name of God.

Yea, the world itself expecteth more from you than others. When men talk of great matters, and profess as every Christian doth, to look for the greatest matters of

eternity, and to live for no lower things than everlasting fellowship with God and angels, no wonder then if the world do look for extraordinary matters from you. If you tell them of reaching heaven, they will look to see you winged like angels, and not to creep on earth like worms. If you say that you are more than men, they look you should shew it, by doing more than men can do; even by denying yourselves, and forgiving injuries, and loving your enemies, and blessing those that curse you, and contemning this world, and having your conversation in heaven. O sirs, believe it, it is not small or common things that will satisfy the expectations of God or men, of ministers, or of the world themselves, concerning you.

(8.) Yea, moreover God himself doth make his boast of you, and call out the world to observe your excellency; he sets you up as the light of the world, to be beheld by others. He calls you in his word, "his peculiar treasure above all people;" Exod. xix. 5. Deut. xiv. 3. Psal. cxxxv. 4. “ A peculiar people, purified, and zealous of good works ;" Tit. ii. 14. He called you "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Ye are as lively stones, built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ;" 1 Pet. ii. 5. 9. You are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible ;” (1 Pet. i. 23.) and "are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." God hath "delivered you from the power of darkness, and translated you into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom you have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins;" Col. i. 12-14. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;" Rom. viii. 16, 17. "All things shall work together for your good. He that spared not his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things;" ver. 28. 32. Nothing but the illuminated soul can discern "the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power;" Ephes.i. 18, 19. "When we were dead in sins, he hath