Lastly, Hell, the most dismal of all our enemies, which our Lord, by virtue of his merits and power of his grace, has enabled us to avoid.

Application of the whole. 1. There ariseth hence great matter and cause for glorifying God, both from the thing itself and its extent. 2. Hereby is discovered the general obligation to love God, to praise and serve him, out of gratitude for his goodness, &c. 3. This doctrine affords great matter of comfort. If a man, reflecting on his own heart and ways, is apt to be discouraged, yet it will raise him to consider that he is not excluded from a possibility of salvation, seeing that he is assured of God's favorable inclination. 4. It is a great incitement to the performance of duty; both as disposing men to serve God out of an ingenuous or grateful disposition, and as assuring them of acceptance in case of their endeavors to obey: this enlarged on. 5. It is a great aggravation of infidelity, apostacy, and of all disobedience, so to frustrate the designs of Christ, reject his grace, and abuse his mercy: it consequently tends to deter men from these sins. 6. It is a great encouragement and excitement to devotion; for who can be backward from using the mediation of so merciful and kind a Redeemer ? whom will not such goodness invite and encourage? 7. It is a ground and motive of charity, as thence arises a more considerable relation between all men. 8. It should consequently render us careful to promote the salvation of others, and fearful to hinder it by bad example, or doctrine, &c. 9. It is a piece of justice to acknowlege the right and interest of every man in his Saviour: this enlarged on to the end.

SERMON LXXIV.

THE DOCTRINE OF UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION ASSERTED AND EXPLAINED.

I TIMOTHY, CHAP. IV.-VERSE 10.

-The living God; who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.

8. As our Saviour was such to all men by his doctrine, or the general discovery of all saving truth; so may he be esteemed such in regard to his exemplary practice; whereby on the open stage of the world, and in the common view of all that would attend unto him, he did represent a living pattern of all goodness; by imitating which we may certainly attain salvation. He that will consider his practice shall find it admirably fitted for general instruction and imitation; calculated for all places and all sorts of people; suited to the complexions, to the capacities, to the degrees, to the callings of all men; so that every sort of men may from it draw profitable direction, may in it find a copy, even of his particular behavior: for he was a great prince, illustrious in birth, excellent in glory, and abounding in all wealth; yet was born in obscurity, lived without pomp, and seemed to possess nothing; so teaching men of high rank to be sober, mild, and humble; not to rest in, not to regard much, not to hug and cling to the accommodations and shows of worldly state; teaching those of mean degree to be patient, content, and cheerful in their station. He was exceedingly wise and knowing, without bound or measure; yet made no ostentation of extraordinary knowlege, of sharp wit,

of deep subtilty; did not vent high, dark, or intricate notions; had in his practice no reaches and windings of craft or policy; but was in his doctrine very plain and intelligible, in his practice very open and clear; so that what he commonly said or did, not only philosophers and statesmen, but almost the simplest idiots might easily comprehend; so that those might thence learn not to be conceited of their superfluous wisdom; these not be discouraged in their harmless ignorance; both having thence an equally sufficient instruction in all true righteousness, a complete direction in the paths to happiness, being thereby σοφιΞόμενοι εἰς σωτηρίαν, made wise and learned to salvation. He did not immerse himself in the cares, nor engage himself into the businesses of this world; yet did not withdraw himself from the company and conversation of men he retired often from the crowd, that he might converse with God and heavenly things; he put himself into it, that he might impart good to men, and benefit the world, declining no sort of society; but indifferently conversing with all; disputing with the doctors, and eating with the publicans; whence thereby both men of contemplative and quiet dispositions or vocations, and men of busy spirits, or of active lives, may be guided respectively; those not to be morose, supercilious, rigid, contemptuous toward other men; these not to be so possessed or entangled with the world, as not to reserve some leisure for the culture of their minds, not to employ some care on the duty of piety and devotion; both may learn, whether in private retirements, or in public conversation and employment, especially to regard the service of God and the benefit of men: thus was the example of our Lord accommodated for all men; especially conducting them in the hardest and roughest parts of the way leading to bliss, the acclivities and asperities of duty; selfdenial, or neglect of worldly glory and fleshly pleasure, patience, humility, general charity; showing us the possibility of performing such duties, and encouraging us thereto. Through these difficult and dangerous passages (as a resolyte chieftain of life) he undauntedly marched before us, charging, beating back, and breaking through all opposite forces, all enemies, all temptations, all obstacles; enduring painfully the most furious assaults of the world; boldly withstanding and happily

conquering the most malicious rage of hell; so that victory and salvation we shall be certain of, if we pursue his steps, and do not basely (out of faintness or falsehood) desert so good a leader; we shall not fail of the unfading crown, if with patience we run the race that is set before us, looking unto the captain and perfecter of our faith, Jesus, who, for the joy proposed unto him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.' Would it not raise and inflame any courage to see his commander to adventure so boldly on all hazards, to endure so willingly all hardships? Whom would hot the sight of such a forerunner animate and quicken in his course; who, by running in the straight way of righteousness with alacrity and constancy, hath obtained himself a most glorious crown, and holdeth forth another like thereto, for the reward of those who follow him? Now as our Lord's doctrine, so did his example, in the nature and design thereof, respect and appertain to all men, it being also like the light of heaven, a common spectacle, a publicguide, to guide our steps in the way of peace' if it do not appear so, if it do not effectually direct all, it is by accident and beside God's intention; it is by the fault of them who should propound it, or of them who have not eyes fit or worthy to behold it; briefly, what was said concerning the universal revelation of Christian doctrine may be applied to Christ's practice.

9. Jesus is the Saviour of all men,' as having combated and vanquished all the enemies of man's welfare and happiness; dispossessing them of all their pretences and usurpations over man, disarming them of all their power and force against him; enabling us to withstand and overcome them. Man's salvation hath many adversaries of different nature and kind; some directly oppugning it, some formally prejudicing it, some accidentally hindering it; some alluring, some forcing, some discouraging from it, or from the means conducing to it: the chief of them we may from the Scripture (with consent of experience) reckon to be the devil, with all his envy and malice, his usurpations, his delusions, and his temptations to sin; the world, with its snares and baits, its violences, persecutions, and menaces; the flesh, or natural concupiscence, with its bad inclinations and propensities to evil, its lusts

and pleasures; sin, with its guilt, and mischievous consequences; the law, with its rigorous exactions, hard measure, and harsh boding; conscience, with its accusations and complaints, its terrors and anguishes; divine anger, with its effects, death and hell. All these our Lord hath in several and suitable ways defeated; as to their malignity, contrariety, or enmity in respect of man's salvation; he hath, as Zachariah prophesieth in his Benedictus, 'saved us from our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us: so that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might (døóßws) safely and securely, without danger or fear, serve him, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.'

·

The devil, (that enemy, that adversary, that accuser, that slanderer, that murderer, that greedy lion, that crafty serpent, the strong one, the mischievous one, the destroyer,) who usurped an authority, and exercised a domination over mankind, as ‘the prince of this world;' who made prize of them, 'captivated them at his pleasure;' who detained them under the power (or authority) of darkness and wickedness; who had the power of death; him our Saviour hath destroyed or defeated, (karýpynoev, as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaketh; that is, abolished him as to any farther pretence of empire or power over us ;) him he hath dejected from heaven, (I saw Satan like lightning falling down from heaven;') him he hath cast out: Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out' all his works he hath dissolved: For this cause,' saith St. John, the Son of God did appear, that he might dissolve the works of the devil.' He combated this strong one, (this mighty and dreadful foe of ours,) and baffled him, and bound him, and disarmed him, (taking away aroλiav avrou, the whole armor in which he trusted,) and spoiled him, (rà σkeun Supraσe, rifled all his baggage,' bare away all his instruments of mischief,) and plundered all his house; leaving him unable (without our fault, our baseness, our negligence) to do us mischief, (as is intimated in the 12th of St. Matthew, and 11th of St. Luke; yea, he triumphed over all those infernal principalities and powers, and exposed them, as St. Paul saith he imparted to his disciples ability to 'trample on all his power,' by him all his followers are so fortified as

BAR.