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the practice of it, if our examples encourage it, if we are enemies to and opposers of serious Scripture godliness, (if, as I might have added above, but I chose not to detain you,) if while we are living after the course of the world we are propping ourselves by vain superstitions, and putting our faith in the devil instead of Christ, then it is manifest whose subjects we are, and that we have not yet renounced the devil and his works. But if to see the extent and cruelty of Satan's dominion be our grief and abhorrence; if we determinately forsake the practice of sin ourselves, and will not wittingly by our example give it the least countenance in others; if in deed as well as word we stand up for the cause and the people of Christ, and discountenance every thing great or little that makes for the kingdom of the devil, then it is not less manifest on the other part that we have indeed renounced the devil and all his works.

And shall I now need say anything more to such as have been found in their own consciences the servants of Satan? To think of being in subjection to that monster, who is the avowed open enemy of the God that made him, the very height and summit of all malignity and sin, whose heart knows nothing but cruelty, revenge, fury, and most malicious pleasure in our ruin; to think of serving his interests too, of being employed night and day in promoting his hellish designs in the world, of being given up in all the actions of life to enlarge and establish his kingdom; to think of being made use of as his tools, presumptuously to oppose, and, as it were, to brave God to his face; to publish abroad the devil's triumph; to hinder, hurt, and wound the cause of that gracious Jesus, who so kindly came and died to save us, and to be set up against all those that own and follow him! To think of this! What need of arguments? What can be said more? If there were no hell wherewith the devil will reward such faithful services, what need be said more? O, sirs! if you would but think whom you serve, and what dishonourable services you are employed in, you could not be easy, you would by grace change masters, and flee unto Jesus to deliver you from the power of the devil. The Lord God Almighty, in whose hands ten thousand devils are but as the dust of a balance, enable you to do so!

And you the children of God, the followers of the Lamb,

who hath delivered you from the snares of the devil; will you, can you stand by and see these your poor brethren led captive by Satan, employed in his work, and going down to his dark dreadful habitation? Can you see this and not mourn over them, and pray for them? Ah, mourn and pray for these immortal souls! Where, where is your pity? Where is your zeal, if you do not mourn, and pray, and labour for them? Methinks we should pray down heaven upon their heads, to consider what a condition they are in, how fast Satan holds them in his chain! You know how often, how earnestly, I have pleaded with them. And do not you still fear, as I do, that they will not now be prevailed upon? O, if you have any love for Christ or them, if you would wish to see them with you in the bosom of Abraham, in the arms of Jesus, pity them and pray for them! Ah, you know their time is short! How suddenly will they be where I tremble to think of their dwelling for ever, unless something be now done for them! Now, now, pity and pray for them! Sirs, you will not, you cannot surely stand still in such a cause! O, that I had the tongue of a Paul to provoke you! O, that I had but a little of his zeal for Jesus! Why, sirs, it is the cause of Jesus. It is the cause of Jesus against Satan. Why are we not more ready to spend and be spent for Jesus? To you, and, alas! to me among the rest, he has intrusted his cause, his interest, his honour in this place. It is by you the kingdom of Satan must be confronted and confounded in this place. What then are we doing? Shall we still continue so little to bestir ourselves? Up, my friends! Satan is a vanquished enemy! Jesus thrust him headlong from heaven. O, watch, pray, live, die, for the confusion of the kingdom of the devil, and for the advancement of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus!

SERMON V.

ACTS xvi. 30.

What must I do to be saved?

THE intimate connexion there is between the three things we are called upon as Christians to renounce should be carefully attended to, that we may preserve upon our minds the clearest conviction of the necessity lying upon us to renounce them all. The devil reigns by means of our corrupt affections; and the power and prevalence of these is maintained by being fixed upon the world and engaging us in the pursuit of the things of it. As long as the world is allowed to have the ascendancy, the corrupt principle does in that very ascendancy hold the direction of us, and we remain the subjects of Satan. Wherefore the actual renunciation of one of these is in fact the renouncing them all. When the devil is dethroned, the flesh does not rule, and the world has lost its influence. When the affections are withdrawn from the world, the flesh is in a state of subjection, and the devil cast out. When the flesh is mortified, the world is rejected, and the devil has lost his power. You see, turn it which way you will, it is but saying over again the very same thing; and, therefore, that the renunciation of any one of these three things is impossible while either of the other are submitted to. If you have not renounced the dominion of the devil, you are actually serving the world and the flesh; if you are a friend of the world, the devil and the flesh are your masters; and to yield to the flesh is inevitably connected with living after the course of the world, and serving the devil.

I am now to speak of renouncing "the pomps and vanities of this wicked world." Concerning which my method shall be, as before, first, to explain the matter, and, secondly, to improve it.

This wicked world.-The world in itself is not wicked, being God's creature, and therefore is, as every creature of God is, declared to be good, 1 Tim. iv. 14. But when the world is considered as it is abused in the use of it through the corruption and degeneracy of our hearts, and as being full of those who give up their hearts to it instead of God, it may well be called a wicked world. There are two reasons, therefore, why you are taught to call the world wicked; one, because our perverted hearts are set thereupon in a wicked abuse and forgetfulness of God, to seek our happiness therein, and to place our trust upon it the other, because the number of those who follow this perverted propensity of their hearts, and in divers ways seek their all in the world, is so great, that they in a manner overspread the whole face of the earth; in reference to which St. John saith, "We know that the whole world lieth in wickedness." By this wicked world, then, is to be understood the world when it is made the supreme ruling object of our desires, in a conformity with the maxims, customs, and authority of the generality of mankind, who live upon the same worldly plan.

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By the pomps and vanities of this wicked world" we are to apprehend in general those various things that are in the world, which draw and engage unto a worldly course the most of mankind, indeed all but those few who are taken out of the world by the transforming power of faith in Jesus Christ. And, therefore, more particularly those things by which the world captivates and enslaves all men by nature, and the most of men continuedly in fact; such as honour, riches, pleasure, and the like, that is (to say all in two words), the indulgence and the pride of life. To renounce "the pomps and vanities of this wicked world" must therefore accordingly mean these three things. First, In a steady, constant, and resolute opposition to the desires of our corrupted nature, to withdraw the affections from this present. state of things, so as no longer either to seek happiness or to place confidence therein, but to be determined to seek our all in God. And how reasonable is it that it should be thus ! how dishonourable to God that we should ascribe all-sufficiency to the creature, and deny it to the Creator, by seeking our all in it and not in him! Secondly, To give up in desire and pursuit every particular thing that is in the world, when considered as

standing in competition with God for the love and trust of our hearts, or the direction of our conduct; whether it be worldly ease or pleasure on the one side, or worldly esteem or interest on the other. And, consequently, Thirdly, To be disposed, and to live and act in a direct contrariety to the children of this world who make up the bulk of mankind, departing absolutely from their aims and pursuits, totally disavowing the authority of worldly custom, resolutely foregoing worldly example as any rule of conduct, disclaiming all those maxims which the world has given its countenance and sanction to, as being vile and abominable; and, finally, at no rate either loving inordinately, or seeking eagerly, or using selfishly, ostentatiously, and indulgently, the world and the things of it as they do.

The whole of the matter put together amounts to this. The true believer in Jesus Christ makes his profession in regard to the world, and says, "I have chosen God to be my portion, to whom I desire and am determined to give up all the affections of my heart, making him my only hope and all my happiness. It is not without shame and sorrow that I reflect how, in conformity with the inclination of my corrupt nature, I have sadly and sinfully suffered myself to be carried out in the desires of my soul after this present evil world, seeking my happiness in it, and fixing my trust upon it, saying thereunto, in the disposition of my heart, Thou art my God. But I have purposed, and by the grace of God am determined, that henceforward the Lord, the invisible and eternal God, shall be my God. I disclaim and disavow the world to be any more the object of my love and desire, my hope and delight, my trust and confidence: I cannot serve these two masters; I renounce the world, I regard it with hatred and detestation as standing in competition for my heart with God; now I have said unto the Lord, and now I publicly declare it, Thou art my God. And further, as I do thus in general renounce the world, so do I also more particularly everything that is in it, the indulgence, the interest, the reputation it offers me, in such sort, that neither of them shall be near my heart as God is, and all of them shall be cheerfully yielded up when God's honour or any claim of duty to him calls for them. And, finally, since through the corruption of our nature I see the world and the things of it universally abused, that the children

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