constantly settled in the main truths of Christian religion, so as he cannot be removed; in litigious points, neither too credulous nor too peremptory; whose discourse is such as may be meet for the expressions of a tongue that belongs to a sound, godly, and charitable heart; whose breast continually burns with the heavenly fire of a holy devotion; whose painful sufferings are overcome with patience and cheerful resolutions; whose conflicts are attended with undaunted courage, and crowned with a happy victory; lastly, whose death is not so full of fear and anguish, as of strong consolations in that Saviour who hath overcome and sweetened it; nor of so much dreadfulness in itself, as of joy in the present expectation of that blessed issue of a glorious immortality which instantly succeeds it?-Such is the Christian whom we do here characterize, and commend to the world both for trial and imitation. Neither know I which of these many qualifications can be missing, in that soul who lays a just claim to Christ his Redeemer.

Take your hearts to task therefore, my dear brethren, into whose hands soever these lines shall come; and as you desire to have peace at the last, ransack them thoroughly; not contenting yourselves with a perfunctory and fashionable oversight,* which will one day leave you irremediably miserable, but so search, as those that resolve not to give over, till you find these gracious dispositions in your bosoms, which I have here described to you. So shall we be, and make each other happy in the success of our holy labours; which the God of Heaven bless in both our hands, to his own glory, and our mutual comfort in the day of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

* A slight external glance.-ED.

THE CHRISTIAN.

SECTION I.

His Disposition.

THE Christian is a man, and more; an earthly saint; an angel clothed in flesh; the only lawful image of his Maker and Redeemer; the abstract of God's church on earth; a model of heaven, made up in clay; the living temple of the Holy Ghost. For his disposition, it hath in it as much of heaven as his earth may make room for.

He were not a man, if he were quite free from corrupt affections; but these he masters, and keeps in with a strait hand: and if, at any time, they grow testy and headstrong, he breaks them with a severe discipline; and will rather punish himself than not tame them. He checks his appetite with discreet, but strong denials; and forbears to pamper nature, lest it grow wanton and impetuous. He walks on earth, but converses in heaven; having his eyes fixed on the invisible, and enjoying a sweet communion with his God and Saviour. While all the rest of the world sits in darkness,

he lives in a perpetual light: the heaven of heavens is open to none but him: thither his eye pierceth, and beholds those beams of inaccessible glory which shine in no face but his.

The deep mysteries of godliness, which to the great clerks of the world' are as a book clasped and sealed up, lie open before him, fair and legible; and while those book-men know whom they have heard of, he knows whom he hath believed.

He will not suffer his Saviour to be ever out of his eye; and if through some worldly interceptions he lose the sight of that blessed object for a time, he zealously retrieves him; not without a hungry check of his own miscarriage; and is now so much the more fixed by his former slackening, so as he will henceforth sooner part with his soul than his Redeemer. The terms of entireness, wherein he stands with the Lord of life, are such as he can feel, but cannot express, though he should borrow the language of angels; it is enough that they two are one spirit.

His reason is willingly captivated to his faith; his will to his reason, and his affections to both. He fears nothing that he sees, in comparison of that which he sees not; and displeasure is more dreadful to him than smart. Good is the adequate object of his love, which he duly proportions, according to the degrees of its eminence: affecting the chief good not without a certain ravishment of spirit; the lesser, with a wise and holy moderation.

Whether he do more hate sin or the evil spirit that suggests it, is a question.

Men of great secular learning.-ED.

Earthly contents are too mean grounds whereon to raise his joy; these, as he balks not when they meet in his way, so he doth not too eagerly pursue: he may taste of them; but so, as he would rather fast, than surfeit.

He is not insensible to those losses which casualty or enmity may inflict; but that which lies most heavily upon his heart, is his sin. This makes his sleep short and troublesome, his meals stomachless, his recreations listless, his every thing tedious, till he find his soul acquitted by his great surety in heaven; which done, he feels more peace and pleasure in his calm, than he found horror in the tempest.

His heart is the storehouse of most precious graces. That faith, whereby his soul is established, triumphs over the world, whether it allure or threaten; and bids defiance to all the powers of darkness, not fearing to be foiled by any opposition. His hope cannot be discouraged with the greatest difficulties; but bears up against natural impossibilities, and knows how to reconcile contradictions. His charity is both extensive and fervent; barring out no one that bears the face of a man, but pouring out itself upon the household of faith; that studies good constructions of men and actions, and keeps itself free both from suspicion and cen

sure.

Grace doth more exalt him, than his humility depresses him. Were it not for that Christ who dwells in him, he could think himself the meanest of all creatures: now, he knows he may not disparage the Deity of him, by whom he is so gloriously inhabited; in whose only right he can be as

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