are said to have dyed in Faith being perswaded of the Promises and having embraced them many Ages before the time was come for the accomplishment of them Then for the Power and Efficacy of this Grace the Apostle tells us what Transcendent things it has done in Ancient times and that by vertue of it the Elders obtained a good Report ver 2. by which he means That the Great and Famous Actions Recorded of the Patriarchs and other Worthies in the Old Testament were all owing to their Faith by Faith they pleased God bore up against the Malice of the World subdued Kingdoms and wrought Righteousness in despight of the greatest Difficulties and the highest Discouragements Many Instances he gives us of these Noble Flights of Faith amongst which there is none in all respects more remarkable than the Example in the Text By Faith Abraham when he was tryed Offered up Isaac and he that Received the Promises offered up his only begotten Son Of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Two things are observable in these Words 1. The Hardness of the Tryal which God made of Abraham when he commanded him to offer up Isaac to Him 2. The Issue of this Tryal or the Victory of Abraham's Faith over all the Hardships and Discouragements which he met with in it Both these were extraordinary and being written for our Instruction will surely afford us very useful Reflections in reference to our Faith and Practice I begin with the First viz. 1. The Hardness of the Tryal which God put Abraham upon for the Discovery of his Faith and affiance in him The Text calls it a Tryal which implies that God commanded Abraham to offer up his Son for had it been a Free-will Offering without any Order or Direction from God such as the Heathen Oblations were when they Sacrificed their Children to their Idols it had been a plain and horrid Act of Murther Nor was it necessary as some have Fancied to clear the Righteousness of God and Abraham in this matter that God should dispence with the Sixth Commandment when he obliged the Patriarch to kill his Son because it had been Murther to kill him without his Command For that Commandment as is plain by the case before us Forbids only to Kill without Gods Authority which Abraham never went about to do and therefore needed no Dispensation for it He had an Express Commission from God who is absolute Lord of Life and Death and never barrs his Prerogative by his Laws and may therefore use his Power as he pleases and take away the Life of the most Innocent Person as well by the Hand of a Father and the Fire upon the Altar as by an Infection in the Air by Lightning or Tempest or any other Messenger of Death And thus Moses tells us that God Tempted Abraham and bid him go and offer his Son upon a certain Mountain in Moriah for a Burnt Offering Gen. 22.1 2. And herein lay the sharpness of Abrahams Tryal that either he must contend with God and Dispute his Authority or do the strangest thing that ever was done in the World to please him That we may the better understand the Case let us consider what it was that God demanded of Abraham as a Test of his sincerity towards Him and what plausible Arguments a Person in his Circumstances might be supposed to frame against it 1. First then God commands him to Sacrifice his Son than which nothing could be more surprizing or unwelcome to him Who ever heard of such an Act of Piety before of so hard a Precept or so Unlikely a way of pleasing God as this What would an ordinary Faith have done how would natural Reason have Pleaded in this case Might not Abraham himself be supposed to reason thus Must I then lay aside all Humanity and imbrue my Hands in the Blood of my Own Son Must I forget that I am a Father and Destroy the Life which I gave Does not Nature teach us to be Kind and Dutiful towards the Off-spring of our own Bowels And are not the Laws of Nature Engraven upon our Minds by the Finger of God himself Has not the Reason which God has given me hither to condemned the Action which he now Commands And tho' I know he is always Just and Good and would do always that which I know would Please him yet how can I hope to Please him by Destroying his Image in my own Child What will the World say of me who profess to Worship God in the purest manner should I Pollute his Altars with my Sons Blood and do that strange and unaccountable thing which must needs be a Scandal to his Holy Religion So harsh a command as this was enough to put not Nature only but Faith it self upon the stretch and being perfectly New and Arbitrary to fright Men from the Worship of God which this Holy Man had been the Best Example and the greatest Promoter of 2. But then God did not only command Abraham to Sacrifice his Son but his Beloved and Only Son Isaac i. e. his only Son by Sarah the Free-Woman and true Mother of the Family which was to convey an Universal Blessing to Mankind Take now thy Son saith God thine only Son Isaac Gen. 22.2 whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a Burnt Offering And this greatly increases the difficulty of Abrahams Obedience that it should please God to demand not one out of many but his Only Son his Isaac whom he intirely loved the only Joy of his Mother and the only hope of the Family which was to make the best figure of any other in the World And now might not Abraham have said Lord must I bereave my self of the Child which nothing but a Miracle of thine could raise out of my Aged Loins Must I take away a Life for which I would gladly Exchange my own Will not all my Flocks and Herds afford an Acceptable Sacrifice to thee All these I would freely offer instead of that Innocent Lamb in which all my Earthly Treasure and Comfort lies Let not the Lord be angry and I will speak this once Is not the Life of Sarah bound up in the Life of the Child How shall I answer the Death of Isaac to her Or must I be the Instrument of two such Deaths at once and when I have slain the Son carry the Killing Tidings to the Unhappy Mother Oh how great a streight was this Good Man driven into when he must either have forfeited the Favour of God or bereaved himself of all that was Dear to him in this World by the strangest act of Obedience that was ever heard of in it 3. Another grand Discouragement to Abrahams Obedience was that his Beloved Isaac was a Son of very great and glorious Promises which his untimely Death must without a Miracle frustrate the completion of For God had promised to make him the Father
but to treat of that which all the World are agreed is the meaning of it And the rather because the World has had time and it seems has been no ill husband of it to wear off some of the very deepest Impressions of this Ancient Commandment The Scribes and Pharisees had indeed run the people into many gross mistakes and concealed the best part of their Duty from them by their false and frigid Interpretations of the great Commandments of God But to do them right they were much better expounders of this Law than many of our Modern Christians who with Pens of Steel and in Letters of Bloud are ready to justify that Killing for Honour is no Murther And that it is rather an Act of Mercy and Prudence than of Cruelty and Disobedience when we are opprest with the Miseries of this Life to find the shortest Way we can into the next and to put an end to our Own Lives when they are less desirable than Death it self These are the Sentiments of Men of very different Complexion The former are generally Men of Flame and Spirit of a hot sanguine Temper which is seldom reckon'd the best Freind to a solid Judgment The latter for the most part are of a Melancholy Constitution and while their Understandings are clouded with that dark Humour must needs stand but in an Ill light to discern the Truth But what ever their Judgments are in other matters they seem to have clean forgot the Primary and most obvious meaning of what was said of Old time Thou shalt not Kill Which Precept being exprest in very few Words will require the larger Explication and the rather because it is undoubtedly lawful insome cases to Kill and these must be known before we can certainly Determine wherein thenature of the hainous Sin of Murther consists which all men agree to be forbidden in this Law For these Reasons in speaking to these Words I shall shew 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden is this law 2. What the Sin of Murther or the Killing here forbidden is 3. Wherein the Hainousness of this Sin consists And then I shall consider 4. Whether it be lawful or not to Kill a Rival in a Quarrel of Honour or to Kill our selves when we are grown weary of our lives 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden in this Law Life is the gift of God which he bestows upon us as a thing sacred to be preserved for his Use and not dispos'd of without his leave and pleasure Gen. 2.7 It is he that Breatheth into Man the breath of Life and being absolute Lord of it there is no Question but he may resume it when and by what Instruments he pleases And that there are Crimes worthy of Death both the Scriptures and Natural Reasons do assure us Yea such Crimes their are as were they not sometimes punisht with Death would suddenly dash all human Society in pieces and bring the World into such confusion that there would be no living amongst men And therefore it may be reasoanbly presumed that Killing is not prohibited in all cases For instance When a Magistrate puts an Offendor to Death that is worthy of it in a regular courses of Justice he is not to be charged with the Breach of this Law He has his Authority from God the Spreme Judge and Sovereign Lord of Life and Death He Acts as his Minister by express Commission from him and therefore is Innocent of all the Bloud that is shed by the Sword of Justice and hence St. Paul calls the Magistrate a Terrour to Evil Workers Rom. 13.3 4. because he beareth not the Sword in vain being the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil. Nor hath God only given a General Commission to Seize the forfeited Lives of great and haynous Offenders but in some cases as in that of the Murtherer himself He particularly Commands the Use of this severity as a standing Rule of of Equity and Justice Gen. 9.6 For who so shedeth mans Bloud by man shall his Bloud be shed And for the same reason Killing in the Wars when the cause is Just and the War necessary for the Preservation of the Publick is no part of the meaning of this Law For it is not to be supposed that God who sets up Kings and Governments for the Defence of the common Safety should restrain them from Drawing the Sword of War when there is no other means to preserve it The Swords of Princes are the greatest Instruments of Providence in the World and the best and Noblest Use of them is the Protection of their Subjects from Oppression and Violence in the Enjoyment of all the Blessings of this and the Advantages for a better Life which the Bounty of Heaven hath inricht them with And therefore our Saviour never went about to tye the hands of Sovereign Princes or States from the use of this sharp and last Remedy in a Just and Necessary Cause nor was the Gospel ever accused for being an Enemy to the Throne upon this account There being no Tribunal upon Earth high enough to decide the Quarrels between Independent Governments and Nations it is a natural and strong Presumption when all amicable ways of Peace and Reconciliation fail that God approves of the injured Party's Appealing to him in the Field of War as the supreme Judge and Guardian of Right and Innocence And by consequence a Souldier that serves in a lawful War is not forbid to Kill the Enemy of his Princes and Country he is in this Cases a Minister of Divine Justice being invested with Authority from him to whom vengeance belongeth These are Publick cases in which the Authority of God over the Life of Man is manifestly derived immediately to the Sovereign and by him to inferior Magistrates and dispensers of Justice Besides which It may be reasonably presumed that when a private Person is desperately Assaulted and in the necessary Defence of his own Life takes away the Invaders he hath done nothing against the Intent of this Law Every man hath a natural Right to defend the Life which God hath given him against him that shall attempt by unjust or Illegal Violence to wrest it from him This also as well as Life it self is the gift of God It is a Debt we owe to the Lord and giver of Life to keep it for his service till he is pleased to call for it which he never do's by the hand of a Murtherer And therefore when we are reduced to that Extremity that we can neither Fly to the Protection Protection of the Magistrate nor escape with our Lives with out taking away the Life of him that Assails us if he Perish in his wicked Enterprise his Bloud will not be Required at our hands 't is better for the Publick to lose a Bad than a Good and useful Member and when the case is such
that one of them must fall by the others hand 't is reasonable to suppose that both God and his Miniters of Jutice do agree in the same choice and by a virtual Commission impower the Innocent Person to execute their Vengenace upon the guilty and to slay the Invader rather than be Murthered by him And this I think is the sense of our Laws and was so of the Roman which allowed the Killing of a Thief in the day time Si se telo defenderit if he offered to make use of his Weapon And much more may we presume upon the lawfulness of saving our lives when we are Assaulted with a Mortal Violence and it is evident after all our care to prevent and escape it that unless we immediately return it there is but a Moment between us and Death These are all the ordinary cases in which it is lawful to take away the Life of Man There is one indeed of a more Heroical Nature which has fair Pretences to the like Immunity from this Law viz. When a Man is cast into those Circumstances that either he must yield up the Life of his Friend that is as his own Soul or save it by taking away his Enemys from him But this Case is liable to such infinite abouses and variety of Circumstances that as the Tenderness of our Laws in this matter shews the Wisdom of our Law-givers so it is parhaps the best light that can be given into it 2. The Second thing was to shew what the Sin of Murther or the Killing here forbidden is by what hath been spoken it is easy to apprehend that this Law Prophibits the bereaving our Neighbour of his Life without Authority Justice or Necessity enforcing to it The Instances of which are when a man of his own motion compasses the Death of another in a wilful Treacherous Revengeful or sportive manner or is accessary to it at the Instigation of any Person not invested with competent Authority whether this be done to cover our Shame or to heal what we call our Honour or with respect to any convenience Satisfaction or Advantage to our selves whether we do this by open Assault and Violence or by secret and malicious Craft under the colour of Religion or Law in the Face of the Sun or under the Mask of Night whether immediately by our selves or by wicked Instruments by Purjury or Poyson by false Suggestions evil Counsel or enticements or any other Means or Method tending to the untimely Death and Destruction of our Neighbour This is the Sin of Murther directly forbidden in the sixth Commandment The first and immediate Design of which is to preserve the Life of our Neighbour which is generally of all other Blessings the dearest to him and ought to be highly valued because all the rest of his enjoyments and advantages of doing good at least in this World do depend upon it Now it must be supposed that God who forbids the Killing of our Neighbour and expresly Commands us to love him as our selves does by consequence also forbid the Killing of our selves For we have no more Power over our own than we have over the Lives of other Men. Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one Father hath not one God Created us nad hath he not Created us after his own Image the preservation of which in Man is the manifest end and intention of this Commandment But of this I shall have occasion to speak more fully under the last General 3. The next thing to be spoken to is the hainousness of the Sin of Murther It is generally condemned by the voice of God and Men as one of the greatest strains of Wickedness and Inhumanity and is indeed a crime of the largest size and the highest Provocation of any against the second Table of the Law The very Relation of the Fact strikes every Innocent Breast with Horrour and raises a mighty Indignation against the Murtherer The mean while his own Conscience pursues him and whither soever he flyes his Accuser Witness and Judge are with him the Altar is no Sanctuary to him for God who is greater than his Conscience hears the dreadful Cry of his Sin strongly importuning him to hasten down his Vengeance upon him We have an instance of this in the first Act of this kind that ever was Committed The Voice of thy Brothers Bloud saith the Lord to Cain cryeth unto me from the Ground Gen. 4.10 And 't is observable how quick and severe an Answer it received 11 12. verses And now art thou cursed from the Earth a Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be upon it Nay the Malignity of this Sin is such that it difiles the Land where it is Committed and leaves a guilt upon it that is not to be expiated but by the Bloud of the Murtherer And therefore no Sanctuary was provided for him in Israel and if he fled to any of the Cities of Refuge he was thence to be taken by the special Command of God and immediately given up to Justice Thou shalt take him saith God from mine Altar that he may Dye Exod. 21.14 and on this account God is said to make Inquisition for Bloud Ps 9.12 i. e. to search out the shedder of it and to drive him out of all his Refuge till he fall into the hands of his inexorable Justice Now since there is so terrible an outcry against the Murtherer since Heaven and Earth are so highly incens't against him and so much concern'd to Punish him there must be a more than ordinary Malignity and Provocation in the Sin which calls so loud for so solemn a Vengeance And wherein this consists will appear with the least glance of our Thoughts upon these Tarticulars 1. That it bids Defiance to the Majesty and Authority of God and in the nature of it directly tends to extinguish his Government in the World It snatches the Sword of Justice out of his hand and employ's it to the Destruction of his Creatures and Subjects contrary to his declared will and most sacred Prerogative every time this Sin is punished in its kind two at least of his Subjects are cashiered out of the Land of the living the Kingdom he hath Founded amongst men It is a peculiar affront to the Divine Nature as it defaces the Image of God in Man on this account it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very greatest Sacrilege as Philo calls it a robbing God of that Creature which he hath appointed to represent him in this lower World which approacheth the nearest in Perfection to him being made for his own society and of all his works hath the liveliest resemblance of Divinity upon it And therefore when God pronounceth Sentence upon the Murtherer who so shedeth Mans Bloud Gen. 9.6 by Man shall his Bloud be shed he assigneth this reason for it For in the Image of God made he Man 3. Murther is an Act of excessive Mischief and Cruelty to our Neighbour the utmost wrong that
our selves and the Love of our selves is the Standard of our Love to him it follows that we have as great Obligations to the full to be tender of our own Lives as of his and therefore if it be Murther to Kill our neighbour it must be at least as great a crime to Kill our selves Nay in some respects it exceeds all the instances of Inhumanity and Vice and transcends the most cruel and Crying Sins For 1. To Kill our selves is the most unnatural Murther that can be if we consider how deeply the principle of Self-preservation is planted in our Nature and that it is a Law in our Minds teaching us to abhor the Destruction of our selves and to take the best care we can to preserve our own Life and Being there can be no such unnatural Murther as the putting of our selves to Death There is no Natural Union in the World so dear and intimate as that of the Soul and Body nor any that hath greater Interest depending upon it both in reference to this and the Future State And therefore nothing can be more contrary to the voice and dictate of Nature than the wilful Distruction of it by the same Person that is most nearly concerned to Preserve and Enjoy it 2. It is of any Sin the most directly opposite to the saving condition of Repentance which is a remedy for all other Sins but this Self-Murther is a Sin of that quick dispatch and that desperate Nature that it leaves a Man no time to Repent of it We may be Guilty of many other Sins and may live to Repent of them But he that Murthers himself is fure to Dye in his Sin and to be hurried away in the Reek and Guilt of his own Bloud to the Tribunal of God without allowing himself time to ask the forgiveness of it or at least to purge his Conscience from so deep and indelible a stain as this And therefore if we cannot be saved without Repentance as the Gospel assures us we can not he that Destroys his own Life cannot be saved according to the Gospel-Covenant because he dyes in a Sin that cannot be Repented of T is true God may have more Mercy for Sinners than he makes us acquainted with which may be just enough to keep our hopes alive at the Death of such Persons but the Gospel being the last Revelation of the Grace of God it is an infinite Presumption in expectation of unrevealed Grace to venture upon a Sin which all the Grace and Truth that came by Jesus Christ is too little to secure the Forgiveness of These are great Aggravations of the Sin of Self-Murther And I fear the excuses which are made for it will prove no better since they all center in a high discontent at the Providence of God NO man offers to make away himself that thinks himself well in this World or that submits to the Troubles and Calamities which befall him as coming from the just and overruling Hand of God And for men to throw away their Lives in a Pet and to grow so utterly weary of them that they cannot endure to live a few day's longer or wait for Gods Permission to Depart in peace is a very high Reflection upon the wisdom and goodness of his Providence As if he had thrust them into a World that was not fit for them to live in as if hey knew better when and how to deliver themselves out of the Miseries of this Mortal Life than he dos As if God had no Regard to their Sufferings or had left it to their discretion to leave the World and discharge themselves from his Service when they pleas'd or had not provided a better World to requit them for it As if an Eternal Weight of Glory was not a sufficient Recompence for their Patience under the heaviest Afflictions of this present Life which are but for a Moment This is so false and insolent a Charge against the Providence of God that it is enough to spoil the best-designed Action in the World and therefore cannot excuse so bloudy and unnatural an one as Self-Murther is I shall close all with a caution or two concerning this desperate unnatural Sin and the rather because it has been observed by those that have Travell'd into foreign Countries that Self-Murther is far more common in this than in any of the Nations about us 1. First then let us be very cautious of those Doctrines which have occasion'd many and some very serious Persons to despair of the Mercy and goodness of God and in the Anguish of their Souls to fling away themselves into the dreadful Abyss of Eternity There is no ground that I know of from the Gospel to believe that God had no good-will to any particular Man from Eternity and much less to the far greater part of Mankind or that the Generality of Men are bound over to destruction with the Iron Chain of an Irrespective Decree or that Christ dyed to save but very few of those that are called by his Name And methinks the effects which these and the like Doctrins have had upon Poor Melancholy Souls should be no Arguments to recommed them to any serious and impartial Judgment We ought to be very tender of narrowing the infinite Goodness of God who would have all men to be Saved Or laying the Damnation of Men upon any thing but their own wilful Oposition to the Grace and Goodness of God which leadeth to Repentance 2. It concerns us to be very cautious of all the methods and degrees of this Sin Such as piercing our Hearts with worldly Cares poisoning our Health and surfeiting our Bodies with Excess and Dying the Martyrs of Intemperance or Lust How many owe their Death to the Revels of a Night Drink away their reason and drown themselves in Rivers of Wine Game high and when they have lost their Money or engaged their Estates or Honours sell their Lives to Redeem them These Men do as certainly Kill themselves and very often as suddenly too as he that strangles himself or sheaths the Fatal Poyniard in his sobbing and despairin Breast And is not this to Dye as a fool Dyes without any consideration of the Life he has led or of the Everlasting State he is launching into That man that is not fond of Distruction and in love wih Misery would venter his Life and Soul upon such hazards as these Were there no other Life than this a prudent Man would not be prodigal of it but to throw it away at one Cast or to stake it against the Pleasure of a Debauch when all Eternity depends upon it is an astonishing instance of the Madness of Folly Oh that ment were Wise Deut. 32.9 that they understood this that they would consider their latter end That in kindness to their Souls which must live forever they would frequently entertain themselves with the serious thougths of Death and Judgment Eternal Happiness and Misery and not suffer their Lusts and
the Power of godliness and the Flourishing of Christianity in the World In short there is nothing more directly contrary to the Spirit of the Gospel than Spiritual Pride and particularly to that humble and Teachable Frame of Spirit which is essential to the Disciples of the Meek and Lowly Jesus and indispensably Necessary to the improvement of all Divine Virtues and Qualities in them I shall now endeavour in the last place 4. To inforce the Apostles Exhortation by shewing what weighty Reasons and Obligations we have to be growing in Grace it is you see as plain a Duty as any the Gospel Urges and it is a very large and comprehensive one But our encouragement is the Spirit of God is always ready to assist us and to carry our endeavours succesfully through it and therefore the Difficulty of it can be no reasonable exception against it Especially considering 1. That it is a State of Perfection which the Practice of this Duty naturally leads us to It is the very greatest Condition the highest and noblest Attainment we can possibly aspire after Holiness is the Glory of our Nature and the Crown of all Humane and Angelical Perfections so that every time we attain to a new degree of Grace we acquire a new degree of Honour and Excellency The Righteous saith Solomon is more Excellent than his Neighbour Pro. 12.26 And the more Righteous he is the more he advances in real Worth and Dignity above him The Glory of conquest the Enlargement of Empire and the Affectation of deep curious knowledge are but Childish and Mean things in Comparison of a Godlike Temper and Disposition which is the natural Fruit of Growing in Grace and Goodness Since therefore the Perfection of our Nature lies in living up to the Rules of Christianity and Exercising the Virtues and Graces of it and there is Room for Improvement in the best of us we should greatly neglect our selves and stand in our own Light if we should not continually aime to Grow better than we are and to Perfect Holiness in the Fear of God 2. The certain knowledge of our Good Estate towards God Depends upon our Proficiency in Grace and Virtue We cannot argue strongly from the First Essays of Goodness while our Graces are Weak our good Resolutions untryed or our Relapses Frequent And while we slaken our Diligence we shall be continually Hovering between Hopes and Fears and never come to a clear and settled understanding of our spiritual condition But now no Man doubts of his sincerity towards God while he studies to Please him and is careful to avoid every thing that is Offensive and Dishonourable to him His mind never troubles him while he is well employ'd unless it be first Clouded with Melancholy which as one well observes is not a Reasonable case but when he grows Remiss in his known Duty or is Conscious to himself of some wilful Sin or Deviation from the way of Righteousness And the onely way to be eased of this trouble and to be well assured of his Integrity for the future is to return into the Paths of Virtue and Religion and proceed Vigorously in them The more we Grow in Grace the more evident will our Good Condition be The farther we Pierce into the ways of Holiness the more plainly it will appear to our unspeakable satisfaction that we are no longer in a State of Sin and Death and that by the Grace of God we are Delivered from the Power of Darkness Col. 1.13 Prov. 4.18 and Translated into the Kingdom of his Dear Son The Path of the Just is as the Shining Light which Shineth more and more unto the Perfect Day As the Sun shines the Brighter the Higher he Rises in the Heavens so the Light of the Righteous his Spiritual Joy and Comfort Increases in the same Degrees by which he Advanceth to the Heavenly State 3. Let us Consider that our minds are of that Quick and Active Temper that if we do not Grow better we shall be in Constant danger of declining in our Spiritual Estate and Growing worse Something we must be doing to quiet our Restless Desires and Faculties And if we don't seriously mind the Business of Religion the Tempter and our own Hearts will find us other Imployments And the World will Inveagle us with Gayer Promises and more Charming Invitations than any the Gospel has to Gratify our Sensual Inclinations with If we once make a stop in our Christian Course we give our Cunning Adversary the Devil a fair opportunity to Practise his Wiles and Delusions upon us he knows the Activity of our Minds He observes which way our Thoughts rove and our Affections Wander What Duties are most Tiresome to us and what Vanities we most Hanker after And therefore he will be sure to lay his Trains and manage his Temptations to the best Advantage And having found the weak side of our nature to assault us where he is most likely to do the greatest Execution upon us It therefore mightily Concerns us having begun Prosperously to keep on the Growing hand And not lose the Ground we have gain'd and the Conquests we have made over our Lusts and Vices by standing still while we see them Falling before us with our hands in our sleeves till the Enemy renew the War and we are Driven back from all our Good Resolutions and are Forc't to Retire with Shame and Anguish to Review the Wounds we Received in our Dishonourable Retreat from Virtue and Goodness 4. We may next Consider that God is pleas'd to lengthen out the day of Grace unless we shorten it our selves to the End of our Lives that we may be alwaies Growing to greater Persection in it 'T is our own Fault if ever he withdraws the Assistance of his Spirit from us and makes our Day of Grace shorter than the Days of our Lives Nothing but our incurable Barrenness under the Means of Grace can provoke him to so high an Act of Justice and Severity But that this will do it his Declaring upon Oath that the Revolting Ifraelites should not enter into his Rest and our Saviours Cursing the Fig-tree that brought forth nothing but Leaves let no Fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever are very Dreadful Intimations This Consideration therefore should excite us to abound in all the Fruits ef Righteousness Phil. 1. â—â— which are by Jesus Cnrist to the Praise and Glory of God Who is pleased to wait for our Improvement and to furnish us with all the Means and Abilities which are requisite to it And is so gracious as not to Exact at once the whole summ in which we are Indebted to him but accepts our obedience in such Small Parcels and poor Degrees as we are able to Pay him 'T is an unspeakable Favour that God overlooks the Weaknesses and Imperfections of our best Services and allows us time and Grace for a Gradual Improvement And this Goodness and Forbearance of God if there be