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Our Rule in thefe Cafes is, To the Law and to the Teftimony; To the Publick and undoubted Oracles of God, in the Old and New Teftament. Whatever Doctrine can be proved out of them, we are bound to embrace it without a new Miracle. On the other fide, Whatever Doctrine is inconfiftent with them, we must reject it, though an Angel from Heaven, or one from the Dead fhould come and Preach it to us.

Thirdly, From bence we fee the Vanity and Unreasonableness of thofe Men, that, not content with the Ordinary Means of Grace, are always wishing for Extraordinaries. There are a great many of us, that will be faved by Methods of our own chufing, otherwise we will not be faved at all. As it was in St. Paul's Time, the Jews they required a Sign; the Greeks, they were for Wisdom and Philofophy; and, perhaps, a Third Sort of Men were for another kind of Means of Conviction: So it is among us.

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Here is one Man would have a particular. Miracle wrought for his Converfion. If he could fee a Spirit or a Ghoft, he would believe there was another World. If God would fend an Angel from Heaven to Preach to him, he thinks he should become a New Man.

Here is another would believe the Gospel, if every Point of it could be demonftrated by Reason, and a clear and plain Account be given of all the Myfteries of it: But till that be done, he is of the Religion of the Philofophers,

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Here is another Man waits for immediate

Impulfes and Infpirations. The ordinary Affiftances of the Spitit, that acccompany the Word and Sacraments, will not do his Bufinefs.

All these
If God

But let us not deceive ourselves. Imaginations are vain and foolish. fhould grant us our feveral Defires; and give one of us a Sign, another of us a Demonftration, another of us a powerful Conviction upon our Minds, from his Holy Spirit, and that in an extraordinary Way; yet it is ftill very doubtful, whether, for all this, the Business, of our Converfion would be effected.

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None was more confident, than the Rich Man in the Parable, that if to the Teftimony of Mofes and the Prophets, was fuperadded a New Miracle, his Brethren would certainly be perfuaded: But yet you fee, our Saviour affirms the direct contrary.

Oh! let us all close with the ftanding Publick Methods which God hath established in the Church, for the bringing us to Vertue and Eternal Happiness, and not be hankering after new and fanciful Ways of our own chufing. Moft certainly, the Ordinary Means of Grace are fufficient for the Salvation of all our Souls, and will be effectual to that End, if we be not wanting to ourselves. And if any Extraordinaries be at any Time needful, God, without doubt, will supply us with them alfo.

Fourthly and Laftly, From what hath been faid, we fee the horrible Guilt, and the utter

Inexcufableness of thofe Men, that notwithftanding the Gofpel-means of Salvation, that have been fo long afforded them, do ftill continue Infidels in their Judgment, or Immoral in their Lives.

What will these Men be able to say for themselves, when they come to appear before the Judge of the World, at the great Day of Accounts? Will they pretend, there was not force enough in the Gofpel-Evidence, to convince them; or weight enough in its Motives to reclaim them? Ah! their own Hearts will give them the Lye. They can no longer be able to deceive themselves. There will be no Unbelievers, no feared Confciences, in the other State. They will then be clearly convinced, that God, for his Part, did all that was neceffary; nay, all that was fit to be done, in order to their Salvation: But they were refolved to fhut their Eyes, and harden their Hearts against the gracious Means that were tendred them.

Oh! how will the Rich Man, and his Five Brethren in Hell, rife up in Judgment against thefe Men? For they only refused to hear Mofes and the Prophets: But thefe, befides them, have obftinately refused to hear Chrift and his Apoftles, who brought abundantly greater Light into the World, than the former did.

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Much more, How will the poor ignorant Heathens rife up in Judgment against them? Who were deftitute both of Mofes and Chrift; and yet, to the fhame of Chriftians it may

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be spoken, have feveral of them lived better Lives than many of us do.

May we not juftly and fadly apply that Woe which our Saviour pronounced of Chorazin and Bethfaida, to Thousands among us? Woe unto you Unbelievers! Woe unto you, O obftinate and irreclaimable Sinners! for if the mighty Means of Grace, the mighty Evidence of Truth, had been afforded to Tyre and Sidon, to Sodom and Gomorrha, to Mahometans and Pagans, that have been offered unto you, they would long ago have repented in Sackcloth and Afbes. But, I fay unto you, it shall be more tolerable for all thefe in the Day of Judgment, than for you.

God Almighty give us all Grace feriously to confider thefe Things, that we may, by a timely and hearty clofing with his Methods and De Signs for our Salvation, prevent the difmal Confequences of Infidelity and a Vicious Life; that fo it may not be our Condemnation at the laft Day, That Light is come into the World, and we have loved Darkness rather than Light.

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WHITE-HALL,

On the 11th of APRIL, 1690.

GALAT. V. 13. Use not Liberty for an Occafion to the Flefb.

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NY one that ufeth to make Reflections upon his own Actions, cannot but obfervě, That one of the great Occafions of the Sins he is Guilty of in the Course of his Life, is the too free ufe of his Lawful Liberty. I do not fay, that any Man doth commit Sin by using his Lawful Liberty, (for that would be a kind of Contradiction: ) But, I fay, the ufing our Liberty to the utmost pitch and extent of that which we call Lawful, is the occafion of a great many Sins that would otherwise not have been committed.

If one fhould offer to tempt a Man that hath any Senfe of Vertue or Religion, to do a thing, that at the firft fight appears Sinful

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