and that you in particular are warranted to come to him for life.

(3) Hearken unto the words that come from him, listen to his words of life, for in hearing you fhall live. I would advife you to pray meikle. Let the dead go to a living Chrift; ery, Spring up, O well of living water, and enter into my foul. Then let thofe that are dead haunt the company of living Christians; for this is one way to get life, and to keep it in when got as you know, when dead coals are put in among the living coals, they will foon be kindled by them; fo, by converfing with lively Chriftians, the Spirit of life may enter into you.

11. The left inference I make is unto the living. Is it fo, that Chrift is the refurrection and the life? Then you that are raifed by his death and refurrection, take thefe advices following, and fo I have done. (I fear I have infifted too long already.)

ft, My advice to you that are partakers of the life of Christ, is, to blefs the Lord that ever he crowned you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Admire the freedom of the grace of God, in quickening you when "dead in trefpafics and fins," when he left others dead in the grave of fin. The Lord comes to the quarry of nature, he fees fo many stones lying there, and he pitches on whom he pleafes: have you not reafon then, to blefs the Lord, that he picked you out, and left many of brighter natural qualifications than you? O man, what is the difference between them and you? It is nothing but fovereign, free, and victorious grace, Let grace have all the glory. But then,

2diy, Another advice I would give you that have fhared of life from him that is the refurrection and the life, is this, Has he quickened you? let the life you live, be "by faith upon the Son of God, who loved you, and gave himself for you." Re member what I faid before, ye are not to live on grace recei ved, but the life that is in him: "The life I live (faith the apoftle) is by faith upon the Son of God, who loved and gave himfelf for me." And then as you live upon him, and by him, fo ftudy to live to his glory: "Let your light fo fhine before men, that others feeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven." And then,

me,

3dly, Another advice I would give to the living, is, Study not only to believe in him with the heart, but to confefs him with the mouth unto falvation, as the expreffion is, Rom. x. 10. "With the heart man believeth unto righteoufnefs, and with the mouth confeffion is made unto falvation." It is not enough to believe in Chrift, unlefs we likewife own and avow

him, unless we honour and glorify him before the world: "Him that confeffeth me before men (faith Christ), him will I confefs before my Father and his holy angels; but he that denieth me before men, him will I alfo deny before my Father and his holy angels." I remember in If. xliii. 10. and xliv. 8. Chriftians are called the Lord's witneffes. Why do they get that name? Because they confefs his truths, they confefs hist caufe, they confefs his members, they confefs his minifters, and every thing that belongs to him. It is not a private owning of him that will do in fuch a day as this; he is publicly affronted, the crown is publicly taken off his head; he is injured by civil and ecclefiaftic courts; he is injured in his doctrine, worship, difcipline, and government; he is injured in his members; he is injured in his fupreme Deity; he is injured in his headship and fovereignty over his church. Now, I fay, when he is thus publicly injured, he ought alfo to be publicly confeffed. A public teftimony hath been emitted, in a judicial way, by a handful of minifters, who, by the peculiar providence of God, have been brought to a particular situation; that testimony has come abroad, and it torments the men that dwell upon the earth, who attempt to bury his testimony, and to bury his witneffes. A cry is come abroad, of a dangerous fchifm in the church, and of fchifmatics renting the seamless coat of Chrift. That is just the old cant of the Papists, when the Protestants came off from them, faying, O, by your doing fo, you caufe divifions in the church, and rent Chrift's feamlefs coat. I would ask fuch, Who are the caufes of it? whether they that endeavour to maintain, and contend for the truths of Chrift; or thefe that tread his truths under their feet? whether thefe that endeavour to maintain the liberty wherewith Chrift hath made us free, or thefe that are trampling the facred privileges of the church of Chrift under their feet? All that is demanded by us is, that they return to the Lord, and that they rectify thefe things that are wrong in doctrine, worship, difcipline, and government; this is what God requires, he "commands all men every where to repent." What is the reafon that men, in a judicative capacity, do not purge out the leaven of error or fcandals in the church? what is the reafon? It is either because they will not, or they cannot. If they will not, by this they proclaim to the world, that they are a fet of wicked men: or it is because they cannot, and it fays the Mafter hath taken away the keys from them; and what a ridiculous thing would it be to accede to then, from whom the keys of the houfe are taken away by the Mafter of the houfe? It is eafy then to know what courfe to Ateer. If the rights of Chrift, as King in his holy hill of

Zion, be maintained in the judicatories of the establishment, then it is a fin to withdraw from them: but if they be trampling under foot the authority of the Son of God, by enacting laws in his houfe which are inconfiftent with his laws, and with the liberties wherewith he hath made his people free; if they be worming out a faithful ministry, screening the erroneous, cafting minifters out of their communion for faithful witneffing against errors and corruptions; then we ought. not to continue with them, especially when a public teftimony is lifted up. Wherever his caufe is difplayed, and his truths are maintained, by doctrine, worship, or difcipline, there fhould the acceffion be; for the "gathering of the people" fhould be there. If it be within the camp, ftand there; if it be found in the fields, and city of the wood, it concerns us to follow him there, though reproach and perfecution should follow; fays the apoftle, Heb. xiii. 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach." When the Chriftian church was firft erected by the apostles, and the Jewish church was unhinged, a cry was raised after them, that they were fchifmatics, and renting the true and only church of God; fays the apostle, He has been reproached for us, and it is good our common to go without the camp to him, bearing his reproach. However ye may scar at reproach for Chrift, Mofes was of another opinion, for he "accounted the reproach of Chrift greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt." What is the hazard though reproach fhould follow? Cleave to him. Let us ftudy to confess him, and follow him on all hazards: "He that lofeth his life for my fake (says Christ) shall find it," he that lofeth a good name for Chrift, he will find it again; there will be a refurrection of names, as well as of perfons, ere all be done. And then,

4thly, Another advice is, I would have you beware of these things that are a prejudice to the life of your fouls. (1.) Beware of an indolent life. Nothing does more hurt a person's life than this; it is very prejudicial to the body. But O beware of fpiritual floth; be "diligent in bufinefs, fervent in fpirit, ferving the Lord." (2.) Beware of furfeiting and glutting yourfelves with the pleasures of fenfe: that alfo is a prejudice to the life of the foul: "Take heed (fays our Saviour) left at any time ye be overcharged with furteiting and drunkenness, and that day come upon you unawares.' No fooner did Samfon floop into the lap of Delilah, than his locks were cut. Then, (3.) Beware of unwhole fome food; why, it is pernicious to the life. O beware of unfound doctrines; many errors are abounding in our day. And O beware of dead minifters; for dead minifters make a dead people and dead hearers. Where there is nothing but dead hearing, O will

ever the voice of dead men make a living people? O beware of putting your fouls under the infpection of a dead, ignorant, and erroneous miniftry: beware of them : fays Chrift, " If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch." Beware of dumb minifters, that have not a mouth to open for Christ; beware of them that, inftead of barking at the wolves, are barking at the sheep. If you would keep life in your fouls, ftudy to keep under a lively miniftry where you can find it. Then beware of a deadening fociety; for it is very prejudicial to the foul: "Depart from me, all ye that are evil doers; for I will keep the commandments of my God." Beware of grieving the Spirit of the Lord; if ye grieve him, he will depart, and then death will follow upon his departure; beware of refifting his motions and operations; beware of turning a deaf ear to his word, if it be difregarded, his Spirit will depart from you: "Wherefore (fays the Lord) I gave them up to their own hearts lufts, and then they wandered in their own counfels." Beware of finning prefumptuously, for that kills and deadens the life of the gracious foul. Put up that prayer of David's, Pfal. xix. 13. " Keep back thy fervant also from prefumptuous fins, let them not have dominion over me: then fhall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great tranfgreffion." Beware of fecurity and barrennefs under the means of grace; when ye get influences from the Lord, O improve them for the end ye got them; for when God's vineyard doth not bring forth fruit at the watering of it, the Lord forbids the watering of it any more. The Lord blefs his word.

THE END OF VOLUME SECOND.