and further, to move you hereunto, I beseech you briefly to consider with me these four things:

1. That in itself this is the most just and equitable thing you can do.

2. That in this consists the life and substance of all your religion.

3. That this is the great hinge upon which your safety and security depends.

4. That in this you do the most effectually consult your own interest.

1. That to deny your own wills, and resign up yourselves to the government of God, is in itself the most just and equitable thing you can do. For all your powers and faculties are God's by an unalienable right and property; your understanding is his, and your will is his, and all your powers of action are the births and products of his fruitful will and almighty goodness. And if it be thus, we must necessarily be obliged to subject ourselves to him, and prostrate our wills and all the powers of action at his feet. If then we are his, as we must be, if we are made by him, what have we to do to dispose of ourselves contrary to his will and pleasure? With what colour of justice can I choose what he commands me to refuse, when my power of choosing is his, and he hath a far more undoubted right to it, than I have to the clothes on my back? When he is the supreme proprietor of that will wherewith I choose, with what conscience can I vote with it against him, or give away any of my choices and elections from him? What is this, but to embezzle my master's goods, and alienate his property from his use and service? Remember, O man! in every

wicked choice that thou makest, thou givest away thyself from thy right owner, and dost sacrilegiously rob God of the fruits of his own creation, and must one day expect to render a dreadful account to him for every choice thou hast given away from him, and for every thought, and word, and action which thou hast presumed to dispose of contrary to his orders: for thou hast no more right to give away thyself, or any of thy choices and actions, from God, and canst no more justify thyself for so doing, than thou hast to sell away thy landlord's fee-simple, or to entail his inheritance on thy children. And before you make too bold with God's property, or presume to dispose of his goods at your pleasure, you were best consider seriously whom you have to deal with; that you have not to do with a being that is to be hectored out of his rights, or borne down with might and violence; but with a God that is sufficiently sensible of your unjust usurpations, and abundantly able to revenge them; that is jealous of his own rights and properties, has a deep resentment of all your injurious invasions of them, and an almighty arm to assert and vindicate them. And when you have considered this, then alienate your choices from him, if you dare; but in the mean time, as you will answer the injustice of it at the tribunal of God, have a care how you dispose of yourselves contrary to his orders; lest, as a just retribution, he should one day dispose of you contrary to your will, to everlasting misery and despair.

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2. Consider that in this denying and resigning ourselves to God consists the life and substance of all our religion. For what is religion, but a religation, a tying or binding fast men's minds and wills to

God? It is the bond of our allegiance to the throne of heaven, by which we oblige ourselves to be God's subjects, and resign up our wills and all our powers of action to his government: and in this, as I shewed you, consists self-denial. For when once we have mastered our own self-will, and conquered its obstinacy, and persuaded it to yield up itself to the will of God, then is his glorious empire set up in our souls; then he is crowned our sovereign Lord, his kingdom is come into us, and we may cry, Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. But till once our religion hath tied our souls to God, and obliged our will to renounce all other lords, and submit to his empire, it is only a name, an empty show and formality of religion; it is a religion without a religion, or a bond without a tie; that is, it is downright nonsense, and a contradiction to itself. And what shows or professions soever we may make of religion, how zealous or forward soever we may be in the external acts of it, it will all signify nothing to us, unless there be a prostrate will and a resigned heart at the bottom. For this is the alpha and omega, the corner and the top stone of religion; and to pretend religion without this, is to pretend loyalty in open acts of rebellion. And indeed, could religion consist with a rebellious will, the Devil himself might very fairly pretend to it for that which makes him a devil is nothing but his own boisterous self-will, that is continually struggling and lifting up itself against God. And hence Belial is the Devil's name, which signifies without yoke: and accordingly, the children of Belial are described to be such as do altogether break the yoke, and burst the bonds of the Lord, Jer. v. 5. and called children of disobedience, Eph. ii. 2. be

cause, like their father Belial, they are impatient of restraint, and will hearken to no law, but that of their own boundless self-will.

So far are those men from being truly religious, whose wills are divided from God's, that they are in Belial's predicament, unyoked from the divine government, and their wills are in a strict confederacy with the Devil. And hence the prophét Samuel, speaking of Saul's rebellion against God, tells him,' that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, 1 Sam. xv. 23. that is, rebellion against God is an implicit confederacy with the Devil, even as witchcraft is an implicit one. For the Devil being the prince and ringleader of the rebel creation, whoever sets up his will against God does thereby renounce his allegiance to heaven, and, like a false recreant, joins hands with the Devil in rebellion against his Maker. And whilst a man's soul doth thus clasp wills with the Devil, and conspires with him in his rebellion against heaven, what impudent hypocrisy is it for him to pretend to religion? Wherefore, either let us be so modest for the future, as not to pretend to religion, or any of those blessed hopes it sets before us; or let us resolve to be so honest to our pretensions, as to deny ourselves, and resign up our wills to God. For while our will and God's are divided and separated, and do in any instance tread antipodes to each other, all our pretence of religion is a shameless cheat; which, when it comes to be examined at the tribunal of God, will be found a mere paint and artificial complexion daubed upon a black and devilish nature.

3. Consider, that upon our denying ourselves, and resigning our wills to God, depends all our safety and security. For if God be against us, all the powers

of heaven and earth cannot secure us; because his will hath an infinite power conjoined with it, that, like an irresistible torrent, bears down all oppositions, and sweeps every thing before it that stands in its way. To what purpose then should such impotent things as we set up our wills against his? Can you ever hope to prevail against him, or to force his al mighty will into a compliance with yours? Gird up yourselves, like men, and I will demand of you in the name of God, Have you an arm like God, or can you thunder with a voice like him? Are ye able to withstand the whirlwind of his power, or to shelter your heads against the storms of his vengeance? Alas! no; a feather in the air may sooner stop a thunderbolt that comes roaring down from the clouds, than you can the course of that almighty will, which doth whatsoever it pleases both in heaven and earth: and if so, with what safety can you oppose your impotent will to it, or how can you expect to prosper in such an unequal contention ? Since therefore God doth so infinitely outmatch you, and it is infallibly certain that first or last he will be too hard for you, all that is left to your choice is, whether you will do his will, or suffer it; whether you will obey his commands, or endure his inflictions: for one of these you must do; but which of the two, is left to your own election. If you think it more eligible to obey what God hath enjoined, than to endure what he will inflict, you may, by choosing the former, eternally secure yourselves from the latter; for, besides that such is the generous goodness of God's nature, as it will not permit him to trample upon the prostrate, nor to deny fair quarter to such as lay down their arms, and freely surrender themselves to his