meet with in this Via Regia, the Highway that leads to the New Jerufalem, the City of the Living God. I fhall only indigitate some of the most eminent and confpicuous.

ift. It is a Way of Holiness; Isaiah 35. 8. And an High-way fhall be there, and a Way, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness, the Unclean fhall not pass over it. This Way, though it be full of Briars and Thorns, and those that pafs through it must expect to encounter with many sharp Tribulations which will pierce them to the Quick, and draw Tears from their Eyes, and Blood from their Hearts yet it is a Way that hath no Mire, nor Filth in it, a clean Way wholly feparated from the Defilements and Pollutions of the World. Holiness is the proper Badge and Cognizance of all those that are in a State of Salvation. The Sentence is irreversibly pafs'd, That without Holiness no Man fhall fee the Lord. Sin, and the Curfe, are infeparably link'd together; fo that he who leads a wicked, impure Life, muft needs be a miferable, damned Wretch, though God fhould not put forth his Almighty Power to destroy him: His very Guilt would be his Hell; and his Crime, his Punishment. As it would be inconfiftent with

the

the Juftice of God not to punish an incorrigible Sinner, fo it is inconsistent in the Nature of the Thing, that fuch an one fhould be otherwife than miferable. That habitual Pravity, which is rooted and confirmed in him by many repeated Acts of Wickedness, renders him as neceffarily and as fatally wretched, as the dreadful, but righteous Judgment of God. Nor is it a Thing poffible in Nature that fuch an one should efcape Hell, who carries fo much, nay, the worst Part of it about him; Malice, Rancour, Enmity against God and Goodnefs; and expreffeth in his Actions, the fame Things that are done in Hell it felf. So, on the contrary, an holy Life doth by a natural Confequence infer Bleffedness; fince it is not only inconfiftent with the Righteoufness and Veracity of God, but with the Nature of the Thing, that thofe Ways fhould not end in Salvation, that have fo much of Salvation in them; that those fhould not lead to Heaven, that 'reprefent the choicest Excellencies and Perfe&tions of Heaven, viz. Purity and Holinefs, which indeed are more genuine and noble Parts of true Happiness, than all thofe additional Glories, which we expect befides. What is an holy Life, but a Life resembling the Life of God; when

we keep our felves from all grofs and fcandalous Sins, and indulge our felves in none; but with the greatest Care and Confcience endeavour to regulate our Actions according to the Will of God, And certainly wherefoever this Purity is to be found, it is an infallible Companion of Salvation; for God will never condemn his own Likeness his Juftice will never punish his Holiness: For it is the Holinefs of God that fhines forth in the Conversation of a true Chriftian. And those who thus live the Life of God here on Earth, in their Graces (hall have this Life perpetuated to them, and for ever live with God in Glory.

2dly, It is a ftrait and narrow Way; Matth. 7. 14. Strait is the Gate, and narrow is the Way which leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it. It is ftrongly fenced in with the Authority of the Divine Law and Commands; fo that we cannot turn afide either to the Right Hand or to the Left, without committing a Trespass. Indeed, the Pfalmift tells us, Pfal. 119.96. That God's Commandments are exceeding broad: How then is the Way of Salvation thus ftrait and narrow? I answer, They are indeed exceeding broad, as to the Comprehensiveness of their Obligation; but yet exceeding narrow in respect of

any

any Latitude of Allowance or Indulgence. They are exceeding broad in prefcribing us our Duty, and fo large in this, that they extend either directly, or by Confe quence, to every Action of our Lives, yea, to every Cogitation of our Hearts. But they are exceeding narrow in giving us any Scope or Licence, any Permiffion or Liberty, to walk after our own Defires and Inclinations. Now, O Christians! what Kind of Life is that which you lead? Is it a ftrict and accurate Life, a Life shut up within the Compass of God's Laws? Dare you not grant your felves thofe Allowances, which most Men in the World take to themselves? This is an Evidence that you indeed walk in that Way which leads to the heavenly City, the Palace of the great King, when your Path is thus enclosed, and all that you do circumfcribed, and bounded in by the Will and Word of God, Thus to keep our Eye upon our Rule, and to direct our Lives according to thefe Three Maxims :

First, That Things forbidden müst of Neceflity be efchewed.

Secondly, That Things commanded muft of Neceffity be performed.

Thirdly, That Things neither forbidden nor commanded, may yet have their Circumstances

cumstances fo determined, that either we may be obliged to perform, or to eschew them. When, I say, we direct our Lives and Actions according to these Three Principles; doubtless we may conclude, that we are in the safe and strait Way to Heaven; when we are hedg'd in fo close on every Side that we dare not, we cannot, take that Scope and Liberty to fly out and range, as too many do.

3dly. And because it is so strait and narrow a Way, therefore is it fo unfrequented': Few there are that find it, and fewer that walk in it. Thou mayst almost know it by the few Tracts that are to be found in it. Indeed, a Christian's Life is a fingular Life: Not that he is a Man of fingular and unusual Notions; or of fingular and affected Phrases and Expreffions; or of fingular Form and Mode of Religion. Thefe Things have deluded many, and made them believe they are in the Way of Salvation, only because they chufe out By-Paths of their own to walk in: Whereas we know that Bats and Owls, and all the impure Birds of the Night, make their Solitary Flights in Deserts and Wilderneffes. But the Singularity of a true Chriftian confists only in his exact and critical Obedience: He is the only Man that walks by Rule,

when