ledge of Jefus Chrift our Lord every day, more and more, till ye arrive to that degree of righteouinefs and true holiness, which is the one thing needful to make you happy for ever.

but she

FOR this is that good part which Mary chofe; and which our Saviour therefore faid, fhould not be taken away from her; feeing fhe'd chofen it, nothing fhould hinder or deprive her ofit; fhould moft certainly have it and keep it; which is a great encouragement to us, to do as the and many others have done before us. There are many other glorified faints at this time in heaven, which once were finful upon earth, as we are now. But when they were here, they laboured to get the one thing needful, to make them eternally happy: they were cleansed, and fancti fied, and juftified, and reconciled to God, and made his faithful fervants and children by adop tion and grace, and are now fhining forth as the fun, in the kingdom of their Father. And why then should not we as well as they? Let us but refolve to labour for it as they did, by preffing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, in Jesus Christ, and we cannot mifs of it.

THIS, therefore, is that which I must now advise and befeech you all in the name of Chrift to do. And for that purpose defire you all to confider, firft, that this is the one thing needful. There are none, I fuppofe, here present, but have fome business to do in the world many

that

that like Martha are careful and troubled abous many things.

BUT to what purpofe is all your care and trouble about many things, if they be fuch only as ye have no real need of, and not that one thing which alone can do you good? Is not this to labour in vain? Is it not to moil and toil, and to no purpose? Or rather is it not to very ill purpofe? even to make yourfelves miferable, both here and hereafter too: yet this is the cafe of moft men; of all who labour for the meat that perifbeth, and not for that which endureth to everlafting life; who apply their minds wholly to the affairs of this life, and not to the study, of true piety, to be and to do good in the world, the one thing needful, without which, whatsoever they get befides will avail them nothing; whereas with it they might have all the good things they can defire.

FOR remember, alfo the words of the Lord Jefus how he faid, Seck ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things fhall be added unto you, Matth. vi. 33. Whereby he hath affured you, upon his word, that if ye feek the one thing needful before all things elfe, ye fhall have both that and whatfoever elfe ye have any real need of Who then that are wife, and mind their own good, would not do fo? And yet, after all, how few are in the world that will? But let others do what they pleafe, and take what follows. God grant that we

may

may be all in the number of thofe few, that make it their chief care and ftudy to get the one thing needful, that the reft of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the laft we may come to his eternal joy through Jefus Chrift our Lord.

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SERMON

The

EIGHTH.

CHRIST'S Refurrection a Proof of his Divinity

ROM. i. 4.

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the fpirit of holiness by the refurrection from the dead.

A

LTHOUGH our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift fubfifted from all eternity in the form of God, and was himfelf God bleffed for ever, yet, when he had taken upon him the form of a fervant, and was made in the likenets of men, he humbled himlf to the loweft degree among them: though

all

all the world was his, as God, yet as man he had not where to lay his head. Though all mankind liv'd continually upon his bounty, he for fome time liv'd upon the bounty of certain women, who minifter'd to him of their fubftance, Luke. viii. 3. Though he was honour'd and ador'd by all the angels in heaven, yet upon earth he was rejected and defpis'd of men, a man of fcrrows, and acquainted with grief. Thus he liv'd while he was here below, in the lowest and meaneft condition that he well could; and he, doubtlefs, chofe to do fo for great and wife ends. To us the difference between the feveral ranks of men among us feems great and confiderable, but it feem'd not fo to him; to him they were all alike; the greatest monarch upon the earth was as much below him, as the pooreft beggar; and therefore in itfelf it was all one to him, what outward ftate and condition of life he fhould lead, while he convers'd upon earth; but he was pleas'd to chufe that which we call the loweft, not only to teach us by his example, as he did by his precepts. to contemn this world; but ef pecially, that by that means he might the better attain the great end of his coming into it, even to offer up himself as a facrifice for the fins of mankind. If he had appear'd here in pomp and grandeur, like a mighty prince and conqueror, as the Fowes expected the Meffias to be, he would have been fo much above them, that they neither durft nor could have touch'd his life; but he

feeming

feeming to be in a much lower degree than moft of themselves were, they had him, as it were, at their foot, and could trample upon him as they pleas'd; and accordingly they flighted, revil'd, and reproached him all the while he was among them, and at laft arraign'd, condemned, and hang'd him on a crofs, as if he had been fome great malefactor, little thinking all the while that they crucified the Lord of glory, and did that to him which he came into the world to fuffer for the fins of it.

But as all the while he liv'd among them, notwithstanding the meannefs of his outward appearance, he demonftrated himself, by the works that he did, to be almighty; fo he made his death too an occafion of demonftrating the fame thing to them, by his rifing again to life; for as his death fhew'd him to be a real and true man, fo his refurrection has plainly fhew'd him to be the one living and true God. This is that which the apoftle here afferts, and I fhall endeavour to prove from the words I have now read, compar'd with other places of the holy fcriptures.

THE apoftle, the better to recommend what he was about to write to the Romans, begins his epiftle to them with a catalogue of the titles which God had given him, and which he esteemed, as they were, the greateft that cou'd be conferi'd upon him, faying, Paul, a fervant of Jefus Chrift, called to be an apoftle, feparated unto the gospel of God, which he had promifed before by the Prophets