seen the things most worthy of observation in foreign parts, been at most state transactions for thirty years, and have learned, that seriousness is the greatest wisdom, temperance the best physic, and a good conscience the fairest estate,' and were I to live again I would change the court life for a cloister, my privy counsellor's bustles for a hermit's retirement, and my whole life in the palace for one hour's enjoyment of God, in the chapel; all things else forsake me, besides my God, my duty, and prayer.” Thus he expressed himself. It is also recorded of Charles the Fifth, emperor of Germany, king of Spain, and lord of the Netherlands, that after twenty-three pitched battles, six triumphs, eight kingdoms won-after all this success, he resigned all these, retired to his devotion, had his funeral celebrated before his face, left this testimony behind him, that the sincere profession of religion hath its sweets and joys that courts were strangers to; and, we know from holy writ that Solomon, after his vast experiments and exact disdisquisitions left this maxim as the total sum of his large accounts, Eccles. xii. 13, "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Atheists never yet tasted the sweetness of religion, they never fully studied the word or works of God, both which would satisfy them. It is recorded of Francis Junius, that reading Tully de Legibus, he fell into a violent persuasion that God cared for nothing, neither for his own nor others' affairs, but in a tumult at Lyons, the Lord convinced him of a divine providence by delivering him strangely from imminent death, and also being put by his father upon reading the first chapter of John's gospel, he was abundantly convinced by the force of the argument,and by the majesty and authority

* Nihil curare Deum, nec sui nec alieni.

of the style, in such a manner that his body trembled, his mind was astonished, and his soul savingly converted; yea, the works of God are sufficient to leave upon conscience, a conviction of a Deity. Lord Bacon used to say, that "a little smattering in philosophy might tempt a man to be an Atheist, but a thorough study of it would bring him back to be religious, for it would reduce him to a first cause and a last end." But I must not enlarge on these Atheists, see them described and confuted in Weems's Treatise on four degenerate Sons of Adam. I shall only add now the words of Lord Chancellor Egerton. "To be prophane is the simplest thing in the world, for the Atheist lays a wager against the serious man, that there is no God, but upon woful odds; he ventures his everlasting state, the other only hazards the loss of his sensual gratifications. If there were no God, yet the latter doth as well as the Atheist at last, and lives better at present, but if there be a God, as undoubtedly there is, O the vast disproportion at the great day! if the arguments for and against the verity of the gospel were equal, yet the gain or hazard is infinitely unequal; therefore, every wise man will take the safest side. Lord, what an age do we live in! when the choicest truths, duties, and mercies, from a principle of opinionativeness or licentiousness, are questioned or denied. Well, God hath his way and time to convince these wretched Atheists by real and unanswerable demonstrations, so that all men shall say, "Verily, there is a reward for the righteous; verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth."-Psal. lviii. 11.

2. What has been stated, notably confutes the Papists, because, in the first place, all these good things of the covenant are mercy, not merit; we are under a

covenant of grace, not of works; "the mercies of God are our merits. * We have cause to renounce our own righteousness; alas, what are our best works to obtain favour at the hands of God! Those before conversion, which they call meritorious, de congruo, are not truly good works, wanting a principle; and those after conversion, which they call works of condignity, are not exactly good, not being without the stain of imperfection; and, therefore, cannot merit. They hold two justifications according to these preparatories, the first is, when a sinner, of an evil man is made a good man, which is done by pardon of sin, and infusion of inward righteousness, that is, the habit of hope and charity; the second is, when a man, of a good man is made better, and this, say they, may proceed from works of grace, because he who is righteous by the first justification can bring forth good works, by merit whereof he is able to make himself more just and righteous; but we assert that the very thing by which we are justified and accepted is only the mercy of God, and the merits of Christ's active and passive obedience, which are imputed to us and received by faith alone, and our obedience or performances cannot be satisfaction to God's justice, because they are imperfect and defective, filthy rags," a rag, and cannot cover us, and filthy, therefore, will rather defile than justify us. At the great day, we must have some thing that can counter

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* Dei misericordia, merita nostra.

+ They acknowledged Christ's righteousness to be the only meritorious cause of this first justification, i. e. he procureth the infusion of this grace. All papists assert, roundly, that man is justified, per solam gratiam inhærentem, tanquam per formam integram sine imputatione externæ justitiæ Christi.-Suarez, Lect. 7, chap. 7, page 83.

Isaiah lxiv. 6.

vail the justice of God; Paul durst not appear in his own righteousness, but in Christ's, Phil. iii. 9, and how dare we? Certainly, Paul's doctrine is an infallible truth of God, Rom. iii. 20, " by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight;" and verse 24, "being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," and though Papists deride imputed righteousness; yet it is mentioned ten times in Rom. iv. and frequently asserted and proved through Paul's epistles. So 2 Cor. v. 21, as Christ was made sin for us, so are we made the righteousness of God in him.” Now Christ was made sin for us no otherwise than by God's imputing our sins to him, for it is blasphemy to say Christ was sin by infusion of sin into him, or inherency of sin in him. Besides, our justification comes to us as our condemnation, which was not only by propagation, but by the imputation of Adam's disobedience.-Rom. v. 19. All the mercies of the covenant are to believers made over by a deed of gift, indeed "the wages of sin is death, but eternal life is only the gift of God," with all that leads thereunto, Rom. vi. 23. But, however, Papists may dispute in the schools, yet when they come to lie upon sick and death-beds, they are glad to come off with Bellarmine's, tutissimum est, "it is safest to rely only on the mercy of God and merits of Christ for justification." Let us still hold the safe way and leave them to their uncertain, imperfect righteousness; but it is easily discernible what is the reason of the Papist's opposing free justification by grace only;* because it would demolish their purgatory, masses for quick and dead, invocation of saints, worshipping of images, indulgences, and their treasures of merits; hence, a modern Divine hath laid down the grounds that render * Dr. Prideaux, Lect. 5. De just. fol. 64.

the salvation of a Papist in a sort impossible, and proves undeniably, that their contrivance for justification doth overturn most, if not all, the truths of the gospel, and is utterly inconsistent with God's way of saving sinners; for it is the same for matter and form with the covenant of works, for the keeping of which, in the same circumstances as Adam in innocence, they say that Christ merited new strength, and now sinners are to stand or fall in the obtainment of life promised, according to their own performing of the condition of works, in the use of that first grace, and by this they merit perseverance and heaven; and lest indwelling corruptions and defects in duties mar this, they say concupiscence is not a sin against the moral law, and that there are many sins venial and not mortal, which therefore do not hinder merit and acceptance. Alas, what a new and anti-evangelical way is this, which confounds justification and sanctification, derogates from the nature of grace, enervateth the merit of Christ, altereth the nature of the gospel covenant, &c. But I must not enlarge, let us study this important subject, and beware of corrupting this fountain, or building on any other foundation than Christ's righteousness alone.

Secondly, the following is also an uncomfortable doctrine of the Papists, namely, " that a Christian cannot be assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, or of his eternal salvation." We hold that a Christian may attain to assurance of faith, without extraordinary revelation. They say a man may indeed attain to a conjectural certainty which only ariseth from hope, in regard of God who promiseth, but in regard of ourselves and our indisposition, we are to be at uncertainSee this doctrine stated and cleared in Durham on Rev. fol. 585, &c. vid. fol. 590-594.