sidering in how great part it consists in trusting God, and living a life of faith, that frame to themselves a religion made up of distrusts, doubts, and fears.

and aspire upwards to God. And as to this more noble | themselves. Can man excel God in praise-worthy things? part of their worship, every holy man is his own priest. You can think nothing of God more contrary to his gospel, And this is the double dignity of every holy, devoted or his nature, than to surmise he will destroy one that soul. They are thus kings, and priests; govern themselves, hath surrendered to and bears a loyal mind towards him. and serve God. While they govern, they serve: exercise And what a reproach do you cast upon him, when you authority over themselves, with most submiss veneration give others occasion to say, "His own, they that have deof God: crowned, and enthroned; but always in a readi- voted themselves to him, dare not trust him?" You are ness to cast down their crowns at the footstool of the su- taught to say, "I am thine, save me;" not to suspect he preme, celestial throne. Into this state they come by self-will ruin you. They do strangely misshape religion, condedication. And now surely, it is not for such to demean themselves at a vulgar rate. They are of the ikkλnoía now TOTÓK-the church of the first-born written in heaven 1. e. the church of the first-born ones; that is, all composed You should dread to alienate yourselves from him, and made up of such; (as that expression signifies ;) which (as sacrilege is one of the most detestable of alí first-born, in a true (though not the most eminent) sense, sins, a robbing of God) is the most detestable sacrilege. being sons by the first, i. e. the prime and more excellent You are to reserve yourselves entirely for him. Every sort of birth, in respect whereof they are said to be be- one that is godly he hath set apart for himself. gotten again by the word of truth, that they should be a Yea, and you are not only to reserve, but, to your utterkind of first-fruits of the creatures of God. And this most, to improve and better yourselves for him daily: to two-fold dignity is the privilege of their birthright, as an- aspire to an excellency, in some measure, suitable to your ciently it was. Are you devoted to God? Have you dedi- relation: "to walk worthy of God, who hath called you cated yourselves? Hereby you are arrived to this dignity.to his kingdom and glory," (1 Thess. ii. 12.) remembering For in the above-mentioned place it is said,d "Ye are you are here to glorify him, and hereafter to be glorified come;" you are actually, already, adjoined to that church, with him. And who is there of us that finds not himself and are the real present members of that holy community. under sufficient obligation, by the mercies of God, unto For you are related and united to him, of whom the all this? or to whom he may not say, in a far more emifamily of heaven and earth is named; are of the house-nent sense, than the apostle speaks it to Philemon, "Thou hold, and the sons of God, his, under that peculiar notion, owest even thyself also unto me?" Will we refuse to give when you have dedicated yourselves to him. You cannot God what we owe? or can we think it fit, in itself, "we but apprehend there are peculiarities of behaviour in your should be no otherwise his, than (as one well says) fields, after-conduct and management of yourselves, that belong woods, and mountains, and brute beasts?" And I may to you, and must answer and correspond to your being, in add, can it be comfortable to us, he should have no other this sense, his. Some particulars whereof I shall briefly interest in us than he hath in devils? Is there no difference mention. in the case of reasonable creatures and unreasonable? theirs who profess devotedness to him, and theirs who are his professed enemies? The one sort, through natural incapacity, cannot, by consent, be his, and the other, through an invincible malignity, never will. Are there no mercies (conferred or offered) that do peculiarly oblige us more? Let us be more frequent and serious in recounting our mercies, and set ourselves on purpose to enter into the memory of God's great goodness, that we may thence, from time to time, urge upon ourselves this great and comprehensive duty. And at this time, being here together on purpose, let us consider and reflect afresh upon that eminent mercy which you are wont to commemorate in the yearly return of this day.

You should each of you often reflect upon it, and bethink yourself what you have done, and whose you now are. "I am the devoted one of the most high God." It was one of the precepts given by a pagan to his disciples, "Think with yourself, upon all occasions, I am a philosopher." What a world of sin and trouble might that thought, often renewed, prevent, "I am a Christian, one devoted to God in Christ." Your having done this thing, should clothe your mind with new apprehensions, both of God and yourselves: that he is not now a stranger to you, but your God; that you are not unrelated to him, but his. "I was an enemy, now am reconciled. I was a common, profane thing, now holiness to the Lord." "Tis strange to think how one act doth sometimes habit and tincture a man's mind; whether in the kind of good or evil. To have committed an act of murder! What a horrid complexion of mind did Cain bear with him hereupon. To have dedicated oneself to God, if seriously and duly done; would it have less power to possess one with a holy, calm, peaceful temper of mind?"

You should, hereupon, charge yourself with all suitable duty towards him; for you have given yourself to him to serve him; that is your very business. You are his, and are to do his work, not your own, otherwise than as it falls in with his, and is his. You are to discharge yourself of all unsuitable cares; for will not he take care of his own, who hath put so ill a note upon them that do not? He that provideth not for his own, (his domestics,) those of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel? Will you think, he can be like such a one? Who, if not the children of a prince, should live free from

care?

You should most deeply concern yourself about his concernments, without any apprehension or fear that he will neglect those that are most truly yours: and are not to be indifferent how his interest thrives, or is depressed in the world; is increased, or diminished. They that are his, should let his affairs engross their cares and thoughts.

You should abandon all suspicious, hard thoughts of him. When in the habitual bent of your spirits you desire to please him, it is most injurious to him, to think he will abandon, and give you up to perish, or become your enemy. 'Tis observable what care was taken among the Romans, Ne quid dedititiis hostile illatum sit-that no hostility might be used towards them that had surrendered

And that I may, more particularly, direct my speech the same way that the voice of that memorable providence is especially directed; you are, my lord, to be more peculiarly besought by the mercies of God, that you would this day dedicate yourself to him. I do beseech therefore you, by the many endearing mercies which God hath so plentifully conferred upon you, by the mercies of your noble extraction and birth, by the mercies of your very ingenious and pious education, by the mercies of your family, which God hath made to descend to you from your honourable progenitors; (which, as they are capable of being improved, may be very valuable mercies;) by the blood and tender mercies of your blessed and glorious Redeemer, who offered up himself a Sacrifice to God for you, that you would now present yourself to God, a holy, living sacrifice, which is your reasonable service. I add, by the signal mercy which hath made this a memorable day to you, and by which you come, thus long, to enjoy the advantages of all your other mercies. How came it to pass that this day comes not to be remembered by your noble relatives, as a black and a gloomy day, the day of the extinction of the present light and lustre of your family, and of quenching their coal which was left? You had a great Preserver, who we hope delivered you because he delighted in you. Your life was precious in his sight. Your breath was in his hand; he preserved and renewed it to you, when you were ready to breathe your last. And we hope he will vouchsafe you that greater deliverance, not to let you fall under the charge which was once exhibited against a great man, (Dan. v. 23.) “The God in whose hands thy breath is-hast thou not glorified:" and make you rather capable of adopting those words, (Psal. xlii. 8.) e Eph. iii. f Epict. 31

& Psal. iv.

"Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the my bonds;" (Psal. cxvi.) hast (q. d.) released me from day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and worse bonds, that I might not only be patient, but glad to my prayer unto the God of my life." Your acknowledg-be under thine. ments are not to be limited to one day in the year; but from day to day his loving-kindness, and your prayer and praise, are to compose your vo@pepov; the one, to show you, the other, to be unto you your morning and evening exercise. Let this be your resolution, "Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name for ever and ever;" (Psal. cxlv. 2.) or that, (Psal. civ. 33.) "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being."

TWO SERMONS,

PREACHED AT THURLOW; IN SUFFOLK,

ON THOSE WORDS, ROM. VI. 13.

" YIELD YOURSELVES TO GOD."

TO THE MUCH-HONOURED

BARTHOLOMEW SOAME, ESQ.

OF THURLOW,

AND SUSANNA, HIS PIOUS CONSORT.

My worthy Friends,

I HAVE at length yielded to your importunity, and do here offer these Sermons to public view and your own, which were one day the last summer preached under your roof; attributing more to your píous design herein, than to my own reasons against it. I no further insist upon the incongruity, having divers years ago published a small treatise of Selfdedication, now again to send abroad another on the same subject. For the way of tractation is here very different; this may fall into the hands of divers, who have never seen the other; and however, they who have read the other, have it in their choice whether they will trouble themselves with this or no. And though your purpose which you urged me with, of lodging one of these little books in each family of the hearers, might have been answered by so disposing of many a better book already extant; yet your having told me how greatly you observed them to be moved by these plain discourses, considering the peculiar advantage of reading what had been with some acceptance and relish heard before, (through that greater vigour that accompanies the ordinance of preaching to an assembly, than doth usually the solitary first reading of the same thing,) I was not willing to run the hazard of incurring a guilt, by refusing a thing so much desired, and which, through God's blessing, might contribute something, though in never so low a degree, to the saving of men's souls. I could not indeed, as I told you, undertake to recollect every thing that was spoken, according to that latitude and freedom of expression wherewith it was fit to inculcate momentous things to a plain country auditory. But I have omitted nothing I could call to mind; being little concerned that the more curious may take notice, with dislike, how much in a work of this kind I prefer plainness (though they may call it / rudeness) of speech, before that which goes for wisdom of words, or the most laboured periods.

May you find an abundant blessing on your household, for the sake of the ark which you have so piously and kindly received. And whereas, by your means, the parts about you have a help for the speading the knowledge of God among them, added to what they otherwise more statedly enjoy; may the blessing of heaven succeed all sincere endeavours of both sorts, to the more general introducing of the new man which is renewed in knowledge-" where there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, but Christ is all, and in all:" to whose grace you are, with sincere affection, and great sense of your kindness, earnestly recommended, by

Your much obliged,

Faithful servant in Christ,
JOHN HOWE.

Yet again you are to conceive of him as Three in One, and that, in your yielding yourselves to him; as the prescribed form, when this surrender is to be made in baptism, directs; which runs thus, In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Matt. xxviii. 19. You are not to be curious in your inquiries beyond what is written in this matter, how far the Subsistents in the Godhead are three, and in what sense one; they cannot be both in the same sense. But there is latitude enough to conceive how they may be distinct from each other, and yet agree in one nature; which in none of them depending upon will and pleasure, sets each of them infinitely above all created being; which for the Divine pleasure only was and is created, Rev. iv. 11. And that we so far conceive of them, as three, as to apprehend some things spoken of one, that are not to be affirmed of another of them, is so plain, of so great consequence, and the whole frame of practical religion so much depends thereon; and even this transaction of yielding up ourselves, (which must be introductive and fundamental to all the rest,) that it is by no means to be neglected in our daily course, and least of all in this solemn business, as will more appear anon. In the meantime, set this ever blessed, glorious God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, before your eyes, as to whom (thus in himself considered) you are now to yield yourselves.

no place or pretence for halting between two opinions. | ing yourselves adds nothing to his right in you; you therein He most righteously lays the sole claim to you, a just God only recognise and acknowledge the right he had in you and a Saviour, and there is none besides him, Ísa. xlv. 21. before, but it adds to you a capacity and qualification, both And so we are told often in that and the foregoing chap-by the tenure of his gospel-covenant, and in the nature of ters. He whose far-discerning eye projects its beams the thing, for such nobler uses as otherwise you cannot every way, and ranges through all infinity, says he knows serve for: as the more contemptible lumber about a man's not any, ch. xliv. 8. house may be as truly his, as the most precious things; but neither doth he intend, nor can such meaner things admit to be the ornaments, either of his person, or his house. The great God intends his devoted peculiar people to be to him a crown and a royal diadem, Isa. lxii. 3. when he puts away the wicked of the earth like dross, Ps. cxix. 119. In a great house there are not only vessels of silver and gold, but also of wood and of earth, 2 Tim. ii. 20. But 'tis only the purged and sanctified soul (which is also a self-devoted one) that shall be the vessel unto honour, being made meet for the master's use, and prepared to every good work, v. 21. Persons and things acquire sacredness by being devoted to God. Persons especially, that can and do devote themselves, are highly ennobled by it; he hereupon (besides their relative holiness) really more and more sanctifies and frames them for his own more immediate service and communion. Of such a people he tells us, that he hath formed them for himself, and they shall praise him; and to them he saith, (intending it manifestly in the more eminent sense,) Thou art mine, Isa. xliii. I, 7, 21. Such may with a modest and humble, but with a just, confidence freely say, I am thine, save me, Ps. cxix. 94. In yielding yourselves consider therefore first, that he is your Owner by an unquestionable former right, and let that effectually move you to do it with all your hearts. For will you not give him his own? When you account duty to your prince obliges you to give to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, will you not give God the things that are God's? And will you not know him for your Owner? The ox knows his owner, Isa. i. 3. Or will it satisfy you to be in no other kind his, than brutes and devils are, that either through an incapacity of nature cannot acknowledge him, or through a malignity of nature will not? O yield yourselves, with humble desire and expectation that he will vouchsafe otherwise to own you!

2. You must conceive of him according to the relations which he bears towards you, partly before your yielding yourselves to him, and partly in and upon your doing it, That is,

1. Before you do any such thing, you must conceive of him, 1. As your Creator, the Author of your being, of whom, and through whom, and to whom, all things are.b He that made you demands you for himself. You are required to yield yourselves to him that gave you breath.

2. As the continual Sustainer of your being; and who renews your life unto you every moment; in whom you live, and move, and have your being, continually; so that if he should withdraw his supports, you immediately drop into nothing. But these are things common to you with all other creatures; and signify therefore his antecedent right in you, before you have yielded yourselves, upon which you ought to do it, and cannot without great injustice to him decline doing it. There are other consider ations also you ought to entertain concerning him in this your yielding yourselves to him, viz. of some things which are partly and in some sense before it, and which it supposes, but partly also, and in a more special sense, would follow and be inferred by it.

Principally, this fourfold consideration you should have of him in your yielding yourselves to him, viz. as your Owner, your Teacher, your Ruler, and your Benefactor, and all these with the addition of Supreme, it being impossible he should have a superior; or that there should be any one above him in any of these. And he is in some sense all these to you before you can have yielded yourselves; (as may in great part be collected from what hath been already said;) but when you yield yourselves to him, he will be all these to you in a far higher, nobler, and more excellent sense; and you are to yield yourselves to him as such, or that in your so doing, he may actually become such to you.

1. As your Owner. The God whose you are, as the apostle speaks, Acts xxvii. 23. and whom, as it there follows, and is naturally consequent, you are to serve. You were by this a former right, as all things, being made by him, are: But you are to yield yourselves to him, that you may be more peculiarly his, in a sense more excellent in itself, and more comfortable to you; as Exod. xix. 5. If you will obey-you shall be to me a peculiar treasure above all people, for all the earth is mine. Of such as fear him, the great God says, They shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels, Mal. iii. 17. Your yield

2. As your teacher; so indeed he also is to all men, though they never yield themselves to him. He that teaches man knowledge, shall not he know? Ps. xciv. 10. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding. Yea, and inferior creatures, as they all owe their natures and peculiar instincts to him, may be said to have him for their Teacher too. But will it content you to be so only taught by him? There is another sort of teaching which, if you yield yourselves to him as your great Instructor, he will vouchsafe unto you. The things you know not, and which it is necessary you should know, he will teach you, i. e. such things as are of real necessity to your true and final welfare, not which only serve to please your fancy, or gratify your curiosity: for his teaching respects an appointed, certain end, suitable to his wisdom and mercy, and to the calamity and danger of your state. The teaching requisite for perishing sinners, was, what they might do to be sayed. And when we have cast about in our own thoughts never so much, we have no way to take but to yield ourselves to God, who will then be our most undeceiving Guide. To whom it belongs to save us at last, to him only it can belong to lead us in the way to that blessed end.

Many anxious inquiries and fervent disputes there have been, how one may be infallibly assured of the way to be saved. They are to be excused who think it not fit, but upon very plain grounds, to venture so great a concernment; or to run so great a hazard in a mere compliment to any man, or party of men. Confident expressions, as, My soul for your's, and such like, signify nothing with a cautious considering man, except that such as them care as little for his soul as their own. The papal infallibility some would have us trust to at a venture, and would make us think it rudeness to doubt it; when nobody stands upon good manners in endeavouring to escape a ruin; when a great part of their own communion trust not to it, a And some of them have written strongly against it. The accurate stating and discussing of the controversy, how