diator, is but a means to God who is our end; he is the way to the Father, "and no man cometh to the Father but by him;" John xiv. 6. He is the Truth that revealeth the Father; and the Sun of the world, "which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world;" John i. 9. revealing to us both the end and means; that as there is no light in the earth, but what is communicated by the sun, which enlighteneth some by the moon at midnight, and some by its direct approaching light, at the break of day, before they see the sun itself, and others by its glorious rays when it is risen, and visible to them, and hath also in itself an objective sufficiency to enlighten those that shut their eyes, or want eyesight by which they should receive it: even so is Christ the Sun of the redeemed world, which actually affordeth all that light to all which they do possess; even some (to all that have the use of reason) which hath a tendency to recovery; and he hath an objective sufficiency to the saving illumination of those that through their own fault are never so illuminated. The pure Godhead is the beatifical light to be enjoyed for felicity. The Mediator is the mediate light, to shew us the way to God. And in these two consisteth life eternal; to know God the beginning and end, who himself hath no beginning or end; and to know Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, to recall us to himself; John xvii. 3. Whether he that is now to us Mediator acquisitionis,' will also hereafter be Mediator fruitionis,' and whether the glorified do only see the Godhead in the glass of the glorified body of Christ, and of the most glorious effects which then they shall partake of, or also shall immediately behold it in itself, and see God's essence, face to face, I shall not presume to determine, while Scripture seems so silent, and learned conjectures are so much at odds. But as he is the redeeming, restoring Mediator, it is that we speak all this while of Christ: and so his office is to recover God's interest in the souls of men.

Now his interest lieth in our estimation, and our love; and these the world hath dispossessed him of. It is therefore the work of Christ to pull down this idol, and set up God in the throne of the soul. And therefore though faith be the principal mediant using grace; yet love is the most principal, final, enjoying grace; and more excellent than

faith, as the end, or that act which is next the end, is more excellent than the means.

2. It is the end of Christ, his cross and doctrine, to heal us, and to save us; to heal us of our sin, and to save us from it, and its destroying fruits. But by sanctification, and so by mortification, doth Christ thus heal and save us. If health be worth nothing, the physician and all his physic is worth nothing. The health of the soul objectively is God, and formally is its holiness, or perfect disposedness, and devotedness to God; of which anon. These therefore doth Christ come to restore: and therefore he comes to call us off the creature, and bring our affections back to God.

3. It is the end of Christ, his cross and doctrine, to conquer satan and destroy his works, and with him the rest of the enemies of God, and of our salvation; but the world is one of these enemies, and the means by which the devil doth prevail; therefore it is Christ's end to overcome the world, and cast it out of the hearts of men; Luke xi. 22. John xvi. 33. 1 John iii. 5. 8. "He was manifested to this end, to take away our sins, and destroy the works of the devil;" and therefore he causeth his followers to overcome him; 1 John ii. 13, 14. And herewithal observe, that it is essential to the relation, to respect the end; to the physician, that he be for the health of the patient; and to Christ the Redeemer, that he be the Saviour of his people from their sins, and the restorer of their souls to the love of God: so that Christ is denied and made no Christ, where mortification and sanctification are denied; he is not believed in as Christ, where he is not believed in for these ends. And therefore he that cometh not with this intent to Christ, that he may restore the image of God upon him, and bring him off from the creature unto God, that he may live to him, doth not come to Christ as Christ, and is not indeed a true Christian.

The doctrine of Christ doth lead us from the world, in these several parts of it, and by these steps, (how the cross doth it, I shewed before). 1. It declareth to us what God is, and what man is; and so that God is our absolute Owner and Governor; and that he is the only primitive, simple, ne cessary being; and that man was made by him, and therefore for him, and disposed to him. 2. It declareth to us that the state of our integrity consisted in the closure of the

soul with God. 3. It sheweth us that our felicity consisteth in his love, and in the fruition of him by a mutual complacency. 4. It sheweth us that our first sin was by turning from him to carnal self and the world. 5. And that this is our lost estate, wherein both sin and misery are conjunct, to adhere to self and creatures, and to depart from God. 6. It sheweth us what Christ hath done and suffered, to reconcile God to us, and open us a way of admission into his presence, and how far God is reconciled to us; and thus revealeth him in the face of a Mediator as amiable to our souls, that so we might be capable of loving him, and closing with him again. For if he had remained in his wrath, he would have been the object of our hatred, or mere terror at least, and not of our love. And no man can love him that is not presented to him, and apprehended by him as lovely, that is, as good. For it is impossible that there should be an act without its proper object. Nothing but appearing good is loved. If a lost, condemned sinner have no hope given him of God's reconciliation, or his willingness to receive him to mercy, it is (ex parte objecti') an impossible thing that the mind of that sinner should be reconciled to God. And therefore the Gospel publisheth God's reconciliation to sinners, (viz. his universal, conditional reconciliation,) before it beseech them to be reconciled to God; 2 Cor. v. 19, 20. And before they believe we cannot give any one man the least assurance that God is any more reconciled to him, than to others that are unconverted, or that he is any more willing to receive him, than others.

This therefore is the great observable means whereby Christ by his Gospel recovereth the heart of a sinner unto God, even by turning the frowning countenance of God, by which he deterred the guilty into a more lovely face, as being reconcilable, and conditionally reconciled to the world through Christ, and so become to all the sinful sons of Adam a fit object to attract their love, and draw off their hearts from the deceiving world, to which they were revolted; and as being actually reconciled to all true believers, and thereby become a yet more powerful attractive of their love. 7. It doth also more fully reveal the face of God, the object of our love, and the transcendent glory that in him we shall enjoy. 8. And it disgraceth the creatures which have diverted our affections, that we may be taken off our

false estimation of them. 9. It earnestly persuadeth and soliciteth us to obey; and calls on us to turn from the world to God. 10. It backeth these persuasions with terrible threatenings, if we do not forsake the creature and return. 11. It prescribeth to us the standing ordinances and means by which this work may be further carried on. 12. And lastly, it directeth us to the right use of the creatures, instead of that carnal enjoying of them that would undo us. By all these means, (which time doth permit me but briefly to mention) the Gospel of Christ doth tend to crucify the world to us, and to recover our hearts to the chiefest good.

And besides all this which the cross and the doctrine of Christ do to this end, that you may yet more fully perceive how much it is the end of Christ's very office, and the execution thereof, let me add these two things: 1. That it is the end of Christ's providential dispensations. 2. And the work which he sendeth the Holy Ghost to perform upon the souls of his elect.

1. As the mercies of God are purposely given us to lead up our hearts to him that gave them; so when we carnally abuse them, and adhere unto the creature, it is the special use of affliction to take us off. If the rod have a voice, it speaks this as plain as any thing whatsoever; and if it reprehend us for any sin, it is for our overvaluing and adherThe wounds that Christ giveth us, are not to kill us, but to separate us from the world, that hath separated us from God.

ing to the creature.

2. And that this is the very office or undertaken work of the Holy Ghost, is past all controversy: his work is to sanctify us; and that is by taking us off the creature, to bring us to be heartily devoted unto God. Sanctification is nothing else but our separation from the creature to God, in resolution, affection, profession and action. So that in what measure soever a man hath the Spirit, in that measure is he sanctified; and in what measure he is sanctified, in that same measure is he crucified to the world: for that is the one half of his sanctification, or it is his sanctification from the terminus à quo;' as many texts of Scripture do manifest..

By this time I hope it is plain to you, that mortification is of the very being of Christianity, and not any separable

adjunct of it, and that if you profess not to be dead to the world, you do not so much as profess yourselves Christians.

1. And as you see that the Christian doctrine teacheth this So 2. It is thence clear without any more ado, that wherever the cross and doctrine of Christ are effectual, the world is crucified to that man, and he to the world. There are some great duties which a man may possibly be saved, though he omit in some cases; but this is none such. It is a wonder to see the security of worldlings, how easily they bear up a confidence of their sincerity, under this sin which is as inconsistent with sincerity as infidelity itself is! If they see a man live in common drunkenness, or adultery, or swearing, they take him for a profane and miserable wretch; and good reason for it: when in the mean time they pass no such sentence on themselves, who may deserve it as much as the worst of these. It is one notable cheat among the Papists, that occasions the ruin of many a soul, that they make a religious, mortified life to be a work of supererogation, and those that profess it, (and some of their own inventions with it, which turn it into sin) they cloister up from the rest of the world, and these they call religious people, and some few even of these, that are either more devout or superstitious than the rest, they call saints. So rare a thing is the appearance of religiousness and sanctity among them, that it must be enclosed in societies, not only separated from the world, as the church is, but separated as it were out of the church itself. And yet the common people are kept in hope of salvation in their way. By which means they are commonly brought to imagine that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation to be a religious man, or a saint, or one that doth really renounce and crucify the world; but that these things belong to certain orders of monks and friars, and that it is enough for other men to honour these devout and mortified saints, and to crave their prayers, and do some lower and easier things. And indeed their vows of chastity, and separation, and unprofitableness, and other inventions of their own, they may well conceive unnecessary to others, being noxious to themselves. But they will one day find that none but religious men and saints shall be saved, and that every true member of Christ is dead to the world, and not only monks, or votaries, or such like. And a conceit