The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…

'Tis true, In every Age there are some Examples of the Virtue of the Gospel, that reflect an honour upon it. And this last Age, which we may call the Winter of the World, in which the Holy Spirit hath foretold, That the love of many shall grow cold, by a marvellous Antiperistasis hath inflamed the hearts of some excellent Saints towards God and Religion. But the great number of the wicked, and the progress of Sin in their Lives, there is no measure of Tears sufficient to lament.

'Tis true, In every Age there are some Examples of the Vertue of the Gospel, that reflect an honour upon it. And this last Age, which we may call the Winter of the World, in which the Holy Spirit hath foretold, That the love of many shall grow cold, by a marvellous Antiperistasis hath inflam'd the hearts of some excellent Saints towards God and Religion. But the great number of the wicked, and the progress of Sin in their Lives, there is no measure of Tears sufficient to lament.

Fourthly, I shall press Christians to walk as becomes the Gospel of Christ, answerably to the Holiness and Purity of that Divine Institution, and to those great and strict Obligations it lays upon us. The Gospel requires an entire Holiness in all our Faculties, an equal respect to all our Duties: We are commanded to cleanse our selves from all pollutions of flesh and spirit, to be holy in all manner of conversation. We are enjoined, To be perfecting Holiness in the fear of God. To be holy, as He that hath called us is Holy. A certain measure of Faith, and Love, and Obedience, a mediocrity in Virtue, we must not content our selves with. 'Tis not a counsel of Perfection given only to some Christians of a peculiar order and elevation; But the command of a Law that without exception binds all, Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. The Gospel gives no Dispensation to any Person, nor in any Duty. The Doctrine that asserts there are some excellent works to which the lower sort of Christians is not obliged, is equally pernicious, ⟨p. 407⟩both to those who do them by Presumption, as if they were not due, and were therefore meritorious; and to those who neglect them, by a blind Security, as if they might be saved, without striving to reach the highest degrees of Obedience. 'Tis a weak pretence, that because the consummate measure of Sanctification can only be attained in the next life, therefore we should not endeavour after it here. For by sincere and constant endeavours we make nearer approaches to it, and according to the degrees of our progress, such are those of our joy. As Nature hath prescribed to all heavy Bodies their going to the Centre, and although none comes to it, and many are at a great distance from it, yet the ordination of Nature is not in vain: Because by virtue of it, every heavy Body is always tending thither in motion or inclination. So although we cannot reach to complete Holiness in this imperfect state, yet 'tis not in vain that the Gospel prescribes it, and infuses into Christians those dispositions whereby they are gradually carried to the full accomplishment of it. Not to arrive to Perfection is the weakness of the Flesh, not to aspire after it is the fault of the Spirit. To excite us, it will be of moment to consider the great Obligations that the Gospel lays upon Christians to be holy.