2. How you will account of them when you are going into another world, and when you are there. When death stares you in the face, and gives you a warning away from all you possess, what will you think of them then? When you are in another world, and standing before the judgment-seat of Christ, whether will grace or gold, robes or righteousness, Christ or the world, be of greatest value in your eyes?

3. Consider you will never honour Christ, and if so, he will never honour you. You will never honour him in your hearts, while you prefer every thing to him; nor in your lives, by doing much, or suffering for his cause. A man that counts not thus, is not fit for such a time as this, in which God seems to be about to put it to the trial, what men think of the world, in comparison of Christ.

Labour then to get a view of the glory, riches, and excellency of Christ, and then you will count all things but dung for him. If men knew the worth of Christ, they would think nothing too much for him.

DOCTRINE III. They are truly winners, lose what they will, that gain Christ. To confirm this point, consider,

What he is in himself. He is God, and so if he be yours, God is yours, for he is God; the Son of God begotten by the Father, by au eternal unspeakable generation, so that he has life in himself. He is man, God-man, fairer than the children of men. The human nature is united to the divine in the person of the Son, and so lies at the fountain head, as the bowl in Zechariah's candlestick.

2. Consider what he is to us:

"He gave

1. Winning Christ, we gain a ransom for our souls. himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity." If one were a slave to the Turks, what matter what he lost, if he gained a ransom for himself. We are debtors to justice, criminals in law, prisoners of Satan, bound over to the wrath of God by nature. Now the soul's redemption is precious. If we could gain the whole world, that could not ransom us, Hos. xiii. 14; Job xxxiii. 24.

2. Winning Christ, we gain a purchase. He not only ransoms us from the wrath of God, but purchaseth heaven to us. He gives us gold tried in the fire, to enrich us. If Christ be thire, he communicates his merit to thee for thy justification, and title to eternal life; so that it is a righteous thing for thee to get heaven, 2 Thess. i. 6, 7.

3. Winning Christ, we gain a treasure; the treasure hid in the field. Consider that whatever you can lose for Christ, if you win him, you win a treasure, when you lose but some small mite for it. Christ is a treasure for preciousness, everything in Christ is pre

cious. When Solomon counted all that was in the world, he sets down the total in two great cyphers, vanity and vexation. And is this the prize for our sweat and cares? Why so eager on vanity, so fond of vexation. But all in Christ is precious. Is not grace, pardon, peace, precious? They were purchased with his precious blood, 1 Pet. i. 19; they are wrapped up in precious promises, 2 Pet. i. 4. O precious promises! where happiness is wrapt up in words and syllables. Eternity couched in a sentence! an eternal weight of glory in a word! Christ is also a treasure, for variety and abundance of precious things. The treasure of worldly things is soon counted. We have the inventory of it, consisting but of these three things, "the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life." But it "hath pleased the Father, that in Christ should all fulness dwell." 66 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath laid up for them that love him." I will only tell you of the following things in it. The whole constellation of graces, each more precious than gold, of more worth than a world. The whole privileges of the saints: an eternal weight of glory. Finally, the whole Trinity. Christ is also a treasure in respect of secrecy. Hid to the unrenewed world, and even to believers in a great measure. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." But even in glory, they will never see to the end of it.

4. Winning Christ, we gain that which will turn every thing to our advantage. "All things shall work together for our good." This is the stone that turns all to gold. If we be in Christ, death shall be profitable to us as an inlet to eternal bliss; the grave, a place of rest, as God's field, where the seed sown shall spring up with increase; the wind of afflictions shall drive us more speedily to our harbour; our crosses shall be for crucifying our lusts; our losses shall be our gain to bring an hundred-fold. Thus, in a word, all things shall work for our good.

5. Winning Christ, we gain an heirship. We "become heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." More by far, than if we were heirs of the greatest monarch on earth. By this you will be heirs of the promises, young heirs of glory. Attended by angels, and duly provided for while in your minority, and at length admitted to your inheritance. Yea, all is yours.

6. There is nothing, then, which we have to lose for Christ, that is worthy to be laid in the balance with him. The loss is infinitely made up in him. What are our worldly goods, in comparison of

the goodness laid up for those that are in Christ. May not the relation to Christ and his Father make up all the loss of other relations? The glorious liberty of the sons of God, make up the loss of our liberty in the world; and an eternal life, our natural life.

Lastly, It is below the honour of God to let sinners be losers at his hand. He will not be behind with his creatures. They shall have good measure, pressed down and running over. "But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.

USE 1. Of information. The worldly man is penny wise and pound foolish. "He strains at a gnat and swallows a camel." He will be loath to lose a sixpence, but he can let a talent of glory slip through his fingers. He watcheth a little gilded earth, lays it up securely, holds it fast in his hand, nay, in his heart; but he can let a crown, a kingdom, a heaven, a Christ go. Though it is difficult to beguile him in other things, he will be cheated out of these for a trifle, like a child. Esau was a cunning man, yet he was as easily cheated of the blessing as if he had been a fool or idiot.

2. In a time of giving out for Christ, they are not the greatest gainers that lose nothing for him. When the trial is over, and every one counts their winning, the greatest losers will be found the greatest gainers. The greatest outgiving has the greatest income, as in the parable of the talents. Alas! what is the winning of others, but that they have saved the shoe, but lost the foot; saved the cabinet, but lost the jewel; saved the body, but lost the soul; the world is gained, Christ is lost.

USE 2. Of exhortation. "Buy the truth, and sell it not." Win Christ at any rate, lose him at no rate. Remember you cannot make too dear a purchase in this point. There are three cases in which I would have you to walk by this principle,

1. When sin comes to you, like Potiphar's wife to Joseph, and offers you deadly poison in a golden dish. Now Christ and a lust are in competition. Now here is a goodly price offered you for the Lord's favour and countenance; but sell it not, for all you can make by it will not clear the cost, but it will be bitterness in the end. Now you must have him at the rate of plucking out a right eye, yet buy the truth, assure yourself it is cheap enough of all.

2. When sloth comes to you, as Peter to Christ, covering a sharp sword with words softer than oil, saying, "Master, spare thyself," what needs all this trouble about religion? What needs such bitter repenting, wrestling in prayer, watching over heart and life?

What needs this exposing yourself for a sermon? Now sloth and Christ are come in competition. Here is a goodly price for Christ, a sound sleep on the sinner's soft bed, a way strewed with roses, pleasant carnal company, and a warm fireside; but sell it not so cheap all that is not worth one smile of his face: nay, of one check from him. Take him, though at the rate of the most exquisite diligence, the most painful exercise, most difficult and grating to the flesh, and cheap enough.

3. When the enemies of Christ and his work come to you, as the chief priests to Judas, offering you thirty pieces if you will betray him; and when you are put to loss in his cause, say, like Judas to the honest woman that bestowed a box of ointment on Christ, "What needs all this waste?" Now Christ and the world are in competition. Here is a goodly price for Christ. You may keep what you have, and also get more; you shall get the world's smiles, if you will venture on his frowns. Let them guide God's house as they will, and you shall dwell in ceiled houses. Take the mark of the beast in your foreheads, or in your hands, and you shall obtain leave to buy and sell. But sell him not. The world's offer is not worth the hearing; it is but dung for gold, counters for pearls. But in such a case you cannot have him, but at the expense of the world's countenance, loss of means, and perhaps liberty and life itself, but he cannot be too dear bought.

MOTIVE. You will get all in Christ that you are seeking to win in the world, and more. If you would have a name, you shall get one, better than that of sons and daughters. Would you have honour? you shall have it. "Him that honoureth me," says God, "I will honour." Would you have gold? you shall have it.

streets of heaven are paved with gold. Amen.

The very

[Same subject continued.]

SERMON XIX.

PHILIPPIANS iii 9,

And be found in him.

HERE is another thing which the apostle hath in his eye, namely, to be found in Christ. This supposeth that they who win Christ are

in him, united to him, and that they who are united to him will be found in him, when God searcheth for them. Having before handled the doctrine of union with Christ, I shall only speak to this.

DOCTRINE. It should be men's great care, to provide that when God comes to search, they may be found in Christ. Here I shall,

I. Shew how, or when God comes to search, and the saints are found in Christ.

II. How and where they shall be found, that are found in Christ. III. Give the reasons of the point, and then subjoin some improvement. I am then,

I. To shew how or when God comes to search, and the saints are found in Christ. This world is a confused heap, and many times the counterfeits are found among the jewels, undiscerned; but God hath searching times, in which he will search out men. "I will," says he, "search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled in their lees, that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil."

1. One searching time is, a time of plain searching, preaching of the word. The word is God's candle, which he kindles to let men see through their state and condition. "The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." God carries this candle through the man's spirit, and searcheth him thoroughly. Thus Paul tells us, that by such searching preaching 66 even an unbeliever, or unlearned man, is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth." Now the false wares of the hypocrite appear naught, the mask is drawn off between God and their own consciences, Malachi iii. 1-3. But then the believer is found in Christ, for the word is never an enemy to the grace of the Spirit, "for he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

2. A time of temptation is a searching time. This is a sieve which Satan is allowed to manage for the discovery of the true grain. "Satan," said our Lord, to Peter, "hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. Sometimes Satan is, as it were, let loose, and temptations abound, iniquity is established by law, and then good and bad are put to the trial. Then the light corn aud chaff appear, being driven away before the wind; the world

begins to wonder after the beast, stars fall. Then goes the earthly,