partly filled up by his
descent into our nature, partly by his lower descent in our nature to
suffer death. And this is the savoury oblation that we have to present to
God, and may have boldness to come nigh because of it. And when once our
access is made by the blood of Jesus Christ, then we are called and
allowed to come still nigher, to cleave and adhere to him as our Father,
to pray unto him, to walk with him. Then we should converse as friends and
familiars together; then draw nigh to his light for illumination, and to
him as the fountain of life for quickening, to place our delight and
desire in him,--to forsake all other things, even our wills and pleasures,
and to lose them, that they may be found in his; to converse much in his
company, and be often in communication with him, and meditation upon him.
This is the very design and substance of the gospel. It holds forth the
way of making up the breach between man and God, of bringing you nigh who
are yet afar off, and nearer who are near hand. O let us hearken to it!

Sermon VI.

Prov. xxvii. 1.--"Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest
not what a day may bring forth."

There are some peculiar gifts that God hath given to man in his first
creation, and endued his nature with, beyond other living creatures, which
being rightly ordered and improved towards the right objects, do advance
the soul of man to a wonderful height of happiness, that no other
sublunary creature is capable of. But by reason of man's fall into sin,
these are quite disordered and turned out of the right channel; and,
therefore, as the right improvement of them would make man happy, so the
wrong employment of them loadens him with more real misery than any other
creature. I mean, God hath given to man two notable capacities beyond
other things;--one is, to know and reflect upon himself, and to consider
what conveniency is in any thing towards himself,--what goodness or
advantage redounds to himself from them, and in that reflection and
comparison to enjoy what he hath; another is to look forward beyond the
present time, and, as it were, to anticipate and prevent the slow motions
of time, by a kind of foresight and providence. In a word, he is a
creature framed unto more understanding than others, and so capable of
more joy in present things, and more foresight of the time to come. He is
made mortal, yet with an immortal spirit of an immortal capacity, that
hath its