Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/churchofgodoressOOserlrich THE CHURCH OF GOD; OR, Essays upon its Names and Titles; A>'D UPON OTHER SUBJECTS. J. Hartnell, Printer, Bermondsey-Street. hA' The • Church of God-. OR, ESSAYS VARIOUS NAMES AND TITLES, GIVEN TO %\)t Cljurtlb, HOLY SCRIPTURES: TO WHICH ARE ADDED, SO. Glorious things are spbken of thee, O city ofiEfcd. — "Psalm Ixxxyii. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. — Matt. xvi. 18. THIRD EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. LONDON: PillNTED FOR II. D. SYMONDS, AND M. JONES, PATERNOSTEU-ROW 1800. \ 3f i- 7 6,^7 CONTENTS PAGE CHURCH , - 1 Tabernacle -----.---20 Temple --37 House of God - -50 City of God - - - - - - - - - 55 Body of Christ - - 59 Christians - - - - - - - -- -72 Chosen ----------78 Adopted - -- - - - - - - -90 Heirs -^-------,94 Bom of God, or Regenerate ------ gg Children of God - - - - - - -- no Circumcised - - - -_,,,. Igg Baptized -- ---•---, isg Justified ----- 145 Saints 159 Zealous of Good Works ------- ±qs Hidden, or Secret Ones - - - - - - -177 Strangers and Pilgrims ----_.. is* Chosen Generation - -- - - - - - 191 Royal Priesthood -------- 2OI Peculiar People, or Holy Nation - - - - -210 First- % 1^' > ^CONTENTS. PAGE . First-Born - - - - - - - - -218 Levltes -«-----_-» 231 Lively, or Preciotis Stones ------- 239 Portion, or Heritage ^------- 243 Faithful 253 Prisoners ---w_,___- 266 Ransomed,' or Redeemed - - - - - - - 279 Free ~-- - - 293 Gathered - " 305 Healed - - - - * - - - - - - 311 Fed 317 God's Husbandry 320 Watered - 336 Witnesses - - - 342 Preserved - - -- - - - -- - 351 Glorified - - - - 357 Dialogue between the Apostle Paul and Thief - - - 369 Essay in Pneumatology - - - - - - -401 Christian Manners -------- 436 Antiquity and Comfort of Truth - - , - -443 Hardened Ignorance of Religion - - - - . 450 A Common History -------- 457 True Piety Political Wisdom 461 Triumph over Death -------- 466 A Memorial - - - - -- - " * 472 THE /fl THE ^ ' CHURCH OF GOD, 8^X. 8^C. CHURCH. .As it is confessedly necessary, in all human sciences, to settle the precise sense of the terms used in them, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of their several subjects; so is this rule more especially proper, though perhaps less attended to, in divinity, and in the v^^ord or revelation of God, v^^hich is the only sure foundation of divinity, and which, particularly in one of its lan- guages, has a peculiarity of allusion, and precision of expression, not to be met with in any other book or language in the world. The knowledge of the original terms, and due consideration of their usage, would not only afford a just key to the stores of divine erudition, sufficiently ample, even in this present life, to reward the study and pursuit of the truth-seeking mind ; but would also defend it from a thousand errors and false principles, by a direct manifestation of their fallacy, and an almost immediate detection of their pernicious ten- dency, to the understanding and the heart at once. Without it, people not only lose a very high satisfaction B and CHURCH. and delight, but must unavoidably take a great deal upon trust, and are therefore neither so good judges of what tliey profess to believe, nor so capable of defend- ing it, in many respects, from attacks, formed either by the ignorance or the enmity of adversaries. And it may be believed in candor, that if some persons, hostile to divine revelation, could really have read their bibles, without the help of others; they would have found many, if not all their objections obviated, and truth itself exhibited in her most perfect form ; commanding at least their respect, if not, for their own happiness, a more entire attention. At any rate, it is neither just nor liberal to censure a book, which a man is unable to read. A clown, all English, would be esteemed a very incompetent scholiast upon Virgil or Homer. And yet it must be owned, that though a man hath attained the language of the bible, and hath acquired a key to much treasure ; he may still want the master- key, which only can unlock the interior depository of the most precious stores ; or, in other words, in order to attain /or /t»?2^e^ the most interesting matters in the sacred volume, it is necessary for him to have a better tuition than his own, or that of any creatures; lest otherwise, he fall into the case 'of those, who are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. He will, however, be probably preserved from many gross heterodoxies, from many anti-christian ab- surdities, and from the effects of many perverse dis^ putings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, by the verbal knowledge and Uteral study of the book and its subjects ; as might be instanced at this time in several CHURCH. 3 several valuable persons, who seem to have obtained what they hold of truth, and to have been preserved from the reigning errors, in no other way. It is a great satisfac- tion to see people go thus far : it would be a matter of exceeding joy to find them clearly in the strait and nar- row road, without doubt or wavering, owning and en- joying the full grace and glory of the gospel of Christ. The terms of Scripture, the very names of persons and things in God*s own language, contain in them the doc- trines and principles of the most momentous truths ; not with metaphysical subtleties, not for logical deductions, as in common books, not for acute or wordy reasonings ; but by authoritative communication and express declara- tion from God himself, commanding absent with resent- ment in case of unbelief, who spake by his Spirit at sundry times and in divers manners to the fathers by the prophets* The words used, therefore, do not stand for abstract speculations or lead to fine-spun theories, to be excogi- tated by us ; but imply living, interesting, eternal reali- ties. They were not intended to convey notions, for the corrupt investigation of man's doubtful and doubting reason, or (what the Scripture calls) his darkened nn-^ derstanding ; but for the explicit conveyance of positive truths — of truths so important, as to contain in them the interests of the human being to all eternity — of truths so needful, that the human being cannot be happy with- out them either here or hereafter. For the enjoyment of these he is to yield the obedience of faith, or to give ab- solute credit to the veracity of his Maker; whose ay|o? i(pnt or direct instruction, it is neither poor-spirited nor ab- surd implicitly to receive ; but, on the contrary, arro- B 2 gant 4 CHURCH. gant and presumptuous to reject, only because, from the weakness of human intellection, it is not in all cases possible, and especially without some previous growth in grace, to comprehend or explain it. As a man is reputed a scholar, in proportion as he knows words and things, and words chiefly as leading to the knowledge of things ; so a professor of religion is to be reckoned a true divine, or indeed a real Christian, only as he understands the terms and language of divine truth, and the things revealed or signified by those terms ; all of which are explicit and clear, as coming from God himself, and sweet and powerful by whomsoever they are truly received, both in doctrine and experience. Upon the subject-matter of this treatise, which con- sidei*s many of the names or titles, given in the Scrip- tures to those whom God has declared to be the objects of his favor, it seems proper to say, That it is the author's general intention to show from these names, that they not only relate to the persons of those objects of divine favor, but also (agreeably to what has now been premised) to certain doctrines or principles^ which explain the means, the order, the privileges, which the divine Wisdom hath used in their behalf, or conferred upon them, and which, for the information and comfort of their minds, God devised and ordained the titles and terms to express and declare. The name which God gives must be right ; and the sense, or doctrine of the name, must as necessarily be true. To take away the meaning of the name, would be to destroy God's purpose in giving it : and to allow the meaning (it may be seen, as we go along) will be to allow all the leading or essential principles, which concern man's present peace and eternal salvation. Having j odhoc (whence Kirk, Kerlie,) is the Lor^s house, or house set apart for the Lord's worship. It is somewhat more than the pro^ seuchoe, which were sometimes small structures, and sometimes places in the open air, appointed for prayer; but differs little, as to the intention, from the syjia-^ gogues among the Jews, which were large and conve- nient buildings, appropriated to the reading of the law and the offering up of public devotions. But the word, though it frequently denotes the building, is also used to signify the persons assembling in it for the purpose above- mentioned : hence, by an easy figure, the congregation became synonimous with church. In this sense also, by a more antient usage, the word m;?, which literally means an assembly, sometimes implies the same with hr\p, a particular set called out of a general bulk, and so dis- tinguished from them. In short, the word church is ap- plied to many senses. Sometimes it is used to denote the general body of men, good and bad, professing Christianity ; sometimes a particular nation of the same b3 pro- 6 CHURCH. profession;* sometimes the pastors of the church ia convocation or synod; sometimes the people, in dis- tinction from the ministers; sometimes the place, where they meet to worship; sometimes a very few per- sons indeed ; a family in a house ; or, if we may follow TertuUiaji, three laymen, met for worship, may make a church ;t sometimes God's own spiritual people on earth, or church truly militant against the powers of evil and darkness ; and sometimes the assembly of just men made perfect, or church triumphant, in heaven^ But the great idea of the word church, to which all the other senses only minister or are subordinate, must be taken from the words bnp and Ey^Ma-ix, which pri- marily signify persons specially called out of or CHOSBm from the common mass of the world or people for a particular purpose: and these words, applied to the children of God, denote that they are a people peculiarly appointed and called.,of God, out of the bulk ofmanldndy to he his oicn portion and to obtain everlasting salvation, by the means which he ha^i appointed and affords them, according to the good pleasure of his will. In this view, * Thus the Church of England, of Scotland, 8fc. So the modern Jews distinguish between their Church of Spain, and that of Germany. ■\ Ubitres, ecclesia est, li b. general calling by the word, as there is a general church, to all sorts and of all sorts ; but this is not the particular and energetic call, which the Holy Spirit gives, in the use of the word, to his own people, when he graciously quickens them from spiritual death. The former is appointed to men, who are to go forth into all the world with the unlimited commission of preaching the gospel to every creature, which is their business, without regarding distinction of persons: the latter is reserved in God's own hand, who knoweth whom he hath chosen, and to whom he will effectuate the word preached, distinguishing and selecting them from the mass of the world. Thus maiiy are called ; but, few, eHOSEN. Of these the Jews of old were ordained to be a striking figure, preaching the awful and important truth before us.f Thus said Moses to them: thou art a holy for separate) people unto Jehovah thy Alehim : Jehovah thy Alehim hath chosen thee to be (to have a particular exist- ence as) a special people unto himself, above all the people ihat are upon the face of the earth, Jehovah did *Cor. i. 26—29. t It is to be regretted, that this great and most important fgure, which denotes who and what is properly the church of God, is omitted by the excellent and learned author of a late valuable work, On the figurative Language of the^Scriptures, not CHURCH. p not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people (for ye were the fewest of all people] hut because Jehovah loved (or would love) you, and because he would keep the oath, ^c* Hence they are called, the people ivhom Jehovah purchased cis a peculiar treasure unto him above all people, f These were so on a conditional covenant, which, as a figure, was to pass away ; but the spiritual church or people upon an unconditional covenant, which, as the substance in- tended, was to remain for ever. The one covenant, therefore, was called old, as relative to a former or fore- running people, who were, like it, to be taken away ; but the other is called new, because it was to be revealed in due time from under the shadow of the old, and to be ever-new, as is the perpetual song of the blessed, or ei-er* lasting. The terms of this new covenant are, I [Jehovah] WILL put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their Alehim, and they SHALL BE my people.X The apostle applies this to the spiritual or redeemed people, both Jews and Gentiles. He says, that the great. God and our Saviour Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify UNTO HJMSELF A PECULIAR PEOPLE ZealoUS of gOod works,^ The purification was by the blood of Jesus, as the Jews were typically purified by sacrifice under the law, prefiguring this very mercy. For this cause (says the apostle) he is the Mediator of the new Testa- * Deut. vii. 6, &c. t Exod. xv . 16. xix. 5. I Jer. xxxi. 33. § Tit. ii. 14. ment 10 CHURCH. ment (or covenant,) that by means of death fi. e, his death) for the redeinption (or perfect clearing away) of the transgressions under the first testament, they who are CALLED [ i. e, the spiritual church] jnight receive the promise of eternal inheritance.* From what has been ^id, it may appear, that the church of Christ is two- fold ; the one that outward and visible church, which professes divine truth and offers public worship; the other that spiritual assemblage of persons in all ages, who constitute the mystic body of Christ, and are chosen and called to this high privilege by the Father and Holy Spirit. They are not, however, two churches totally different from each other in members ; but the latter is raised out of the former, as the kernel out of the shell, and is the church emphatically, to which both what is called the visible church and the world itself do only minister and subserve. This is that salt of the earthy which keeps it, for a time appointed, from all the con- sequences of corruption. There is indeed another church (if it may deserve the name) called by the wise man the congregation of the dead, (Prov^. xxi. 16.) apostates, rebels, or giants (as the word signifies) in their own wisdom and strength; such as were those we read of in Gen. vi. 4. and Ecclus. xxiii. 4. These follow Cain and Balaam for the earth and its rewards, and have no spi- ritual alliance whatever with the Israel of God. The spiritually and effectually called of God are the CHOSEN of God; and called, because they are cliQsen. Thus chosen, called, and faithful, they con- *Ikb. ix. 15. stitute CHURCH. 11 stltute the one holy Church of God* in the sublime sense ; and are therefore said, what can be said truly of no others, to be in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.f They are in God by a mystical and spiritual imion with the person of their Redeemer, by whom alone they have this wonderful access by one Spirit to the Father. The ark of Noah shadowed forth the church in the world, selected and preserved from general destruction, borne up over the waves and oppositions of ungodly men and evil spirits, and landed safely at last upoa God's holy mountain. The ark of the covenant, resting in the most holy place, described in a figure the i:hurch in glory, covered by Christ her only propitiation, and cloathed with the * To this effect is the sense of a most learhed defender of the church ofEnglatid. « That church of Christ, which we properly term his body mystical, can be but one; neither can that one be sensibli/ discerned by any man, inasmuch as the parts thereof are some in heaven already with Christ, and the rest that are on earth (albeit their natural persons be visible) we do not discern under this property whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body. Only our minds, by intellectual conceit, are able to apprehend, that such a real body there is ; a body collective, because it con- taineth an huge multitude ; a body mystical, because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense. Whatso- ever we read in scripture concerning the endless love, and the saving mercy, which God sheweth towards his church ; the only proper subject thereof is this church. Concerning this jlock it is, that our Lord and Saviour hath promised, I give unto them eternal life, and thei/ shall never perish, neither shall ani/ pluck than out of-my hands^' Hooker. Eccl. Pol. B. iii. §. 1. 1 1 Thess. i. 1. pure 12 CHURCHr pure gold of his perfect righteousness. As NoaJi^s ark resembled the church militant, being agitated here upon the troublesome waves of the world ; so the other ark exhibited the church triumphant in the rest of God, and therefore received its name from the exultation and^oy, which the saints in glory pour forth before the throne of the Highest. Out of the ark of Noah, there was no escape or de- liverance: Out of the church of Christ, or not being a member of it, there will be found at the last no salvation. The outward and visible church, with its outward and visible signs, was instituted for the collection and instruction of those, who, by the means and calling used in it, compose, when completed in one body, that inward and invisible church, which receives, through the signs, the inward and spiritual grace. All others, *' being void of a lively faith," though they use the signs, find no " wholesome effect or operation" from them, " nor are they partakers of Christ in any wise," but rather fall into " condemnation" thereby. The outward church hath the means of grace ; but the spiritual church only hath grace itself and the end of grace. God hath appointed the one as a step to the other: and, by being partaker of the last, the Christian knows how to estimate and be thankful for the first. He will pray and endeavour for its extension and sup- port, in the establishment of its ordinances and ministers, that God's sheep, wandering in the worid, may be brought into the fold, and that their " number may be accomplished." The visible church consists, and necessarily must consist CHURCH. 15 i^oTisist in this world, of good and bad, and probably at all times of more bad than good : but the invisible church of Christ, gathered from the visible church universal, and from the beginning of man to the end of time, is made up wholly and solely of true believers, who, though they may differ in their proportions, have all the same grace, and one, common, undivided, interest in the salvation of Jesus Christ. The outward church hath often been rent with Ac- tions and schisms, and defiled by errors, through the cunning craftiness of men, who lie in wait to deceive, either for vain glory or for filthy lucre's sake. These pretend reason, and liberty, and unhmited discussion; forgetting, that where God hath already given the data or principles, man is bound to implicit consent, what- ever conduct he may espouse in ordinary matters; and therefore the result is, first doubt, then presumption, then error, and, lastly, open disobedience. The soundest visible churches have ever had, more or less of these " eye-sores and blemishes in their continual attendants about the service of God's sanctuary — who live by reli- gion, and are, for recompence in fine, the death of the nurse that feedeth them."* Such was the case and ruin of the churches in Asia ; and such of the Jewish church itself. Perhaps, no visible church ever was or will be so surely or effectually ruined, as by the false doctrine ' and gross misconduct of its own rulers and members. One enemy within the walls is worse and more danger- ous than fifty foes, who attack from without. But the * IIooKjiR. Eccl. Pol, B. V. § 81. inward 14 ^ CHURCH, inward church is preserved, in the arms and bosom of Christ, from the danger of these calamities. She doth not, she cannot, finally and essentially err; Christ himself hath pronounced it to be impossible:*^ and the gates of hell shall never prevail against her ; for the part on earth is brought forward and kept hy the power of God himself through faith unto salvation ; and the part in heaven is certainly delivered from the very approaches of mistake and of evil. The outward church of Christ upon earth shall re-« main, as the scaffold for the building, till every mem-i Ijer of the spiritual church shall be gathered in or fitted for its place ; and then the head-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings of Grace, Grace, unto it. Then shall all these present things, having no purpose for which they can remain, be dissolved ; and in one hourf of that day of the Lord which will come as a thief in the night, astonishing a thoughtless and giddy world as the flood of Noah, shall the heavens, being on fire, pass moay with a great noise, and the elements melt icithfer^ vent heat ; the earth also, and the works that are therein, all the cares, labors, contrivances, and hopes of men, shall he burnt up.t Thus spake the Holy Ghost by the apostle ; and long before he revealed the same, in his call to the children of God, by the prophet. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth be^ neath : for the heaven shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall waxt old like a garment, and they that dwell * Matt. xxiv. 24. with John x. 2r, 28. t Rev. xviii. 10, 19. \ 2 Pet. jii. 10—12. therein CHURCH. 15 therein shall die in like manner ; hut my salvation shall he for ever, and my righteousness shall not he abolished,* How desirous are mortals of continuance ? how eager for the very shadow of immortahty ? — for a continuance, even in this state of misery and corruption :-— for an immortality, supposed to be possible only in the future thought and opinions of dying men ! — for the useless immortality of an empty wa/we/ But alas! these veiy same mortals; how indifferent are they to God's owa promise and assurance of an eternal inheritance and abiding, and of a name, an everlasting name that shall not he cut off; which stands in the love and plaudit of innumerable beings, of the highest rank, holiness, and understanding in the whole creation, and even of God himself; and concerning that immortality, which con- sists in the unalterable enjoyment of every perfection without end ! This may be wisdom, at Feast they act as if it were wisdom, in their own esteem ; but in th^ sight of God, and proportionally in the view of every mind enlightened and alive, it is madness, melancholy, and misery ; verging towards and at last plunged in a gulph of unchangeable perpetuity beyond redemption. If we would see one of the most striking instances of the infatuation of sin, one of the most forcible proofs of the depth of the human fall; here it is. A creature, capable of the enjoyment of God and eternal happiness, deceived, besotted, and carried away from it, and also from every intrinsic good here upon earth, into the dregs of evil ; seehiirg death in the fluctuating vanity f and palpable * Isaiah 11. §, fProv. xxi. 6. errors 16 CHURCH. errors of life, and boldly spurning at those very things, which alone can answer the purpose of his being and make him happy ! He wanders wide through the world for that peace and safety, which no wanderer, as such, ever found. Satan and Cain have gone to and fro in the earth, and icalked up and down in it* under the curse of being fugitives and vagabo7ids,f but never attained satiety or rest ; and the same may be said of all, that follow them. In the ark, in the city, in the church, of God, must men enter in spirit and in truth ; or the world and their own bosoms, were there no enemies beside, will be leading them down from woe to woe, till they enter the dark and hopeless caverns of death eternal. * Reader ! Art thou in this church of the living God ?— I ask not, whether thou art of any particular deno- mination or outward church, so called among men; No, my aim is higher. Thou mayest be a member of any particular Christian society, enjoying the soundest , and most apostolic form ; thou mayest be esteemed for thy zeal, thy strictness, and for thine whole outward deportment ; thou mayest make a good profession too before many witnesses; and yet, after all this, and much more, not be a member of Christ's spiritual church, or a Christian indeed. It is even a possible case, that thou mayest be a minister or preacher to others, and be enabled even to work miracles in nature and grace (for Judas and others have done these) and yet he in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. Thy heart may be * Job. i. 7, t Gen. iv, 12. un- CHURCH. t^ litichaTigecl ; thy spirit may be loaded with pride, malice, and every evil temper; thy alFections may be fixed upon self or the creatures ; notwithstanding much apparent zeal, knowledge, or reputation. Thou mayest also change thy sect, without being renewed in thyself; and thou mayest hold any or every form of godliness, and for many years, but all the while be a stranger to its power. Thou mayest write books in proof of the true church, and be the instrument of leading others into the true profession; but be in thyself, notwith- standing, only sounding brass and a tinkling cymbaL It is hard to say, what thou mayest be ; what gifts, attainments, admiration, and successes, thou mayest receive or procure ; yet all without following Christ in the regeneration, and without being united to him in the sacred fellowship of his Spirit. It is certainly possible to be much in show, and nothing in reality : and how much, it is worth both thy labor and mine to search deeply and inquire. The sincere soul, with fear and trembling, seeks the discussion : the hypocrite, -with a careless or presumptuous confidence, abhors and shuns it. O what a dismal case it is for a man to be a stranger to his own self! How deplorable, that he should not know the motives and machinations of an evil heart of unbelief; that he should call evil good, and good evil; and that he should fancy himself to be well enough, upon the very precipice of death everlasting! What an hardening deceitfulness is there in sin ! What an unfeel- ing stupefaction doth it occasion in every sinful heart ! No law, no judgements, no threatnings, no chastise- c ments. 18 CHURCH. ments, on the one hand ; no gospel, no promises, no mercies, no glories, on the other; are sufficient, of themselves, to awaken a poor sinner from this sensual sleep of lost and ruined nature. Thine Omnipotence alone, thou blessed head of the church ; the powers of thine eternal Godhead, only, can quicken into spiritual life, the wretched, sunk, and helpless sons of men. When thou speakest, in thy word. Arisen from the dead ; thy Spirit rushes rapidly to the inmost recesses of the 3oul, and raises it up with vigor from the mental grave. Who can resist thy will; who frustrate thy gracious designs; who retain him in bondage, to whom thou impartest liberty and peace? — Lord, all hearts, all hands, all wisdom, all things, are thine ; and to thee alone be ascribed the kingdom^ the power, and the glory. And, Lord, who and what am I, or what is any other man, that thou shouldest make me, or him, a living member of thine holy and dearly united body I I have done nothing, I could do nothing, to deserve or obtain this, in my fallen state, being altogether wicked and weak. It was thy mercy, thy tender mercy alone, which visited my soul, and gave me eyes to see, and a heart to desire, the things that make for my peace. It is the same merciful power, which supports and carries me on from day to day. I do not leave thee, only because thou dost not, in tender faithfulness, leave or forsake me. Without thine help, I should droop in a moment. O make me sensible, always sensible, of this my weakness and manifold infirmities, that I may never trust to myself, but that thy power may rest upoji me. Thus keep me in the fellowsliip of thy church, of thy CHURCH* W thy. brethren (as thou hast deigned to call them) and mine; and enable me, with the deepest humility and gratitude, to remember the spiritual dignity thou hast conferred, and to walk, in the utmost degree, worthy of the high vocation wherewith I am called. In this way j by thy continual help, may I endeavour to make my calling and election sure. And when all that I am to do, and all that is to be done in me, is completed according to thy will ; O receive me up to thyself, my Lord, my life, my God ; and let me see thee face to face, according to thy word, which I have so often longed spiritually to see while in these regions of dulness and sorrow!— My soul exults in the bright expectation of its full interest in that great truth, which from age to age is fulfilling, aJid finally shall be accomplished, that the glorious CHURCH, which my dear Redeemer hath purchased^ he will, as High-priest, or Man-mediator, present to him- self, in Jehovah, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; yea, holy, unhlameahle, and unreproveable in his sight ; and that I, a poor unworthy sinner by nature, but a member of Christ by grace, shall stand in my lot also at the end of the days, and enjoy my Lord and my portion amongst his redeemed for ever. ^ d 9 TABER' 20 TABERNACLE. TABERNACLE. JL HE literal sense of this word is, 2i dwelling or hahita* tion ; and it is peculiarly the name of that remarkable building or tent, which according to God's command was raised by Moses, and carried through the wilderness with the Israelites to Canaan, as the token of God*s residence with them. The purpose of it was expressed in the command ; Let them [the children of Israel] make me a sanctuary (a place of peculiar holiness) that I may dwell amongst them ; wherein I may vouchsafe my Shecinah, my im- mediate presence to or among them : According to all that I shall cause thee to see, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it* The whole structure, therefore, had a particular sense in it, and exhibited, to the spiritual discernment of those that were Israelites indeed, several important truths; some of which are obvious to the spiritual discernment of God's people to this day, and were designed to be so. The several parts of this structure preached Christ and his goodness in a mystery ; and they prophesied of him t till he came, who was the great minister of the true Tabernacle [ that which the other only shadowed forth, but had no reality in itself] which the Lord pitched, and not man,X * Exod. xxv! 8, 9, t Matt. xi. IS. 1 Ileb. viii. 2. The TABERNACLE. 21 The tabernacle, therefore, of Moses was called also a tentf and was covered by one, intimating, that it was to pass away and to cease, when Christ should have ac- complished the whole purpose, which it prefigured, and should have terminated his salvation in an everlasting temple. This last temple, for that reason, is called, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven;* i. e. > the final accomplishment and manifestation in heaven, of what both the tabernacle and the temple testified and led to upon earth. It is highly derogatory to the wisdom and truth of the Most High to suppose, as some have dared to suppose, that this fabric of the tabernacle and all its appurtenances and OBConomy, so carefully delineated by God him- self, so expressly wrought under his divine tuition, and so exactly ordered in all its parts and applications, had neither certain nor sublime meanings in it; but was only a colluvies, a mass of idle ceremonies, borrowed from heathens, and calculated merely to soothe the idolatrous prejudices, or to employ the idle attention, of the Israelites in their passage through the wilderness.f But the Lord speaks otherwise, and calls them his charge [a matter to be closely, carefully, constantly, observed and considered, as the Hebrew word imports] his ^^- * Rev. XV. 5. f Apostolus ait : litera enimoccidit, spiritus vivificat.. Si eium hoc tantum •oolumus intelUgere^quod-ioiiat in litera; autparvam, aid proye nullam ccdlfcationem de divinis lectionihus capiemus. Ilia enim omnia qum recitantur, tr/pus erant et imago futuroriitn, dn Judicis enhnfigurata; in nobis, gratia Dei dona?ite, completa sunt, Aug. Serm. 201. de tempore, C 3 tutes 22 TABERNACLE* tutes, nis judgements, and his commandments :* which were to be laid up in his people's hearts, and in their souls ; which they were to teach, and io speak of, when they were sitting in the house, or walking by the loay, when they were lying down or rising up, that their days might he increased, not merely in number, but with the true in-s; crease of happiness and divine enjoyment, as the days of heaven upon earth, f They were fiill of those secrets of wisdom, that hidden mystery, which God only explains to the soul, and shows to it, that both his works and word are two-fold in existence, having an outward use and a spiritual signification. f The tabernacle signified both Christ personal ancj Christ mystical ; in other words, it prefigured both /wwz- selfand his body the church. It was therefore anointed with oil, and all its utensils ; and thus made figuratively holy. Christ and his people take their very name, from that holy unction, which the divine Spirit hath poured forth upon them, and by which they are for ever conse-? crated unto God. It denoleth Christ personal^ as the particular being in whom DWELLETH all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, or, as in one body, or emlneiM place ; whence the word place § was anciently applied to Jehovah in our nature. Thus * Deut. xi. 1. t Deut. xi. 18—21. t Job xi. 6. n^B^inV D^'?33» This n^unn is a name for that Wisdom, which sees things as they are, and for what they are intended, Prov. ii. 7. § aipc, As a place is a pointt in which the action of a being is determined; so the word is applied to Christ, as that person, in whom the pur|)oses and power of Jehov^li, respecting salva- tioii TABERNACLE. ' 23 Thus the blasphemy, mentioned against God and his tabernacle* is understood to be against God and his Christ, who, as the Word, or revealerof God,«7a5maa^e flesh, became manifest in the flesh, and dwelt, evho resisted the torrent in his time; and Micaiah the son of Imlah had all the other prophets upon him, when he testified against an evil king. When he was cautioned for this sin- gularity, he replied, with a noble heroism of faith; Js Jehovah liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak* ltwdis&3i\d of Athanasius, that he was against all the world, and all the world against him : and the same might have been said of Paphnutius, Luther, and many others. We must detach, in this great cause, persons from things, and number from consequence. The truth of God hath ever had but few followers in its truth, though many professors. Strait is the gate now, as it ever was, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life; and few there he that find it. It was always a comparatively little ^oc/c, to whom it is the Fathers good pleasure to give the kingdom. Reader, art thou of this flock, this spiritual temple? Doth Christ (which is the purpose of this temple) dwell in thy heart by faith? Art thou watching for God*s everlasting inhabitation within thee, by the operation^ of his Spirit, by the correction of his word, by the sue- cesssion of his providences, by faith in his mercies, by love to himself and his service ? Art thou looking toward * 2 Chron xviii. 13. the I TEMPtE. 49 the mercy seat of his holy temple, or, in other words, to Christ as thiiie head, as well as the head of all ofher his people ? Is the desire of thy soul to his name, and to the remembrance of him ? Canst thou say. With my soul have I desired him in the night, and my spirit xcithin me hath sought him early ? Art thou thus looking, in the ways of holiness, for this blessed Immanuel, as thine only expectation, and only hope ? Is it, at times, the melting, the burning desire of thine heart, to see his presence in righteousness, and to wake up in his likeness ? If Christ do indeed dwell in thy heart by faith, if thou art a real member of his holy temple, thou Avilt love the light of his countenance above all things; thou wilt dread the thought of departing from him, or of his absence from thee ; and, as thou art graciously made his habitation, thou wilt sometimes, if not often, long to be in his, even in the mansion which he hath prepared for thee. — O what fehcity is there in these divine expectations! How do they vivify the soul, and animate it above the sordid, miserable, pursuits and agitations of a passing, dying, world ! As the greatest stars appear minute and inconsiderable to us because of their distance; so the Christian, who is lifted up the highest in spirit towards his heavenly home, can behold, with the most gracious indifference, the lower cares of time, and can count them and the earth itself, but littleness, and even dung, compared with the excellency of Christ and his tran- scendent mercies. HOUSE 50 HOUSE OF GOD* HOUSE OF GOB. JL HIS term conveys the same idea with the word temple, under a more familiar form. It implies, by an easy figure, the constant inhabitation of God with and in his people, as his favored and peculiar home. The house of God is the church of the living God.* Not the frame of a building, but a particular designation of persons: whose house are we f (says the apostle, speaking of Christ;) we believers, whom he is building up for that purpose, as parts composing the grand fabric, in which he will abide for ever. This building is of God. No tool of man can be lifted up upon it : men themselves are but tools in his hand, accomplishing his work. The attempt is violation and pollution in the sight of God.* * 1 Tim. ill. 15. t Heb. iii. 6. • Exod. XX. 25. It is seriously to be remarked, how exact and careful the whole Jewish oeconomy was of any thing polluted or forbidden. No pleas of danger or convenience were admitted in breach of the rule. Persons uncircumcised, or out of the cove- nant; and persons circutncised, and therefore holy in that respect, yet having contracted any defilement ; were excluded from holy offices and places, while under those circumstances. When Nadab and Abihu, consecrated priests and sons of Aaron, from whatever motive either of pride or perverseness, offered strange fire before the Lord; fire which had not descended froin heaven; their service was abominable, and their persons were destroyed. And HOUSE DF GOD. 51 The design is of God. None can add, none can diminisli, here. The plan was laid before the foundation of the world, and hath been carrying into execution from time to time, according to the contract or covenant between the Divine Persons in Jehovah. It is ordered in all things and sure. The completion also must be of God. For, in this respect principally, it is sung of the Lord, Thou art worthy to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for thou hast created all things ; and for thy pleasure they are; and were created. The house of God is anointed, and thereby conse- crated to himself for ever. As an emblem of this, Jacob anointed a single stojie for a pillar of memorial, and called it GW^ /io^^^e;* and for the same purpose, the tabernacle afterwards, with all its appurtenances, was ordered to be anointed with holy oil, as the place of his immediate presence. Thus God's house, or the mem- And when Uzziah, apprehending the fall of the ark, in its passage from Kiriath jearim, put forth an unhallowed and forbidden hand with error or rashness to support It, the Lord made a breach upon him, for a warning to others. 2 Sam. vi. 6. — All this preaches to us, in a most lively yet awful manner, that God toill be sancti' fied IN them that come nigh him; (Lev. x. 3.) that only the pure fire of his own Spirit can carry up the incense of prayer and praise, with acceptance before him; and that those, who intrude them- selves contrary to his word^ or meddle with holy things in an un- hallowed way, or presume upon their own powers or goodness to support the truth of God, faithless in his providence or in4epen-. dent of his grace; shall fail in their object, and (if mercy prevent not) perish in their sins. See Isa. 1. 11. Numb. iv. 15. 1 Chron. XV. 13. X Sam. xiii. 13, &c. * Gen. xxviii. 17, &c. E 2 bers 5S HOUSE OF GOD. bers which compose it, are Christians; that 'is,persons anointed with the holy unction of God's Spirit, and thereby made unaUenably his own for evermore. This is their glory, that they are the Lord's, and not tJwir own ; that he hath purchased them to the liberty and happiness of everlasting purity, from the bondage of corruption and misery of sin ; and that he keeps what he hath purchased, by the never-failing exertions of his almighty power. No thought, perhaps, could terrify them more, than the thought of being left to themselves. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city the watch" man ivaketh but in vain. Believers understand this text, in its most important sense, and can apply it to purpose. Wherever God's house is, there is also his presence. It is never unfurnished by him, who filleth all in all. Hence, as a single stone could be the memorial of this matter, with Jacob; so each individual believer is an anointed stone of the Lord's abode, and, because anointed, a living and a lively stone in his holy habita- tion. He is appointed, as well as anointed, to salvation, and therefore shall never die, never be removed. He is a part of the Lord's everlasting memorial. Two or three met together in his name have yet more expressive tokens of his presence : and how vast then shall the joy and the demonstration be of the Lord's gracious yet awful majesty, when all the redeemed, in one great assembly, shall constitute the spiritual house of his eternal abode? The Lord hath chosen Zion: he hath desired HOlT^jf'O? GOD. /' 53 desiredit for kis habitation; saying. This is my rest for ever : here zvill I dicell, for I have desired it* Into this house, when fixed in its ordained place, nothing corruptible or vile can possibly enter ; no sin, no care, no sorrow, nothing that can defile or disturb. Below, indeed, it is not so. Hypocrites and unsound professors are not easily distinguished from the faithful and sincere. But though they may be in the house, during the present state, yet they are not of the house: " They may enter into the house, but are not the house itself." As believers are the habitation of God through the Spirit, so he is their's. The point of their rest, the consummation of their faith and joy, the place of their sanctuary y is the throne of glory, the Iteight oVer all from him who is the beginning, the first and the lasty and who ordained all this blessedness from before the foundation of the world. O, who can think of these things, and not be moved ! Who can hope for them, and not rejoice? Who can rejoice in the prospect of this possession, and not look down with contempt upon the foolish pompsand vanities of this dying world, upon the puny cares and concerns, which agitate and teize men almost to death continually, or which plunge them into a dreadful forgetfulness of God and themselves ? On the other hand ; how should the weak and trem- bling believer lift up his hands that hang down, and stay his feeble knees ; when this mercy, this great mercy. * Esalm cxxxii. 13, 14. E 3 this 54 HOUSE or GOD. this transceiidently great and unalienable mercy, is all open before him, and all most freely and most surely his own? If any thing ought to grieve him, it is his doubt of it; his poor, low, hopes; his dull, cold desires; his drooping, unfeeling, unanimated, spirit. This should both grieve and make him ashamed ; and that, after so many precious promises, such full and positive declara- tions, such undeniable evidence of the love and sufferings of Christ, such sure tokens of the Spirits grace and in- struction, such reiterated demonstrations of the love of the Father ; he should dare to imagine, that it is all in vain, or (what is the same thing) all to no effect to- wards him, who seeks no other refuge, who abhors and abandons every trust and confidence in himself, and who can truly say. This is all my salvation, and all my desire! — From such an impeachment of the divine truth and honor, and from such a robbery of happiness to his ownself ; may every beUever fervently say. Good Lord, deliver me I CITY CITY Ot GOB. $5 CITY OF GOD. VFlorious things are spoken of thee, or, revealing in thee, O citif of God ! All that Jehovah hath declared in his word, all that he hath wrought upon earth, and all the astonishing mercies of redemption by his Son, have appeared and been accomplished for thy sake, in the most intimate and inseparable connection with his own glory ! This title refers to the church, both as to its original plan, and to its gradual and final execution and accom- plishment. The plan is laid down in the covenant of grace. The materials are the chosen and called of God, hewn and prepared, and at length removed by him oyt of the world. And the city itself stands upon the holy mountain of heaven, is now building and increasing from day to day, as the redeemed are gathered in ; and shall finally be perfect and complete, without the omission of one spiritual or living stone, when the last of the appointed number shall be collected and fitted for its place. This city is called the new Jerusalem, in opposition to the old, which was to vanish away ; and this city is huilded and compacted together, forming one spiritual fabric; and, though a fabric, yet a bride; and this bride the ^Lamb's wife,* To express the perfection of its ori- ♦ Rev, xxi. % ginal 56 CltY dF GOD. ginal design and final accomplishment, Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit, the all-wise and omnipotent architect or builder, hath described it as an exact mathematical square, and the fulness of its inhabitants by a perfect and square number, which admits neither the least defect nor redundancy. It is also called a mountain* to denote its firmness and stability. Thither the tribes go up from generation to generation, even the tribes of Jehovah, to give thanks unto his holy name, and to praise him for ever and ever.f They have a nail, " a constant and sure abode," in his holy place ; and a wall, an appointed and measured line of building and defence, ill this true Judah, and most holy Jerusalem.t It is built all of pure and precious stones, capable of freely receiving light, and of finely reflecting it, though in distinct variety when received : and this light is neither from the sun, nor the moon, nor from any creatures; but tJie glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof No night can be there ; and the glory and honor of the nations, even the redeemed among men, however despised below, as diamonds in the mine by an ignorant eye, are brought into it, and rejoice with thanks- giving throughout eternity. Thus it appears, that the people of God are citizens of no mean city, -which they at once inhabit and com- pose; but are the companions of angels, kings and priests in a beautiful temple, joint-heirs with Christ's human nature of an exceeding and eternal weight of ♦ Isa. XXV. 6. ii. 2. Ps. Ixviii. 15, 16. t Ps. cxxii. X Ezra ix. 8, 9. glory, CITY OF GOD. '57 glory, and the friends and delight of Jehovah himself world without end. It is not possible, we are often told, to express or conceive the joys of this heavenly city, or union of the faithful in an inseparable life and love ; or to describe the privileges of its innumerable citizens, its distinct and individual members; and therefore we must rest upon what the Lord hath graciously revealed concerning them. Of this, however, we may be sure, that our faculties, whatever forms they may bear in that heavenly world, shall all be pure, perfect, and sublime; and that the pure, perfect, and sublime exercise of those faculties, upon the objects fitted and appointed for them, will constitute much of our happiness. For though labour is the effect of sin, and consequently toilsome and painful to the weak and unequal powers of a sinner; yet the most energetic employment of perfect beings, like the passage of the heavenly bodies in their orbits, may blissfully unite the most constant velocity of motion or duty, with the most entire possession of tranquillity or rest. We shall, in a word, be partakers of as much felicity, as God can bestow, and we receive. The ful- ness, which filleth all in all, will fill every one, accord-^ ing to his measure, with joy unspeakable and transcen- dent glory. O my soul, what hath God wrought, and wrought for thee! Who could believe, if the evidence was not clear in the word of the faithful Jehovah, and in the truth of a living experience granted by his power, that a weak dying wanderer upon earth, despicable and des- pised among men, poor without any thing of his own, and 58 CITY OF GOD. and worthless without power or right to obtain ; should be held so dear in the sight of a holy and just God, through the merit and mediation of his Son, as to be made a denizen of heaven, to be endowed with the privileges of eternal royalty aniong thrones and princi^ pah ties and powers; to be lifted up high above falling; and to be made incessantly happy without cloying; and all freely, fully, and everlastingly, by the arm of Omni- potence, and by the harmonious exercise of the wonder- ful attributes of the Godhead! — O the height and depth of this love of God! Who can utter the mighty acts of Jehovah ? Who can show forth all his praise ? Contemplate, my soul, this thy blessed citizenship from day today; go on, in heart, according to it, with faithful comfort and confidence; and, in life, pray, watch, and zealously strive to adorn and walk worthy of it ; till thou be removed, from this state of exile and absence, to thy own appointed portion in that glad world, where thou shalt see thy Redeemer face to face, and be like unto him and to thy brethren with him^ throughout the eternity ever before thee. BODY BODY OF CHRIST. 50 jBODF of CHRIST. JL HIS is a figure employed by the Holy Spirit, in the l^ew Testament, to express the most perfect and in- separable union, which subsists between Christ and his people. It is also employed to denote the intimate com- munion of saints ; partially in this life, because of their sinful bodies; but entirely hereafter, when they are com- plete in glory. It is a union which doth not destroy personal identity, but which consists in having a same- ness of life, by immediate derivation from the Godhead through and with Christ Jesus, whp is head over all to distribute this life unto those, who are in spiritual con- junction with him. The tabernacle, under the Old Testament, exhibited in figure, nearly, if not quite, a similar purpose and instruction. ' The apostle considers this important subject, with its proper inferences, in his epistle to the Corinthians. By one Spirit (says he) are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.* That is, being baptized into Christ, we have put on Christ ; so that he is now our new life, through partici- pation of the same Spirit: and yet our personal character is not destroyed, any more than the hand, because of * 1 Cor. xii. 13. its 60 BODY OF CHRIST, it§ conjunction with the body, ceases not to be a hand ; for the body is not one member, or one undistinguishable mass, but many members, and every one of these (as the apostle speaks in another place) members one of another,* Believers, from age to age, are aggregately one body, as composing the church of Christ; and they are members of that body, or members of Christ who i$ the head of it, when considered individually in them- selves.t Many noble uses are to be made of this great truth for the comfort and edification of the children of God. The figure, which represents it, was chosen by the wisdom of the Holy Ghost for this very purpose. It was not employed to delude us with a speculative fancy, but to describe, as much as earthly things may describe, a blessed and experimental reality. In the hook of God, or his covenant, were all the members of Christ written from before the foundation of the world, + wldch in continuance were fashioned^ or, what days they should be fashioned, when as yet there was none * Eph. iv. 25. t To this purpose is the observation of a great champion for the Church of England. " They, who belong to the mystical body of our Saviour Christ, and are in number as the stars of heaven, divided successively by reason of their mortal condition into many generations, are notwithstanding coupled ever// one to Christ their Head, and all unto every particular person amongst themselves; inasmuch as the same Spirit, which anointed the blessed soul of our Saviour Christ, doth so formalize, unite, and actuate his whole race, as if both he and they were so many limbs compacted into one body, by being quickened all with one and the same soul." Eccl. Pol. B. v. § 56. X Eph. i. 5. Rev. xvii. 8. of , BODY OF CHRIST. 01 «f them,* Accordingly God is said to foreknow his people, and, foreknowing them, to have given tJiem to Christ, He saw them as his own, while they existed only in secret ; and he considered them, according to the ever- lasting covenant, as in Christ before time began, and as members of Christ, for whom he was (in the view of the aame covenant) the Lamb slain from the foundation of the %corld,f This was their election of God, who declareth the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [aip», from before all time] the things that are not yet done, saying. My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.i These being Christ's own, given of the Father to him ais their God-man-mediator, he prayed, or interceded with his divine merits, for them, but not for the loorld, that they may be one, even as God and Christ are one ; Cod in Christ, and Christ in God, that they also may be one in them; Christ in them, and God in Christ, that they may be made perfect in one ; and that the glory which was given to Christ, and the love where- with the Father loved him, may be given to them and be in them, and he in them as their life and hope of glory.§ According to this divine plan, when Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, the ^ntient prophecy, by that act, was said to be fulfilled. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. This related to Christ as the head of his body the church, proving him to be the appointed /rs^6or» among many * Ps, cxxxix. 16. t Rev. xiii. 8. t Isa. xlvi. 10.. § John^xvii brethre7U C2 BODY OF CHRISTi hreiJiren, who, by this glorious demonstration of his victory and finished salvation, and by the power of this resurrection, are entitled to become the sons of God in him, and are said therefore to be begotten, by that very deed, to a lively hope through the mercy of God* Allud- ing to this, the apostle says, that God hath raised us UP TOGETHER, and made us sit together i?i heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are quickened with Christ, raised up together with him, and made to sit together^ as one body, one entire substance, upon one abiding g)vund, tv roiq £9r»pa»toK, in the super-heavenlies, in that which is above the CD>»kCr, or natural heavens, even in the spiritual cd^t^-c; or u^phi<, the immediate presence of the divine persons in Jehovah, of whom the others are the constituted figure.f Thus, the divine nature wasf called by the Jews, cd^dut n^i; " the name of the heavens;" i* e. the invisible reality and archetype of what these are only the sensible image and picture. Thus, the kingdom of heaven, distinguished into the rule of grace and providence, is the spiritual purpose of the heavens in the glory of God and salvation of his people. All this shows the great provision and certainty of their holy calling, or high vocation, and that it shall proceed to the several effects, described by the apostle in that glorious order, with which he comforts the believing Romans, and with them other believers to the end of time. J Upon this mighty and wonderful foundation, the members of Christ's mystical body have a rightful claim, ♦ Acts xiii. 33. 1 Pet. i. 3. Rom. i. 4. ' t Epli. ii. 6. J Rom. viii. 28—39. under fiODY OF CHRIST. 63 tlncler their head and in conjunction with him, to all the mercies, graces, and blessings of God's everlasting covenant, M^hich the revelation of his vs^ord hath set before them. They have a right to these both as a body and as individuals; for whatever belongs to the whole, belongs to every part in its place and order. They come, therefore, to the throne of grace, not as slaves, but as freemen ; not as servants, but as children ; not as mere expectants, but as undoubted heirs, yea, as heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, Accordingly, the apostle speaks of the believer's privilege in this res-* pect, as a «7«ppno-ia, an open, clear, evidential, liberty or boldness; an access to God with confidence and full dependance by the faith of Christ:* — a liberty, founded upon an indefeasable right, and used with the confiding freedom of a lawful and undoubted son. We cannot therefore ask, in submission to the divine will and agree- able to the divine word, more than what Christ hath purchased for us, or more than what God hath promised to bestow in him and through him : and we cannot ask this with too great frequency, or too much assurance of faith. Our heavenly Father loves the ardent,- holy, importunity of his children.f Union with Christ implies communion of life, sen- timents, and manners, with Christ. As every member of the natural body is actuated immediately by the head ; so every member of Christ's mystical body is guided by his wisdom, and receives ail true nourishment and * Eph. iii. 12. Hebjv. 16. f Luke xviii. 1. xi.l.— 13. Matt. vii. 7, xxi. 22. - . ; activity 64 JIOIXY OF CHJIIST. activity from him, as being the source of Hfe to all that believe. It would be strange, indeed, were the head and the body to live by different principles, go different ways, act for separate purposes, and come to different ends. The re is no such schism as this in Christ's spiritual body. His membere hold, and hold fast too (as the word signifies) their life-giving head, from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment minis^ tered and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.* They have the same spirit and life with Christ; and therefore they are in their place and measure like un» to him. It is also their great desire to be more and more like unto him ; and for this purpose they are enabled to live more dependently upon him. As a man cannot be truly like Christ, but through him ; so none are his, or at least have any visible token that they are his, but those who walk according to this rule, and who strive «ven to perfect holiness in the fear of God, Through union with Christ, there is not only life, but safety by him. The head hath pre-eminently all the discerning faculties in it for the use of the body. Christ watches over his people ; and his eye is ever upon them and guides them. He succors them by his almighty power; making his strength perfect and illustrious, in all their wants and weakness. No enemy can delude him, nor his elect, essentially, in him :t No weapon, formed against either, shall prosper ; and every tongue, ihat shall rise in judgement agaimt them, will God cotit ♦ CoL ii. 19. t Matt. xxiv. 24. demn I BODY OF CHRIST. 65 demn. TJiisis the heritage of the servants of Jehovah; and their righteousness is of me, saith Jehovah* And all this safety necessarily infers victory, perse^ verance, and everlasting glory, through this gracious Head and Redeemer. It is impossible for the whole creation to overcome the head ; and therefore the meni- bere must prevail. As Christ endureth ever ; so those, who are in him, shall also endure to the end and be saved. The inheritance, the kingdom, the crown, even, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, are reserved in heaven for the joint-heirs of Christ, by the faithfulness and omnipotence of Jehovah their Saviour; and therefore there is an ineffable security for their faith and hope, that they shall not trust in vain, but that the believers themselves shall be resewed too, for the enjoy- ment of what their. Lord hath promised to them. O believer! to what an high and gracious state art thou called! How unworthy then would thy conduct be of such a gracious. Lord, wert thou to go drooping and doubting all the day long! But how much more shameful, to prostitute a member of Christ to the drud*- gery and baseness of the devil ! No: love to Christ must follow, invariably, the knowledge and possession of him. If Christ be in us* the body is dead, or in a subdued state, because of sin ; hut the spirit is life, and life daily renewed, because of righteousness, " No ipan (says the judicious Hooker J is in Christ, but he in whom Christ actually is.t" And the actuahty is chiefly discovered by the activity. Love * I§a. liv. 17. t Ec^l.. Pol. B. y, is 00 BODY OP CHRIST. is a swift and willing motion of the soul, which kindles every energy into quickness and diligence ; and, conse- quently, they, who love Christ, will most chearfuUy do the things that he says. Their obedience will be from love, and very much according to the measure of it. Next to this, the love to Christ's members will be a certain consequence of the love of his person. They will be loved for his sake and for their own. Our Lord taught us this love, when he taught us to pray. We are not directed to say. My Father, individually, though it be a truth ; but. Our Father, in common with all his people : for each member, as a part of the whole, ought to pray for the whole body; as the whole body, in the same words, is enjoined to pray for every parti- cular member. By this rule, a reciprocal affection is inculcated; and, by this practice, it is diffused and maintained. The great affection of the primitive dis- ciples astonished their adversaries, and drew from them that honorable testimony; "See how these Christians love one another 1" They called each other (following the scripture) by the endearing name of brethren and sisters ; till, in short, their fellowship and brotherhood were titles, which stood for and signified the church itself. Amiable example 1 The bitter hatred and perse- cution of the world gave only a contmst of shade to that fair and blessed light, which it could not obscure or destroy. Something of this kind not unfrequently occurs in the meeting of real Christians, who perhaps never heard of or saw each other before in their lives. An hint about Christ or his salvation, like a spark of fire, shall kindle the «ODY OP CHRIST. ($7 the flame of fellowship; and the discourse, drawn out into the detail of heart-felt experience, shall confirm a regard, to which the men of this world are strangers, and of which they are surprized to hear. An instance of this kind, I well remember, passed a few yeai*s since in a foreign land ; which, though it hath been already published, I will take leave to insert in this place, as one proof among many of the remark, which I have been making. Some years ago an English gentleman, by a particular providence, had occasion to be in North America, where, among other adventures, the following circum- stance occurred to him, which is thus related in his own words. "Every day's observation convinces me, that the children of God are made so by his own special grace and power, and that all means, whether more or less, are equally effectual with him, whenever he is pleased to employ them for conversion. " In one of my excursions, while I was in the province of New York, I was walking by myself over a consider- able plantation, amused with its husbandry, and com- paring it with that of my own country, till I came within a little distance of a middle-aged negro, who was tilling the ground. I felt a strong inclination, unusual with me, to converse with him. After asking him some little questions about his work, which he answered very sensibly, I wished him to tell me, whether his state of slavery was not disagreeable to him, and whether he would not gladly exchange it for his liberty. " Massah, {said he, looking seriously upon me) I have wife and F 2 children ; <6|$ BODY OF CHRIST. children ; my massah takes care of them, and I have no care to provide any thing; I have a good massah, who teach me to read; and I read good book, that inakes me happy/' I am glad, replied I, to hear you say so ; and pray virhat is the good book you read ? " The Bible, massah, God's own good book?" Do you under- stand, friend, as well as read this book? for many caa read the words well, who cannot get hold of the true and good sense. •* O massah, says he, I read the book much before I understand ; but at last I felt pain in my heart; I found things in the book that cut me to pieces.** Aye, says I, and what things were they? " Why, ^lassah, I found that I had bad heart ; massah, a very bad heart indeed : I felt pain, that God would destroy me, because I was wicked, and done nothing as I should do. God was holy, and I was very vile and naughty ; so I could have nothing from him but fire and brimstone in hell."--Tn short, he entered into a full account of his convictions of sin, which were indeed as deep and piercing as alniost any I had ever heard of; and what scriptures came to his mind, which he had read, that both probed him to the bottom of his sinful heart, and were made the means of light and comfort to his soul, I then enquired of him, what ministry or means he made use of, and found that his master was a Quaker, a plain sort of man, who had taught his slaves to read, but who had not, however, even conversed with this negro upon the state of his soul, I asked him likewise, how he got comfort under all this trial ? ^* O massah, says he, it was Christ gave me comfort by his dear word. He b^de me come unto him, and he would give me rest, for B6Dlr OF CHRIST; 09 t Was- very weary and heavy laden." And here he Went through a line of the most precious texts in the bible, showing me, by his artless comment upon them as he went along, What great things God hud done in the course of some years for his soul. Being rather more acquainted with doctrinal truths, and the analogy of the Bible, than he had been, or in his situation could easily be; I had a mind to try how far a simple, mitutored experience, graciously given without the usual means, could carry a man from some speculative errors ; and I therefore asked him several questions about the merit of Works, the justification of a sinner, the power of grace, and the like. I own, I was as much astonished at, as I admired, the sweet spirit andsim.plicity of his answers^ with the heavenly wisdom that God had put into the mind of this negro* His discourse, flowing merely from, the richness ofgracCj with a tenderness and expression, far " beyond the reach of art," perfectly charmed me. On the other hand, my entering into all his feelings^ together with an account to him, which he had never heard before, that thus and thus the Lord in his mercy dealt with all his children, and had dealt with me, dre\t streams of joyful tears down his black face, that we looked upon each other, and talked with that inexpres* i^ible'glow of Christian affection, that made me more than ever believe, what I have often too thoughtlessly professed to belieVe, the communion of saints, I shall iaever forget, how the poor excellent creature seemed to hang upon my lips, and to eat my very words, when I enlarged upon the love of Christ to poor sinners, the free bounty and tender mercy of God, the frequent and de- F 3 lightful 70 BODY OF CHRIST. lightful sense he gives of his presence, the faith he bestows in his promises, the victories this faith is enabled to get over trials and temptations, the joy and peace in believing, the hope in life and death, and the glorious expectation of immortality. To have taken otf his eager, delighted, animated, air and manner, would have been a masterpiece for a Reynolds, He had never heard such discourse, nor found the opportunity of hearing it, before. He seemed like a man who had been thrown into a new world, and at length had found company* Though my conversation lasted, at least, two or three hours, I scarce ever enjoyed the happy swiftness of time so sweetly in all my life. We knew rpot how to part. He would accompany me as far as he might ; and I felt, on my side, such a delight in the artless, savory, solid, unaffected experience of this dear soul, that I could have been glad to see him often then, or to see his like at any time now. But my situation rendered this impossible. I therefore took an affectionate adieu, with an ardor equal to the warmest and the most antient friendship, telling him, that neither the colour of his body, nor the condition of his present life, could pre- vent him from being my dear brother in our dear Saviour; and that, though we must part now, never to see each other again any more in this world, I had no doubt of our having another joyful meeting in our Fa- , therms home, where we should live together, and love one another, throughout a long and a happy eternity. **Amen, Amen, my dear massah ; God bless you, and poor me too for ever and ever." If I had been an angel from heaven, he could not have received me with more evident BODY OF CHRIST. 71 evident delight than he did ; nor could I have considered him with a more sympathetic regard, if he had been a long-known Christian of the good old sort, grown up into my affections in the course of many years." ' Happy world, if all were Christians ! Or, at least, happy Christians, if they showed more of this fraternal affection to each other \n the world ? None can deny, that so it ought to be. O that every one, who names the name of Christ, ami believes himself to be a mem- ber of his undivided body, would pray for faith and charity to put the whole into being ! Blessed Lord 1 Fountain of life and love, send forth the Spirit of thy Son into my heart and into the hearts of all my brethren ; that, waving all mean and selfish distinctions, we may first love thee above all things, and then each other for thy sake with a pure heart fervently. Subdue animosities, and all the separating corruptions of the flesh, and let us consider ourselves as brethren, felloiv heirs of the grace of life, persons who shall pass an eternity together, yea, as parts of each other, and members, holy Jesus, of thy body, thyjlesh, and thy bones. Even so, let it be, for thy glory and for our present and eternal consolation through thy grace : Amen. CHRISTIANS. 7^ CHRISTIANS, CHRISTIANS, JhLn honorable title indeed, taken from the Redeemef himself! The disciples of the Lord Jesus were first called by this name at Antioch ;* but the sense of the name belonged to the children of God from the begin-, nhig of the world. As the word Christ signifies ANOINTED, i. e. by the Holy Spirit; so the word Chris^ tians denotes properly those, and those only, who are anointed by the same Spirit, and thereby follow him in the regeneration. Thus the patriarchs were called anointed, because of their relation to the Messiah, (which is the Hebrew word for Christ:) touch not mine ANOINTED, and do my prophets no harm.f They were Christians, through faith in their Saviour, by the unction of the HOLY one; and none others have, in truth and reality, a right to the name. This oil of gladness first * This was abont the year of our Lord 44 : before this time, the disciples were styled, in contempt, Nazarenes and Galilaans. And to show to us, that our Lord considers the reproach of the world as the truest honor; he made himself known to Paul at his conversion, by the despised name of Jesus of Nazareth, The JetvSy therefore, in contemning Christ, and hating his people, have only brought upon themselves, in this instance, the fulfil- ment of that prophecy, which declared, that they should leave their name [the name oi Jew] for a curse unto God's chosen^ and that the Lord God -would slay them, and call his servants by AKOTEER na7ne, Isa. Ixv. 15. t Psalra cv. 15. descend* CHRISTIANS* 7S descends up6n Christ, and then from him, the head and high-priest of the great profession, to the meanest and lowest of his true members, or to the last of them who shall come into the world, even to those who, in these respects, may be styled, in prophetic figure, the skirts of his clothing* It appears from hence, that it is no such slight of common thing, as too many suppose, to be a Christian, If we consider the Author: it is the gift of God, and the action of God himself, upon that person, who is pos- sessed of the truth implied by the name. If we con- sider the blessing : it is an oil most holy, as was declared in the type, by which the redeemed are consecrated ; and never yet was thrown away upon men continuing ungodly and profane. f Those, who live under the dominion of sin, prove demonstrably, that it hath never yet been poured upon them. Wherever it is poured forth, it makes holy, and keeps holy. It is an oil of consecration, which devotes the soul to God, brings the soul by faith into the presence of God, enjoins him to walk continually as in that presence, admits him to communion and love with the Father and Son, enables him to live in the sense of the gracious privileges con* * Psalm cxxxiii. 2. f This was signified by the precept; upon man's fesh it shall not be poured^ Exod. xxx. 32. The. corrupt flesh or nature of man is not the object of this unction ; for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, because in the flesh dwelleth no good thing;, but the new man, who is created anew in Christ Jesus, or is born again of the Spirit, is the only subject of this divine anointing, and is thereby made the priest consecrated to God, and capable of union and communion l^ith him, ^ ferred 74 CHRISTIANS/ ferred upon him, renews the mind into the image of Christ, causes it to rejoice in the holy and righteous will of Jehovah, and inspires a gracious longing and waiting for the purity as Well as peace of the kingdom of glory. If something of this, at least, he not found in a man ; ' or if, where supposed to be found, there be no strong desire for an increase of it ; let such an one beware, lest, instead of being anointed with the Spirit of Christ, and being sealed with the seal of God in his forehead* he hear the mark only of the beast, and be found among those that are deceived,^ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his : that is, he is not a Christian, and hath no right to the name. He, who is anointed by the Spirit of Christ, or, what is the same, is a Christian indeed, hath the mijid or understanding of Christ, discerns the truth of God in his word, apprehends the great analogy or proportion of faith which runs through the scriptures, tastes the sweet savour of the gospel, that hidden manna, ivhich none can know but he that eats it, and rejects, as nau- seous and vile, every false or adulterated principle, and all the perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, who are destitute both of the truth and its power. As the real Christian hath an understanding which is tme, and which fixes his judgement upon all essential truth ; so his will and affections are correspondent with it. He loves the things of God, and the people of God, without narrowness of spirit ; because the Jove of God is shed abroad in his heart by that Holy One, who made * Rev. ix. 4, t Rev, xix. 20. him CHRISTIANS. 75 him a Christian. If God love any person or thing; how can he, who is of God, venture or be inclined to do otherwise? The life of Christ also is manifested in the mortal body of every true Christian, subduing the corruptions of that body, and thereby delivering the soul from a mul- titude of snares and inquietudes. I (says the apostle, respecting the body, with its affections and lusts) / am crucified with Christ : nevertheliss I live [i. e. as to my soul ;] yet not 1, hut Christ liveth in me : and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.* He found the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, not like Adam the first, a mere natural man, but the Lord of life itself, and therefore a quickening Spirit: and he proved his interest in him, by living upon him, (not upon himself, or his own poor corrupted nature) and by re- ceiving out of his fulness, from moment to moment, grace for g)^ace» This is the life and spirit, the wisdom and strength, the happiness and holiness, of the Chris- tian : and all the rest is nothing but a fair show in the FL^sH, if it pretend to religion ; or a foul show, if it follow the world. The sum, then, of this matter is, that the holy unction, which makes a Christian, is the gift of God, and that the persons, who receive this grace, are devoted by it to God for ever, are renewed in the spirit of their minds, and from henceforth walk in the ways of truth and holiness, through the power and wisdom of tliat holy, * Cai. 11. 20. unction. 7^ CHRISTIANS* unction, according to the measure bestowed, till they reach the place of their destination in heaven. The clear view and experience of this matter, con* firmed and sealed by the Spirit of grace, afford an in- estimable and invincible consolation to the soul. To know Christ, to be anointed by him, to be found in him, to live upon him, to receive continual supplies of strength, wisdom, love and righteousness from him, and to have the proof and demonstration of this, arising to the conscience and appearing in the life, forms such a conjunction of evidence as amounts to thsit full assur' ance of faith, hope, and understanding, which is the privilege, and must be the pursuit, of the children of God. It is this, which has animated many a heart under all the persecution and outrage of the world, and softened many a sick and dying bed, when nothing else could afford consolation. How often hath it been seen, that, while nature has been sinking, and the outward man, with his faculties, has lost all his strength ; with an admirable vigor of joy the soul hath been enabled to rise, to exult, to triumph, to look forward into, and even to taste, the very nature and enjoyments of another world ! These instances have not only often occurred, but may occur again and again ; and perhaps may be found even in thee, O believer, who readest with long- ing concern any thing, which relates to the faithfulness of thy Lord, or to thy fellowship with him. Fear not; the promise is sure to all the seed, I will tiever leave thee nor forsake thee ; and whether the joy come to thee before death or no£, thou wilt surely go to it in the next moment chuistians. 77 moment afterwards. Thou shalt then have, not only the fulness of joy, but the duration of it for ever. And O what a scene shall then be presented tx) the expanded faculties of the soul, newly released from the house of clay; what a burst of glory fall upon the spirit of a Christian, on his abundant entrance into the hea- venly kingdom ! It will be more than springing from a cold dark dungeon into the warm meridian day. The hand of God, which covered Moses, can then alone bear up the saint, though full of vigor by deliverance from sin, and alone enable him to sustain the exceeding and eternal weight of bliss and brightness, of which, as an heir come to age, he enters at once into the full pos* session. A gracious man, in the circumstance we call dying, felt such an anticipation of this unutterable blessedness, that, with some of the last efforts of his sinking voice, he could not help crying out; "O my God ! O that joy I when shall I be with thee !"* Reader, may something like this be thy dying testimony to the truth and sweetness of Jesus's salvation, that others may be edified by the remembrance of thee, and be preparing to follow thee ; whilst thou shalt be singing, in a higher world, as thou canst not sing here,^ the honor, the love, the mercy, the praise, of thy gracious Lord and God Redeemer ! • See Burnham's Fious Memorials^ p. 111, second edition. CHOSEN, CHOSEN. CHOSEN. JL HERE ^s scarce any one truth more manifest in the scriptures than this, that God hath an elect or chosen people, taken and redeemed from the world, and or- dained through Christ to everlasting life and glory. It is declared, and continually declared, in word and deed, in doctrine and example, by the testimony of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, of Christ and of God, and by the concurrent effect and experience of its reality in the hearts of believers from age to age, who have known and rejoiced in his precious salvation. And yet, because of its opposition to the pride and blind conceit of fallen nature, no one truth is more offensive in itself, or more detested by those, who know not the plague of their otcn hearts^ and who therefore scan all things by the line of a dark and corrupted j^ason. The self-sufficient spirit of the natural man cannot endure or submit to a truth, though it be God's own positive truth, which proposes to strip him of all his own consequence, and to lay hira as a wretched, worthless, helpless, sinner in the dust of contrition and self-abhorrence. This " afJVonts his reason," afiVonts his dignity, affronts his nature, affronts all that is in him or belongs to him. He will struggle hard for a little, if but a little, portion, some little un- derstanding, some little ability, natural at least if not moral. CHOSEN. 79 moral,- ia the business of salvation ; and can never let go this proud and rotten principle of his corrupt and de- luded heart, till divine power hath sw^ept away both this and every other refuge of lies from within him. If he cannot, out of some reverence to the bible, go the lepgth of Sadducees and Pelagians y and deny all manner of predestination ; he will at least halve the matter with the Pharisees and Semi-armiiiianSy and contend for a strong conjunction with it of man's own free-will and power. What a malicious indignation was stirred up in the hearts of the Jews, when our Lord preached the entire sovereignty of God, in passing by the widows of Israel, and selecting a Gentile widow of Tyre or Sidon ; in rejecting the Israelitish lepers, and preferring such an one asNAAMAN the Syrian? Their souls seemed on fire by this declaration; and, being filled with bloody wrath, they attempted to destroy the Redeemer. And the heart of man is the same to this day: no one truth affects it writh more enmity or bitterness. The writer of these lines freely owns, that he himself once hated it with a perfect hatred, and blasphemed it, by word afid pen, with all his might. But God vouchsafed mercy, and so triumphed over the ignorance and unbelief of his mind, as to render that, v^^hich once was his scorn, one of the sweetest and most substantial grounds of all his peace. This choice of God results from his own will; and the exercise of it superinduces, with a bland volition, the will of man. Of his own will (says the apostle) hegat he us, &c. His children, respecting their spiritual or new birth, are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 80 CHOSEir. nor of the will of man, but of God. And this will of God proceeds not according to the worth or excellency, either present or foreseen, in man ; because nothing of this kind can be really in him, till God shall have been pleased to place it there : and therefore Christ says, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, poor simple ones either found such or made such ; and he gives no other reason or rule for this conduct but one, which ought to silence all the rash forwardness and presumption of man ; Even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Thus said Jehovah himself to Moses ; I will be gi^acious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I ivill sJww juercy. To this may be added the words of the apostle; Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty ; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things which are ; that no flesh should glory in his presence. It is manifest, then, from these two or three texts, out of a thousand which might be quoted, that there is a people choseji to salva- tion out of the mass of mankind, (for, if a// are redeemed, there can be no possible choice or election of any J and that all the causes of it are in God's free love and mercy on the one hand, and in his justice and holy judgement on the other. They, who will presume to go beyond or astray I CHOSEN. 81 astray from these, in their representations of his conduct, do and must wander at their peril. The proof of this truth also stands upow fact. What rendered Abel's offering more acceptable that Cain's? We are told by the Apostle, that it was/az^/i. Heb. xi. Now, faith is the gift of God, which was bestowed upon him, and not upon his brother; and therefore it was, that the one was accepted and righteous, and the other left to the naked form of an empty profession. Cain, like the Pharisees in the gospel, brought his outward ty the or offering to God, and seemed willing to bring it; but bringing that only, and no faith with it, it was wholly an abomination to the Lord. So Noah/ouwc? grace in the eyes of the Lord, Gen. vi. 8. And thus he, likewise, became a just man, and perfect* in his genera- tions, walking with God, It was the free grace of God, which called Abraham, then an idolater, from his fa- ther's idolatrous house; which gave him faith to believe * D^ion^sucb, as the grace of God had made coijiplete in Christ, and of the j9er/rc^ 7/ 2^W(^; not merely as the deficient but efficient cause, and certainly without implying that he is or can be the author of sin. If, then, one part of mankind, must come S6 CttOSEKT. election by his vocation; as the worldling ptoves tii» reprobation by his final impenitency. God having raised the believer from the death of sin through Christ, or made him a partaker of Christ's resurrection, he liveth to God, and upon God in Christ with fliith and holiness, and thus rejoices in hope, that, God having renewed him in the spirit of his mind, and drawn him with loving^ kindness and mercy, therefore he hath loved him with an everlasting love» This argument, standing upon the immutability and eternity of the Godhead, holds firmly in all its parts, and, in conjunction with his re- vealed will, looks backward and forward with equal truth and force. He, that loved without beginning, will love without end. He that contrived to save his elect, when sinners, from all eternity, will preserve them, when saved and made saints, to all eternity. And God hath revealed this plain theory, as a clue to the progression of our experience, and as a ray of light for our comfort; and none can consistently oppose it, but those who have no interest in the matter. If such, following their own corrupt reason, indulge themselves come, because God hath ordained thst they s/iall come; and that others cannot come, because he, who hath rejected the whole world of fallen angels, hath rejected that part of fallen men ; who and what is the daring worm, who can venture to dispute, by his blinded reason, against the holy and supreme determination of God? Who is wicked enough to say to him, What doest thou? Who is presumptuous enough, by distinctions coined to please the corrupt imaginations of men, to fritter away or obscure the positive and plain declarations ofhirrj, who can do nothing hut nvhat is right, and 7vho, beyond his own will, giveth not account of any of his matters f in CHOSEN. . 87 in the deepest speculations upon this subject which i'eason is capable of; they may puzzle themselves indeed, but can conclude nothing certain, apart from divine revelation, but this one thing, that they have attempted to be wise above what is Written, through the rebellion of their minds against what is written. To real Christians, " to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, the godly consideration of predestination and our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable com- fort;" and to such only, because they experience the thing, and enjoy it, not as a curious dry speculation, but as a perceptible fact. For this end, Christ himself was the chosen, or elect, of God, with respect to his human nature, that he might be the head over all things to his church ; and his church, the proper members of that head were chosen in him, and ordained, that thej?" might make up one body, one building, one temple, in the Lord. What perfection of arrangement, what cer- , tainty, what comfort, what dignity, in the clear view and divine perception of this great plan, in which Jeho- vah in his persons and offices stands immutably en- gaged, are seen to appertain to the whole houshold of faith, and to every individual member and branch of the sacred family! The excellency of such an object is enough to charm the heart into the love of it, and always charms it indeed, when, through grace, the beauty of the workmanship and the glorious faithfulness of the divine agent are experimentally known. O how wonderful is the love, how full of condescensiori and mercy, which could rescue so worthless a vrorm, as G 4 I naturally 8S CHOSEN. I naturally am, from the jaws of destruction ! which could rescue me too at so great a cost, as the sufferings and death of the Son of God ; and all this, not by such an accidental pity over my misery as might or might not have considered my deplorable state, but by an all* wise, an all-perfect, an everlasting design, planned in the councils of the Almighty, before this world and this natureof mine were made! Who can express the debt I owe to Father, Son, and Spirit, the triune Godhead, for enrolling my poor name in the covenant of grace ; for recording my wants, my peace, my salvation, in the hea- venly records ; for writing all I am and all I hope for in the Lamb's book of life, indelibly as on the rock for ever / The confidence, the assurance, which the Lord hath afforded of this perfect and unalterable mercy, what world, what millions of worlds, can counter-balance or purchase? And how much do I loose, how poorly do I live, when the sense of this glorious favor, this inestim- able good, doth not dwell in me richly in all the wis- dom and truth of the word of God? This persuasion was an apostle's joy, that he knew whom he had believed, that he was able to keep all that he had committed to him, and that nothing should separate him from the love of Christ; and O that it may be mine! May I lookback from the present instance of thine effectual calling, O my God, to that provision of thine to which nothing could be unknown, and to that pre-ordination without which no good could arise, and bless and adore thee, that, weak and worthless as I am in myself, thou didst choose me in my Redeemer before the world began, that I should be hohj and without blame before thee in love, according to CHOSEN ' - 89 to the good pleasure of thy will, and that I should obtain salvation through Jesus Christ to thy glory ! O that this dignity, to which I am thus bountifully raised, may impress my heart with grateful awe, and wonder, and love ; and may I be enabled to show, that indeed I am thus raised to be a king and a priest in the regions of immortaUty, by a gracious superiority over self, the world, and sin. May this true greatness and sublimity of mind, very remote in its nature from the false and foolish pride of a fallen heart, lead me to just reflections upon my spiritual station, and make me very careful not to disgrace it by improper company, thoughts, words, or actions. And as the throne of glory, the height from the hegiiining, is the place of my sanctuary* may I have life and power continually dealt out to me, from the divine fulness, to walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith I am called ! May I have a noble contempt for every thing, which would either stop my course or deaden my heart, in my passage towards my crown ; and may I learn more and more to count all things but dung and dross, when put in competition with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord! Thus may I walk as the elect of God on earth, and at length obtain my incorruptible inheritance with the fellow-members of my Saviour's mystic body, when I shall be both perfectly like to him in all things, and (to give a full emphasis to all my joy) shall for ever be with him ! * Jer. xvii. 12. ADOPTED. 90 Adopted* ADOPTED. ERSONs, adopted into a family, were, according to antient laws, entitled to all the privileges, and subject td all the restrictions, which children of the same blood could claim as their inheritance.* Agreeable to this well-known transaction in common life, God is represented as the great adopter of those, who are brought into the bond of the covenant, and made partakers of its blessings. They were once of another family, or rather of no family at all, being, like Cain, vagabonds, fugitives, wanderers, in thfe men- tal sense, upon the wilderness of this earth, in a aoVitary way, finding no city to dwell in ;t but God, who is rich in mercy, toolc them from this fearful state, adopted them into his family, and provided for them accordingly. He found them filthy; but he made them clean: he knew them to be enemies; but he turned them into friends: he gave them the Spirit of his children, filling their hearts with love and gratitude to himsfelf, and with cordial affection to all that belong to him. They could not, being enemies, adopt themselves: they had no more inclination than power for any such * See more concerning the nature and privileges of adoption, in Hor, Solit. Vol. ii. p. 241. f Ps. cvii. 4. ' blessings - ' ADOPTED. 91 blessing. The design, the act, the accomplishment^ were altogether of Jehovah, who foreknew them, when to no creature they could possibly be known, and fore- ordained them to be saved by that immaculate Lamb, who, for their sakes, in the purpose and sight of God, was a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. These are the brethren beloved, who knoxc their election to be o/* God ; and to these the gospel came not in word onhjy but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost ^ and in much assurance. This great truth the men of the earth cannot under- derstand or commune with, and therefore seek and ex- pect no interest in it. Biit it is the clear and sweet voice of that unerring wisdom, which is justified of all her children. The creation of the world itself is not more expressly revealed, than this adoption of the children of Cod from among the men of the world. The scorn of the multitude demonstrates that they have no apparent intere;st in the thing ; and their having no interest proves, if there be such a matter as salvation, that thefeic, who find it, must have found it according to the choice or adoption, revealed in the scripture and enforced from heaven. But wherefore wert thou chosen and adopted, O my »oul ; while many, to all appearance better, or at least not possibly worse by i>ature, than thou art, have been neglected or left ? What reasons canst thou perceive in thyself, why the Lord should set his love upon thee, and not upon thy neighbour or thy friend, who perhaps \v^\e not erred and strayed farther or sd far from him ? Why was one blaspheming thief taken for an heir of salvation. I 02 AtJOPTElJ. salvation, and his fellow, not worse than himself, left to perish in his sins? Why was the harlot Mary Mag- dalene, who was possessed completely by the devil, ac- cepted to grace; while many of the chaste and sober matrons of Israel found no regard? Why were the learned, the devout, the scrupulous Pharisees sentenced to wrath; and the ignorant fishermen, the extorting pub- licans, the careless sinners, reclaimed and saved ? — Lordf I can give no reason for all this conduct of thine, but what thou thyself hast been pleased to give : Even so. Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight / All must have perished, but for thy mercy : it is of thy free grace, and according to thy sovereign will alone, that any are plucked as brands from the burning. They must have been consumed with the rest, if thy power had not rescued them from the fire. Keep me then, O my God, from nice inquisitions, or rather from presumptuous determinations, upon the motives and rules of thy conduct, which thou hast not revealed; but cause me meekly to submit to the conduct itself, which must be holy and good, because it is thine. O may I be thankful, with the generatio7i of thy chil- dren, for finding the tokens of thy blessed adoption upon me. May I cherish them in my heart. May they be considered as my true riches and estate. May they lead my soul to humble and hearty adoration of thee, and to full resignation of all I am and have, to thy righteous and all-governing will. Let me wondeir and admire, with tears of joy, and with the most glowing sensations of love, that thou shouldest condescend to save and to adopt nie, a creature in myself altogether vile ADOPTED. 93 vile and impure, helpless and forlorn. It was thy doing, and thine alone ; and it is marvellous in my eyes. But that thou shouldest design for me, and by thy holy word assure me, that thou hast designed also, not merely a deliverance from sin and from hell, hut a crown of glory, a kingdom prepared, a royal priesthood, an ever- lasting throne, and all these as my own unalienable in- heritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading: Lord, what can I more say; or how shall I think of this without rapture and awe ! Touch my heart as thou didst the heart of thy servant David, and cause me, like him, to sing with a melody beyond the reach of sounds; Blessed be thou, Jehovah, the Alehim of Israel, our Father, for evei' and ever. Thine, Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory^ and the majesty : for all that is in the heaven and in the earth, is thine: thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all, and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.* * 1 Chron. xxix. 11—13. HEIRS. 04 * HEIRS, HEIRS. x5ls the title adopted shows the free grace of God in taking his people out of the mass of mankind ; this name heirs expresses the right of his people, in consequence of that grace, to all the blessings of salvation, which compose their great inheritance. This right is founded in the purchase of Christ, who is a person in Jehovah, and therefore able to pay down an infinite price for an endless glory to the Godhead ; and who is also perfect man, and therefore the proper head of his redeemed, in and through whom they may receive whathe wrought out and obtained for his owii human nature, and for them in union with it. The price was his blood and righteousness ; and thus the one is called the hlood of God, because of the union of the two natures in one person ; and the other is named, the righteousness of Jehovah, and himself Jehovah their righteousness, because of its infinite perfection, and be- cause of their eternal interest both in it and in him. He bestows the inheritance ujxju them, who are given to him of the Father ; and these he calls emphatically his own. It comes therefore to them as a matter of rightful purchase by their Redeemer of the Father, and as an estate of gracioM^ gift from the Redeemer;, iaconjunctioii with HEIRS. 05 with the will and influence of the Spirit and the Father, Thus, they are heirs of God, both by adoption and pur- chase ; and joint-heirs with Christ, as to his humanity, of all, which that humanity can possibly possess in glory. Their title is strong and sure ; and all the attri- butes of Jehovah are engaged, by covenant among the divine Persons themselves, and by their oath upon the divine record, to make it good to the believers in Jesus, who are therefore significantly styled, the heirs of SALVATION. ♦ The inheritance cannot be lost; and the heirs of the inheritance are equally certain. They receive it, not merely because God is mercifvil, but because he is just and cannot deny himself. They are in Christ, and under the covenant of his peace, by whom and by which ^lone all the divine attributes can harmonize in the salva- lion of a sinner : out of Christ and this covenant, Jeho- vah, is a just God indeed; and, therefore, to every sinner, nothing but a consuming f re. In this present life, these heirs of salvation are new- born, or regenerated with anew nature, from the Holy Spirit. When this great work takes place, the old Adam, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, begins to die in them ; and they are renewed and quickened daily, with increase of life or growth in grace, for a more perfect consummation. They are here, as heirs in their minority, under tutelage and guardianship, until the time appointed to every one of them by the Father. They need discipline ; and they have it. The correction im- proves them ; which shows the wisdom and love that sent it, and also demonstrates, that they are, not bastards. 96 HEIRS. bastards, but sons. All this takes place within them, not to give them a title to heaven, nor yet to augment that title; but to demonstrate, that they have really an interest in it, and that the title, which always rests in Christ, as its proper foundation, is extended with its happy effects unto them. Without this particular exten- sion, they might talk of a title, and might have a name to live; but they would be dead before God, and would have no real possession of or right to any thing. When they are of age, which with God is measured not by years but by designation and fitness, they are translated from their present mean, condition into the full enjoyment of their estates. Death strips otf the gar- ments of corruption and bondage ; and, immediately upon their entrance into glory, they are ciuthcd upon with life and immortality. We know not, and cannot know, what that dress, that inheritance, fully is: but if we could now by our present faculties know them, it is very certain, they must be much meaner than they are, and consequently less worthy of Christ's purchase and our enjoyment. Probably, the state of angels will be inferior to that of the redeemed. Of them it is never said, that they are to be one in the Father and Son, and partakers of the glory of the Messiah. They are called ministring spirits, and represented as attendants upon the heirs of salvation, One, who not only lay upon, but saw deeply into, the bosom of his master, hath told us ; Beloved, note are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear what we shall he: hut we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like HEIRS. 91 Hke Mm ; for ice shall see him as he is,* It was well said by a gracious man ; "How little do the mourning at« tend ants of believers think, what visions of God, what ravishing sights of Christ, the souls of their departed friends may have, while they are closing their eyes with tears !"^ Christian reader, I cannot tell thee the greatness of thine inheritance, for it is infinite ; nor its worth, for it is inestimable; nor its blessedness, for it is unspeakable ; jior its duration, for it is everlasting. But I can tell thee, upon the best authority, that it is suie to all the seed^ and that, if thou art one of them, it is infallibly sure to thee. If thou art called by grace, if sin be thy hate and thy load, if thou live by faith, if thou walk with Christ, if thy hope and expectation be only in him, if earth be thy wilderness and thou art kept in due measure un^ spotted from the world, if heaven be thy home, and thy heart burn within thee at times to be there ; — these are signs and tokens, which the devil puts not upon his children, nor which the world endures ; these are pledge and proofs, that thou art an heir of the kingdpip, 9X^i that the kingdom itself shall be thine. Go on, blessed soul, go on, and fight the good fight of faith, and hold fast, through the arm which sustains thee, and thus hold out unto the end. Soon shalt thou hear those animating words. Well done, good and faithful servant, enter tho^- into the joy of thy Lord ! * 1 John ill 2. H BORN 58 BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERATE, BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERATE. JL HIS title is given to the redeemed, in order to dis- tinguish their present from their former state, and their persons from all other men, as born naturally of the offspring of Adam, It implies that great doctrine of regeneration, which is so offensive to the world, and the peculiar privilege of God's children in being redeemed from it. The absolute necessity of experiencing this truth in order to salvation is most forcibly stated by our Lord in those memorable words : Verily, verily, I say unto thee (Nicodemus,) Except a man he horn again, or from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God; and again; Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man he horn of water and 6f the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king* dom of God,* The people of God are naturally born as all other men, and, till they are new-horn, have the same spirit which is in the men of the world, and live like them in error of life and darkness of mind. Who maketh them to differ, at length, from others? No answer doth the scrip- ture afford than this ; They are horn, not of hlood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, hut of f John iii. 3, 5, God. BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERATE. 99 God.* They could not contribute to their own natural birth, though other human agents might and did ; but, in this case of spiritual life, both their own will and the will of man, the will of all flesh, the constitution of nature itself and its life, signified by the blood, are wholly excluded from the primary cause, which is en- tirely referred to that divine Agent, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. This is a sore grievance to the world, and to the wisdom and powers of fallen man, who cannot endure the exclusion of boasting : but it is God*s word, and his inviolable truth, notwithstanding. It is revealed as doctrine ; and it is confirmed by fact. Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things 9 This question to Nicodemus might be offered to thousands, who are learned like him; but can receive no answer from reason, darkened and doubtful reason, which for a guide, though blind in these matters, is the only guide they desire. Another instructor must unfold the mystery of tliat wisdom, tvhich none of the princes or great men of this world knew or can know. Our Lord teaches us, how any man attains this gracious information. / thank thee Father, Lord of heaven and earth [this marks his sovereignty;] because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father ; and no man Jmoiceth the Son, but the Father ; neither knoweth any * John i. 13. H S man \ 100 BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERATE. rmm the Father^ save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him* Here we behold the cause of regeneration ; and now we may contemplate the nature of it, and, finally, its 1^£CtS, Art thou a master of Israel, and hioxcest not these things f The question returns, and is equally applicable to NicodemuSf and to all others, who have studied their bibles. " It is no new doctdne, which I declare unto you, though new to and ever unattainable by carnal reason. The principle of it is evident in the faith and grace of ^6^/: the operation is expressly delineated in the book and experience of Job'* God speakefh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. He is ever speaking by his word. He cometh at last m visions of the night, after the manner of the Old Testament disj^ensation, and openeth the ears of men, which before were stopped, and sealeth their instruction by the seal of his Spirit; that he may draw man from his work [nwj?] to own purpose and designs, and hide pride from man. Thus he keepeth hack his soul from the pit^^ ojnd his life from the overpassing sword, which, as in* type the Egyptians, shall ere long destroy the unbelieving world. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his hones with strong pain : Thus he hath no rest from the deep and thorough conviction of his sin. So that Ms life ahhoneth bread, and his soul dainty meat ; that which he formerly lived on, that which engrossed his whole delight and desire. His flesh fMatt.xi.25— sr. is I BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERATE. 101 is consi0ned away, that it cannot be seen, a/nd his bones^ that were not seen, stick out. The flesh, with all its wisdom and glory, is subdued and put out of sight for hope and help; and all the strength of its unrighteous- ness, denoted by its bones, now manifestly appears. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. He is almost overwhelmed with despair, and seems ready to perish for his sins.— This is the first work of the divine Spirit, inducing the conviction of sin by his pointed application of the just and holy law. And the same is described, under the several images of helpless solitude, piercing hunger and thirst, miserable darkness and bondage, the shadow of death, horrible confinement and sickness, fearful tempests and agitations upon mighty waters, and other concomitant cifcum"* stances, in the cviith Psalm. When the soul is thus mercifully, though painfully, brought low in itself; then the Holy Spirit exhibits the means of salvation. The circumcising knife of the law, in the hands of the divine Agent, is spiritually the introduction to the new cov^enant of grace and peace through Jesus Christ. And now the Benoni becomes a Benjamin. Then there is, or appears, with him, or over him, the Angel-interpreter, the advocate, or paraclete, one among a thousand, one exalted above his brethren, to show unto man his uprightness, or how God can be just, and yet the justifier of him, that believeth in Jesus. And he [the Angel-interpreterJ is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom ["i23] a propitiation. — This is the second H 3 . branch L 102 BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERATE, branch of the Spirit's office thus to take of the things of Jesus, and show, or enforce, them to the soul. The great result is the renewal of the believer. His flesh (like Naaman's at his baptism in Jordan, which also preached this great truth) shall be fresher than a child's; he shall receive the kingdom of God as a child, or new-born babe : he shall be returned to the days of his youth, or be more holy in God's sight than before the fall. He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him, and he shall see his face with joy ; for he will render imto man his righteousnes ; i. e. either pronounce him righteous, or transfer his righteousness to him. He looketh upon men, and fif any J say, I have sinned^ and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not ; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light ; or, in the light [in Christ, who is the light of life] his life shall be seen. Lo, all these things God worketh ^^^ D''»J/3, in three gradations, or concussions, with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living,* * Job xxxlii. 14 — 30. The symbols, in Lev. ix. preach the same truth in another form. It would exceed the compass of a note to go through the whole chapter; but the serious reader will probably not be displeased with a few hints on its spiritual sense and meaning. V, 1. On the eighth day, so called because a day of grace and acceptance, in which believers, through the sacrifice of Christ for sin, enter into a new state or condition with God ; the people were to present themselves before the Lord. V. 9. And they were to come through faith in the strength of Christ to save, and to lay no foundation for acceptance but in his blood poured forth. V. 10, 11. Putting off also the old man, with his affections and lusts: V. 14. And obtaming the washing of regeneration to the praise of God's glory. V. When believers are thus atoned for, and BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERATE. 103 This is God*s work of regeneration ; and this is a very antient description of its mode, its effects, and its ex- perience. The New Testament is full of this important truth, as well as the Old, in all the distinctions between flesh and spirit, the new man and the old, the outward and the inner man, the sheep and the goats, the dark- ness and the light, life and death, nature and grace, and, in a word, between almost every thing which concerns the life of redemption in the soul of man, and the death of sin which is opposite to it. Without this true f/^iTumac, or change of mind, no sinner born of Adam can either obtain salvation, or be capable of enjoying it. By this description in Joh, by other testimonies in the word of God, and by the concurrent experience of the redeemed, this great business, the greatest which the soul can know, is not begun or carried on, by carnal reasoning or moral suasion, but by a divine power, in- serting a new life descending from Christ, and increased and supported by communion with him. Thus the Apostle : / live, yet not 7, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which I now Hue in thejiesh, I live by the faith of ;ind renewed, and justified ; they ascribe all authority and power over them to Jehovah ; t>. 19. and to him alone, yA^QMiy disclaim- ing themselves : v. 20. And this they do sincerely and from their very breasts : v. 21. testifying it openly and on every side before the world. V. 22. And then they feel the blessing of their great High-Priest upon their souls; which ends, v. 23. in the vision and enjoyment of the divine glory, and, v. 24. in their ^nal acceptance by Jehovah.— This is a slight sketch of the gospel, as contained in Exodus and Leviticus, which books, to the gracious mind duly instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom and in the holy tongue which reveals them, speak none other things than the evangelists in their gospels. H 4 ^ thet 104 BORN or GOD, OR REGENERATE. the Son of God, ivho loved me, and gave himself for me. Nor is this of private interpretation, or a circumstance peculiar to the apostle alone ; but the common privilege and experience of all who, like him, are born of God. It is the portion of the whole generation of God's chil- dren, who, like other children, have one family-hkeness and common life, and who derive from him, their Father in Christ, that life and likeness, by which they resemble him and each other. They are the sons of God, because they are born again of him, who is God, and who is not ashamed, great and glorious as he is, to call and to own them for his children. This general assembly of the first born [i. e. God's own born] will be an innumer- able family when collected together, according to that remarkable prophecy concerning Christ : Thy people shali be willing [or free-willingness itself] in the day of thy power, in, or with, the beauties of holiness : From the womb of the morning, thou hast the deto of thy y 021th ; or, as Bishop Lowth has rendered it, more than the dew from the womb of the morning is the dew of thy pwgeny* * Ps. ex. 3. " It was the opinion of the antient Jews, that the resurrection would be effected by means of a certain dew, of a jplastic power, from heaven, as it is written in the Jerusalem Talmud and Jelcudi." Manasse Ben Israel in Huviphreys^s Diss, upon Athenag. p. 15. Possibly the notion is founded upon Isaiali xxvi, 19. Thy dead me?i shall live, together with m?/ dead body ihall they arise: awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. See Hos. xiv. 6. and Pocock in Port. Mos. p. 117. The spiritual sense of the image, in the above passage of the Psalm, is very beautiful, and testifies, that as the dew is to herbs, so is Christ to his people, and that more than the drops of dew from the womb of the morning is the number of his chosen. In reality, the BORN or GOD, OR REGENERATE. 105 The effects of this regeneration are produced by the Holy Spirit, as well as regeneration itself. He worketh both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The cause, the action, and the effect, are all of him. As that, which is born of the flesh, is flesh, gross, sensual, and unclean; so that, which is born of this Spirit, is spirit, refined, pure, and heavenly. The one is entirely sinful, and born in sin : the other is strictly holy, being born, or new-created, in righteousness and true holiness of him, who is absolutely perfect and holy. They live indeed together in one individual man while here below; but they are absolutely contrary to each other. Rom. vii. Each of these natures hath also its distinct and pecu- liar understanding. The mind of the flesh is what is usually called rational^ but which the scripture terms sensual, because it is occupied, and can only be occupied to purpose, in sensible and material things. Hence it is not only corrupt through the fall, but dark and doubtful, even upon the substances obvious to the senses, and much more so upon affairs intellectual or divine. The mind of the spirit, as renewed of God and actuated by him, is spiritual, and is now the only faculty by which spiritual things can be truly known or discerned. These the only true phcsnix, so much talked of by the antients, is found verified in every real Christian: out of the death of sin in him rises up the life of righteousness ; and f>om the death of the body springs the resurrection to life eternal. As to the sleep of the soul, it is an opinion veiy contrary to the Scriptures, which represent men. sis going out of or putting cfthc body; but this would be absurd, if the soul lay down and slept in it; and the separation of body and sonl, in that case, would also be impossible. things. 106 BORN OF GOB, OR REGENERATE. things, though proceeding from the wisdom of God himself, 2ire foolishness to the carnal mind of the natural man, because he cannot apprehend them; just as a con- versation in foreign language, or some mathematical problems, would appear but as gibberish or impossibili- ties to an unlettered clown. There must be a faculty suited to the object; or the object is inapplicable and useless. Thisfacuhy is termed the new man, because it is not inherent, but brought into our nature by regenera- tion ; it is the holy principle, which the Holy Spirit produces, and by which it acts upon the soul. It is the nexus or bond, by which the spirit of a man, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, is brought into uniou with Christ, and through Christ with the Father.* In this mortal state, clogged and circumvented as the children of God are with sensuality and sin, they can discern but Uttle, compared with what they shall know hereafter, of the things of God : and the men of the * The Spirit of God Is indeed every where, but yet, in a certain sense, not in all men, such as the sensual or reprobates, nor in all spirits, such as the fallen angels. They have, it is true, a life from God, and are supported by him as creatures, or they must cease to be : but he is not that life to them, which he is to saints and pure spirits, and which can and doth subsist either with or without the life natural. The air of the world is the medium or instmment of life to all creatures upon it, and is also the material emblem of the invisible Spirit ; but this air, though always filling both live and dead animals and vegetables, carries on no act of life in a dead plant or a dead body. So the Holy Spirit is, in one respect, within the deadest sinner, knowing and seaiching the thoughts and intents of his corrupt heart ; but it will easily be allowed, that, as he cannot mix with the corruption he finds there, so it is an awful fact, that his presence in that way imparts neither spiritual life nor salvation. world BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERAtK* 107 world know nothing truly of them at all. In that future state, when every film will be removed from the mental eye, and every other obstruction done away ; the appre- hension, proportionate in some degree to the new and innumerable objects which may present themselves, shall be inconceivably sharpened and enlarged. Perhaps, there may not only be a strengthening of the spiritual faculties which we already have, but an addition of others, concerning the nature of which we cannot now have the least conception or idea. As an oyster (for an instance or similitude taken from the natural world) cannot, with its one faculty of mere feeling, compre- hend the senses of hearing and sight which men enjoy, and much less the sublime faculties of the human mind ; so it is not impossible, but that the sons of God, upon their introduction to their perfect state, shall have powers to conceive, as well as find objects to be conceived, of a nature, subtlety,- variety, and employment, which, at present almost infinitely transcend their utmost stretch of thought and imagination. Of this, however, we are very sure, because God himself hath said it; that e-j/e hath not seen, nor ear heard, rieither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, either here or hereafter. And is this thine expectation and thine end, O thou favoured child of God ? Hath God done such great things for thee; and hath he prepared more than thou canst either ask or think ? Then, why is the king's son leaii from day to day ? Ought he not to hope and conclude, with the sweet singer oi Israel ; Why art thottcast down,, O my soul; and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou 108 BORN or GOD, OR REGENERATE. thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God. To the real believer every day's mercies bring with them fresh motives and arguments for gratitude and praise. He Uves by faith ; and the faith by w^hich he lives, or which, as to its principle, is life itself from Christ, is the first great mercy which he can spiritually experience, and the pledge and introduction of all the rest. Without faith he cannot truly understand, or properly use any one of them ; and therefore, for this cause as well as others, without faith it is impossible to please God. If thou hast this faith in thine heart, O reader, thou art a Christian, and alive from the dead. If thou art a Christian, thou art in Christ, and entitled t€> all that he hath purchased and provided. Thou art, in that case, united to him, and dear to his heart. What- ever aftlicts thee, he feels it in his love and over-rules it by his wisdom. Thou art not too low for his highest and most endearing thoughts. If a sting, almost in- visible, wound the meanest member of thy body ; thy whole frame is awakened and concerned ; and thine eye, thine hand, thy mind, are directed to minister relief. Infinitely more so is thy Head, the Lord of thy light and life, alive to thy sorrows and to all thy concerns. Their causes and tendencies may escape thy notice ; but they escape not his. He hath omniscience to super- intend, and omnipotence to support, the poorest and the feeblest member of his mystic body. He noticed thee, and marked thee for his own; or thou never couldest have lifted up an eye of faith and confidence towards him. Then, for whom he hath thus called, . will BORN OF GOD, OR REGENERATE. 109 will he not care ? will he bestow his life on thee for no end ? can he forget what he hath sutFered, and for whom he hath died ? if he hath called thee by his grace, and thou seekest him, canst thou presume to imagine, that all this was a matter of chance, or rather that he did not first seek thee ? if he sought thee, and blessed thee with the distinction of his mercy ; is it possible, that this can go for nothing, or come to nothing? — Away with those thoughts of blasphemy, which neither be- come his love, nor thy privilege. Hope in him to the end. Let faith go forth after him, and him alone. It is the carnal reason of thy carnal mind, which fills thee with its doubts, as its own genuine offspring. Pray for strength and wisdom to put this old Adam down, and to keep him down. But let thy inner man look stedfastly to Jesus. By looking to and leaning upon him, thy light and thy life will brighten and increase, and conse- quently all thy spiritual comforts and desires. Thine evidences for glory will rise in proportion to the expe- riences of his grace. These experiences, concurring with his word, and sealed by his Spirit, are demonstrations of life eternal already begun. And what is thus begun by grace, shall by the same grace be continued, and in due time be perfected for everlasting glory. CHILDREN 110 CHILDREN OF GOD. CHILDREN OF GOD. JL N these days of rebuke and blasphemy, when all sorts of false opinions are briskly circulated, and, through tlie dissoluteness of the times, have a rapid adoption from their suitableness to corrupt nature ; I have often thought, that, besides the historical view I have else- where drawn up* of the heresies, which have been raised upon the doctrine of the divine persons in the Godhead, there are two grand points of Christian doctrine, to which it might be useful to give a comparison with the differences, held by a variety of persons, from them. They seem to be criteria, or touchstones, of principles, and involve conclusions of the greatest importance to the purity and happiness of the Christian life. The one is the FALL and depravity of nature; and the other the being and operation of that grace, by which the soul is restored to God. Though it may lengthen this particular chapter beyond the usual extent of most others, I trust it will not be wholly unaccept- able, if I treat the weighty subject of it with some dif- ference of method. This difference will be chiefly his- torical ; for I mean to relate something of the principal persons, who have propagated opinions upon the great *^^'° r- 52 *^ o g c '^ o H-s 1^= I g^ S)i s| a,.Si3-g ^-e^ I f ^ « £ I CHILDREN OF GOD. 119 6. Orthodox. That Adam was created under a covenant of works, by obedience to which he would have been happy, but by disobedience became miserable, and also ruined and corrupted all his faculties, by bringing present spiritual death (or separation from the life ofGodJ upon his soul, subjecting to natural death his body, and exposing both to death everlasting ; that being, not metaphorically only, but truly and spiritually dead to God, he hath no abihty whatever spiritually and savingly to see, know, love or re- ceive the things of God, before he is quickened by a new birth ; that, being totally averse and of contrary mate- rials to goodness through corruption, he must be changed, renewed, or regenerated in the spirit of his mind, receiving in such change the adhibition of spiritual and divine faculties, called the unction from the Holy One or the divine nature, before he can be one with God, or be built up as a part of his temple; that this e?itire corrup- tion and aversation of Adam from God was naturally transmitted to all his posterity, who, in him, both sinned and fell, and who, with him, are naturally, morally, and spiritually, capable of nothing but sin, being only the " children of wrath," and *' deserving only God's wrath and damnation;" that the leopard might sooner change his spots, a clean thing be brought out of an unclean, or any contrary be produced from another, than they, who thus " of their own nature are inclined to nothing but evil," can exert a good will, power, or aflection towards God, or by any principle in themselves, or from any other creature, reach the true knowledge and enjoyment of lieavenly things. I 4 II. A Sura- ii^|i^ii^i.g.-ilr=: i m Hm iii ii : . sS)^s,s=sco^Ss§:S§a-g-5:sg§-^g|gs-.g.g^'H--g 41!iri|li^lll^i!iil|fli'ilil « -la^So^c^ §|^S^;r'*"2c S-Soi^-S^^ l|.t|i- :i ^Hr^f : r..ii^ « 3 il I i-tL-i^Ji ill P"Ji|1llliill i 2|l Sill i |l r :t| -i il Sll^ll i o ^5 ^^ c| i^ ^-^^^ g £ c ^ §^.^ ^ S.t:^ «.^'^^-§ic l^^i J^ll-f-f ^-^ il 8|^ si ^t ^t^ ill Nil = 1-^ r;--*jO«jrtj--ajc^_c ^j: t(. 2 -o 3 o o *^ ^-S -s -2 .? -s ^-^ « e P 5 ' '" CHILDREN OF GOD. 121 6. Orthodox. That grace is both free mercy in itself, and the sole- efficient communication from God to his chosen in Christ ; that the will and powers of man before conversion rather resist than promote it; that, therefore, in the first act of grace in conversion, man being spiritually dead to God is wholly impotent and passive under the sole activity of the Divine Spirit, who takes away not only the strength of resisting, but the will to resist ; that this gracious Agent imparts a new and divine nature, with its owu proper and peculiar faculties, or, in other words, by the action of his grace, constitutes a neio creation with a new life, a new birth to a new and spiritual world, and an holy resurrection of the soul from the death of sin in this evil world ; that, in consequence of this, the persoa hath an heart oi flesh for an heart of stone, so called because naturally incapable by sin of all gracious im- pressions ; that the Holy Spirit bestows not only lights but sight, to the understanding, and then not merely appeals by moral evidence oi reason, but infuses a super- natural act and conviction oi faith, which, though not against sound reason, is of far greater force, and in this way applies what is emphatically called the demonstration of the Spirit and of power ; that the Holy Spirit alone, operating upon the soul, as the soul doth upon the body, UNITES it to Christ for all things, and then, but not till then, by a sweet and divine compulsion, diawsand enables the person, thus become a true believer, in the degree appointed, both to iviil and to do of his good pleasure, for all lite and holiness; that, in this way, and by 122 CHILDREN OF GOD. by the instrumentality of the word, the believer is taught of God in all the truth of salvation, having also the very " thoughts of his heart cleansed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit;" that being truly inspired, by having Christ dwelliJig in his heart, and by having the Spirit ef Christ, without which he could be none of his, he is and must be, though but a icayfaring man, infallibly taught, both because the teacher is truth itself, and because it is not possible for the elect to be finally or essentially de^ ceiued ; that thus the Christian is not a doubting reasoner, grounding himself upon the fallacious deductions of a depraved understanding, but a gracious and firm he^ liever, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, of which he receives the earnest by the work of the Spirit within him, and of which he gives the proof by works of righteousness from him. The last confession is not a mere human scheme or system, but is founded upon the divine oracles. It is also most certainly agreeable to the public con- fessions * of the reformed churches, to the sentiments of the most pious and learned divines both English and foreign who follow those confessions, and is indeed pure and unsophisticated Calvinism, or rather (what it ought to be called) true and vital Christianity ; as might be ♦ See the valuable Syntagma Confessionum Fidei, published at Geneva, 1619, See also the testimony of Bradford and other reformers in Fox's Acts. p. 1470. Wits. Diss. Epist. ad Iluber. &c. ad loc. Abp. Lcighton, Rivet, Owen, Du Moulin, Sfc, proved CHILDREN OF GOD. 123 proved by a multitude of testimonies, if it were neces- sary. From the premises it follows ; that, if it be said, men can act for God by their own natural powers without his grace, it \s Pelagianism : — Or, that grace only is needful to assist those natural powers in order to work, after mea have believed, and asked, and sought for it ; this is Semi- Pelagianism : — Or, that all men have common or suffi-- cient grace to aid the natural powers in order to acquire more grace, or can resist grace in its intentions and ope- rations; this is Arminianism: — Or, that the natural powers are only illuminated and strengthened by the grace of God, though invincibly so, in order to faith and hohness, without any infusion of a new and divine nature, with its own new and peculiar faculties ; this is Semi' Arminianism:* — Or, finally, that the natural or any other faculties of men, either in or towards the act of conversion or regeneration, or new birth by the di- vine Spirit, have in the first instance no ability at all, but ^xe purely passive in the hands of God, as the clay in the hands of the potter, the Spirit blowing where it listeth, and men hearing only the sound thereof, but incapable of bringing it in, or driving it away; and that, in consequence, of this birth, a new and divine life is infused with its own new and gracious faculties, which life then operates upon all the natural faculties, so that even these are enabled to yield an obedience, which before they were both incapable of and contrary * This opinion was censured by the Synod at Rotterdam w» April, 1686. to; 124 CHILDREN OF GOD. to ; this is the true and unsophisticated doctrine of the Bible, of late years called Calvinism. It is nothing to the present purpose to say, that our natural powers are to be brought under the means of grace, and are to be exercised as much as possible in all ordinances; for this is both agreed to and insisted upon by all true Calvinists : but the elenchus, or clinch, of the whole matter is their potency in the affair of con- version, upon which all true Calvinists are agreed, that they have, in se, no poteticy at all, but that the whole workmanship is of God, as much as the original creation of the world was ; and that therefore it is called xaw» uli h circumcised in the flesh, for the purpose of glorying in the flesh, or in its powers and righteousness, we have authority to say, though the institution was expressly from God, it shall be only a beggarly element, which can profit him nothing. The reason is given ; whoso- ever is circumcised for this purpose, that is, of pleasing God by a righteousness and strength of his own, effectu- ally sets aside Christ, and makes himself a debtor to do the whole laiv. If he can perfectly perform it ; well: he shall be justified by that perfect performance, and shall have its reward. But if he offend in one point; (and who hath not offended in ten thousand ?) he is guilty of all: he is a transgressor, who can never possibly justify himself in future, if ever he could cease from sin, by a law which he hath broken already. The conclusion is; that fallen man must either be justified by Christ, and so live by him, as the apostle declares he himself lived ;* or else not be justified at all, and therefore perish ever- lastingly. The circumcision of the flesh was soon performed ; but that of the soul is not only sharp, but progressive and long. The Holy Spirit is the great agent ; and he em- ploys a variety of instruments. The first and chief one is the word of God ; and the law particularly is the keen sharpness of that word ^ which (as we have noticed) is compared to a two edged sword, all edge and point. But there are secondary and subordinate means, which are frequently and almost daily employed for the separa- tion of the Christian soul, from the world, the flesh, and *Galii. 30. k2 the 154 CIRCUMCISED. the devil. Afflictions, sanctified afflictions, arc amori^ other circumstances, used for this great design. They cut off the heart from inferior things, and disentangle it from a variety of lower engagements to a quicker and more entire devotedness to God. We are naturally so Jight in our minds, that we need frequent weights of trouble to keep us down. Losses, crosses, disappoint- ments, perplexities, sickness, and the keen appre- hensions of approaching death, are all of them made to be parts of the circumcising knife, which, in the power cf the Divine Spirit, severs the Christian from his own self, and renders him more abstracted from every thing but God. To the men of the world, they have no such consequences, but inflict only despair, remorse, or dismay. Thus good and evil come from the hand of th« hordz evil for nothing but evil, to the children of dis- obedience ; but evil for good, and therefore all things for good, to them that love him. This cutting name (if it may be so called) of true believers should induce grea^ searchings of heart in all professors. *' Do I pretend to belong to Christ ; and am i circumcised and cut off from the old man, the life of my evil nature, by liis word and Spirit ? Have I re- nounced indeed the devil and all his works, the pomps iai^ vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh ? Do I look upon my owa strength, concerning salvation, as inherent weakness, my own wisdom as erring folly, and have I been led to abhor all the pre- tended righteousness of myself and other men as //My rags ? Do I lean npon Christ to save me by his mercy through faith .> Am I tlierefore praying for faith, and the increase increase of faith, by hira? Is his word my only rule? and do I seek his Spirit as my great helper and guide? Am I, in the grace of that Spirit, and in entire dependence upon him, seeking for holiness and truth, walking itt «ubmission and resignation to his will, and striving above all things to set forth his glory ? Is the honor of the Lord and his cause dear to my heart ? And can I bear any sort of reproaches, rather than that his blessed gospel should be reproached through me ? Do I live in the hope of this heavenly calling? Does the Warm expectation of its issue and end ever gladden my soul ? Am I delighted in communion with God by prayer and praise, and in the faithful fellowship of his people? Is it my mo3t fervent desire, that the Jcingdom should be the Lord's with full sovereignty over myself and all the creatures; that the poiJber should be his, and manifested and dwned to be his, in the spiritual as well as natural world; an4 that the glory should be all his own, without mixture or abatement, for ever and ever?"— Christian; are these the true and sincere desires of thy soul, above, without, against, all human approbation and gain? And canst thou appeal to the Searcher of hearts, that this is the prevailing bent of thy spirit ?- — -If so ; this work must be acknowledged to be the finger of God, the sealing of his spiritual circumcision, the mark set upon thee as his own portion for life eternal. Rejoice in the Lord, my Christian friend : and let all that know and love thy faith knd hope rejoice likewise in thy behalf. Thou hast the good portion ; and it shall be ^yell with thee for ever I ^ k4 baptized* 135 BAPTIZEDr BAPTIZED. As circumcision was the initiating ordinance into tlier church under the legal, so is baptism under the present dispensation. The one rite sensibly exhibited the piit^ ting off the old man with his deeds ; the other represents the putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. The former sacrament preaches the necessity of alteration in life and principle ; the latter shows wherein it consists. They both cry down the attempt of making the old man good, accord- ing to the philosophy of reason ; and jointly oppose all that false holiness of corrupted nature, which not only militates against the true, but against truth itself revealed from heaven. There is no real holiness or religion in the world, but that which is imparted from the skies. EvfiRY GOOD GIFT, AND EVERY PERFECT GIFT, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,* As Abraham and all believers, with their children, under the law, were circumcised in the name of the Alehim, f and thus were formally brought into the bond of the covenant ; so believers, with their children, under the gospel, are privileged to be baptized into the same ♦ James i. 17, f Gen. xvii. 7, 8. nam&» name, only more expressly drawn out into that o^ Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and are thereby made inheritors of the same promises with the fathers. There is but one Lord, to whom they are dedicated ; one faith, in which they believe and serve him ; one circumcision, or one baptism, by which they profess to belong to him. The general assembly of the first-born, whose names are •written in heaven, make but one church, who have all been baptized into Christ and haVe put on Christ ; where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female; but where they are all one in Christ Jesus.* Of this the Israelites were reminded in that prophetic precept which enjoined, that as the members of the Jewish church were, so should the believing strangers-, or proselyted Gentiles, who became members of that church, be, before the Lord.f And believers under the gospel should recollect, that they are not a new house, temple, or olive-tree, distinct and separate from that of the patriarchs and the Hebrews, but parts of the same one great house and temple, branches grafted into one antient olive tree, fellow-heirs, united brethren, and joint members, v/ith all that have gone before them^ in every spiritual privilege and mercy. We hare no new religion ; but the inseparable same, only under dif- ferent forms adapted to different times, with the faithful Jews, and with their predecessors the patriarchs, up to Aheleiiidc Adam, Indeed, they had their c?ocassed upon me? Have I truly a newname^ that is, ai new nature, anew condition of life, in which all thingsl ^e become new to me ? Is the old Adam more and more dying and subdued ; and is Christ, the new Adam, more powerful and triumphant within my soul? Are my evil tempers and dispositions in subjection ; hath the spirit of judgement aad the spirit of burning f passed in any measure upon me ; and does the life of Christ appear, in its holy vigor, through all the circumstances of this mortal body ? Do I use my Redeemer, both as the cover- ing or atonement for my sin, and also as the head of divine influence to induce righteousness and true holiness in my heart and conduct? Do I love his holy ways; and * Mark vii. 4, t Of this baptism of the divine Spirit the prophet speaks, in Isa. 5v. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall he called holi/, even every one, that is written for life in Jerusalem. When the Lord shall have 'washed away the filth of the daughter ofZion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from toithin her, by the spirit of judgement, or decree, and by the spirit of burning, in 144 BAPTIZEO. are all his commandments precious to me? Is it the loathing and abhorrence of my heart to offend my com- passionate Master, or to walk in any paths but his own ? Are my desires indeed towards him, and the remem- brance of his holiness, daily? And am I waiting, in faith and patience, for my full redemption, when I shall see my dear Lord f^ce to face, eye to eye, heart to heart, and enjoy him and his for ever and ever ?" — ^Verily, Q Christian, if this be in thee and abound, thou hast the tokens of the kingdom of God upon thee. Go on, and prosper. He, that hath begun the good work, will carry it on and compleat it to the day of Christ; when the sublimest thoughts of thy mind, and the widest wishes of thy heart shall all be fulfilled^ and more than fulftUed, without en^. JUSTIFIED. JVSTIFIES. 1^ JUSTIFIED. JL HIS wortl evidently means made righteous. The pec- sons made righteous must, previous to their justifications, have been unrighteous; and accordingly God is said to justify the ungodly* To justify one already righteous, would be the same absurdity, as to make whiteness white, or gold to be golden. Through faith in Christ, the poor and perishing sinner, stript of all other claims and pretensions, is justified or made righteous; yea, so righ- teous, as, in the sight of him who cannot look upon iniquity, to be considered without spot, or wrinkle^ or any such thing ; nay more, to be presented, in the body of Christ, holy, and unhlameable, and unreproveable in his sight. Thus much for the perfection of the righteous- ness, by which they are justified. But whence have weak and dying mortals such a righteousness as this? Do they find it in themselves? Do they work it out? Can they produce or procure it, for themselves ? Common experience shows, that there is not a man upon earth, that there- never was a saint born of woman, that it is not indeed in the present na- ture of man, to have or to exhibit any righteousness of this kind. As man now is, a perfect inherent righte- * Rom. iv. 5^ h ousnesft 145 TUSTIFIEB. ousness is *^ a non-entity of impossibility." The world, accustomed as it ever hath been since the fall to imper- fections, would call a pretender of this sort, as it hath called the mere notion of such an one already, — " a fault- less monster :*' — di being on earth, totally different from ^11 others. The word of God, which is yet better autho- rity, represents man, both in his body and his soul,* as * By the Fall, all the faculties of the soul and all the properties of the body, are become corrupt and depraved : so that there is 710 whole part left in either, according to the present constitution of nature. It is not an unapt illustration of this matter, which is given us from an antient Rabbi. "The body and soul may en- deavour to exculpate each other in judgement : but how ? — The body might say ; It was the soul that sinned : for, presently, when *he is departed from me, I am thrown into a grave like an insen- sible stone : — But the soul might answer ; It was indeed the body which sinned : for, as soon as I am released from that unhappy con- junction, I fly through the air like a bird." Upon this statement, the Rabbi decides by a parable. " A certain king appointed two watchmen to defend the fruits of his fertile and beautiful garden, the one of whom was lame 3.nd the other dlind. They were equally tempted to eat of their delicious charge. The lame man, therefore, suggested to the blind, that, if he would take him upon his shoul- ders, he would gather a sufficient quantity, which should be shared between them. The blind man consented; and the fruit was carried off. After some time the king paid a visit to his garden, and demanded what was become of the fruit. The blind man said ; it was impossible for him to steal it, for he had no eyes to find it out. And the lame man urged, that the loss could not be laid upon him ; for he had not power to stir a foot. But, when their lord found out the truth of the matter, he commanded the one to be taken up on the shoulders of the otlier, and, in that state, that both should be punished together. In like manner (says JR. Juda HakkadoshJ will God clothe the soul again with the body in the last day, and for mutual sins condemn them both together." Gemara Sanhcd, apud Wits, in symb. p. 483. equally JUSTIFIED. 147 equally weak and wicked by nature ; and declares even the believer, after grace received too, to be still clogged with infirmities ; to be deceived if he presume at any time to say, that he hath no sin ; to have a law of sin ivarring in his members, and a body of sin under which iie must struggle and groan, till in death he is and shall be delivered from it. The matter of fact then demonstrates, that the righ- teousness of the Jus tifed is not and cannot be inherent; not wrought out by themselves; not derived from any creature. The word of God also is very clear and ex- plicit upon this momentous subject, and shows, on the one hand, that it is not by works of righteousness, which the justified have done, or can do, that they are saved , though they certainly are enabled to do what are really ttjuch, beyond all other men ; but that in Jehovah all the seed of Israel, the whole church of God, arejustijied, ^md shall glory ; or, as it is expressed in another place, their righteousness is of me, saith Jehovah. It would be endless to quote the texts, which assert this doctrine. The whole Bible is full of it; and its whole system stands upon it. The ceremonial law, with all its rites, would be absurd without it. The prophets, speaking by the Holy Ghost, continually maintain it, as the first of mercies, and the greatest of privileges. And our Lord and his apostles cannot be understood, but upon the supposition of this truth, which is one of the prime sinews of the gospel, and one most important part of its grand design. Take away this perfect justi- fication by the perfect Jehovah; and every man must i 2 live I4g JUSTIFIED. live and die a sinner, and consequently under the ban of the perfect law, and a subject of eternal destruction. No righteousness but a perfect righteousness can jus- tify at all, and much less before a holy God. Indeed, nothing short of perfection can equal the perfect require- ments of the holy law, and, consequently, cannot de- serve the name of righteousness. Evil may appear to be good among men; but, however subtle, or covered, or mixed, cannot escape the detection and abhorrence of God. The gospel, therefore, by which I mean the whole word of truth from Genesis to the Revelation, proposes no other righteousness for justification, than a complete one; and for this purpose constantly exhibits a divine person, able to procure righteousness and there- fore able to save ; capable of bestowing righteousness, and therefore not a creature who needs all his own, and who cannot have to spare ; and infinite to make righte- ousness endure, and therefore to bring in an everlasting righteousness* But how can one receive the righteousness of another? —Exactly in the way, whereby one received the sin of another; and this was undoubtedly by imputation* Christ was witJiout sin ; and yet he bare sin : Christ was separate from sinners ; and yet he died, and was made sin, and for sin a c«rse, in behalf of sinners. He is not said to be made a sim.er (Tor that he was not, nor could be, in himself) but sin in the abstract, that is, bearing imputatively all the sins and sinfulness of his people, and in this respect having no ichole place in his body, none but what was under this irnputation, and conse- quently under execration. Their sins were reckoned to him; JUSTIFIED. 149 him; or he could not rightly or to any purpose have suffered, the just for the unjust. He certainly could not shave had so strong a censure as to be accursed^ but 6e- cause of transgressions ; and therefore, as he had and could have none of his own, the transgressions of others must have been imputed* to him and taken upon him. In like manner, sinners cannot be justified, or stand righteous, in the court of conscience or of heaven, by their own doings ; for, be they as moral as they can be (supposing for a moment, that, as sinners, they could have any real morality at all) they could not offer a righteousness without flaw, much less a righteousness delightful to Goc?,t and certainly not an infinite and £ver lasting righteousness, which only can afford a proper title to everlasting life and glory. As their condemning sin was transferred by imputation to another, who was able to bear it and to make an endofit ; so their justify- ing righteousness must be their's by a like imputation from ONE, able to produce and to present it in their behalf. Accordingly we are told, and told by the Holy Ghost in the strongest language, as well as by numerous institutions most forcibly representing the fact ; that, as hy one maris disobedience m,any were made sinners, so, by the obedience of ONE, shall many he made righteous. t One whole chapter is employed to declare, that this * Even A6p. Tillotson allows this, and says expressly, that <* Christ bore our sins by way of imputation, and suiFered for them in our stead, as the sacrifice was supposed to do for the sinner. This is evident beyond all denial." Serm. before the Sueen, on Hek. ix. 26. p. 25. t Isa. xlii. 21. X Ron), v. 19. L 3 / righ: 150 JtfSTIFIfED. righteousness, justifying the soul before God, is entirely by imputation; and that the grace of faith is chiefly occupied, in embracing this righteousness for that im« putation.* In this important sense also do I understand the re- markable prophecy of Joe/, quoted by the apostle Peter in his first sermon on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit was to be poured out upon allfiesh, i. e. God's people both of the Jews and Gentiles, in the last days or dis- pensation, as a testimony and seal, that Christ had fnished the work of salvation : and thus God would show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath ; which were ; blood, the blood of Christ ex- piating sin ; FIRE, the wrath of the Father taking ven* geance upon him, when bearing sin; and vapour, or PILLARS, of SMOKE, the swcet-smelUng savor (alluding to the Levitical sacrifices) of the Redeemer's merits and atonement, ascending up victoriously in palm-tike columns, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus God is well- pleased with his people for Christ's sake ; and his people are completely justified by Christ, and so have access- through him by one Spirit to the Father, In this new condition or state, they are privileged io come boldly, freely, and with openface,^ before God in ♦ Sec Rom. Iv. t This may ^rve to explain the injunction of covering and uncovering in 1 Cor. xi. — Man is by nature faulty, and therefore ought to be covered : Christ is faultless, and so may justly stand aperto vultu. But, as man represents Christ in his chiurch,. who is all perfection, he is for that reason to be uncovered : and as the woman stands for the church or human nature, which hath no perfection of its own, and therefore nothing to boast of, fthe ought to be covered or liidden. piayer JUSTIFIED, 151 prayer and in duty; and they are received graciously by him, as recti in curia, upright and clear at his tribunal, and justified, entirely from all the things, which his law and justice could require of them, and for which his law and justice have received ample satisfaction from the hands of their surety. While this righteousness justifies the sinner, it proves the divinity of the Saviour, who is therefore styled, in behalf of his people, with equal love and consistency, Jehovah our righteousness. But, as this hath been copiously insisted upon in anothef place,* it is the kss needful to dwell upon it here ; and especially as, upon the data of the Bible, it will not easily be refuted. Our English church, and all the other Protestant churches, have insisted upon this great truth, in their holy services, in their confessions of faith, and in their public homilies or declarations.! It is the grand basis of the reformation. It is more; it is (as Luther said) articidus stantis vel cadentis ecclesice, that very article, on which the church of God itself will either stand or fall; or, if I may use the words of a learned Bishop now * IIorcE Solit. Vol. i. p. 50. &c. 2d. edit. t Syntagma Confess. Fidei. English Homilies. Hooker's Eccl. Pol. B. V. Beveridge^s Serm. Vol. v. p. 99. cum multis aliis. Among others, it may not be unwelcome to the reader, if a remarkable opinion on this subject be offered, even from an antient Romish Cardinal. This was the famous Cantariniy a noble Vene- tian, one of the most pious and learned men of that church, and esteemed such by the Protestants themselves, as Sleidan relates in his Com. lib. xiv. Whatever errors he might hold as a Papist, he was certainly a Protestant in the docrine of justification, and, for this his suspected inclination towards the reformation, was said to have been poisoned by some emissaries of Rome in the year 1542. J, 4 Very^ 15f JUSTIFIED. now living, " it is the very coraer-stone of the whole system of redemption.'** Very di Terent indeed was his principle upon this head from the aoublejustifcatiotiy which his brother Cardinal Bellarmine since invented, and which the Papists, and some called Protestants too, have ad pted after him; as may appear from the following quota- • tion. Suoniam ad duplicem justitiam pervenimus per Jidem, Jusiitiam inhmreniem noiis, ef charitatemy ae gratiantj qua effi- eintur consortes diviniB natura:; et Justitiam Chrisiiy nobis dona- tarn et imputatamy quoniam inserti sumus Christ o et induhnus Chrisfunij restat inquirere utranam debeamus nitiy et existimare, nos justifcari coram Deo, i.e. sanctos et justos haberif Erg§ prorsus eristimo, pie et Christiane dici quod debeamus niti, niti i/tquamy tanquam re stabiliy qua: certo nos sustentat, justitia. Christi nobis donata, non autem sanctitaie et gratia nobis in' htprente. Hasc etenim nostra Justitia est inchoata et imperfecta, qua tueri nos non potest^ quin in muliis offendamuSy quin assidue peccemus. Idcirco in conspectu Dei non possumus ob hanc Justi- tiam nostram haberi Justi et boniy quemadmodum deceret Jilios Dei esse bonos et sanctos. Sed Justitia Christi nobis donata est vera et perfecta Justitia, quas omnino placet oculis Dei, in qua nihil est quod Deum offendat, quod Deo non summopere placeat. HAG ergo sola, certay et stabili nobis nitendnm est, et ob earn solam credere, nos Justijtcari coram Deo, id est, Justos haberi et dicijustos. De Justif. apud Amesii Bell, enerv. Tom. iv. 1. vi. Thus a Papist himself could dare to write before the existence of the council of Trtnty which increa ed and established the errors of the Romish church, as fatally as Laudy and his associates and followers, have poisoned our English church with the dregs of Arminianism, and with some othef opinions, not very dissimilar to those of Home, as stated by the council of Trent. • See Bishop Horsley's charge to the Diocese o(St. David's, p. T, In this excellent piece, which demands, as well for its author as for its own weight, the most attentive and general perusal, are admirably stated, the true distinction between religion and mere morality, and the necessity of insisting upon the doctrine of jus- tification, in order to root out some common errors, and to pro- -mote real Christianity and godliness of life. The JUSTIFIED. 1531 The holy garments, prescribed for the priests under the law, eminently figured that robe of righteousness, "which believers assume by faith from the Lord their righteousness. As the legal priests could not minister before God without them ; so the faithful, who are the true priests, cannot appear or act acceptably, but as clothed and justified by their Redeemer. He is em- phatically and universally their righteousness in this view; and so they are said to be found in him, to put him on, to live in him, &c. In this view also it is, that the out- ward sign of the prophecy is spiritually accomplished ; they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. The sinners who crucified him, i. e. those sinners, for whom he died, and but for wholn he had never been crucified at all, parted his garments among them, and obtained each his share in him who is the covering of his people ; and they obtained by lot, or according to God*s disposal (as Canaan itself was allotted) that interest in the indivisible vesture, by which they are clot Jied upon, as comprizing in itself life immortal. They were to be many sons brought into one. possession. Hence their Saviour was to be stripped and made naked as a slave and a sinner, to be broken and divided as a man, in order to clothe them with himself and his righteous- ness, and thus to unite them through himself, (as his own human nature was united) unto God. They receive him distributlvely, as the bread broken and the blood sprinkled or distributed for righteousness and atonement; ^nd they enjoy him collectively, as one respecting his di- vinity with God, and one respecting his humanity with them to bring them to God, according to special purpose and 154 JUSTIFIED. and appointment; unknown at first to man, as the fall- ing of a lot is, but from the beginning well known to him, who solely disposes all things, according to the counsel of his own will Hence the triumph of the church : I ivill greatly, rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful rri my God, for HE hath, clothed me with the garments of saU vation, or of the Saviour, he hd.th covered me tcith th& robe of righteousness; as a bridegroom p3 decketh, or clothes himself as a priest, with ornaments, and as a bride cdometh herself with her j excels* As garments clothe the body ; so the body itself is said to clothe the soul.f Alluding to this, righteousness i» called a garment ; because without it, in God's sight, a man is esteemed 7iaked ; that is, unseemly and unclean. And this garment of righteousness is sometimes repre- sented under the image of white linen, as an emblem of spotless purity, which will be kept undefiled in heaven, and which ought to be preserved in all possible clean- ness here below. The same idea is conveyed by cover- ing the ark, and many of the utensils of the tabernacle and temple, with gold, as a substance the most precious and pure of all others. The clothing of the church is, in this symbolical sense, of wrought gold,X bright and beautiful; or, according to the thing signified, all-glori* ous within. The wedding garment, and the arraying of the Lamb's wife in fine linen, clean and white, exhibit * Isa. Ixi. 10. t 2 Cor. V. 4. et al. So Christ s garments are said to be rolled in Zlood; \. e. his body was wounded to death, and became unclean for the sins of his people. J Ps. xlv. 13. the JUSTIFIED, 155 the same image of the righteousness of Christ, which is granted to his church and people, and which, because it is given to them and put upon them, is made tlieir own virtually, and therefore denominated the righteous* ness of saints.* This is the matter of their justification before Jehovah ; not their own doings, either before or after the reception of grace ; not their holiest frames, or desires; not, in whole or in part, their ownselves. Christ, the victim or sacrifice for his people, clothes with his own garment of righteousness all that belong to him.f This garment, like that of the priest's under the law, can only be worn by those in Christ the true tabernacle which God hath pitched and not man, and must not be pro- faned by persons not anointed as spiritual priests, or used to purposes not sanctified by his Holy Spirit. The word ©fGod treats with abhorrence the very mention of the garment spotted by thejlesh ; that is, whatever proceeds from the carnal mind, which is filthy and unclean in the * Rev, xix. 8. t This is mthnated by Gen. iii. 21. Exod. xxv. 11. 21. xxvi. 4 and many other places. Possibly, according to the emblematic and allegorical style of the Old Testament, whose histories, though of private persons, are not oi private interpretation,t]ie.circviTast?iXiCt^ of the birth of £i«M and Jacob are to be understood as descriptive prophecies of their different characters. The one was born red, ^3i»ni< of the earth earthy, and covered as with an /zafrj/ garment y a clotliing derived from fallen animal nature ; and so he became, like Ni?nrod, a man of the field, a man of the earth, a mere rebel or worldling: the other was born without such a covering (as all God's children are new born without trust in themselves) and became or. tt7''J< 'i perfect man, (See Ps. xxxvii. 37,) a dweller in tents, a real pilgrim upon earth, and a worshipper of the I^rd. sight k 155 JUSTIFIED. sight of God. Its principle and end must be evil, because it originates in sin and is directed to self, in opposition to the grace which always seeks the divine glory. This doctrine of free and full justification by faith through the righteousness of the God-man Christ Jesus, is a most precious and consolatory truth to a weary and heavy-laden soul, who only can know the worth of it. In those trying hours, when the conscience accuses, and the law condemns, and God*s righteous justice 8eem$ .to cry aloud for vengeance, upon account of a sinful heart and sinful life ; then to hear of a perfect and free for- giveness, a release from thraldom, a deliverance from i)ondage, and the best robe of righteousness both to cover defects and to afford a welcome title to the marriage of the Lamb and all its happiness; this is good news in- deed, this is the gospel itself, these are those very glad tidings of great joy t which the spirit of the self-convicted sinner pants for, and which lift up his admiring soul with a burst of praise, for so surprising a mercy. None but those, to whom God has granted repentance unto life, can understand what all this means; but those conceive it well, and find great delight in looking back upon, what is called in scripture, the day of their espousals. It is this salutary truth, which chears the heart of the be^ liever in the whole course of his pilgrimage, and which is (as it were) the sheet-anchor of all his hopes. It is not hu- man faithfulness, or strength, or any thing else, either real or supposed, in man, which establishes a cfr^atn hope; it is the grace, bestowingj ustification througli faith, that makes the promise stae to alltJie seed, and exempts them, as mem- bent JUSTIFIED. 157 bers of Christ, living and walking by his Spirit, from fu- ture condemnation. The blood and righteousness, ^hich satisfy God and all his attributes, may well satisfy them. When therefore trials and afflictions visit the Christian, and visit him (as they are always employed to do) in love, and for the increase of faith and holiness ; he can say ; " True^, these things are grievous and distressing to flesh and blood, and they wear my outward man down to the ground, for which purpose they are permitted to come ; but, notwith- standing, my foundation is sure, my Redeemer is faithful, his strength and righteousness are everlasting to support and justify me, he hath mercifully given me these, he employs nothing and takes away nothing but for my good* his Spirit teaches and refreshes my soul under all my wea- riness and pain, and soon the end shall come, when all shall be well with me, and I shall enjoy my Lord, my life and portion, beyond the storms of evil and of time, forever and ever. Then every mystery and every mysterious path shall be made plain and clear, ?ind be proved to have been the straitest and the best for my journey to heaveiu Then the face of the tapestry (as one expresses it) shall be turned, and all its figures appear beautiful and pro* portionate, the back-ground of which seems so strange and confused to my present view. Then the building, now scattered in its members, shall be found to have been fitly framed indeed by an unerring mind and an almighty hand, when brought part to its part and set up in its long-concerted order and arrangement. O my Lord, when I consider these things, I am ashamed of myself, that I should ever be so mad and so foolish, as to murmur and repine at thy providential dlspensa* tions. 1^ JtTSTiriED. tions, which, being meant by thee for my good, must of necessity accomplish it at the last. Let me hold fast Ihy firm word of truth, and thine everlasting righteous- ness ; the one assuring me of thy faithfulness, and the Dther of my indefectible portion ; and then let me exult ivith the most lively faith and joy, in language taught by thine own Spirit; / am persimdedy that neither death, nor iifi, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, Tior things to come, nor height, nor depth, fiur any otlier creature, shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesns my Lord /** This is the voice, this the privilege, of a Chi^istian.— Pray, dear reader, that it may be thine. Thou mayest repent of the joys and sorrows of the world, which only work death ; but of these joys and these sorrows, issuing from the love and providential care of an heavenly -Father and kind Redeemer, there can be no thought of repentance; because this love shall exist, beyond the very approach of change, world without end. SAINTS. SAINTS. 159 SAINTS. A. HIS is one of the most glorious titles of the children of God, and so peculiarly their own, that the rest of mankind readily despise and renounce the name. The persons, who seek a right to it and declare their hope of its participation, are, decidedly and at once, the object of Jehovah's love, and of this world's abhorrence and contempt. But as there is scarcely a name so frequently'' applied to them in the holy scriptures, as this, re- specting their state both in earth or heaven ; they must be content with all the contumely, that can be thrown upon one of the holiest of denominations, and go forth loithout the camp of the world, bearing the reproach of him, who bestowed it upon them, with all the blessed* ness connected with it. The Hebrew name, applied to persons, describes them as devoted, destined, prepared, sanctified, or set apart, in a state of distinction or abstraction from the mul- titude of mankind, by the will and power of God, to his own service and glory. Agreeable to this radical idea of the word, are all the doctrines and providences of the bible inculcated, applied, and performed. The doc-' trines, as they appear either in representations or pro- phecies under the Old Testament, and in more express terms under the New; and ih^ providences, as they arose and 160 saints; and were fulfilled from age to age; are all in harmony with this great truth implied under this great name, that God hath chosen to himself a peculiar people out of the nations of the earth, that they are set apart to himself from the profanations of a wicked world, ^hat they arc prepared accordingly by his holy Spirit for an heavenly life, and that they shall most certainly, notwithstanding all opposition and enmity from earth and hell, attain to the everlasting possession of the kingdom of glory. To exhibit this gracious privilege, there are many ap- plications of this term sanctified or holy both to persons and things. Abel was accepted, and not Cain ; Jacob, and not Esau ; Joseph and David rather than their bre- thren; and, omitting many o\h^r personal examples, the whole nation of the Jews, by way of prophetic or doc- trinal similitude, and the national rejection for a time of all others. Again ; particular stations, services, portions, privileges, sacrifices, were appointed by God to the priests under the law, all of which were set apart or sanctified to them distinctly from all other men. In like manner, certain vessels, made of the same materials with other vessels, were devoted to the sanctuary, and so became vessels of honor for the great Masters use; and, in one word, the sanctuary itself, the eminent type of Christ anc} his people, was prepared, dedicated, made holy to the Lord, and not to be profaned by the very foot of a •tranger, or one out of the covenant. It is but the same l\iea in the New Testament, where the apostle speaks of presenting the church ^s?i chaste virgin to Christy her be- trothed husband ; having wedding-garments, which were always prepared and bestowed distinctly and individually upon , «A1NTS. 161 Upon the several guests; of washing those garments of ^Ivation, and making them white, or pure, in the blood of the Lamb ; with many other things of the Uke signi- fication scattered through the holy word. The full sig- nification of all these various figures and symbols, is com- prehended in that one declaration of Christy for their sokes 1 sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified tiirough the truth.* The drown of the anointing oil of the Alehim was upon him, the true Nazarene, f separated from sin and undefiled by sinners, that he might be able to make a perfect atonement ; and, by making it for his people, to separate them also from evil and its effects, and to sanctify them by his Holy Spirit, who is the truth and the author of it. From these premises it manifestly appears, that all this sanctification, or separation, of the redeemed arises from the will and purpose of God ; and, as his will and purpose are, like Himself, from everlasting to everlasting ; it follows, that sanctification is neither more nor less than the eternal election and design of God brought into act iti the appointed season, called the fulness or measure of time, which act must therefore be surely and entirely accom- plished, above all molestation or hindrance. Agreeably to this, it is written of these saints and stran^ gers in the world, that they are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of J^sus Christ ;i that they are chosen out of the World, by * John xvii. 19; t Compare Lev. Xxi. 12. vUi. 9. 12. Gen,xlix.26, JlPet.i*2, M Christ SAINTS. — r* Christ and erduined or made to stand ; that they are THEREFOHE hated by the world, and are no longer (yf ike world ; that they are the objects of Christ's love and prayer in absolute distinction from the world, who said 1 pray for them; I pray not for the world; and that, fi« nally, they are gathered, tdthout the failure of one^ to everlasting life. The Greek name for saint is less full than the Hebrew, ffiid chiefly implies a general separation or abstraction of soul from the world. It may be and has been properly rendered, not earthly, or, nut of the earth. The title, tliough negative, is of great signification; as may be easily seen from what itis opposed to. Thus A hel offered in faith, looking to Christ for redemption and heaven : but Cain brought of the/n«7 of the ground, os a, tiller (or lather servant, nar) of the ground, a mere man of the wprld, and expected most probably a wonderful gratifi- cation in all earthly things from his formal and carnal ho- mage to his Maker. Esau, the carnal icorkei' (as his name signifies) was also a man of the field, a mere world- ling who sought his support and delight from the earth, and valued a mess of pottage more than his spiritual pri- vilege, and from hence had his name Edom, one, like the 5oil, and of the soil from whence he was taken, bom hairy like the goats, whom he resembled in that name and nature, expecting all his support from his own skill and labour, and from the influences and productions of the material world. Jacob on the contrary, was on cr»jc, not ?L plain, but 2i perfect man, one made so in Christ, (a» in Ps. xxxvii. 37.) dwelling in tents ; i. e. either a pilgrim or stranger upon earth (as Heb. xi. 90 or a worshiper of God \ SAINtS. 1^3 God in the tabernacles, or places of worship^ then used by the faithful. These men of the earth, or world, as the scriptures frequently style them, are all Nimrods or Edo^ mites, mighty hunters and rebels against the faces or per- sons of Jehovah, or violent persecutors and enemies of his people. He that is born after thejiesh, and is of the flesh, ever did and ever will, to the end of time, persecute him that is born after the Spirit.* Hence,when the na- tion of the Jews, though primarily selected as to out- ward condition and privilege typifying the inward, be« came generally carnal and worldly ; they are reproved by * Gal. iv. 29. This forcibly implies the necessity of regene- ration. We cannot know the things of God, or approach in real worship to God, by our carnal nature, which is weak, because itis wicked, and spiritu ally dead because contrary to and incapable of th6 actions of spiritual life. Hence the reason of the figure oi ce- remony, delivered to Moses in Exod. iii, 5. put of thy shoes from ^ff thif feety for the place -whereon thou standest is holy ground. This acknowledgement of a man's own baseness or unworthmess, this pulling off" the shoes f this keeping or observing of the foot, (as it is called in Eccles. v. 1.) is, in the mental sense, the putting of, concerning the former cofiversation, the old man, whichis corrupt vccordi?ig to the deceitful lustSt and the being humbled in the consideration of it, whenever we would present ourselves before the Lord, who cannot look upon iniquity without abhorrence. Hence, in the parable of the prodigal son, who was naked, him- gri/, and unshod ; vile as vileness, and wretched as wretchedness, itself; representing therein the undone state of man by nature; we may perceive, that a wonderful change was made in his condition by the gratuitous acceptance of his father. 1. He was endowed with the best robe, the robe of righteousness. 2. He had a ring put on his hand; the seal and pledge of the Holy Spirit, and of his being taken into tlie covenant. 3. He had a covering for his feet ; in- timating, the removal of his vileness, and the new obedience of kis life and conduct. Luke xv. 22. M 9 a variety 1(54 SAINTS. a variety of heathen, polluted, or significant names, de- scriptive of their true state in the sight of God. Thus they are called rulers of Sodom a.nd people of Gomorah;* Babylon because of confusion ; Moab, because of their pride; Dimon, because of their bloody guilt in persecut- ing God*s witnesses ; Damascus, because they should be left childless, i. e. lose their birth-right as the Lord's re^ j€cted;f Ephraim, in the same place and many others,:}: from their desire of only carnal plenty and fertiUty ; an empty and waste land,^ or vineyard ;|| Ariel, once the lion of God, but then plunged in sorrow and weakness because of sin; H Edom, because of their earthly mind, which coveted the things of the world rather than the things of God.** From all this we may perceive, that no name, family, or nation ; no outward church, or profession of religion ; can either make or keep a man a saint ; but that it is a spintual and essential distinttion, freely conferred by God on whom he chooses, and powerfully accomplished by him ♦ Isa. j. 10. t Compare Isa. xvii. 1, 2. with Gen. xv. 2. Amos iii. 12. and Rom.ix. 6, 7, 8. t Isa. xxviii. 1. 14. Ps. Ixxxviii. 9. Jenxxxi. 9. § Isa. xxiv. 1, &c. II Isa. v. 6. if Isa. xxix. 1. &c. ** Isa. Ixiii. 1. See also the pro- phecies of Ezekiel, Amos and Obadiah, where, covertly, and pri- marily, under the heathen names, the punishment and dereliction of the Jews are awefuUy foretold. This changing of names, in pro- phecy both of good and evil, is very frequent in the scriptures : thus Abram, and Sarah, and Jacob, received names of promise; and Esau, and Pashur {itr. xx.) and the Israelites at large (Mos. i. 6. Psalm xxii. 12, Amos iv. 1.) title* of denunciation or abasement in SAINTS. 165 in the objects of his choice, whom therefore he sanctifies to himself through Christ, and redeems from the earth, that they may be partakers of his glory. The distinction is as essential as that between sheep and goats ; of whom, the one are holy because redeemed by him who bare their sins for them, and the other unholy, because (according to the representation in the law) they are sin-hearers, that is hearers of their own sins, in the sight of God, in their own proper persons, and therefore perishing from his presence. These sanctified or separated ones prove their calling by its effects. They do not appeal to the hidden volume of God's decrees, but to the open book of their faithful lives. They boast not of good works, but do them ; and, in doing them, own from whom they derived the power, not only of the act, but of the very thought and occasion which preceded it. They are not servants of the earth, though for a while they live upon it ; but servants of God, on whose love and bounty, which never fail them, they depend for all things. Nor do they feed, like men of the world, u^ow dust, the serpent's food and curse, nor upon the husks or vile trash of sin and evil which those husks denote ; but upon the food of the great ones, the bread of covenanted grace and peace, the flesh and blood, the righteousness and propitiation, of their great Redeemer. It is their subsistence, their very life, love and desire, to be holy and devoted to him in their persons, and to b6 abundantly fruitful in every good word and work, through him, in their conversations. This was signified under the law by the prohibition of eating what is therein called uncircumcised fruit, or feeding on certain devoted things M 3 in 10§ BAINTS. in any other place than what the Lord should choose to appear in. The spiritual support of the children of God is all covenanted mercy, enjoyed by them under the trut circumcision of the Spirit, and in the presence, or feith in the presence, of *^e Lord that bought them. And to them are realized those charming prophecies; Jeho* VAH hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength; surely, I will no more give thy corn to be meat f&r thine enemies, and the sons of a stranger shall not dnnk thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured : but they, that kave gatlwred it, shall eat it, and praise Jehovah ; and they, that have brought it together, shall drink it in the courts of my holinesS'^^He shall dwell on high ; his place pf defence shall be the munition of rocks ; bread shall be given him ; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall SEETHE King in his beauty.* K this be true ; and true it is, if any fact was ever true { we may say with the incomparable Leighton, that " we need not then that poor shift for the pressing of holiness and obedience upon men, to represent it to them as the meriting cause of salvation. This is not at all to the ' purpose, seeing, without it, the necessity of holiness to sal- vation is pressing enough ; for holiness is no less necessary to salvation, than if it were the meriting cause of it; it is as inseparably tied to it in the purpose of God." Let no man then despise the name of saint, but rather pray for grace to become one. And let him, who is such in reality, study to prove his right to the glorious title • Isa. Ixii. 8, 9. xxxiii. 16, IT. with Lev. xuc. 23—25. Deut ^. 17, 18. more more and more, as he values the consolation of his own mind, and the honor of his heavenly Master. In a little time the Lord shall come, in the greatness of his power, to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe. Then shall thousand thousands minister unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before hiirk. And then shall the saints of the most high, whose lives were counted folly and their end without honor by a mad and evil world, take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. So be it. Lord Jeaus; come quickly : Amen. Happy Christian ! God's own child,. Called, chosen, reconciled; Once a rebel, full of taint. Now a duteous, humble, saint. Happy Christian ! Look on high; See thy portion in the sky ! Fix'd by everlasting love, Who that portion can remove ? Happy Christian ! Though the eartU Cannot know thy gracious worth; Yet thy God shall soon proclaim Through all heav'n thy blessed name. Happy Christian ! Angels say, "Hither, brother, come away: * Leave the world and all its woes ; " Take with us thy sweet repose! " Happy Christian ! Upwards fly ! ''Rise ; the kingdom now is nigh: " Fill thy place before the Throne,— "Place, which God hath made thine own!" m4 zealous 168 ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. JLa EAL for God, and for all that belongs to his truth and glory, well becomes a Christian. Without this wise and holy zeal, whatever be his ppinioiis, however great his knowledge or his fame, he will scarcely deserve the title^ True zeal springs from grace in the heart and affections; and, without the eng'agement of these, the. employment of all our other faculties is but of little worth in the sight of God. By good works may be fairly understood the whole com-i pass of goodness, as it can be exercised by a Christian, No other person can really perform them at all ; and the Christian only as he is enabled by ihat^ which makes him a Christian, and distinguishes him from all other men. Heisapart of the new creation, the renovated w'orA:7waw-. ship of Gody created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, or prepared, that he should walk in them*, God prepared hitp for the works, and the works for him, to the praise of the glory of his own grace by Christ Jesus, When a man is made a Christian indeed, he is brought into union and fellowship with Christ. By this union he receives from him salvation and all the things which ac- ♦Eph, ii. 10. company ZEALOUS OP GOOD WORKS. IQQ company it To illustrate this, our Lord sets before us a lively figure. He calls himself a vine, and his people the branches; and tells his disciples, that a^ the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. These words show the necessity of this union, before the fruit can be. pro- duced; and the necessity of fruit after the union, is shown by the words of the whole context.* The head and the members give another image of the same truth. The members can have no direction, action, or even life, but by continual union with their head ; nor can the members of Christ, in a spiritual sense, without HiM.f Christ will not cease to actuate his members: they eannot be separated from 'him: and, in his action upon them, and in their activity by him, consist all their com- fort and holiness, undivided from his person and glory. This is the principle of works properly good; for all the works, which are " otherwise done than as God hath willed and commanded them to be done," are not intrinsically good, in their agents, however they may conduce to the service of others; but are, on the con- trary, dressed and disguised sins, produced by the natural man, in a selfish way for carnal ends, without the life of God, or true respect for Him. * See John xv. 1--8. It is the just remark of an able and emi- nent divine; "as surely as the vine-branch can have no power in- dependant of the root, so surejy cannot the Christian think, act, or live as such, but so far only as he derives his abilities from the stock, upon which he is engrafted." Jones's Inquiry upon the Spring. p. 36. Nothing can be said more strongly, in the way of conces- sion, for free grace, nor more directly against free-will and self-righ- teousness, t John xr. 5. Aa HO ZISAIOVS OJP GOOD WOEKS. As Christ is the pattern of Christian holiness, so he is the main-spring and motive of all its duties within the $(Mil. Like the sap throughout the vine; so Christ sweetly and richly diffuses his Holy Spirit through all his spiritual branches, causing them to be fruitful, in a gracious similarity to himself and to each other, and establishing their fruit so as to remain. They are not- like the barren fig-tree, which was accursed in having^ only the fair, large, wide-spreading leaves of profession ; but they bear a rich and ripe product in due season, because, from their root or stock, Christ Jesus, is their fruit certain ly /oM?ic?.* He hath left us an example, that we should tread in his steps; and as we delight to imitate those whom we love (for true love ever induces likeness;) so, without any harsh or dull constraint which can only show that our hearts are not engaged in the business, shall we copy our dear Redeemer in all that he hath set before ua. It will be our meat and drink, our necessary, our constant, gratification and happiness, to go after his will. It will be even our will too ; and contrary to our will not to go ♦ The allusion is to Marie xi. 13. which mi^ht have been trans- lated thus; and seeing a fig-tree afar off" having leaves, he came, if therefore he might find any thing thereon : and when he came to it, he found ?iothing but leaves; for -where he teas (i. e. then) •was the time of figs. This was primarily dcrectcd to the Jewish church, from whom Christ did not expect fruit out of season, at may be seen from another parable to the same purpose, in Mark xii 2. Luke xx. 10. And it is also applicable to every individual professor of Christianity, whose faith must be proved by its fruits and justified by its works, or else he will 6e cast forth as a barren branch and be withered, till at length he shall be cast into the fire end be burned. John xv. 6. after ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. 171 after his. As the stream of a river freely flows through its course, according to the laws of providence ; so the spirit of a Christian, turned aright, tends towards Christ with a willing affection, according to the order and in the way appointed for him. This is the principle of all holy obedience in a Christian. His heart and soul are in it ; whereas none but a Christian's ever can be. In this view of the case, the question, " Whether the moral law is not the rule of a Christian's duty," appears to be perfectly idle. The moral law enjoins nothing but the love of God and the love of man, and declares to every sinner, and to every saint, how far they come short of the pure glory of God, revealed in and to be spiritually understood by it. Of course, it is purity itself, the transcript of the holy mind of God, and ne- cessarily therefore holy^ just, and good. Certainly, no Christian can plead for the violation of any of the com- mandments; and, if not for the violation, then conse- quently for obedience. He must love God ; and he must love man ; which is the sum of the moral law : he dares not justify hatred to either: his grief is, that he cannot love both, more perfectly and more entirely. With the apostle, he delights in the law of God after the inward man, and bemoans his captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members, looking out for the time, when he ^hall have full and everlasting deliverance from it. It is one thing, to consider the law as a principle of life, and quite another to look upon it as a direction for duty. In the former case, it is death and condemnation to us, all that is avi^ful and horrible ; because we are all that is vile and sinful, and therefore sentenced by it to satan 172 ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. satan and hell. We must of course utterly cast it out of our consciences and meditation, in all our approaches to God for pardon and justification. We must then con- sider it as nothing, or entirely done away by our Re- deemer. But, in the other case, the condemnation being removed by the obedience and death of Christ to every believer, there remains nothing in the law but what is pleasant and congenial to that renewed mind, which the Holy Spirit hath wrought in him. He therefore doth not love the laio (more than David or the apostle) for life, or to gain life from it ; but because he is alive. The law was his enemy, when he was in the death of trespasses and sins ; but, in Christ, it is his friend, pleads for his salvation through the righteousness with which Christ hath magnified and made it honourable* and demands an everlasting reward for him in the court of heaven. It is no more the law of bondage to the Chris* tian, but a considerable part of the Ic^w of liberty and love, which though he cannot absolutely come up to in his present state, he v/ill conform himself to it as far as possible; because he is assured, that hereafter he shall be as perfect as this measure of perfection itself, and that it is his very happiness now to bear upon him this pour- trait of his holy Lord, and to walk in blessed sympathy with his pure mind. The life of Christ, our example, was carried on in full conformity to the law ; and indeed there can be r>o holiness, or knowledge of what holiness means, but according to a description or rule. And what rule can ♦Isaiah xlii. 21. we ZEALOUS OF GOOD "WORKS, 173 we find for this, but the revealed rule or mind of God ? If therefore we live according to Christ, v^^e cannot live in the allowed breach of any one of his commandments; for, if we thus live, and especially if we justify it, we surely do not follow our great example, but rather in- , suit and condemn it. As Christ is the example, so his life is our life, if we are his members. / live (says the apostle) yet not T, but Christ liveth in me: and the life, which I now live in \ the fleshy I live by the faith of the Son of God* It would be strange to suppose, that the life of Christ could be a life of transgression against that law, which he came to honor and fulfil ; nor can any man in his senses, and least of all a Christian man, believe so mad a proposition. The life of faith is given and supported by the Holy Spirit, to bring us fiigh unto God in Christ, to give us access by Christ in prayer and praise, to mortify our members which are upon the earth, to subdue the whole body of sin, to obtain fresh and fresh incomes of grace and experience, to know more of the love of God, to increase more in our love towards him and our neighbour, and to long more for the full fruition of our Redeemer in his kingdom. As, without faith, it is impossible to please God, or to live and act for his honor ; so every one, who has true faith, must so act, and cannot allow himself to act otherwise. He has no liberty for a vloke of maliciousness or sin, which is only miserable bondage ; but liberty for that dignified and spiritual " service, which is perfect freedom." For this end, Christ is •Gsa.ji,20. iiis 174 ZEALOUS OF GOOD WOEKS. his ocfxiuyo^y his guide and accomplisher, who surely Can only lead him inthe icay of God's commandments, when he hath set his heart at liberti/. And, therefore, the apostle thus urges upon the Phillippians ; because it is God who worketh in you, both to xcill and to do, of his good plea^ sure; Kolifyct^Kr^e, 6e diligently and constantly employed upon, cultivate, go through with, your own salvation, with fear and trembling.* And what is this but the life and business of holiness ? There are also subordinate examples, whom it is oui duty to regard. Indeed, our duty in Christ is but ano- ther name for our privilege; for no duty is set before us, but what it is our privilege and interest to perform. The examples of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and pastors, are to be followed, as they followed Christ ; and, though they are but imperfect types or models, they are, for that reason, examples of less awe and more encourage- ment. Their very failings forbid us to despair, under the view of our own infirmities ; while their faith and practice point out to us the road,t by which they and all the redeemed of the Lord must travel toZion, He that lives under the dominion of sin, and loves it; he that can cherish it, as a sweet morsel, in his heart, or in secret; is not the servant or member of Christ, but of satan. It is true; sin is in his mortal body, and may rebel ; but it doth not reign. It is sin in captivity and chains ; it is sin dying, and soon to be dead ; it is sin • Eph. ii. 12, 13. So 1 Tim. iv. 15. t This road is strikingly marked out in Isa. xxxv. 8. And an high toay^ or exalting way, and a nvay even the -way of holiness shall it be called: the unclean shall not pass upon it; but }H^T^ he [God] himself will be with them, walking in the way; and even the fools shall not err therein. hated. ZJEALOU3 OF GOOD ^ORKS. 175 hated, and Idathed, and condemned; it is sin, over ivbich the Christian rejoices as an enemy, that shall t:rd Jong be destoyed for ever. On the other hand, it is both sweet and lovely to follow Christ in the regeneration, or newness of life; and it is the special delight of all the children of God* This holy life, like a shining flame, burns with bright and fervent zeal for the truth of Jesus, and for all his gracious will and righteous ways. It cannot endure th« least slight to be put upon his person, his doctrines, or his graces. It loves them all most dearly, and follows them all most nearly. Any distance is grievous, any doubt distressing. If there were no hell, the inward mam of a Christian would make no abatement in the love of holiness or hate of sin. If there were no heaven ; yet it would be something like it in his apprehension, to walk soberly, nghteously, and godly in this present world, and far better than all the joys of those, who serve the world, the flesh, and the devil. Christian ; I appeal to thy heart and experience, if it be not so. Thou art an evidence of this noble truth, . and a witness for me in declaring it. I am sure, thou hast never had greater pleasure, than when thou hast been able to work most diligently, or to feel most zeal- ously, for thy Master. His service is such a reasonable one, as not only to be right in itself, but to aflbrd un- speakable satisfaction in the very doing it. The per* formance is crowned with payment all the way through. It is a service, which makes the tenor of life chearful, and encourages the soul to look upon the approach of death as only " Eternity^s birth-day." From the pros- pect and assurance of life eternal, the heart of a Chris- tiaa 170 ZtALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. tian is borne up against all enemies and adversities, aril can count them all but as light affliction, lasting for a momenty and ushering in, as well as making more wel- come, the exceeding and eternal weight of glory, " But, say some, may not this supposed assurance iiiduce carelessness of mind and of life?" — Let the answer be in the words of Abp. Leighton, whose learning, judgement, and piety, were of no common form. — • " 'Tis a foolish misgrounded fear, and such as argue» inexperience of the nature and workings of divine grace, to imagine that the assured hope of salvation will beget unholiness and presumptuous boldness in sin, and there- fore that the doctrine of that assurance is a docrine of licentiousness. Our apostle (Peter) we see, is not so sharp-sighted as these men think themselves : he appre- hends no such matter, but indeed supposes the contrary as unquestionable : he takes not assured hope and holi- ness as enemies, but joins them as nearest friends ;— hope perfectly — and he holy''* It is incumbent, then, upon all professors of religion to make full proof of their vocation by their actions among men. Let them see their good works, that they may glorify God in the day of visitation. Let genuine faith appear in its genuine fruits. Let Christians live so, as to live down every lie and slander, which an ungodly world would gladly raise upon them; and let them com- mit their souls in well-doing to him that judgeth iighte- oxisly, and evince themselves to be God* s peculiar people, whom he hath purified unto himself, by being constantly ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. * Com. on Peter, c. i. ▼. 14. HIDDEN, HIDDEN, OR SECRET ONES. I77 HIDDEN, '^R SECRET ONES. A HE people of God are called by this name; partly because they are hidden in his counsels of grace from common knowledge, and therefore unknown to the world ; and partly because of that hidden life, which h« hath planted in their souls, which, like the new name written upon the white stone * cannot be positively or particularly understood but by him that receiveth it. In the first view, as known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world ; so certainly the works, or workmanship, of his new creation were ever perfectly in his sight; and the people of his love, who are the ob« jectsof this creation, were foreknown by him according to his own purpose and grace, which was given them in Christ Jesus, before the ivorld began. f Hence Christ is represented by the psalmist as saying to Jehovah ; Thifie tyes did see my substance yet being tmperfect,+ and in thy book [God*s order and appointment'] all my members were written £all that compose this substance] which in continuance were fashioned [or, as in the margin, what days they should be fashioned'] when as yet there was none * Rev. ii. 17. t 2 Tim. i. 9. X ^»Va, mi/ chaotic mass, to human view ; confused, Hke th« parts of a building not set up, or the world itself before its com- plete arrangement, N Hf 178 nxnumf, or secret ones. of them. How precious then are thy friends (or beloved ones) to me ! How mighty are the chief of them /* This holy nuii^ber (perfect in itself as a mathematical square, and therefore so formed or described in the Re- velation,! yet utterly innumerabU.by the arithmetic of man) is written, or arranged in order as writings usually are, and composed of Gentiles afar off, as well as the nearer Jews. Hence, by an allusion peculiar to the sacred tongue, these Gentiles, as part of the city of God, are called the north, or the sides of the north ; not only because the typical Jerusalem stood for the most part on the north side of the temple, but rather perhaps be- cause the great flow of the Gentiles should be from the north to the church of Christ; or, because the state of these Gentiles, when the prophecies were given, was that oi darkness, remoteness, or hiddenness, as the north is from the sun; and therefore the word, which signifies both this and the north, was used to describe that state, dark and distant from the Sun of righteousness. Such allusions are very frequent in scripture ; and the fact, in this case, seems to justify the application of the name. Thus the church is called, in the same verse, the joy of the whole earth. Mount Zion, the sides [or extreme parts] of the north, and the city of the great King.t This was to give an idea of the whole church, Jews and Gentiles, known and unknown, in being and to be. Under the same idea, the prophet Jeremiah was taught * Vs. cxxxix. 16, 17. Thus the Hebrew of ver. 17. should have Wen rendered ; and thus nearly it is rendered by the Ixx. t Rev. xxi. 16. I Ft. xlviii. 2, See also Isa. xiv. IS*- to HIDDEN, OR SECRET ONES. VfQ to speak of the last dispensation, upon the coming of Christ, that God*s people, whether of the house of Judah or the Jews in particular, or of the house of Israel or the redeemed at large, should loalk together (having but one faith) and should come together (as to one object) and out of the land of the north (the land of darkness and hiddeness, psJ^ V"*^) t^ *^*^ ^^'^^ given to them and the fathers, as one common and perpetual inheritance** For 'this reason probably, the camp of Dan, who pre- figured the Gentiles, and who as such was to judge his people AS one of the tribes of Israel, that is, was to have the same truth and salvation among them as the rest of the Israel of God ; was appointed, in allusion to the dvrk and remote state of the Gentiles, or to the secret coun- sels of God concerning them, to rest on the north-side of the whole camp of the people, and, in their progression, was to be the rereward of all the camps throughout their hosts, bringing up the remnant of the church of God, after Christ should have appeared in the flesh. Hence, to the Jews, Dan was indeed, as a serpent by the way, secretly yet vehemently making his coiirse, and biting the horse-heels, overthrowing the agency of the Jewish oeconomy; so that his rider, the Jewish nation, fell backward,^ The prospect of this event, which waa to take place after the coming oiShiloh, who was to bring in the mercy to all people, and to tvhom their gathering should be, caused the patriarch Jacob to exclaim, I have waited for ihy salvation, Lord ! *Jer,iii. 18. See also xxiii. 8. ( t Gren. xlix. 17» ' N 2 AU ISO HIDDEN, OR SECRET ONE3. All this, taken together, may serve to explain, both in doctrine and example, that the people of Cod are and ever have been a people hidden in his counsels, and brought forth from age to age according to his gracious will and appointment. In another view, looking from their special designa- tion a$ heirs of promise to their peculiar experience as partakers of the grace of life, the children of God are hidden and unknown by the world. Their life is a hidden one— Aid mth Christ in God: and the world knoweth not them, because it knoweth not him. Christ is their head, and, as such, the author and fountain t)f this hidden and spiritual life. They live upon him for it and in it They have nothing of their own, but sin ; and upon sin they cannot live, but must oppose and abhor it. In order to conquer the corrupt and inbred life, which they derive from their fallen nature, they draw out of the fulness of their Redeemer grace for grace; and by this mean, and only by this, they grow into his life, and therefore are said, because their Re- deemer is divine, to increase with all the increase of God. They are of God, according to his own will, in Christ Jesus, who from the Godhead {avo 0i») is made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- demption : *id thus they are enabled to obey what is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord ; for, in themselves, they find, that they have neither right, nor pretence, to glory at all. When the sun is low or oblique, the shadow of a maa is long and evident, perhaps an hundred fold longer than his real substance, till at length it is swallowed up in HIDDEN, OR SECRET OKES. 181 in darkness; but when its rays are full and direct, the shadow is short or wholly unseen, but the man is sur- rounded with light. So is it with men in relation to their knowledge and station in Christ. When he is much to them, they feel themselves to be little, or nothing : when they are much in themselves, they are fond of appearing great in length, though it be all but vanity or shadow, which shall soon be done away. He is not the greatest Christian, who appears such outwardly; but he, whom the Lord approves, and hath united to him- self by the strongest inward faith, humility, and love. His choicest secret ones are not only lowest in their own eyes, but perhaps in the eyes of their professing brethren. They may probably shine out at the last from such ob- scurity of talents and obscurity of place and condition, as may astonish every beholder, and lead him to admire that order of God, who makes small things great, and sets what man thought to be last and lowest, in the uppermost seat before him. This hidden man of the heart, or as the psalmist calls it, this hidden thing or part,* is the new man, which is not corruptible, because it is renewed after the image of him that created him* And this new or hidden man is sustained by new and secret food, even by the hidden manna, the life and grace of Christ, commupicated by his Spirit. By this it is replenished, and proceeds to the measure of the stature appointed. As this is a true and invincible life in its essence, so, like the natural life, it appears to have its own peculiar *Ps.li. 6. N 3 effects 1^9 HIDDEN, OR SECRET ONES.' effects and operations. It is capable of spiritual and di- vine knowledge, of which the natural man, however ingenious or learned in natural things, is truly incapable. He of himself cannot taste, experience, or exercise, this gracious wisdom; and therefore, if he could form a thousand speculations upon divine ideas cloathed with human words, he cannot attain to the substance and life of this heavenly thing; not more than a person who be- holds the picture of a feast can be said to enjoy one. He may look, and contemplate, and starve. This wisdom is, therefore, called the hidden wisdom, which the princes or the great of this world, that is, those who are high in themselves, cannot know ; because God is said to reveal its truths by his Spirit, and to him only that is spiritual,* who as such is alone prepared for their reception. And it is also called the secret (tid, the funda- mental or established counsel) of the Lord, which is icith them that fear him, and with them only. By this wis^ dom, the believer is taught where to find strength for every occasion, pardon for every sin, justification for every demand of the law, holiness against every pollu- tion, victory over death and hell, and life and peace for evermore. He prays in secret to him that seeth in secret; or, what is the same in other words, he entereth in spirit into the secret place of the Most High, and dwelleth under the shadow of the Almighty. He casts anchor within the vail, and finds it sure and stedfast in every storm. He lives by the faith of the Son of God, ^md looks to him as his refuge in every time of need ; nor is he, nor shall he ever be, disappointed of his hope. • 1 Cor. ii. 10, &c. What HIDDEN, OR SECRET ONES.: 183 What a mystery is this life of the Christian to a man of the world ? He cannot conceive, how it is possible for any one to love God, whom he hath not seen ; or to act dependently upon him in a renunciation of himself; or to live in a serious retirement and obscurity among men, undesirous of, or rather dreading, earthly pomp and worldly glory ; or to taste of such superior joys and comforts, as can render insipid all the vain delights, and pleasures, and entertainments, round about him. Thi$ is a strange life and business to the natural man ; and be* cause he wants a name for it, he gives it a hard one, though wide enough from the right, through his ignor- ance and inexperience. He therefore hates or despises the Christian, who feels, or ought to feel, in return, none but the kindest emotions of pity for him. May I enjoy, for my part, this secret and sacred love of my God within my soul; for surdy nothing beside can make me happy. I have tried, and others have tried, all possible schemes of pleasure, which the world can afford, or sense can receive ; but alas ! what are all earthly things but fleeting vanity ; or, what fruit can they pro^ duceat the last, but keen remorse, and pungent, gloomy, wearisome, vexation of spirit? Thy secret wisdom, Omy Qod, conveyed to my heart through thy word, hath greatly delivered me from this doleful path, and guided my feet into the way of peace. True ; it is but a narrrow way; dLud few there be that findit ; but tlie way, how- ever, is thine, and infalliably leads up unto thee, O make me to learn this pure wisdom secretly ; and then shall I walk in thy truth to the end, and no wickedness shall have dom inion over me ! _ , N4 STRANGERS 184. ffTKAlCGEIlS AND PILGRIMS. STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS. A. HE Holy Ghost employs every kind of similitude, ap- parent in the objects of nature, to represent the state and the privileges of the children of God. And as a similitude, in some respect or other, really exists between natural and spiritual things; he teaches us, by this example of his own wisdom, to be constantly engaging our thoughts, while we are occupied among earthly matters, to carry them up to the sublime and delightful subjects of an ever- lasting world. The children of Adam are all strangers upon earth in one relation or another. As they came into the world, and while they continue in their natural state, they are children of wrath, strangers * from the covenants of pro- mise, alienated from the life of God, having no hope, and mere Atheists in the world. But those, who are recon- * The Old Testament has three words, which are translated stran- ger or for eignery but which in the original have a peculiar or more forcible sense; as may be seen particularly in Exod. xii.43, &c. The word 13 j ver. in 43. means a person, not only a Gentile, but, in the worst sense, a stranger and an alien to God and his people. In ver. 43. the word 3tfrir\, rendered/ore/^s^wer, implies a sojourning stranger J one who lives among God's people, but is not of them. And in ver. 48, 49. The wordnj, also rendered str anger ^ denotes one moved with fear^ and so walking, in a spiritual sense, as a proselyte of the truth, convinced of his need of an interest in the covenant of grace, and privileged to come into it. ciled STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS. 185 died and brought nigh by the blood of Christ, are indeed no longer strangers to God ; and yet they must be stran- gers still, under a new capacity, to the world and their former condition in it When the Lord passes over them, beholding their consciences sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, who is the only means of that joa^^/'/ig of;er without vengeance, and therefore called the passover itself in the abstract; they are enabled to go forth with power out of the spiritual Egypt, and the bondage of sin, and to be* come estranged to that tyrant and tyranny, under which they had been held. Through the effectual working of the Spirit of grace, they become mortified in their affec- tions to the former lusts, which ruled over them in the time of their ignbrance and estrangement from God, grow more and more dead to self with all its false ambi- tion and groveling views, are at a distance from the life and spirit of the world, and tremble to follow its maxims or to mix with its pursuits. They are taught, and not only taught, but induced, to look upon earth, as a strange place, where every object presents a dan- ger, and almost every step a snare ; as a region, now far from the Sun of righteousness, where their spiri- tual nature is exposed to storms, and their new life to deadening cold ; in short, as a howling wilderness, where no spiritual bread grows for their souls, but must dally descend from their own country above, and where every kind of enemy and every species of barrenness, want, or emptiness, niust continually be found. Like Israel of old, they wander in the wilderness in a solitary way, and find no city to dwell in, God is their guide through this desert world, they not knowing truly a step of their course with- out 1^ STRAKGERS AifD PILGRIMS, out him, but follow him in faith whither soever he goeth. They depend upon him to lead them f rth hy the right way, that they may go to the city of habitation. The road is intricate; but their conductor is sure. Thus the redeemed of the Lord are strangers in a strange land, and are treated accordingly. Walking in the spirit of their jnaster, the world pereives the ^ilienation, will at least ridicule, and, if permitted, will commonly persecute them for it. Neither the innocency nor the usefulness of their lives can screen them from censure and malig- nity; but all evil things shall be said of them, which may at any rate be believed, and some which no belief, aided by the keenest prejudices, can possibly swallow. Witness the charge made upon the primitive Christians (as Tertullian, who lived within 200 years of Christ, relates it) of murder and adultery, of killing and eating an infant in their nocturnal assemblies, and of contriving to put out the candles in a minute, in order as a signal and an occasion to commit all manner of impurities. Witness almost the same things retailed from age to age again and again, without proof, without sense, and beyond the very conscience of the relatei-s themselves, even down to the most modern times. And yet, after all, the malice of the world is not abated in itself, though the power of exerting it (blessed be Qod) is curtailed ; for indeed the antipathy of its spirit to the Spirit which is of God, is so radical and so entire, as to be absolutely irreconcileable to it. For which reason doubtless it was, that our Lord and his apostle gave forth that standing admonition to the church; marvel not if the world hate > yon.^ STRANGERS AND PILGRIMp^ 18f you :* if ye were of the worlds the world loould love hii own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the loorld hateth you.f Now, as the Christian is and must be a stranger upon earth, averse to its evil maxims and life, and it averse to his ; it is expedient for him to be a pilgrim, that is, a passenger, from the earth to a better country, even the heavenly. He must be a spiritual Hebrew, which means the same thing, and must relinquish his own country (like AbrahamJ and his father's house, that is, this present evil world, and the old Adam of nature in which he was born. From these he must pass over the flood, as the river and the Red sea were passed over of old, or like another Rubicon, with a decided purpose, and rnake the best of his way, under the divine guidance and pro^ tection, to the promised land. He cannot fix his thoughts here; ior this is not his rest, because it is polluted. Thus he becomes a continual sojourner, as all the fathers, all the faithful, ever were. J He is engaged in a pilgrimage, and must proceed ; for destruction is behind him, but before him an eternal weight of glory. To go backward is horror; to stand still is misery; to fall short is despair. He is, therefore, in earnest upon this most awful, this most necessary, business : nor would he be wrong for a thousand worlds. And consequently, knowing his own weakness, as well as his own infirmity, he \s importunate in prayer, watchful in spirit, tender in heart, humble in * 1 John, iii. 13. t John xv. 19. J 1 Chron. xxix. 15. Ps. xxxix. 12. life. 188 STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS. life, and looking (but bewailing that he looks not enough) to Jesus, that he may be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. He walks in the order of providence for this world, and in the spirit of grace for another : and God is his guide in both, according to that sweet promise ; an highway shall he there, aiid a way [a certain and prepared way] and it shall be called the imy ofholiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those : the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein ; or, as the latter part might be rendered, hut HE himself [Kin,] shall he with them, walking i7i the way, and even the fools shall not err thej^ein.* In thus being strangers, and pilgrims, and Hebrews, they are also, truly and spiritually, the only Jews, that is, the confessors and glorifiers of Jehovah. He is not a Jew (says the apostle) who is one outwardly ; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in thejiesh : hut he is a Jew, who is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart ; in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men hut of God. Three things made a Jew in the flesh, who is but a shadow of the Jew in the spirit, namely, 1. circumcision : 2. baptism: 3. sacrifice. And the purport of these constitutes a Christian, who is the true and living Jew ; 1. circumcision of the heart, or cutting otf the old man with his deeds, so as not to live by him as the principle of life towards God. 2. The baptism or regeneration of the Spirit, which is putting on the new man, even Christ Jesus, as the substance of spiritual life. 3. The sacrifice of the whole body, soul, and spirit, to the will of Jehovah through Christ Jesus. • Isa. XXXV. 8. Where STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS. 189 Where this hath taken place, the soul is brought into communion with God as a friend and a child, is enabled to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, is ren- dered a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, is brought into the bond of the everlasting covenant in perception and experience, and hath a right and title through Christ to all the promises, mercies, blessings, and truths, revealed in the gospel. This gospel is the common charter and deed of conveyance to the heirs of salvation, who are privileged now to cry, without a falsehood, Abba, Fa* iher; and, as children, to put in a rightful and acknow- ledged claim to all that is purchased and all that is pre- pared for them. They are but of one nation under the «ameking, one chosen generation under the same head, one family under the same Father; all dear to him, and by him provided for and protected continually. O what a transcendent glory is put upon poor worms, when re- deemed from the earth, and made kings and priest* unto God and the Father for evermore I What honour- able thoughts should the Christian have of his own re- newed state and condition ! How clear should he strive to keep it from all impeachment and degradation ! How full of praise should he be to Father, Son, and Spirit, the one Jehovah, who hath done so much for him, and will yet do more, in time and in eternity ! O my God, when I think upon these things, often doth iny heart melt within me, and my soul is ready to cry out ; Who, and what am I, that thou hast brought jme hitherto I What, but love divine, could have taken me from the base and vile condition of a stranger to God, of a rebel, a slave, a traitor against him, and have raised me, not 190 ' STRANGERS AKD PILGRIMS. not only to the honourable degree of a servant, which would have been an honour that the first of angels rejoices to receive and infinitely beyond my expectations^ but to the affectionate relation of a friend and a son, and that son an heir, even an heir of God and a joint-heir v^^ith Christ Jesus of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory > What hath God wrought for this poor unworthy soul ! How hath he made me to rejoice in the earnest and assurance of his favor! Let, O let this kindle in my heart the warmest flame of affection and gratitude; and let me learn more and more to become a stranger to all but thee, my God, and what belongs to thy truth and sal- vation. Let me daily feel and remember, that I am but a pilgrim, a passenger, a sojourner here; and conse- quently let the staff be always in my hand, my loins girt, and my lamp burning; ever waiting, in meek and patient expectation, for the coming or calling of my Lord Redeemer. Thus may I stand oft upon my watch- tower, eagerly \o6kmg ioT the Aijaleth Shahar, the hind of the morning,* the appearance of the Sun of righteous* ness to bless me me in his kingdom. I am but a poor traveller, weak and sore beset within and without : Lord, help me ! Strengthen me for my journey, and quicken my pace in it, that I may not be slow of heart to believe, nor dull in spirit to follow thee, in the ways of thy salvation ! • P«. xxii. Tkie^ CHOSETT CHOSEN GBNERATION. igi CHOSEN GENERATION. E have already considered the purport of the word CHOSEN, as it relates to the people of God ; and, there- fore, in this place, it may be proper to treat more especially of the word generation. Generation hath various senses in the holy scriptures. But its primary and leading sense, and its sense particu- larly in this title, seems to be a nation, a race, ox family^ derived from one stock, or progenitor. The original Word is taken from a root, which signifies to form as well as to bring forth ; and the figure, applied to the children of God, declares, that they are begotten again unto a lively hope,* of God's own will with th-e ivord of truth,f and so are born again of the spirit of God, J not ofcor^ Tuptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God who liveth and abidethfor ever,% They were once of the generation of the world, and a seed of evil doers ; but now, in Christ, they are chosen from that corrupt stock and ge- neration, and brought into a new stock, even the gener^ aiion of God's children. Because of this new state into which the redeemed are ■ * iPet. i. 3. t James L la. X John iii. 5. § 1 Pet. i. 23. II Ps. IxxiiL 15. brought 199 CHOSEN GENERATION. brought, and because of this new nature, even the divine nature, of which they partake ;* all of which is by the wonderful operation and mere grace of God ; the words new creation, regeneration, Jirst reswrection, adoption, &c, are used to point out both that express and free agency of the Most High, and also the privileges which they rightly obtain by being thus truly and spiritually his new)-6o?7i children. These words, employed by God, are not mere words of flourish and ornament, such as we see in the writings of men ; but really denote that extraor- dinary alteration of mind and affections, which every real Christian feels within himself upon his conversion, and which, by the very terms of it, can be attributed to no less a power than that of God. For, as it would be mon- strous to common sense to say, that a person created or produced himself and formed all the faculties of human nature within him ; so is it no less absurd, in the spiritual view, to affirm, that any believer raised himself from the death of sins, or could be raised by the mere talking of another creature like himself, or without the immediate intervention of the Lord. Perhaps, it is more absurd to affirm this than the other, because the production or re- novation of matter is evidently of less consequence and more gross than the production or change of a spirit from an almost diabolic and miserable^ state to a divine and happy being. Christ, with a word, could raise a dead body ; but he was constrained to die and rise again, in order to quicken the spiritually dead and to induce in them the nejvness of life, ♦3 Pet I 4. Hcb. iii.U.Ti.4. All CHOSEN GENERATION. 193 All this generation proceeds in Christ, through the love of the Father, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.* Thus the cxth Psalm speaks of it as a matter of divine counsel, and as a particular revelation of it from Jehovah to the Adonai Messiah: Sit thou at my right hand, that is, possess my almighty power, till thine ene- mies, Satan, sin, and death, be subdued. Jehovah shall send the rod of thy strength, thy commissioned power as the King and High priest of thy people, out of Zion : rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people, shall be icilling [py^i, free willingness itself] in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness^ From the loomh of the morning, thouhastthedewof thy youth ; or, "more than the dew from the womb of the morning is the dew of thy progeny." This generation shall be numerous as the drops of dew in the morning, shining with resplen- dent holiness, when the Sun of righteousness shall arise * To thre purpose speaks very excellently the judicious Hooher. " That which moveth God to work is goodness, and that which ordereth his work is wisdom, and that which perfecteth his work is power. AH things which God, in their times and se*» sons, hath brought forth, wefe eternally and before all times in God; as a work unbegun is in the artificer, which afterward bringeth it unto effect. Therefore whatsoever wfe do behold now in this present world, it was enwrapped within the bowels of divine mercy, written in the book of eternal wisdom, and hdd in the hands of omnipotent power, the first foundations of the world being as yet unlaid. So that all things which God hath made ar« in that respect the offspring of God : they are iii hint as effects in their highest cause; he likewise is actually in them, the assistance and influence of the Deity being their life. Let hereunto savin<* EFFICACY be added, and it bringeth forth a special offspring among men, containing them to whom God hath himself given the gracious and amiable name of sons. EccLFqUL B. v. o upon b 194 CHOSEN GENERATION. Upon them in the appointed day of his power. Hence these children of the resurrection * are said to be a great multitude, which no man could number; though, com- pared to the world at large out of which they are taken, they are called a little Jiock and a small remnant. As this generation is from Christ, they are reneiced in knowledge after the image of him that created them. There is not only an alteration in their circumstances, but a change in their life. As they are new-born and brought into a new and holy family, they have the spirit and likeness of the family : and this is one of their testimonies, that they really belong to it. It is not possible to believe, that a creature, deformed with all the ugliness of sin, wal- lowing with the swine of this world in impurity, and associating with the enemies of God's houshold, can at any rate be a child of God. There are no such monstrous births as these from the Holy Spirit. Our Lord says of such. Ye are of your father the devil, and his works ye will do. As by their fruits, we can discern the children of God from the children of Belial ; so the generation of God's children being made free from sin, and from its pre- * Luke XX. 36. They are children of the resurrection, because of their special appointment to life eternal, and therefore they can die no more, as our Lord declares. This is a common phrase among the Hebrews to denote a particular condition or allotment; thus> children of Belial, children of wrath, children of death, children of this world, the child of a house, &c. signified their devoted state of life or mind. So the learned Constantine VEm* ^erewr observes, FiiiushUjus velillim rei apud Hebrceos dicitur, qui speoialem quondam ad rem istam habet relatio?i€m ; adeo ut licet aliis etiam coinpetat, sibi ipeciali et propria respectu conve* niat, Deleg. llebr. c. iv.§C. ii, "vailing CHOSEN GENERATION, 195 vailing power, as one of their greatest mercies and pri- vileges, * they have their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. They are redeemed/rom sin, and there- fore, in the strength of their Lord, they fight against it and prevail. This is the seal of the Spirit and the/rwi^ of the Spirit : and this inward seal, and outward fruit are the proofs to them, that indeed they are partakers of the grace of hfe, and that the never-ending kingdom of God is set up in their hearts. But if professors can produce nothing of this kind in the court of their own consciences, or in the view of the world ; let them not deceive them- selves with the thought of belonging to God's chosen ge- neration, but strictly examine and prove their own selves^ as in the presence of God, whether Christ he in tlvem or not, or whether the prophet's words may not be fulfilled in each of them, Hefeedeth them on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my nght-hand ? f They, that are born of God, have the proper life of their Father in them ; and that life, being a life of power and holiness, will most certainly discover itself in those actions which are peculiar to it. We do not contend, in these important subjects for mere notions and opinions, for the shadows of speculation or abstract theories, but for real, living, and substantial truth, which we have not only heard and seen and looked upon with a spiritual ear and eye, but which we have handled, and tasted, and enjoyed, by a heart-felt and confirmed experience. And therefore we can humbly, ♦ Romi VI. 14, t Isa. xliv. 30. o2 yet 196 CHOSEN GENERATION. yet cheerfully and confidently, say with the apostle, we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an undei'Standing, that we may know him that is true ; and we are in him that is true, even rn his Son Jesus Christ ; and that this, this Christ, is the tnie God, and eternal life to our souls. We know likewise, that we are of this generation, be- cause of the opposition, which the other generation is ever maldng both to us and to this great truth of our rege- neration in Christ, which they hate, scoff at, and deny. They are of the world, and therefore the world heareth them, approveth their sayings, applaiideth their spirit, and joineth with them in their opposition to the great principles and experiences of the gospel. If we were of the world, the world would love its own; but nothing fills it with so much bitterness and enmity against us, that we should be chosen out of the world, though God himself hath expressly declared it. " But doth not this election lead to looseness, or at least carelessness, of life?" — But how can this be, when we know not our election, and have no proof of it to comfort us, but by the very contrary effect in our hearts and lives? Let it be remembered, that we do not begin with God, nor proceed with God, no, nor rest ourselves upon God, merely as his elect children; but as his called, renewed, and sanctified children; from whence we gather, to our unspeakable comfort and to our en- livening diligence, that therefore we are chosen in Chtist, that God hath loved us with an everlasting love, and that, as his gifts and callings are icithout repentance, our CHOSEN GENERATIOK. 197 our faith, hope, and labor of love, shall not be invaia in the Lord. So far is our vocation in Christ from leading us into «in, that, immediately upon it, but never in reality be- fore^ we commence a warfare against the very being, as well as exercise, of evil, as it exists in the world, the flesh, and the devil. This warjfare continues without a truce; for every remission or parley is attended with danger. We do not indeed go to the war in our own strength or at our own charge, for then we should soon be lost. But we do as the Israelites did : we fight, not with horses, or chariots, or depend upon foreign or human alliances (for those people were directed ta avoid all these, and did avoid them in their best times) but with the arm of the living God, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, and. who gives the victory to faith, which relies upon him and commits the whole warfare to his care and management. But war we must, notwithstanding: we are expressly and indispensably called to it. And, for our comfort, we may be assured, that the hostility of these foes against the soul is, among other proofs, a sure token of its union with Christ; and the victory over them another corroborating testimony of its eternal redemption by him. The strong one armed keepeth his house and his goods in peace, till one stronger than he shall overcome and bind him, and despoU him of his plunder and abode. Without " the godly consideration" of our election in Christ, it seems hardly possible to maintain that divine plerophory, or full assurance, of faith, and hope, and un- derstanding to the end, which is held forth as the privi- o3 legQ l98 CHOSEN OENBRATION. lege of the children of God. For how can any rejoice truly in an uncertain event? And how can any event be certain, unless it be ordered and planned, according to those divine counsels and that covenant, which foresee and foreordain all circumstances, beyond defeat or disap- pointment? It is the certitude of faith concerning a most certain salvation, which leads the heart to combat well with difficulties and enemies, and which sooner or later crowns it with joy unspeakable and full of glory. They, therefore, who doubt of their election, may possi- bly be within the bond of the covenant ; but most evi- dently cannot enjoy it, while they continue in doubting. And this doubting, and the want of comfort which follows it, are certainly not to be ranked among the privi- leges of believers; nor have they any tendency to strengthen hand or heart in the service and glory of God. It is a striking passage in the song of blessed Hannah : My heart rejoiceth in tJie Lord ; mine horn is exalted in the Lord; my mouth is enlarged over mine enimies ; be- cause / rejoice in thy salvation. Her joy in the Lord enabled her to triumph over her enemies. Confidence and rejoicing in Christ do not lead men to sin, but to con- quest over it 'Tis doubt, which brings darkness, and darkness deadness, and deadness subjection to sin, and this subjection ruin. If Jehoshaphat had doubted of the promise, he had never rejoiced over his enemies; but he believed and sang praises even before the victory, from the certainty of that event : and his faith was crowned ^vith an inconceivable success.* The faithfulness and • 2 Chron. xx. omni- CHOSEN GENERATION. IQg^ omnipotence of Jehovah were engaged in his behalf) and against him, who can resist or prevail? Lord, keep this reviving privilege and felicity of thy chosen clear in my sight, and warm on my heart, as long as I live; that I too, unworthy as I am in myself, may give thanks with thine inheritance, for all this unutter- able mercy, this inestimably precious salvation! O let this joy of the Lord be my strength in this house of my pilgri- mage, that I may go on with my warfare , undismayed, unwearied, unsubdued. My flesh, and the false and foolish wisdom of the flesh, in conjunction with my other enemies, fight against the truth and reality of thy sove- reign and distinguishing mercy, and would fain be finding motives subordinate, if not contrary, to thine, in all thy method of redemption. It would lead me to my vile self, and to creatures, to the low and deceitful workings of a fallen heart, instead of to thee and thy pure will and word. Lord, keep me from a delusion, which can only entail upon me doubt and gloom, and all the miseries which must attend an uncertain relation to thee. Rather, let me contemplate, what thou hast done for me by Christ, and in me by thy Spirit, and what thou hast pro- mised yet to do, according to that love and faithfulness which are from everlasting to everlasting, uncircumscribed by all the thoughts and limits of thy most exalted creatures. In this blessed hope, this joyful communion of thy grace, let me live and honor thee, and ardently seek to honor thee more and more, in whatever so mean a being can perform through thy strength workbg in me. And when all that is to be done in me or by me, in this my day and generation upon earth, is performed ; o 4 O remove too CHOSEK GENERATION. O remove me, according to thy holy promise, to the fethers gone before me, to the general assembly of the first-bom who are written in heaven, to the spirits of the just made perfect, and (to crown all) to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, with whom I shall abide, and to whom I shall be made like for ever and ev^rl Q wonderful manifestation of eternal love ! O gloriou* mystery delightfully unfolded ! And what can I say, now on earth, or hereafter in heaven, but in the spirit if not the words of that charming song; Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, all his hosts; ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places <^ his dominion : bless the Lord, my soul/ Amen, Hallelu^jAUl ROYAL HOYAL PRIESTHOOD. ^1 ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. A HIS title, which is given to the people of God, in 1 Pet ii. 9.* is of the same import with that in Exod. xix. 6. a kingdom of priests, and with another in Rev. i. 6, kings and priests. "^They are words used to express the power and dignity , with the grace and holiness, con- ferred upon the children of God. No man can make himself a king, without being a usurper; nor can any ordain himself a jone^^, without authority. These are offices, which none can take to themselves, save they who are called of God ; as were Saul 2ind David, for the kingdom ; and, for the priest- hood, Aaron. Those, who intrude themselves into these stations without a proper vocation, are too com- monly puffed up by their fleshly mind, and come to nothing. * "The sense is, as though the Lord had said, Ye shall be to me a people, in. whom I will constitute a kingdom and priesthood ; or, as the Chaldee paraphrast expounds it. Tome i/e shall be kings and priests. For all these in a certain manner, by conjunction of soul, are kings in the one King [ Christ, ] and all are priests in him the one great High-priest. Whence, there is no impropriety in paying, that all the pedple offered sacrifice [ as it is said of Solo- tjnon and the Israelites in 1 Kings viii. 62, 63. ] though the priest oply actually perfonned it." Esxiwi in Exod. xix. 6. Thew 202 ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. These king-priests , therefore, are appointed of God to participate a kingdom ichich cannot he shaken^ and for this purpose (according to the outward sign) are spi- ritually anointed by him, which is the token and quali- fication of their calling and station. None are truly his spiritual priests, but those who have the unction of the Holy One, and are taught of God : and that is never put w^on man^s flesh, or corrupt nature, nor yet upon a stranger to the grace and covenant of God. Exod. xxx. 32, S3. They are called kings, because they have a royal will and subUme spirit imparted to them, by which they are enabled to look down upon the mean and beggarly spirit of this world, occupied in trash and sin, and to look up, with dignity and delight, to that wisdom and glory and all its fruitful and happy effects, which the King of kings hath appointed for them. They have also a power to reign in righteousness over evil, and the authors of evil ; imperfectly here, because of a corrupt body which they bear about them, but perfectly in the life to come, when they shall be absolutely holy and victorious for ever. Their dominion shall be extensive ; how extensive, we cannot conceive through the medium of our frail and feeble sense ; and of its duration there shall be no end. Their very crown is a crown of glory and of righteousness, and, like their inheritance and kingdom, incorruptible, undejiled, and unfading. They are named priests, because of their sacred and unalterable character, and because of the privilege, by which they intimately and nearly approach the high- est. HOYAt PRIESTHOOD. 205 EST,* and offer up spiritual sacrifices and services before him. They are clothed with the bright and spotless robes of righteousness and salvation, which shine upon them with glory and beauty. Their holy anointing teacheth them wonderful things of Jehovah's wisdom and truth ; and they are led on from knowing and seeing only inpart, through the heavy impressions of a fallen animal nature, to a blissful state, where they shall know even as also they are known. The word priest, being only a contraction ofpreoster as that is oi presbyter, signifies strictly an elder, one who is wise and established in the things of God, and therefore able to guide and instruct others. In the spiritual sense, all God's people are and shall be made wise and learned in his holy ways, filled with apprehensions of his sublime glory, and led on to more and more perfect investigations of his eternal and infinite truth, with increase of capa- city and without end of being. Jacob loved Joseph, not merely because he teas the son of his old age, as our tran- slation renders the clause ; but because he was the son of the elders himself to him, that is, wise, and wise in spiri- tual things, as the elders :t so their heavenly father, having furnished their minds with wisdom from above, loves his children in the gift and for the gift, which he himself hath bestowed upon them. * This high privilege of their spiritual character was prefigured by the legal priests, as it appears from Exod. xix. 22, and Lev. x. 3. and confirmed by Heb. x. 19, Rom. v. 2. Eph.iii. 12. The word ^na not only signifies j^r/e*^, but prince, in high authority. Such was Potipherah, Joseph^s father-in-law ; and such were David*9 sons, in 2 Sam. viii. 18. t Gen. xxxvii. S. 204 ROYAL PAIESTHOOD.' As priests to God and the Father, or of God' and of Christ, they are also the true Aaronites. The name is taken from a root, which signifies to proclaim, to praise, to cry out for joy. They exalt the Lord, and bless his holy name : And hereafter, like the morning stars, they shall lift up their voices for ever, and sing together and ^Aow^/orj-'oy, ascribing glory, and honour, and blessing, to God and the Lamb their Redeemer. They are likewise the true and spiritual Levites. The word Levi (as we shall observe hereafter) signifies j'"oiwewhole world, of whom St. John speaks in his first epistle above-mentioned ; in rvhich there is neither Greek nor Jew,- circumcision nor uncircumcision. Barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free; but Christ is all, and in all. Briefly; it is thb WHOLE CHURCH OF GoD, without distinction of age or nation, from the beginning to the end of time. For these only he is the propi- tiation through faith in his blood; because no others have either faith to believe in it, or any real concern to obtain it. nified 1K)S ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. nified pity and commiserating contempt of mind. The possession of true greatness renders insipid the imaginary greatness of earth and time. A crown, an unfading crown, a bright and unfading crown of glory, fe in the view of their faith ; and they look for a kingdom, ( very unhke all terrestrial kingdoms ) even for a kingdom which cannot be shaken, * Lord, who and what are thy people, that thou shouldest raise and endue them with so high and holy a calling as this ! That thou shouldest not only make them kings and priests, but kings, by a wonderful association, in one supreme and everlasting King, Christ Jesus, and also priests in him the perfect and perpetual High- Priest in the holiest of all ! So great and glorious a change shall, one day, pass upon them, as shall fill all heaven with love, and wonder, and unutterable joy ! And O that I, feeble and almost insignificant worm a» I am, may be made a partaker of this astonishing change, which only divine grace could imagine, and only infinite power could perform 1 Lord, what am I, and what is my father's house, a poor undone Adam with a ruined pro- geny, that thou hast brought me even hitherto, that thou hast not left me in the stupidity of sin and unbelief, but • " Nothing can be called great (said an ingenious heathen) which to contemn is great. Thus riches, honours, dignities, authorities, and whatever else may have the outward pomp of this worldly theatre, can never be esteemed as things extraordinarily good, since the very holding them cheap is no common good. In- deed, those, who enjoy them, are not so much entiled to admiration as those who can look down upon them with a noble superiority of mind." LosiGisf, de Sublm. § vii« ha»t HOYAL PRIESTHOOD' SOQ hast made me sensible in the least degree of thine unut- terable benefits, and that thou hast set before my longing heart such an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man to conceive I O what a debt of love and gratitude do I owe to thee! and how shall I pay it I I must be more and more in debt even for grace to feel and to acknowledge the mercy : and all my glories and all my joys, throughout eternity, will and must be incessant ac- cumulations of thy favour and goodness to my redeemed soul. How great then is thy goodness, how great thy beauty, Jehovah, King of saints! My soul, thou knowest, often gaspeth for thee, as the thirsty and bar* ren land for the replenishing stream ; nor can I be filled, nor do I desire to be filled, with any thing but thee, thou pure fountain of perpetual good. My soul waiteth for God, for the living God : when shall I come and appear before God ! — Why art thou then cast down, O my soul^ and why art thou ever disquieted within me ? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God* PECULIAR 210 PECULIAR teople; PECULIAR PEOPLE; OH, HOLY NATION. JL HESE terms are nearly synonimous, and relate to the children of God under the idea of his particular govern- ment, as their king and ruler. The temporal theocracy, or divine government, of the Jew^s, was a shadow of that spiritual theocracy, which the great Redeemer maintains over his peculiar people, his sacred nation, in grace and glory* The terms express a union or conjunction of the people of God, as individuals, into one body or interest, and the inviolable right or nearness of regard, which God through Christ is pleased to have over and for them.* They are one •l Pet. ii. 9. Aaoq m frtpivomeriv, « people for purchase, i. e« purchased; and therefore they are called in Eph. i. 14. (jj vrtpi'jroivia'ig) the purchased possession; are said in Acts xx. 28. to h& purchased with the blood of God; are not appointed unto torathj but {tiq wipwroijjo-if) to the purchased possession of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thes. v. 9. or, (1,5 wtpiwottjcrir) io the purchased possession of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thess. ii. 14. and therefore those are not of them, who draw back unto perdition, but those that believe {ti<:vtfivoiviy ^11 means for thy welfare. ^ l85». xli, 10. t Isd. xliii. l—S. FIRST^ 218 riRST-BORN, FIRST-BORN. A HIS title is not always to be taken in the strict sense, implied in the English word; for the Hebrew n53 signi- fies not on\y Jtrst-born, but also the chief, prce-eminent, jnosUexcellent, &c. There is another word 103, which more properly signifies the first transmission of a creature into the world. The Jirst-born males, however ; those literally such; had great privileges and consideration above the succeeding children, from the earliest ages. Under the patriarchal dispensation, though every man was a priest for himself and for his own house, and there- fore offered up sacrifices to God (which under the Jewish dispensation was confined to one particular family or tribe;) yet, upon solemn occasions, where a whole lineage were assembled, it is with good reason believed, that he, who had the right of primogeniture, made the offerings upon the altar for all the rest. Thus Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God, just before the Levitical institution, though Moses and Aaron, and all the elders of Israel, were present to communicate sacramentally with him.* The learned Selden has observed, that they were thus dig- nified particularly as the servants of God, in performing • £xod. xviii. 12, his FIRST-BORN. 219 his mia;? or ministry; and, in being eminently such, were considered as the heads of the people. Hence, in respect to their divine office, they were called by the title of pD, which implies prince or primate as well as priest ; and thus what is rendered priest of On (Gen. xli. 45.) 3.nd priest of Midian (Exod. ii. 16) includes both the civil and religious notion of a proe-eminent man, or chief. In process of time, therefore, when great mo- narchical governments were established, the a^jn^, priests or princes, were such persons 2is had liberty of nearest access to kings, and, from their weight and in* fluenceorfor their wisdom, were admitted to be their counsellors and confidents.* The young menf of the children of Israel, whon^ Moses sent to offer burnt-offerings and to sacrifice peace- offerings unto the Lord, are supposed to be the first-bom or chiefs of families or tribes, to whom was yielded this solemn office of the primogeniture. This is the last act recorded of the patriarchal oeconomy amongst the sons of Israel; for, soon afterwards, the first-born were redeemed from that duty by the substitution of the Le* vites in their stead, who from thenceforth,t in a peculiar manner, were the Lord*s,§ and were to bear sin instead of the first-born, as representatives of the Messiah, till he should appear in the world. From hence it seems, that there had been an antient claim of God to the first-born, as his own, or as the * The Gentiles, long after the patriarchal times, had this re- ference to their chiefs, though much depraved, as every other religious institution was among them. t Exod, xviii, X%, ; Numb, xviii. 22, § N^mb. iii. 45, Sec. repr&i €S0 FIRST-BORN. representative of the great first-born* who should come in the fulness of time (and hence probably Eves mistake in Gen. iv. 1. concerning Cain her first-born; "I have gotten a man, or person, the very Jehovah'*) which claim was renewed in Exod. iv. 22. and confined to a particular stock ; Israel is my son, even my first-born. Now, this claim of God could notarise from his right to the first-born as Jehovah the Creator, for, as such, he certainly has a right to all, and so it is expressly said in Exod. xix. 5. but as Jehovah the Redeemer, whose office it was*, when united to the human nature, to be the first-ham among many brethren, and, as such, being the first and nearest of kin, to redeem as their representative the inheritance lost to the family. And the first-born, being thus specially claimed, showed, that the inheritance had been forfeited ; that he, who had the next natural right, was therefore cut off" from it by being the Lord's; and that he, as well as the inheritance, must be redeemed by another, fully able and rightfully capable of perform- ing such a redemption. It appears then, that the ground of the doctrine of the first-bom is this. All men and all their posterity are naturally under the curse for sin. The first-born therefore was to be devoted to God, as his peculiar, for an acknowledgement of this truth, in the first instance; and, in the second, for the declaration of another truth, arising by God's mercy out of the former ; namely, that God would appoint his first-born and only * Hence, the selling the birth-right was so great a sin in Esau. lie valued neither religion before (^od, nor good example to man; but preferred a small present enjoyment, the gratification of his belly, before both. See Gen. xxv. 34. Exod. xvi. 3. Phil. iii.. 19, be. riRST-BOR!!ir. 921 begotten, Christ, to be sacrificed and devoted to the curse, in commutation for all those, who by grace should claim this benefit. Thus Abraham, upon his acknow- ledging God*s right and justice in the proposed sacrifice of his son, found deliverance by a substitute of the Lord*s providing, and, cleaving in faith to the divine appoint- ment, obtained the blessing. This, by the way, proves, that Jehovah, who ap- peared to Abraham, to Moses, and to the fathers, was the second person in the divine essence, and who, when united to human flesh, became the long-expected Mes- siah or Christ. The selection of Israel from all other nations to this distinction, was a typical lesson or example, that God chooses whom he wills, and that his elect are but a part redeemed, therefore called the first-born or most excel- lent and valuable to himself, out of all the world. Thus they are named, the general assembly and church of the first-born, written, or enrolled, in heaven,* Their names were there inscribed in the book of life from the founda- tiofi of the world. They were Christ's own, given to him by the Father ;t and for these, as being his own, he laid down his invaluable life.:{: This typical lesson was carried on through the whole of the Jewish dispensation, and particularly in the con- test between the Lord and Pharaoh, and in all the con- sequences of that important history. The first-born of Egypt were destroyed, in order to declare, that as no paschal lamb was slain for the Egyp^ * Heb, xii. 23. f John xvii. 2. I John X. 14, 15, tains. £29 riRST-BORN. tians, so there was no redemption for them ; nor is there, in the spiritual sense, for the hardened and unbeheving world, whom they represent. All expectation of that kind (no other substitute or sacrifice for sins remaining, upon their rejection of what God hath ordained) shall be entirely cut off. The paschal lamb was limited to iJie family, for which it was slain ; and every one of that family was shut up or confined to the house till the morning: so Christ did not so much Bspray, much less die, for any but those of his family; and unto them that look for him, more than for the morning watch, shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation. The first-horn of Israel were saved from destruction, only by the blood of a lamh slain, sprinkled npon the lintels and door-posts * of their houses; that is, by a sub- stitute, whose blood should answer for them in the hour of general vengeance. This lamb was to be unblemished^ and of the first year, thereby representing the holy Lamb of God, who, in the divine purpose, was slain from before the foundation of the world ; and who also was to stand as the great first-born, or priest, hearing sin, atoning • Exod. xii. 22. The lintely »)lj3sr» from *\^}i;, to see, wai either the upper beam which covered the door, or (as some sup- pose) a small window over it to afford light.— r,niO, side-posts, from TIT, to move; the posts, on which the doors were hung to move, or to which they were fastened, — The former of these may possibly, in a spiritual view, intend the intellectual faculty, or spirit, and the latter imply the animal soul and 6odi/, or that which outwardly acts. These must be sprinkled by the blood of the lamb, according to the apoftle's prayer; The very Ood of peace sanctifij you luholbf ; and I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thess, v. 33, and riRST-BORN. 223 and making offerings for all his family. He, and he only, was capable of being both priest and sacrifice together. To keep this great and momentous truth in constant view, the first^-born son was enjoined to be given to the Lord, * God would not spare his only begotten Son for the sake of his people; and this claim upon the first-bom of that preaching and prophetic people the Jews, wasaa apt memorial of his goodness. But as their first-bovn^ being naturally sinful and defiled, differed from his, it could not be accepted in that condition, but must neces- sarily be redeemed. On the contrary, the first-born of clean animals were acceptable, and on being presented became typically onn a curse or devoted thing to Jehovah, as a substitution for the imclean first-born of man. The first-born oi imclean beasts were to be redeemed, or destroyed. All this preached that solemn truth, which man by nature is unwilling to learn ; that he is considered, in his fallen state, unclean and ignorant, as the beasts before God ; that he cannot be accepted in his own person, or in that natural state ; that he must be redeemed by the blood or death of a clean substitute, shed or offered in his behalf; that this substitute can only be Christ, the pure Lamb, who died for sin, and became Din a curse, devoted to divine justice, and thereby, as well as by his infinite merit brought in, so altered the condition of those for whose sins he died and became a curse, as to be for and amongst them the headf of a new creation, or the first * Exod. xxii. 29. t Jer. XXX. 21. with Gen. xlix. The ass is particularly men- tioned as unclean. — Our Lord rode upon one, at the true pro- clamation of the great Hosanna, for a sign, not of his humility only, S24 riRST-BORW. jirst-horn of isvery creature ; that man, thus redeemed; is rendered a spiritual first-born, or new creature in Christ Jesus, being sealed, changed, and new-born of the Spirit, and so in Christ become the spiritual first-fruits of the creatures unto God; and that all this comes to pass, in consequence of a reciprocal transfer of man's sin to the Redeemer and of his righteousness to the redeemed, and by the operation of the Holy Spirit, uniting, in that event, the Redeemer to the redeemed so intimately, as to be considered as one in the sight of the Father, and, as that one, to possess together the everlasting inheritance, once lost but now amply re-purchased, in the kingdom ofglory. The chief things of the antient mountains, or the great truths thus revealed of old, representing these precious things of the lasting hills, * are witnessed by all the scrip- tures, and are indeed a very considerable part of their subject and burden. The first'bom males of cattle appear also to have been devoted to God under the law, as memorials of this great redemption. The first-born of clean cattle (as was ob- served ) were the Lord's, to be entirely dedicated to him only, but of his humiliation. His church, for whom he came and to which he was united, was by nature like that poor and unclean animal on which he rode; and he was contented to present himself in conjunction with it before God, as the pure Lamb, appointed to be slain in its stead and so to redeem it. Herein was his grace, that though he was rich, yet for the sake of his redeemed he became poor (he emptied himself,) that they through his poverty might be made rich. Zech. ix. 9. 2 Cor. viii. 9. • Deut. xxxiii. 15. That these were spiritual blessings, it is evident from the subsequent verse, where earthly things are mentioned ia apposition, in FIRST-BORN. 295 in sacrifice,* as repeated figures of tlfe Saviour's dying atonement, and by no means or pretence to be ex- empted from the altar. Thus they showed, not only the Lord's death till he came, but the absolute necessity of his mediatorial sufferings, and the antient purpose of the Godhead to prepare for Mm a body for that vicarious sa- crifice, and to bruise it w^ith sorrow^s greater than any man's when prepared. So the first-born of unclean cattle t were to . be redeemed by a lamb, or byfive shekels presented to the divine service as an equivalent atonement, probably paid if a lamb could not so easily be procured i or else such first-born were to be de- stroyed. These first-born from the unclean denote the redeemed from the earth, who are by nature children of wrath even as others, but are saved by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, that paschal Lamb who was sacrificed for them, and by whom they pass over from death to life, and from satan to God. The first-born only were re- deemed, not all'y and this explains whom Christ re- deemed and who to him are the all in all, and therefore called the whole world, or that which he considers as the whole to him in it. Isa. Ixiii. 19. And it may be observed, that the price, and means, and extent, of redemption are every where specifically laid down in the law, with a spe- cific application : a plain proof, among others, that the blood of Christ was also specifically determined, and not *Lev. xxvii. 26. t They were called unclean, because they represent certain, moral vices or defects, which are odious in moral agents ; for as to the beasts themselves (as Maimonides observes) they neither gave nor received pollution, when alive ; but man only. Porta Mosis, p. 288» Q left S^(5 FIRST-BORK. left to the uncertain will of man ; but, in all its use and appropriation, was referred to the first-born of the true Israel, who, and who only, are hallowed to the Lord* These jort^^ under the rod of the Lord, and are so brought into the bond of his covenant, as to be holy indeed unto him, and incapable of alienation from him. It was this, which made the psalmist*s heart to dance for joy, when he sang; Thy rod [not the instrument of chastisement, as some have imagined, but of eternal election and sure vocation] and thy staff, [the support of grace, ensur- ing that election] they comfort me.f The Jirst fruits of the soil were also an appointed ac- knowledgement of this great redemption. All things were lost to man by the fall, except thistles and thorns. * Numb. iii. 13. 47. Exod. xlii. 13. That the price of re- demption was peculiar It/ paid for the first born, appears clearly both from the law (Numb, iii. 45, &c.) and from this circum- stance, that, if the first-born died within the month or thirty days, from which time (as the Jewish doctors tell us) the redemption was held to be due, or died even on the thirtieth day, the sum enjoined by the law was not to be paid, or, if it had been previ- ously advanced, was to be returned. Maim, apud Const. L. Empereur de leg. Hebr. foreris. p. 163. The redemption by iiher and gold was not to be paid for any but a living first-born, and therefore not to be paid in vain; nor is the thing signified by this typical law, the far more precious redemption of souls by Jesus Christ, made without a specific determination of character- ized persons. It is a positive and purchased possession only, which is the object of the Redeemer's claim, and from thence described as his ovrnfeld bounded, his own garden inclosed, his own vineyard fenced; not a wild unappropriated common or xvastCf "Vfh'ich, as such, must remain open and uncultivated, and con- sequently barren or uncertainly productive. t Ps, xxiii. 4. comp. with l^ev. xjcvii. 82. Jer. xxxjii. 13. ipzck. XX. 37. The FIRST-BORN. 22? The children of Israel, therefore, representing the re- deemed, were enjomed in Lev. xxiii. and other places, to confess, in the action of presenting the first fruits, of and/ro??? whom they held all their temporal support, the original gift of which had been forfeited* by transgres- sion ; and also to own, that only, by the devoting of these, which were the emblem of their Redeemer and his saU vation, both they and their natural enjoyments could be sanctified. The Jirst-fruit being holy, the lump also was holy. Thus Christ, the first-fruits, having sanctified himself, sanctified also them that are his. t He otFered himself without spot unto God ; and he will, from age to age, present the increase of his church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, so that they also shall be acceptable through him. In order to enforce this the more strongly, an unhle* mished lamb, with the first sheaf of the harvest was to be olfered : and the mincha of this lamb (translated meat-* offering, but it was a composition made of the corn, beat out of this sheaf, and offered with the lamb ) was to be a fire^ofi'ering to Jehovah for a savour of rest. This de- noted Christ, with his blood shed and his righteousness fuming before the Lord, presenting himself as the first* fruits of the great spiritual hai-vest, which thus was con* ifeecrated by him. And with this righteousness, and with his people upon account of it, Jehovah is well* pleased, t The same thing, flearly, was to be done, with still greater solemnity, on the fiftieth day afterwards ;§ by * Gen. i. 29. and iii. ir. t John xvii. 19. I Isa. xlii. n, § Lev. xxiii. 15. cr-iur BT^urnn Jasper. Onyx. Beryl. deep green. ' beoutijul white. rich red as a glowing fire Half Transparent. Half Transparent. Half Transparent. LIVELY, OR TRECIOUS STONES. 241 The reader will observe, that the breast-plate was in a manner covered with the precious stones, set in gold, to the perfect number of twelve. There was to be a fulness of stone ; none to be wanting; none redundant: the absolute specification of number and place rendered all defects and irregularities impracticable. They were enjoined to be stones of memorial or record for Israel before Jehovah ; and the names of the twelve tribes were therefore deeply engraven, each stone for a tribe, upon them. The high-priest always carried this plate upon his breast, fastened as prescribed in Exod. xxviii. in the ministration of his office within the sanctuary. But the great glory of the breast-plate under the law was the URiM and thummim, literally lights and per- fections, both as to signification and use. Omitting the several opinions which have arisen upon this subject, the USE appears evidently to have been spiritual, under the immediate direction of God. It was the sacred oracle of the Most High, which gave answers and instruc- tions, according to the prayers of his people through a Mediator. The materials and construction of the breast- plate, being all of earthly substances, could never ac-^ complish by any supposed inherent principle, (like the talismans of old) a purpose so prophetic and sublime. I have no difficulty in believing, that it was the Holy Spirit alone, who gave forth responses, either by the Bath Kol, or gentle voice, as some suppose; or, as others conceive, by some particular manifestation of light upon the letters of the stones ; or perhaps some » gracious 242 IIVELY, OR FRECIOUS STONES. gracious irradiation upon the mind of the high-priest, who carried them upon his bosom before the Lord.* In a lower sense also, these precious stones were named Urim and Thummim; because intended to signify pod's chosen people. True believers are lights in the Jjord; and they are also perfections in him, considered * Under the second temple, this oracular communication was wholly discontinued ; for though the Jews made a breast-plate of the nearest resemblance possible to the former one, which was, with the ark and other sacred utensils, taken or destroyed at the captivity j yet no answer was given, or pretended to be given, by its means. This may fairly be construed into a proof, that the true Urim and Thummim were purely spiritual, and that nothing analogous to matter, as some have supposed, was contained within the breast-plate, which could be consulted for directions. In like manner, the Shecinah, or holy presence of Jehovah, dwelt or inhabited (not sate betweeri, as it is rendered) the Cherubim over the ark of the covenant. The intention of both types evi- dently was to declare, that, through the great High-Priest of our profession, we are to receive the Spirit of truth to guide us, and that by him also we are privileged to have finally an access to Jehovah, in the holiest of all. It may here be also observed, that a surreptitious book, entitled JJrim and Thummim^ was published in a former century by a Jew at Amsterdam, for the attention, probably, of his own people, but pretended to have been written during the time of the second temple, in order to supply the place of the oracle by the Urim and Thummim, lost at the destruction of the first temple, with other sacred utensils. According to Wolfius, {Biblioth. Hebr, vol. iv. 1039.) it is a poor and stupid attempt to divine by a cabalistical arrangement of the first letters of the names, engraved •apon the twelve stones of the primitive breast-plate ; and it is only noticed here to observe, that, when men are judicially left of God, as the Jews now are, they are capable of adopting the greatest absurdities for truth, and of turning what was intended for spiritual welfare and instruction into the grossest per- venions. in LIVELY, OR PRECIOUS STOSfig. g43 in their nnmber, beauty, lustre, or arrangement. The Holy Oracle, the Divine Spirit, is with them and ift them. To these, through their union with Christ the Mediator, he gives forth answers of peace when they ask in prayer, making his own word to become the true Bath Kol, and real voice; not of sound, but by th€ holy illumination of their understandings in the use of it, that they may know the things of God, which that word records. Among these, therefore, he may be said to reside ; and to these only he gives forth his truth with grace and power, the effect of which is felt in their hearts, and seen in their lives. The high-priest also carried Upon his shoulders the names, equally divided, of the twelve tribes of Israel, en- graved upon two other precious stones.-«-Thi3 was to show, that as the people of Christ, the true High-Priest, were near his heart, signified by the names upon the breast-plate 5 so their government, burden, &c. denoted by the other, rested upon his shouldere, who is as mighty to save, as he is merciful to redeem. The spiritual idea, therefore, of the whole appears to be this; that the stones signify the people of God; that they are elect and precious ; that they come forth and stand according to his appointment of place and order; that the Holy Spirit is with them and among them, from age to age, teaching and directing them into all truth by his word and ordinances ; that they are borne upOii the heart and shoulders of the true High-Priest Christ Jesus before the throne of God; loved with an everlast- ing love, and supported by a perpetual care ; that they reflect the glorious rays of him their Sun of Righteous- K 2 ness; 1S44 tiTELY, en precious stones. ness ; and that finally they shall be with him in his holy sanctuary for evpr and ever. This leads us further to consider, in a few words, the fitness of the type to the anti-type; or agreement of the figurative representation, by natural things, with the spi- ritual things or purposes intended by them. Truly precious stones are generally pellucid or trans- parent, and readily admit the rays of light, as they are poured forth from the sun, without which- they do not and cannot exhibit their beauty. So the stones of God's sanctuary, (Lam. iv. 1.) all real believers, are sincere in their spirits, more or less clear in the knowledge and enjoyment of the truth, proportionally to their respec- tive measures of faith, and borrow all their splendor from the Sun of Righteousness, who has risen upon them with healing in his beams. They have no light of their own, and can only display a truly vivid and beautiful lustre^ as they are irradiated by him. The more they have of this glory from Christ, the more luminous are they in their minds, the more lively in their affections, and with a warmer glow return his own rays in life and activity. The stones, carried by the high-priest, were num- bered and exact. There were no odd stones; not one unpolished, or unnamed. So the living stones, which these prefigure, are all chosen of God and precious, each one fitted to his place in the beauty of holiness, without any vacancy, defect, or contingency. — Add to this; the jBtones upon the breast-plate were all set in gold ; and so are God's jewels established in righteousness, which gold is used to denote in the scriptures. The I LIVELY, OR PRECIOUS STONES, g4S The stones upon the breast-plate, though all precious, were of different colours, with some gradations of worth and excellency. The least transparent were placed upon the lowest range. Colours, it is well known, are not inherent in any earthly substances, but are formed by the refraction of the various rays of the sun, and exhibit; diversely the several beams of its varied, yet undivided, light. The distinctions also of the several colours upon the breast-plate, heightened the beauty of the whole.-— The same variety holds good in the stones, which God hath laid in Zion Mh fair colours, (Isa. liv. 11.) Believers are all precious in his sight; but they have, more or less among themselves, a variety of distinct graces, with considerable degrees of differ,ence. Though they all agree in refracting light from Christ ; yet they do not all re- fract the same rays, nor the same proportion of light; and beauty. Some are, in certain degrees, obscured with error, or with so much grossness as to render them less vivid or transparent ; but they still retain such a mea- sure of light and grace as to distinguish them from those impervious masses of stone, which stand for the rest of the world. In all these diversities, however, there is this unity, that it is the same God, who, in every pro- portion of good, worketh all in all. Thus says th^ apostle : To one is given the word oficisdom ; to another, of knowledge ; to another, faith ; to another, discern^ ing of spirits; &c. but these arid all other excellencies are wrought by one and the same power; to the whole and to every member of the church it is grace giuen, and not by any means a virtue distinct from divine impres- sion, or inherent in themselves. They can show no ja3 lustre 94$ IITELY, OR PRECIOUS STONES. lustre of love, zeal, or duty, without Christ the light of Ufe ; more than a stone in the breast-plate could display any irradiation without the sun. They may also differ in the degrees of splendor and usefulness ; but the dif-* ference in all excellent gifts (as the apostle styles them) is wholly from God, and allotted to every one according to his own superior wisdom and design. They are all mere stones in themselves. He selects and gathers them ; he polishes and fixes them in their place and order: he shines upon them ; and then they are enabled to shine too and show forth his glory, not their own. To shine at all, they must first be in Christ; and the more they are afterwards in his rays, the more of his grace and glory will rest upon them, and be reflected by them before the eyes of men. Without him, they are eclipsed and suffer offuscation, and would soon become as dark or dim as the rest of the world. The precious stones of earth are also valued because of their firmness and durability.— So are the pleasant stones (as the prophet calls them) of God*s sanctuary. They shall abide with rich display in his most holy place for ever and ever, beyond all the possibilities of diminu- tion or decay; because their Preserver, who bears them upon his bosom and his shoulders, is equally faith* ful and almighty.* ♦ I anj inclined to believe, that, as the Urim and Thummim related to the elect in Christ, and received that very name because of their union with him; so he hath styled himself the First and the Last, the beginning and the end, they being nothing in th« kingdom of grace without him. To express this idea, he uses the first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet in the book of Revelation, the a and the fl: he is also the « and the ;^ of the Qnm and the o»Din, the beginning and the ending of the sign, which LIVELY, OR PRECIOUS STONES. S47 But, there are also false stones; compositions, which look like the most precious of stones, while they are nothing but paste , or glass. The skilful lapidary can readily detect them; though they often impose, and especially at a distance, upon the unexperienced or in- cautious observers. — Thus, lamentable it is to own, there are many deceivers, many hypocrites, many who make a fair show in the flesh, and yet, while they seem to be something, are really nothing, or worse than no« thing; — mere paste, that soon dissolves in a fiery trial; Worthless glass, that falls to pieces, if but struck with a blow of strong temptation. This holds forth a solemn lesson for professors to search and try themselves. False stones may receive light, but they have no true weight or solidity in them ; no genuine lustre, but only a specious or deceitful glare, contrived by the trick or art of man. When they are duly ex- amined, their value is sooner or later ascertained ; and they are finally thrown aside, as matters of imposition always deserve.— The allusion is too plain to need a further observation. Christian! May you and I, through the Spirit of grace, apply all these things to ourselves for the closest examination ; and may it be said at last to each of us, as to the spiritual church to whom every real believer belongs ; Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the G^ORY of the Lord is risen upon thee ! which denotes his people. He is the first principle of their light, or light of their lights; and he is the consummation or perfection of the whole covenant of grace, and of those perfections also, which they have received, in number., xotight and measure, only and entirely from him. ,1, b4 FORTION S48 PORTION OR HERITAGE, PORTION, OR HERITAGE. J) ehovah's portion is his people: Jacob is the lot of his inheritance, Deut. xxxii. 9. The word rendered portion implies part or division ; and, applied to the people of God, it denotes, that they are divided from the earth to be the Lord*s particular and appropriated share, in distinction from all others. Ja<:oh is a name given them as a name of character and unity. The word, rendered lot, means line or cord used in the apportionment or mensuration of land : thus, the lines (says the psalmist) are fallen unto me in pleasant places, &c. Ps. xvi. 6, These lines, forming a portion for a tribe or family, fell according to what is meant by another word, translated lot ['^iii] and thus the portion of God's people was ever by his particular designation ; for though their lot, which shall determine their portion, jnay be cast into the lap with others, yet the whole dis^ posal or arrangement of it is of the Lord. Thus the word cord or line is used to specify the particular and precise boundary which he has fixed, immoveably fixed, as a perpetual land-mark, betwixt them and others. The word inheritance means, what comes of rightful claim and property. The Lord hath a right to his people by a very dear purchase ; insomuch that they ar« now no longer their own, but liis, and his for ever. This PORTION OR HERITAGE. S4D This is also the import of the word clergy ; i. e. persons allotted. And though, in a certain sense, it is rightfully peculiar to men, who are set apart from the world, to minister in holy things; yet, in a more sublime and spiritual view, it belongs collectively to the whole body of the redeemed, and points out their fixed and unal- terable relation to Jehovah their Saviour. Thus, they are all priests to God and the Father, Jiohj, sanctified^ and the like ; and thus, particularly, they are named God's heritage, ot x^»3foi, the clergy, as the word means, in I Pet. V. 3. There are many passages of scripture, which point out God's people as his portion and heritage, and their extreme preciousness to him as such, which indeed is the true reason of the names. The Lord doth not use terms without an express or forcible sense, as men may and often do ; but he determines a truth into fact by one word or title, and out of that, as from a root, he causes to spring forth or branch a thousand other dependant truths and principles, which, bearing rich and de- lightful fruit, are for the nourishment and comfort of his people. They were an inheritance lost, but are now an inhe- ritance redeemed and recovered by him, who is their Jiext of kin, their elder brother, the head over all things to them, and therefore called, by one word, their b^i, which signifies both their near Kinsman and Redeemer, To him the psalmist addresses the fifth psalm, under the title of Me cow^z^eror, the God of the inheritance, i. e. the church : and it is thus addressed, that the church »iay joyfi^l^y remember, to whom she is privileged to apply !850 PORTION OR HERITAGE. apply for help at all times. Hence, the church is called iJie rod lOau^ of his inheritance; Jer. x. 16. because Jehovah in Christ is the covenanted head of the church, using his power and majesty eminently for her salvation and security. All she has and is belongs to the Lord, as his own peculiar estate; and it is represented under this idea, that his people individually may see their blessed- ness, and possess everlasting comolation, and good hope tkrough grace. The recovery of all inheritances at the year of Jubilee* was intended to signify, that the divine apportionment, which God hath in his people and thty have in him, is xinalienable under all circumstances of distress, which may prevent their temporary view or enjoyment of that privilege. When the great jubilee shall come and the last trumpet shall sound ; all that the believer had a claim to by faith in this world, shall be made his own perfect and perpetual possession in the heavenly kingdom( It * When Aha5 coveted the vineyard of ^a3aM, he attempted to violate this fundamentaltenureof all the Jewish lands, which were held under God expressly, as the peculiar Ix)rd of that soil, and the portions of which could not be alienated from the families to which they were allotted. It was this act of unbelief in God, va well as covetousness, which Nadoth, who appears, upon the whole matter, to have been a true believer among idolaters, so highly ab^ horred as to say. The Lord forbid it me, or (as it might be ren- dered) it toould be a profanation to me before tie Lord, to give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee, 1 Kings xxi. 3. If th? lands were held like those of the Gentiles, there woula have been no criminality in the absolute alienation, which Ahab appeared to desire. One melancholy circumstance is obvious from the short history of this^ affair; which is, that the idolatrous and wicked reign of Ahab PORTION OR HERITAGE* $5X It is very probable, that the precept in the law, for- bidding the removal of a neighbour's land-mark, marked out by the antients, with the curse attending the violation, of it, has a further and more important sense than that of the mere letter, as well as the other injunctions revealed to Moses. If the man be accursed, who removes the boundary of estates among men ; what shall become of him, who strives to displace the Lord's land-mark ; or, in other words, to unfix eternal truths, to disguise them by sophistry or false principles, or to remove the con- fidence of his people's faith relative to their places and privileges in the great inheritance ? If then I am Jehovah's portion and his peculiar heri- tage, as he is graciously pleased to call me and to make me (the believer may say,) I am safe in his protection, and can never be lost. I may plead this title before him, for he has named me by it. And he can neither lie, nor change. The world may and shall be dissolved ; but he himself assures me, that his word shall not pass away. In his faithfulness is all my security. Here I ground my hope ; and I know, from the instruction of his word and by the experience of his grace, that it is a good hope, which will never make me ashamed, but bring me to that blessed and happy end for which I am waiting. Aha5 and Jezedr I ha.d so corrupted the country, that the Elders and Nobles, presiding over a city, were become the willing and wicked tools of an abandoned and bloody woman, and both hired people to be perjured, and acted themselves as parties in taking away the life of a good and innocent man. What a complication of sin was here ! Covetousness, falshood, perjury, subornation, judgement deli- berately false, and execution knowingly murderous, all carried on with pretei>4ed zeal for religion and loyalty I O what f 52 PORTION OR HERITAGE. O what a comfort is this in all my adversities, and sickness, and sorrow ! The Lord, even my Lord, gave it forth for that purpose; so that, throughout my weary pilgrimage, in him I might have peace, and be sure of that refreshment to my spirit, which from its native 1?7eakness and continual warfare it cannot but need. And this support turns to me for a testimony, that as I am the Lord's portion and inheritance, so he is mine. O wonderful mercy, that Jehovah of Hosts, whom all creatures serve, and to whom the universe of nature belongs, should be mine, should call himself mine, ^ould make me feel the heavenly truth, should open to me the greatness of the privilege, "and make me taste the sweetness of the bounty'. He is also my portion for ever! Ps. Ixxiii. 26. The eternity of the gift consum- mates the blessing. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who whirleth the heavens for thy help, and for his own majesty the powers of the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms ; and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, destroy. — Happy art thou, O Israel : who is like unto thee, O people saved by Jehovah, the shield of thy help, and the sword of thy excellency / FAITHFUL JFAITHFUL. 1253 FAITHFUL. JL HIS name, applied to believers in the scriptures, doth not so much point out that faithfulness or fidelity which arises from the integrity of their minds, as that faith or dependence upon God, which, first and above all things, distinguishes them from other men. They are, it is true, and must be, persons of principle and uprightness; but this in them is an effect of their faith, and by no means either faith itself, or the cause of it. Faith relates to truth, and, in the holy tongue, is by some held to be of the same root : certainly, it hath a very near afhnity to it. The Lord places his truth for a fou7idation, and then he impowers his people to under^ stand and to rest upon it by faith or beUeving. * Or, if * To the same purpose is the word iiriqi^^uv used by St. James ill. 13. which is rendered endued with knoioledge. As true faith proceeds from an understanding tvhich is truCf and with it is the gift of the Holy Spirit; so it stands or rests upon the truth of God, which is its only proper foundation. Hence swkjj/xij, science (according to the philologers) has its name from bringing us (jw* qecfftr) to a stop or resting-place ^ founded upon the reality/ and certainty of the things known. See an ingenious etymology of this word, and of the words scientia and understanding, in Harris's JTerwes, p. 369, 2d. edit. The word sm^vifjLav, in the above text of St. James, implies, one possessing the knowledge of the truth, and, from thorough experience of its power and reality stedfastly by faith resting and grounding himself upon it. Hesj/chius renders ^rMpo^opta, by which term the apostle means the full gale, or assurance, of faith, by ^sQuiorr2«, fr/nness, or stabiliti/* Heysch. apud Wits, in symh. p. 28. we fJ54 TAITHFUl. we take the word to signify, to carry, to hear in arms, zii a nurse bears a child ; it amounts to much the same. The Lord ever bare his people, as a man doth hear hisson^ in all the way they go, and puts underneath them his everlasting arms. Our English terms are not always happy in the communication of these ideas. The words lelieving dixid faithful are sometimes applied, and even in «ur translation of the scriptures, to a sense different from that of the original ; and, in some places, the word, which should give the idea of faith, is applied to some-* thing else, as in Ps. Ixxviii. 8 and 37. where it is said of the Jews, that their spirit was not stedfast with God, and that they were not stedfast in his covenant ; the words are, that their spirit teas not faithful, or had no faith in God, and that they were not believing, or had not faith, in his covc7iant ; agreeably to a more antient censure frond Godihy Moses, th?itthey were a froward generation, chiU dren in whom was no faith* * This woTd faithful is one of the highest titles of the children of God ; because the grace, wliich is denoted by it, enables them to give the most glory to the divine at- tributes and perfections, and to derive most for them- selves from the divine fulness. The world or worldly men have but a poor opinion of this principle, or rather no true idea of it; and hence they either scoff at it as a low, simple, inenergetic, assent of mind, or a dangerous notion, which threatens to exterminate all the little goodness, which is left in the world. The reason of this is, because they have never known the conflicts of the soul, which the law of God, in the power of his Spirit, • Deut. xxxii. 2. Tehe-« rAiTHFui, S55 vehemently brings for the conviction of sin, or to show man his unrighteousness; and therefore being heart- whole, and ignorant of their own apostate nature and depravity, they suppose, that they can easily give credit to God, in the same way as they do to one another, and that they can act faith and do all sorts of faithful works, by their own natuml powers so as to please him. But faith in God through Christ (for true faith pro- ceeds in no other way) is the sublimest and most difficult business in the world. It is indeed the greatest work upon earth of God's Spirit in the soul of man. When a poor creature hath his eyes opened to see the wrath of God hanging over him, on account of a wicked nature as well as a wicked life, and i§ convinced that he hath no power to extricate himself from the deep distress which overwhelms him ; then, for him to cast himself fully and absolutely upon the truth of God, which hath set forth Christ as his propitiation, and to ground himself for eter- nity upon this, amidst the clamors of his own conscience, or the just accusations of the law, in the view of justice inseparable from the law, and in the face (as it were) of hell thirsting and opening its mouth to swallow him up ; this is a work, this is an effect, which (as he afterwards will own) nothing less than the omnipotent operation of God could perform in him ; nothing short of the free mercy and gift of an Almighty Saviour could bestow upon him. And, in doing this great work, through grace, (for God worketh in him to believe ; not believes in him, as the papists, &c. object) he really gives God the highest glory, that can possibly be given him upon earth. For this is at 256 FAITHFUL. Bt once an act of the purest credit on the oiie hand, and! of the utmost self-renunciation on the other, that can be shown by a mortal creature. When we are the agents or active, we do and are seen to do ; and there is in this an assumption of hope or confidence from the act in ourselves r this, however, is not so much faith, as sense, and tends not to magnify God simply and entirely, but ourselves, at least in part, or in some subordination to him. By doings a man is in danger of trusting more or less in himself; and, by being employed in acts of goodness, seems to have a little whereof to glory : but by believing^ he disclaims himself, and confides in God; and the more simply and entirely he confides, the purer is the glory which he offers to the Divine Truth and Majesty. The highest honour a creature can render, is to beUeve in and depend upon the Lord for all in all. I say this of the purest actions of the most fervent Christians ; for as to the world at large, their activities are low and gross, and (having no faith for their principle) are and must be sensual and selfish. Faith, therefore, is the purest grace, which can actuate the mind of man upon earth. It strips him of self, drives him from the world and sin, enables him to roll all upon his Lord with a holy complacency and resignation, and to give up into his hands the full management of what belongs to him for earth or heaven. And, without faith, it is impossible to do the least of these things. Upon this account it seems to be, that the word of God is full of encomiums and examples of faith. Accor- ding to our faith, so is every thing else. All things arepos" 9ible to him that believeth : but, without faith, itisimpos* sible to please God* Corrupt FAITHFUL. •§57 Corrupt nature maj' be quickly engaged to attempt any thing, or every thing: but to believe, to go out of self, to cease from creatures for aid, and to act faith in a steady, simple, passive recumbence upon the truth and fidelity of God ; this is no vv^ork for flesh and blood. The human heart rejects and abhors it altogether. It seems easy in a way of reason to take God at his word, and right that it should be so : but reason is not faith, and can never ascend this holy mountain, nor perform, when the trial comes, this apparently easy and reasonable thing. Faith is a gift, which cometh down from above; and, wherever it is bestowed, it causes the soul to crucify th2it fleshly wisdom, that presumptuous and intruding* reason, which, not holding Christ the head, nor drawing grace and instruction from him, but frorn corrupt nature only, is in spiritual things the plague and enemy of every real Christian, because it is ever arguing against the life of grace in him, and troubling him with such cogitations of all kinds, as tend to draw away his heart, or to weaken his hand, in the course of his duty. They, who know not the conflicts of their carnal mind with the faith which God bestows, may well suspect whether they have faith or not ; or, rather, whether they have not deceived them- selves with speculations about godliness, instead of enjoy- ing the real life and experience of it. Abraham obtained faith in God ; and the obedience of faith followed the life and possession of it. When the Lord commanded him to leave all and to come out from his kindred and the world ; by faith he went out, not knowing whither he icent. He reasoned not upon the *Col.ii.l8. s matter i 1258 FAITHFUL. matter, nor asked the ichj or the icherefore ; but gave himself up in devotedness to God. The same is said of him, when he was about to offer up his son Isaac ; and the same is said of those, who are recorded, as examples of pure and Uvely faith, in that " golden legend" inscribed to the Hebrews. All of them did, what they did, by FAITH : and it is so repeatedly and expressly put down, lest we should mistake the works for the principle^ the effect for the cause ^ the mere action for the life ; as we are prone to do. Had these gracious persons been left to themselves for the execution of any one of those deeds, which they performed ; that is, if faith had not been granted them for the very purpose above their own na- tural powers, it is more than probable, that every one of them had been an apostate in the very thing they were enabled to do, and that, like Cain, Esau, or Judas, they would have given up God and his truth for the world, or for their own present convenience in it. If any reader doubt of this, let him try to detach himself from the spirit of the world, to become a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, to crucify the affections of his flesh and spirit from what they naturally seek after, to give up his reputation, his interest, and inviting prospects among men, to live in devotedness of soul to God, and to desire above ^11 things the promotion of the honour and glory of a crucified Saviour, and the spiritual welfare and salvation of others. 1 say, let him try, not merely to ap- prove and talk of, but to put all this into practice. He will, I believe, either censure me as too rigid for such a proposal, or endeavour to explain it away and soften it into nothing. He will own, if he be honest to hipself, that FAITHFUL. g59 that it is impracticable upon the principles of natural strength and reason, or of (what men call) that common good sense, which leads them above all things to establish an interest here. At any rate, he will be no more able to comprehend how salvation can flow through such a simple grace, as faith will appear to be to him, than a carnal Israelite in the wilderness could have accounted for the restoration of health from the sting of a serpent, only by looking on a brazen one suspended on a cross or pole. The antitype, or thing signified, stands equally inexplicable to mere professors of Christianity now, as the type stood to the worldly and nominal Israelites of old. Thos^e, who have faith in God and are living for heaven, know how extremely difficult this business of living by faith is to them at all times, and what a real warfare is carried on by that life against themselves ; and these will humbly own, that they can never hope to pre- vail in any instance, or at any time, but through that faith in the Son of God, which draws down his almighty power continually to their relief. I may further observe, in this place, that these things do not appear to the believer, nor are they acquired by him, in an abstract, metaphysical way, full of groping uncertainty ; but in the demonstration of the Spirit and with power, which works such trust in him, and gives such evidence to him, as nature can neither work nor give. " God hath said this very thing; therefore it is true ;" is made, in the first instance, as certain a propo- sition to his mind, as any mathematical demonstration can be to his sight : and, " God hath wrought what he said, therefore it is right or perfect;" is, in the next s J^ instance. 260 FAITHFUL. instance, rendered as plain a matter of fact to him as his own existence. The truth of the Bible stands upon these grounds, and hath in this way been confirmed from age to age. " Jehovah said ; the Alehim said ; Jesus said ;" with the infallible signs following what was said ; are the communications which God hath afforded to man, without descending otherwise to inform his judge- ment or reason, till he hath kindled and excited his faith. When we through grace believe, then we further under- stand, in these things, what to carnal reason alone, is, was, and ever will be, incomprehensible. The creation of the world is, by its existence, ob- vious to every man. But the mode or manner of this creation, even in the things which are cognizable by sense, how incompetent is reason to explain? The theories, some of them presumptuous enough, which men have conjectured, are so numerous and contradic- tory, as prove but too plainly, that human reason may easily darken counsel without knowledge, but cannot find out God, nor study the Almighty, or his works, to perfection. If we come to redemption, which is a more elevated and spiritual theme; here reason usually fails at the very threshold, and blunders as she proceeds in a world of mysteries.* Nor concerning the office of the divine Spirit is she able, with more advantage, to inform herself. Here, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and she heareth the sound thereof^ but cannot tell whence it • " Reason is an intellectual defect. For those beings, as Cod and the spirits above, who have the full force of intellection, need not reason; but apprehend truth by mere intuition," Aquin. 2a. Sae. q. 49. ». 5. Cometh, FAITHFUL. 201 eometJi, nor whither it goeth. Men of great learning and ingenuity, inquiring, like Nicodemus, how these things could be, but inquiring by their own self-sufficient light, have lost themselves in a profound, which they had not line enough to fathom. The salvation of some, the pre- terition of others, and the lapse of all, have been and still are enigmas, which no philosopher, however acute, has been able, on the principles of corrupt reason, to settle or explain. And God refuses to indulge, if not prohibits, the exercise of that fallen faculty, while he commands faith to receive the whole upon his own tes- timony, which limits all " curious and carnal'* re- searches,* by, I have said ; — / have done ;t — / have made known ;X — And, Even so. Father, for so it seemed goo^ in thy sighl.% This name then, faithful, given to the children of God, is not an idle sound, meaning little or nothing, like the compliments and titles of men, but carries with it an idea of vast and sublime importance. They are faithful, because they live in and by faith, because they Avalk in faith, act by faith, hope in faith, rejoice in faith, wait patiently by faith, fight the good fight of faith, hold on and hold out by faith, gain the victory by faith, overcome death and the devil by faith, and at last by faith inherit the promises. Thus (according to the apostle) whatsoever is boru of God, opercometh the icorl^, or all creatures which oppose salvation : and this is the * Art. xvii. of the Church of England, t Jer. xl. 3. Deut. v. 27. Isa. xlv. 7. xlvi. 11. t 1 Chron. xvii. 19. Prov. i. 23. Col. i. 27 . § Matt. xi. 25, 26. s 3 victory 262 FAITHFUL. victory that overcometh the world, even our faith ; because that unconquerable faith- is horn or produced in the soul by the unconquerable Spirit of God. The flesh is not set to fight the flesh, or the world, or the devil : it has neither will nor power for such a work. Faith, springing from a divine agent, and looking to a divine Lord, can alone perfofm this mighty task. These are great and wonderful things; and the precious faith of God's elect performs them all. It can remove mountains and cast them into the sea; that is, no difficulty or op- position to its life and interest can be so vast, but it is able to overwhelm and reduce it to nothing. And this it can do, because the almighty Christ by his Spirit is in it, gives it, works it, works in and by it; and finally makes those, who have it, conquerors, and more than conquerors, through himself that loved them. When a worldling attempts to conceive of faith, he takes it to be a mere notion, a bare assent to something credible : and it amazes him when he hears or reads, that such mighty operations, as those abovementioned, are ascribed to the power of faith.* But the children of God know it to be substance indeed, and have experimental demon- strations of its power and reality ; for the bestowment of which upon themselves they can bless their Saviour, though they cannot impart the blessing to others. 71iis grace and benefit God hath reserved in his own hands, and bestows according to the good pleasure of his will through Jesus Christ. The life of faith is a life of meek, quiet, childlike, de- pendence upon the covenanted truth and mercies of God •Heb,xi,l. ia FAITHFUL. 263 in the Saviour of sinners. It is a life given, not earned. It is indeed impossible to earn that, which inust be given before it can act, and, consequently, before it can pretend to earn : and' when it is given, it is so far from presuming on its own merit or earning, that it runs to Christ for righteousness, grace, holiness, and every thing that is good. Nothing leads a man so entirely out of himself as true faith; and from this self-renunciation, as much, perhaps, as from any other exercise of it, may be dis- covered its real vigor and progression. The life of sense, or- corrupt reason, on the contrary, proceeds upon self, and to self-determination, and consequently makes the mind its own factor to the augmentation of its own pride. He that lives thus upon self is and must be high-minded and full of his own importance; though, at the same time, all his conceit is vanity, and no solid certainty can arise from his reason in spiritual and heavenly things.* When I ponder upon these matters, and upon all the manner of God's working in the hearts of his people for salvation, I cannot hut breathe out an earnest prayer, that thus the Lord would accomplish in me, a poor helpless worm, all this his blessed tvork of faith with power. The more I look into myself, and especially under the liveliest impressions of his presence ; the more wisdom, love, mercy, and unvarying benevolence do I perceive in this conduct of his beginning, continuing, and * " 'Tis not easy to conceive (said a veiy ingenious man) how widely reason may be mistaken ; I mean the truest and best en- lightened reason : or, what deceptions men may put upon them- selves; I would say, the most accomplished and intelligent among men.'' Balzac. Arist, disc. iv. s 4 ending 264 FAITHFUL. <^nding faith, within my own soul and the souls of his people. When I can act faith the most, then my prayers are most fervent, my activity and zeal the most ardent, my soul the most steady, and my desires for Christ, and none but Christ, the most animated and holy, r Without faith, or its preception, all is drooping, dull, and dismal ; and I may shake myself as at other times, like Samson, or employ myself in every means ; but no strength or spirit remains for any exercise or trial of love and duty. I may go through the form indeed as before, and appear the same to other men ; but I cannot be satisfied with this, or with any thing short of a tender access unto God, with the confidential liberty of a child, by the faith of Jesus, Believer, I am persuaded, that I speak thy experi- ence as well as mine. Thou art sensible of thine own weakness and manifold infirmities, by which thou art humbled in thyself, and driven to the Saviour. The law of works, broken, leaves thee no hope but in the law of faith, which preaches nothing but thy Redeemer. Thou canst, then, with the apostle, ?nost gladly glory in thine infirmities; not for their own sake, but for the effect which grace produceth from them, in leading thee to the power of Christ, and in sheltering thee under his banner. Thus, when thou art weak, thou art strong; and when least in thyself, the greatest, and the safest, and most happy in him. Blessed paradox ! none can explain it, but through a wisdom not their own: none desire it, but from the love of Christ, richly shed abroad within their hearts. O mayest thou, dear soul, go on with speed and success in this blessed way ; and, by tjiy earnest FAITHFUL. gOd earnest diligence of a lively faith, cleave with more and more/w// purpose of heart unto the Lord I He is faithful to his own faith bestowed, and will never cease till he crowns it with his glory, Look to him, then, with a single and patient eye ; trust to him with a resigned sim- plicity and affection of heart : He will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. He cannot deny himself; he cannot re- linquish his workmanship, his husbandry, his building: it shall never be charged upon him, that he was worse than his word, or that any one of the good things, which he hath promised for earth or heaven, hath not been fully made good to his redeemed, his faithful. Go on, I ven- ture to beseech thee ; go on, with all the privileged courage of faith ; and, by faith, holdfast the beginning of thy con- fidence to the end. Soon shall all be answered ; soon the truth of every promise proved ; and soon thy soul made blissful and perfect for ever. O desirable state I— A state, for which thou art living, if living in thy right mind ; and to which thou art hastening, in the Lord's own way and time. O may he bless thee, and receive thee at last to himself, among the Spirits of just men made perfect ; the FAITHFUL, whose names are written in heaven! PRISONERS, 2(56 PRISONERS. PRISONERS. RisoNERS is a title for the spiritual condition of all men since the fall ; but prisoners of hope is a name peculiar to the children of God. They are thus called, that they may humbly remember from what they are to be delivered, and at the same time may in hope consider the name, and some present privileges arising from it, as an earnest of their full redemption. It was the appointed office of Christ to proclaim liberty to the captivesy and the opening of the prison to them that are boimd;* and not only to proclaim this jubilee, this ycj^r of grace, or acceptable year of Jehovah, but to per- form what he proclaims. Jehovah himself was in Christ and held his hand, or gave him power, to bring out the prisoners from the piison, and them that sit in darhiess out of the prison-house.^ They are therefore called upon to turn to the strong hold ;+ and all, who really hear the voice of the Son of God, crymg, go forth, § and em- brace by faith the covenant of his blood, are these pri- soners of hope. Their hope springs from their faith. All others, having no faith, are said to be without hope, and remain in their prison still. * Isa. Ixi. I. t Isa. xlii. 7. X Zcch. ix. 12. § Isa. xlix. 9. This PRISONERS. 2^7 This natural captivity of the redeemed is most strikingly exhibited, under the colours of a true history, in vrhat passed upon the sons of Israel in the land of Egypt If we understand the lively facts of that great affair, to which such frequent reference is made in the Bible, as a grand memorial, in the true importance ; we shall see, that they have a meaning which comes home to ourselves, and that the interpretation of them is not private or peculiar to one generation, but is common and general to the whole church of God. Pharaoh represents the prince of darkness ; and Moses and Aaron, uniting the offices of leader, prophet, and priest, exhibit the great Redeemer. 'The children of Israel are the subjects of redemption: the Egyptians ^xe the powers of darkness, confederate with the men of th,^ world. 1. Pharaoh was in very deed raised up, and hardened* that God might show in him his power, and that his name might be declared, or recorded, throughout all the earth,f Satan, like this vessel made unto dishonor,X stands as a proof of God*s indignation, without hope of mercy or redemption. Pharaoh's first attack was upon the children of the Is* raelites, that their increase might be prevented, that the * The word j3tn» however harsh it may seem to some ears, admits of no softer sense, than that in our translation, and is repeated many times upon this occasion to declare, that, " to his own secret purpose God directs the worst actions of tyrants, no less than the best of godly princes." The reader is requested to compare these texts in Exodus with Isa. vi. 9. Sec. John xii. 39, &:c. Deut. ii. 30. Josh. xi. 20. Wisd. xix. 4. Ecclus. xvi. 15, t£xod. ix. 16, X. 1, X Rom. ix. 21. nation 268 PRISONERS. nation might fail, by the destruction of males, and be sunlc amongst his Egyptians. — So the great business of Satan was murder from the beginning. He instigated the death of righteous Abel, in the infancy of the church. He prevents, in all ages, as much as in him lies, the in- crease of it. And it is his constant endeavour to sink the children of God into mere children of the world. 2, Moses, the deliverer, was more than (what is ren- dered) a. goodly child; he was fair to God* had grace given him from God, appeared in a most providential way, and was a chosen vessel for the deliverance of Israel, -^Christ also, the great Redeemer, of whom the other was but a shadow, was tJie elect of God, was born and appeared like no other man, was persecuted of the devil, and was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power to bring in salvation. 3, The children of Israel were oppressed in Egypt'; they sighed; they cried; by reason of their bondage; and their cry came up unto God, — The true Israel have ever been oppressed by the powers of darkness in the world: but when they have felt their bondage, and cried, and groaned, for their deliverance, God hath lieard them and remembered his holy covenant,^ 4, The Egyptians^ the taskmasters, showed no pity to the sons o^ Jacob ; but gave reproaches, in the hours of keen distress, and to their reproaches added blows and stripes. — The men of the world, their counter-part, have no feeling for a child of God groaning under the burden of sin, but add to his affliction, as much as may be, and, as their least degree of enmity, shoot out their arrows, even bitter tcords, ♦ Acts vli. 20, t Exod. ii. 93. The.s. RANSOMED, OR REDEEMED, E have considered, in the sign of Pharaoh and his servants, under the last title, the progression and the end of sin : in this, we have a more delightful theme, even the means of mercy, and the representation of redemptiori, under the preservation of the children of Israel. These were bondmen and prisoners in Egypt-, and it is one special purpose of their history to show, that, without God's peculiar help, they could never have released them- selves. It does not even appear, however distressful their circumstances were, that they so much as thought of de- liverance : certainly, they were so entirely enslaved, that they did not attempt any means or make any efforts for their own liberation. On the contrary, it is plain that the mixed multitude, after their, release, had thoughts of returning to their old condition, only for the gratificatioa of their appetites, under every circumstance of baseness and drudgery. Like Edo?nites, as they were afterwards called, and true children of Esau, for one morsel of meat or one m^ss of pottage, they were ready to part with, what is better than mere life, a just liberty, and with it their birthright, for which only life is valuable at all. Moses, then an old and obscure man, (about fourscore years of age) was commissioned, from feeding sheep, to superintend a nation. Dying out of the world, and dead to it; he had, and could have, no ambitious views \as T 4 some ^0 RANSOMED, OR REDEEMED* some have inconsiderately, as well as maliciously, sup- posed) and especially as he had renounced them all before in the prime of life, by refusing to he called the son of PharaoKs daughter ^ under which character he might, had worldly grandeur been his object, been lord not only of the miserable Israelites, (as they have been termed) but of the wise and opulent Egyptians, their masters.* The Lord appeared to him in a buniing bush, which was neither consuming in the flame, nor to be consumed by it. This was the proper emblem of the state of his church upon earth. In the midst of the fire, God is with his people, so that they cannot be destroyed ; and he gave this token, as the sensible demonstration of that truth, to Moses^ and through him to all that should hereafter believe. This angel of Jehovah, or messenger of the covenant^ who wa^ in the church in the wilderness^ was Christ Im MANUEL ; and he revealed himself to Moses as the divine essence, under the title of (what we render God) I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE, I AM, EVER WAS, AND EVER WILL BE.f That is, what Christ is to his people, he ever was before all time in covenant, and will ee to all eternity in faithfulness ; and therefore he more expressly made himself known to the Israelites in af- fliction, both as the Alehim of their fathers,t i. e. engaged in covenant, and also peculiarly as Jehovah in himself, who therefore ever liveth to make it good, * See his refusal of greatness for himself and family, in Exod. xxxii. lo, 11. And his family was afterwards sunk in his own tribe, as appears from i Chron. xxiii. 14. t EAJah asher Ehjahy Jehovah. Exod. lii. 14. vi. 3. Rev, i. 8. X Exod. iii. 6, 13. and RANSOMED, OR REDEEMED. 281 and who changeth not* in his purposes of performing it. Such a revelation, and such a comforting assurance, were especially needful at that time both for Moses and the people; and hence the particular emphasis, which was laid upon the testimony, and the establishment of the covenant with them.f Pierced to the soul, they, or the greater part of them, could scarcely believe in the promise of so strange and improbable a deliverdnce.+ But their unbelief upon this occasion did not make void the promise of God. They had seen, though their anguish had caused them to pass by or forget, the miraculous credentials of Moses, who had showed them this great sign, that the rod of his divine commission, when thrown upon the ground, wasB. serpent ; i. e. when the power, with which he was armed, shall be exerted upon the earth or men of the world, it would be destruction itself to them ; but in his hand, as the leader of the people, it would prove a salutary defence and protection. They appear to have neglected also the other tokens of divine presence and authority, which he manifested to them.§ The Redeemer, however, went on with the great design, overcoming the reluctance of Moses, and the doubts of the people; having pre- viously revealed the wonders to be performed, the future obduracy of Pharaoh, and the ruin which should befall him, while Mo^e^ was employed in the redemption of his people. Thus God dealeth with his redeemed in spirit. His * Mai. ill. 6. I Sam. xv. 29. t E^od. vi. 7, 8. X Exod. vi. 9. § Exod. iv. I— IP. ^1 whole 582 RANSOMED, OR REDEEMED. whole church, and every individual member of it, is, by the fall of nature, in misery and bondage to the prince of darkness; and usually in the extremity, or their deepest sense, of this misery, he reveals mercy. And he reveals it, as a surcy because a covenanted, mercy; as that which therefore never fails, and as that which consequently is truly proper to comfort and establish the souL This is so supereminent a blessing, that, at first, they know not how to believe or receive it; till, by reiterated instances of grace and power, they are enabled to behold, how fit it is for them, and how fit they are for it. The convictions, which attend or lead to these circumstances, are painful; but these painful convic- tions are as the circumcising knife of the law, cutting oiF the old man with his works and covenant of works, and preparing them for the joyful reception of a precious Saviour through the gospel. By these means, they go out of the mere condition of nature into the state of grace. They pass gver (as the Hebrew word is) into the covenant of Jehovah their Alehim and into his oath* and from thenceforward are considered in the new relation to him of children and heirs, instead of rebels and enemies hy wicked works. All this was preached to the Israelites in the passover ; and, through the passover and its attendant circumstances, unto us. The representation of this most interesting truth, under the figure of a lamb slain, is given us in that glorious chapter, the twelfth of Exodus. Our religion is not a new religion, nor essentially different from that of the ancients. So far from it, we ought to • Dcut, xxix. l^r thank RANSOMED, OR REDEEMED. 2S3 thwiJc God, with the apostle, and to serve him (as he did) from the forefathers, not contrarily to them, with pure conscience.* They are the ploud of witnesses, who testify those truths which we are to believe diud to follow. The month, in which this great sacrament was e»* hibited, God commanded to be the beginning of a hew reckoning, or epoch, of time to his people; and, accordingly, it became the first month of the sacred, as it was before the seventh of the secular yea.T, And this, perhaps, hath a prophetic view, not here to be explained. Each house was to take a lamb, which was to be slain by the head of each house, according to the patriarchal system then in force : and this heing done by tiiese persons, the lamb itself is said to have been, killed, or to have its blood drawn out, as though it had been one lamb only, by the m'J br^p b3 whole church of the congregation, between the two evenings, i. e. when the sun was declining, or about our three o'clock in the afternoon. This seems to be thus expressed to declare, that the great anti-type was ofie lamb slain for one whole thurch ; and that the many lambs, distributed to and slain in the respective housholds, signified, that the many communities of God*s people, widely separated in place or ages, are conjointly participants of the one common and general benefit of Christ once slain in the fulness of time. The application of this is the beginning of a new and heavenly life in the several children of God, as they become, in their order, first partakers of Christ. And these children, or partakers, are collectively the whole of the called, or general assembly of the first-born ; * 2 Tim. 1. 3. with Acts xlii. 32. and xxxyi. 22. and 284 HANSOMED, OR REDEEMED. and thus Christ, though once slahi as the one undivided offering for them ally is communicated from age to age to each and every one of them,* as though he were, in point of interest and efficacy for each, one lamb, or one offering, for each alone. The lamb was to be drawn out of the flock, to be without blemish, a male of the first year, to be roasted with fire in every part, of which nothing was to remain for another day, not the least portion to be carried to another house, and not a bone to be broken. — This was all typical of Christ. He was o?ie of many brethren, having the same flesh to suffer and to offer for them : he was without blemish or spot of sin, a perfect man in the prime of life: he endured the fiery indignation of Jehovah, as the lamb-like substitute of his redeemed, in every part of his body and soul ; whence those bitter exclamations, expounding this circumstance and for- teliing the sorrows of the Redeemer, in the 92d and other Psalms : he was to perform this sacrifice of atonement in one day, at one, time, never to be repeated: he cannot be carried from house to house, according to the will of man, and so applied beneficially to other * This is the evident sense of Heb. ii. 9. The vwfp 9ra»Io? doth not mean everi/ man, but every one of those, of whom the context treats; thesowsandcA/V^re/jof God, ?indiChr\st\ given Tend, sancti" fed, or separated, brethren. On these his blood was sprinkled spiritually, that is, distributed in its merits among them, for sprinkling is distribution into parts : and hence ensues their se- paration, or regeneration, from the world. His blood is upon those, and those only; and therefore they are pardoned : his blood, or life is in them, and in none but them; and, therefore ^hey are ulive unto Qod. men's RANSOMED, OR REDEEMED* 585 i»eD*s souls; for they only who feed upon Christ, in their own house, in their own hearts, or in the houshold or church of the faithful, are partakers of the gracious blessing, which they cannot impart to another; ac- cording to that text, a brother [the dearest friend in the world] can by no means ransom a man ; nor give to God a covering, or atonement, for him,* Not a bone of Christ was broken ; i. e. he was not overcome by the dreadful conflict ; nor shall one of his mystical members* called his bones,t therefore, be demolished or lost. The lamb, thus slain and sprinkled, became typically the Lord's passover. The literal meaning of this word, (according to Vitringa and Bishop Lowth who quotes him, on Isa. xxxi. 5.) is, to cover, or protect by covering, to spring forward^ to thi^ow oneself in the ivay, in order to cover and protect. Thus the typifying blood and merit of the lamb slain was interposed between the destroyer and the Israelites, and covered and sheltered them from the general calamity, which fell upon the Egyptians. — And, in like manner, Christ our pass- over, who was sacrificed for us, covers his people by the merit of his blood and righteousness, shelters them (as it were) under hi? wings, and so delivers them from the wrath to come. The people of Israel, before eating, were to sprinkle the blood of the lamb, or strike it, on the two side-posts and on the upper door-post of the houses, wherein they eat it. They were to eat the flesh in that night, with un, leavened bread, and bit^ter herbs. Their loins were to be girded, their ^/loe^ to be on their feet, their staff in their * Ps. xlix. 7. t Eph. V. 30. haiids; .285 RANSOMEDT, OR REDEEHEt)» hands ; and they were to eat in haste ; bacause it waai the very passing-over of Jehovah, or to Jehovah; ^; ^ and because Jehovah passed over the land of Egypt, ire ' ^ * the same night, to smite all the first-born in every place, where the blood was not exhibited for the commanded token. There was, however, this restriction ; no uncir- cumcised persons, whether Jew or proselyte, could eat of the passover; and, particularly, no nsi* or unbe* Ueving stranger ; no aurinf or sojourning alien ; no hireling; but only the -|J if th^ proselyted stranger, mov^A with the fear of God, when circumcised, should have any participation of it. — All this is full of evangelical mystery. The children of God, before they can " feed upon Christ with thanksgiving," come to the blood of the Lamb, and have it sprinkled by faith upon their consciences, at the very entrance and beginning of their divine life, upon all their faculties and powers corporal and intellectual.* In the hour of darkness, in the night of sin, which finally brings destruction to others, they begin to live. They live upon Christ, and eat him, not * Exod.xil. 43. f V.45. X V. 48. The calling of the Gentiles was ever in view; and pro- vision was made for proselytes constantly in the law. There was a^r5^ passover, to which thjse, who were preparad, were admit- ted ; and there was a second (Numb. ix. 10, &c.) in behalf of those, who were not ready, or in a journey afar offy and therefore might not celebrate the first. Thus, the Gentiles, who were common and unclean^ in a legal view under the first dispensation, cLud/ar' o^(Eph. ii. 13.) from God in a spiritual sense, were to be admitted to Christ the true passover, under another dispensation or time, and to communicate equally with the more antient church in all its privileges and mercies. * 1 Thess. v. 23. with RANSOMED, OR REDEEMED. ^87 with the leavened * bread of the old man or carnal nature, but with the unleavened bread of that sincerity and truth, which is only to be found in the faith of the mincj renewed. Their loins are spiritually to be girt ; they are to have their shoes on their feet ; their staff is to be in their hands ; and they are to eat in haste : i. e. they are to act like strangers upon a journey, or prisoners newly released going home, who do not incumber themselves, nor would meet with any hindrance. They are making a rough and sometimes a tedious journey, through a wilderness, and from an enemy. It is necessary, therefore, that they should be diligent, earnest, eager, and watchfuL They want the preparation of the gospel of peace for their feet, and a staff of defence or support for their hands : they cannpt,.must not loiter, or sit down ; but eat standing, and ready to depart. They are passing to God from the vengeance, which now threatens, * "iStt^ leaven. The word also stands for j^esh^ mere flesh. They that are in the Jfesh, or live and walk in the Jiesh, cannot please God. vqh leadened bread, that which is fertnentedy and iv?'ought by the leaven: Spiritually; all dead tvorks, proceeding from the corrupt ferment at ion, or zeal, or agitation of flesh, or carnal nature. To these is opposed rit^D unleavened i>ready which the apostle expounds by sincerity and truth, that which will bear to be examined in the light, and is consequently pure and perfect. This denotes Christ, or the grace of Christ. Purge- out therefore (says St. Pa^lJ the old leaven, that ye may be a ncta lump, or temperament, as ye are unleavened. 1 Cor. v. 7. Our Lord applies leaven tofal^e doctrine, the evil food of the soul- Mat, xvi. 11, 12. With these ideas, the evangelical reader will see into the importance of that solemn command, concerning the typical remembrance of Christ, the Ransoraer, in Exod. xii. 15—20. and ^gSfll EANSOMED, OR REDEEMEiy. and will ere long destroy, the world : and God Will pass over them without hurt, in the hours of death and judgement, in no other way, or by no other means, than by their participation of Christ. If this first-born Lamb, Christ, is not their*s ; they know, that their own first-born, their own souls, must bear the sin, and suffer. And they see, that no mere profession of Christ, no dwelling among his people, no self-seeking, will suffice : the circumcision of the heart, the putting off the old man, and the reception of Christ, will alone stand them in stead in the day of God. Therefore, they do, as the children oi Israel did, — make ready for the journey, and assure themselves, that all shall come to pass, as the Lord hath spoken. This ordinance of the passover was to be a memorial to the Israelites, that, at such a time, and by such means, the Lord delivered them from their slavery, through his mighty power. And, that they might have it ever before their eyes and upon their hearts, they were not only to have a solemn meeting at a certain time, in express commemoration of this great transaction, but all sorts of sacrifices and services also vp"ere instituted for a more frequent and even daily observation; all of which had reference to this first great offering of the paschal lamb, and are only different exhibitions to represent, more distinctly and evidently, the different parts of the same thing. — So believers, under the Christian dispensation, are exhorted to have the sacrifice and merit of Christ always in remembrance; and for this end, botli the ♦ Exod. xu. 16. A71 holy convocation^ or assembly of th? faithful; those, who were the church, assembliDg KANSOMED, OR RE1)EEME1>. 289 assembling of themselves together, and also the sacra- ment of the Lord's supper itself (which last was instituted by Christ instead of the passover, as another sign and continuation of the same principle,) were enjoined as memorials of their redemption by Christ, till his second coming to judge the world. Finally ; the same angel of the covenant, who brought the sons of Israel out of bondage, assuming the image of a cloud and pillar of fire, led them on towards the pro- mised inheritance, supported them through all the way, destroyed their enemies by means which at the same time preserved themselves, and gave .them constant oc- casions of triumph in the God of their salvation.* And thus, the true Israel, under the guidance and protection of their Redeemer, find the ^ea and the waters of the great deep dried up, and in the depths of the sea a way to pass over : the world and all the. multitude of their enemies are subdued before them, and, ,in the very midst of them all, the ransomed are led with safety to their home. The redeemed of the Lord (says Isaiah, alluding to the typical deliverance of the Jews) shall * Another remarkable Instance of divine appearance in their behalf occurred to them under Joshua, who, filled with the Holy Spirit, called upon the orbs of nature to stop in their courses. This was done, partly to show, that all nature and the fabric of the universe are subservient to the kingdom of God and his designs for his people ; and partly to demonstrate to the idolaters of those times, that their objects of worship were subject to Jehovah, and that, instead of affording thqir worshippers any aid, were rathef devoted, by a power superior, to the assistance of J^rae/ their de- stroyers, who had the true Alehim j or, as it is usually expressed, theAlehim isfor'or with Israel. So the words might be rendered in 1 Sam. xvii. 46, et al. Xj return, i ^OO RANSOMED, OH REDEEMED. return, and come with singing to Zion ; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head : they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow end mourning shall Jtee away.* Believer! thou seest here the ransom paid by thy Redeemer; a ransom paid by himself, and at the expence of his most precious blood. The blood is the life: and he poured out his life, to deliver thee from death and the pit of hell. He was and is Immanuel; and therefore the blood, though coming mediately from his human nature, had, by the union of that nature with his divinity, a divine virtue in it; for which reason it is called the blood of God,f Tlie life of God was in that wonderful person called Christ, as well as the life of man : and when he offered up the last in sacrifice, the infinite vigor and *Isa,li.ll. To this restitution awoxola^acr*?, implying both the great restoration, or adjustment in their own place, of the people of God, and the final revolution of all things in new heavens and a nexo earth, I apprehend, the apostle alludes in Acts iii. 21. And possibly, the same thing is signified in Numb. X. 35, 36. When the ark set forward, Moses said; Rise up Jehovah, and let thine enemies he scattered; and let them that hate thee,Jlee before thee. That is ; while the church of God is .moving on in its course through the wilderness of this world, she is to call upon the Lord for his presence and protection against all her enemies. And tchen the ark rested, he said, 7\2W, Restore, convert^ deliver fully from captivity, the ten thousand thou- sands of Israel. That is; in all the restings of faith, and con- solations of hope, which the church may meet with here, she is to consider herself in an enemy's country, and is to look forward to the great rest which remaineth for the people of God, and to call upon him to " accomplish the number of his elect, and to hasten his kingdom;" or, in the language of those already departed, who were to rest yet for a little season, to cry out, Iloxv long, O Lerdf holy and true ! fActsxx. 28. glory RAKSOMED, OR REDEEMED* gpl glory of the first imparted infinite merit to the deed, and through it estabUshed an everlasting propitiation for sins, swallowing them up (as it were) like a little drop in a boundless ocean. This is the merit. Christian, which ransoms thee from the curse of guilt, the captivity of Satan, and the dreadful extremities of these in a future world. This alone preserves, and will ever preserve, thee from the deep abyss i and this alone is infmitely and eternally sufficient. Cast or roll thy burden then, ttpoJi the Lord; and he shall sustain thee. Thou hast not yet sinned beyond infinite merit and promised mercy; it is a diminution to the rich grace of the Redeemer to suppose it. An hard and impenetrable heart, denying and resisting the Holy Ghost in his tes- timony of Jesus, and persevering in this course against all light and evidence, is the great and dreadful sign of a reprobate mind. If sin be thy load, thy hate, and thy terror; come and welcome to this Saviour, this Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world; the sins of Gentiles, as well as of Jews; the sins of this day, and the sins of thousands of years, equally together. The keener thy bitterness of spirit was under bondage, the happier will be the reception of that precious sal- vation which delivers from it. Come then, my Christian friend and perpetual brother, who hast tasted indeed of that true liberty of grace and holiness, with which the Redeemer maketh his people free; come, and let us rejoice together. Let us sing the song of Moses and the Lamb by anticipation ; as we hope to sing it in everlasting harmony hereafter. *' Jehovah the Redeemer hath indeed triumphed V 2 gloriously: 29$ RANSOMED, OR REDEEMED. gloriously: all the agents and contrivers of evil are thrown into the sea, are swallowed up for ever* It was thy right hand, O Lord, which is glorified in power: it was thy right hand, which dashed in pieces and utterly destroyed the enemy. Fear and dread shall fall upon thenri: by the greatness of thine arm, they shall be still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till that people pass over, whom thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thme inheritance; in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in that [coelestial] sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and everT .Amen. FREE. TREE. ' 293- FREE. \JR Lord said to the Jews, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed ; and ye shall know ^ the truth, and the truth shall make you free,* He said, this to persons, whose ancestors had been delivered from the bondage of Egypt, and who declared for themselves, that they were never in bondage to any man. He did not therefore mean a temporal, but a spiritual freedom. Accordingly he explained himself by saying. Whosoever commit teth «*«, is the servant of sin, and so much the servant of sin, as to be wholly incapable of delivering himself from the bondage; upon which account he added. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. None else could release them ; though he could do it completely. Upon this ,great' truth of man's slavery under sin and Satan, the whole Bible is founded. It would be absurd, to speak of the fall of man, of his entire apostasy from God, of redemption by a Saviour, and of hope in a Saviour ; if man were free in the use of his powers, or if indeed he had powers to assert his freedom, and by his own strength, either of mind, will, or affections, could "turn himself unto God." The fact is; he is so " tied and bound in the chain" both of his sins and sinfulness, * John viii. 31, 32. u3 that 994 FREE* that he cannot get forth. Nor hath he any inclination, except what may arise from the slavish fear of hell, or from some inconvenience to his natural lusts and passions. Hence, he is looked upon as dead before God, dead in trespasses and sins, without any spiritual life, and consequently without the least natural power to raise up himself, or the least desire after any such thing. Like the bones in the prophecy, he lies in the open valley of the world, and lo, he is very dry.* The Spirit of God ftlone could restore life to such bones as these, who represent the whole house of Israel, or the whole family and church of God by nature, And if these were dry hones in their natural state ; can we suppose, that there is more vigor or sense of spiritual life in the rest of the world ? If these had no spirit in them, till God was pleased to bestow it ; where upon earth may we expect to find this spirit of life beside ? The bondage of corruption (as *tis called) though it falls upon all men ; yet none of them feel it, till they are quickened with Christ and made alive unto God, And this is a further demonstration of their ruined state and helpless misery. When they have life given, they groan under it, and look out for a release : and where this comes to pass, the release shall surely be found ; because the life was given for that very purpose. Every natural and moral evil came in by sin. It was part of the curse imposed upon degenerate man, that he should serve the earth (from which he was taken, and over which he was otherwise to have ruled) in tilling * £zek. xxxvii. 3. the fre:e. ' 99B the ground by severe and constant labor. That curse fell on his nature and his offspring universally. All men, it is but too evident, sei^e the earth, seek it in the first place, expect nothing but earthly good, cul- tivate in different modes only a w^orldly interest, imagine every bliss, but what this earth affords, ideal or en- thusiastic, and, though much misery constantly attends their whole labor and expectation, are yet able to look no higher, but dread the very thought of a removal. The devil's curse was to grovel upon the ground, and, for a stigma of vileness, to eat (as it were) the very dust of what he had depraved, or (what that food signifies) to live in perpetual infamy without the least happiness or hope. Out of the dust groweth and can grow nothing: and dust mingled with fire, or ashes made by fire, serves to convey a very strong idea of the keenest tor- ment, helplessness, and despair. If this depravity of man be true ; and true it is, if the word of God be true ; what becomes of all those equally ignorant and arrogant pretences, which many have set up, . of free will, free agency, spontaneity of determina- tion, and the essential right and powers, in spiritual things, of human nature? If we believe God, rather than man, we must account them to be but idle dreams at the best, if not noxious speculations, or rather rebel- lious declarations against the truth of God. They may indeed be adorned with the greatest show of carnal and corrupt reason, and with all the splendors of style, or learning, or metaphysical reverie j but, like the garnished sepulchres of the dead, they have only an outward glare of unprofitable pomp, covering at the same time filth, V 4 and i96 FREE. '^ and rottenness, and what no stomach can endure to examine, within,* * This frame of mind is described in lively colors by the pro- phet. Isa. Ixv. 2, &c The words are spoken of Israel {Rom. x. 21.) God's professing people. These walked (i. e. the carnal among them) in a tvai/ not good, because it was after their ownthoughtSj their own corrupt and carnal reason, and not after the truth in -the word. They provoked the Lord to anger continually/ to his face, day by day when they came up to his sanctuary. They sacrificed in gardens, i. e. followed the heathen or wicked world in the spirit of those lusts and tempers, which were indulged openly in idolatrous ceremonies : they burned incense upon altars ofbrich, i. e. pretended to offer prayer and worship, not upon Christ the true altar upon which no human tool, no mortal aid, was to be lifted up, but upon altars of their own making and devising (as bricks are the fabrications of man) imagining their own mll-tporship and righteousness would procure an acceptance. And yet these remained among the graves and lodged in the monuments, i. e. they were not brought out from spiritual death, but remained therein as they were born, and they lodge or rest among the dead in sin and in the places of their abode. They eat swine's jlesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; not literally but spiritually, for no Jew did this, or, if he had, could not have made the pretence in the next verse con^ cerning superior sanctity : they lived upon the abominable trash and in the abominable spirit of this world : it was their food to wallow at least secretly in sin, and their feast to eat of such things as please the world, the flesh, and the devil. And yet, because of some formal attentions, lip-service, and corporal ceremonies, they blindly presumed upon their own righteousness, and arro- gantly could say to other men. Stand by thyself, come not near • to me, for I am holier than Mom.— -But God's judgement of them is far otherwise — These are a smoke, an offensive vapor, in my nose; kindling r. continual fire of anger against them in all they say or ^o. And tlie Lord declared his purpose to reject all these, and to give his blessing to others, as in v. 9. I will bring forth a seed out ofJacoh, and out ofjudah an inheritor ofmytnountains; and mine elect shall inherit //, and my servants shfiUdvftll there. It FREE. S97 This is man — the natural man. What a miserable mortal in his external frame ; and, inwardly, what a hideous wretch! Dark, stupid, senseless, bound, enervated, and, to all spiritual hope and goodness, lost and dead ! In this common condition, the mercy of God, arising from motives and counsels all his own, is vouchsafed to his chosen. As brands from the hurning, consuming, and in. the way to be consumed, he plucks them from this helpless state, and marks them for his property by an act of his sovereign will. He causes them to know and to feel, that he only had power enough to redeem them from all evil. Indeed, he only was rich enough to provide a ransom; but it* cost him dearer than the creation of a thousand worlds; for it cost him the life and suiferings of his Son, whom yet he did not spare, and who would not be spared. Such was the grace of Qur Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for their sakes he became poor, that they through his poverty It hath indeed l^een frequently seen, that those who have laid the greatest stress upon mere holiness, as a virtue to be found or raised in man and urged it from natural principles, have, in the first instance, been generally unacquainted wherein true holiness consists, making it up in a punctilious and ceremonious atten- tion to outward duties, or in sanctimonious appearances, with- out a weaning of the heart from the world or winning it to God; and, in the next instance, have been frequently left to fall into some gross misconduct or other, to their own reproach and to the reproach of religion through them. Indeed, this is by no means wonderful; for, when a man presumes upon his own powers, it may be expected, as no effect can rise above its cause, that he will run into evil ; corrupt nature being able of itself to produce nothing better. might 298 FftETE. might he rich* The full price of their redemption was paid ; and in consequence of it a glorious liberty was bestowed. The sum is far beyond himian or created computation : and therefore the purchased possession, his own dear-bought people and portion, is valued by him accordingly. ♦ The liberty, which the Lord bestows, is really life from the dead ; and he himself is the life of that liberty. He exercises, augments, carries it on, and supports it, from day to day. Insomuch that his people cannot so properly say of themselves, that theij lice, as that their Lord liveth in them. When they want the vigor of this divine life, they look by faith to him for a supply : and faith itself, which is the channel of this life, and the root of all other Christian virtues, was given to them for this purpose. Thus they live by faith, and walk by faith : that is, through faith they receive all their spiritual life, and are enabled to proceed in it and to use it. As the ^rational life flows from the union of the soul with the body, but so as chiefly to arise from the soul itself; so spiritual life flows from (he union of the Spirit of Christ with the soul, the Spirit being the first and chief prin- ciple of it. For, what the soul is to the human frame, that Christ is, by his Spirit, to the soul.f In this way, through infinite wisdom and mercy, the children of God find all their life, liberty, holiness, perseverance, and peace. But say some, who understand not these spiritual and experimental truths ; " are we then but 7nerc machines, ♦2Cor. viii. 9. comp. with Zech. ix. 9. Luke ix. 58. PhiJ. ii. 7. t Wirsii Diss. Epist. ad Iluberum. § 68. acting acting only as we are acted upon, without any proper volition or determination of our own ?" Nobody asks this question in relation to our bodies, in which the principles of action are far more apparent to our senses; and yet surely they cannot be supposed to be greater objects of divine direction than are our souls. We see, we taste, we smell, we feel, we digest our food, or rather our food is digested in us, our blood circulates, our lungs vibrate, and an inscrutible chemistry is mo* mentarily carrying on throughout our frame; and all this confessedly by the action of God, through the me- dium of material agents, without any appeal to our will, and generally as much without our attention, as the mode of operation is above our knowledge. This is kept up when we sleep, not less than in our waking hours; in abstraction of thought from the ideal world, as in the most intense applications of our faculties to the sub- stances of matter; when we are engaged in a variety of affairs about us, as when we direct our closest reflections immediately upon ourselves. But wiH any man say, that he has any share in ordering and supporting this wonder- ful mechanism, or that it is an automaton raised by hiir- self? The divine power ordained the faculty, and gives the consciousness, of sight: our wills were not con- sulted, whether we should have this sense ; or, now we have it, whether it shall be affected or not. We taste our food ; but can we, if we would, reject the organ, by which we taste, or alter the mode of its sensation ? We Aear the sounds about us : but, is not the impression from without, and is not the perception within, entirely in- dependent of our volition ? We feel a variety of motions through SOO FREE. througli all our animal frame, not asking our leave or our wisdom to move ; some circulating the pleasures of health and strength, and others compelling us to endure the sad reverse : and do we consider ourselves as absolute and uniutelligent machines, notwithstanding these im- pressions of a superior power? or is it rather proper to a senseless machine, than to a living creature, not to be independent of a supreme agent, or not to be capable of resisting his supreme operations? But if, in the faculties of the body, we are thus acted upon, as we undoubtedly are, by the medium or instrumentality of the gross sub- stances about us, as often without and above, as with our consent; and if God perform all this in us and in others, for the final accomplishment of his providential designs:* who can presume to say, that, in the more * It was 3. great concession for a man of Abp. Tillotsons per- suasion, and extorted no doubt by the force of truth, to say, "God is the fountain and original of all power, from whom it is derived and upon whom it depends, and to whom it is perfectly subject and subordinate. He can do all things at once, and in an instant, and with the greatest ease ; and no created power can put any diiiiculty in his way, much less make any effectual re- sistance ; because omnipotence can check, and countermand, and bear down before it all other powers." And again, " The true reason of these things lies much deeper, in the secret providence of Almighty God, v/ho when -he pleaseth can so govern and over- rule both the understandings and the wills of men, as shall best serve his own wise purpose and design." Scrm. before the King and Sueeny ix. and x. p. p. 12, and 6. Solo?non says, t/te king's heart is in the hand of the Lordj as the rivers of water: he turneth it tchithersoever he •will. Prov. xxi. I, If the heart of kings be thus in the hand of the Ix>rd, " ruled and governed, dis- posed and turned, as it seemeth best to his godly wisdom;" it implies most stiongly, that no other man's heart can be out of it. sublime fuee. 301 «ublime and spiritual properties of the mind, which are so much more congenial with himself than matter can be, the same Almighty agent doth not begin, sustain, and carry on those mental impressions and activities, which, under the name o^ grace ^ constitute the very life, peace, L wisdom, strength, experience, and ultimate expectation of the soul? Who can venture to deny, that God is the Alpha and Omega of his people's faith and salvation, wrought in them and for them ; when he himself, who can neither deceive nor be deceived, hath been pleased to aifFirm, that he is ? How he doeth this, is another question, which we can no more define than we can define the mode of his operation upon those gross sub- stances our bodies : it is sufficient for us to know, that it is done, and that He doeth it ; or, in other words which are his own, that m him we live, and move (or, are moved) and have our being. Were it otherwise, we I could not be a part of his creation, either natural or divine. But will any one presume to say, that all this is making us, or the angels above us, dull machines, without life or consciousness ? Moreover; his Providence hath established natural means, put them within our natural reach, and given us natural powers to use them. By this Providence, we I can read and hear his word ; attend his ordinances, and I* wait at the gates of wisdom. We can be in the wdy^ like Abraham's servant; and, being there, may expect, with him, that the Lord will meet us. Out of the way, we have assurances of nothing but evil. I have said all this to obviate a common cavil, which, after all, can only be fully answered to a man's mind by the S02 FREE* the instruction of him, icho worketh in every believcf both to loill and do of his own good pleasure. Wheil th6 soul is converted to God, the wisdom and experience, obtained in that conversion, will teach and convince more in one moment, than the ablest human lessons in the world. And, unless such conversion do take place, could the mind be convinced by any arguments or repre- sentations, they would be but of little weight or conse- quence to the person's present peace or conduct, and still less to his everlasting welfare. God worketh upon his people's souls by his wisdom and truth, which in them are ever accompanied by the energies of his mighty power.* In the day or time of this power, tliey are made willing, or willingness itself, in the abstract, as the original implies.f Not by brutal force (as some have talked) nor yet by mere moral suasion (as others have dreamed ;) but by giving life to the dead, by bringing the prisoners out of the prison-house, by bestowing sight upon the blind, and, in a word, by creating all things new. In this neiv creation, there is no bondage, because there is no sin, which is the principle of bondage. So far as a man lives in and partakes of this creation, he is free. In the old creation, the present seat of sin, there is little else but darkness, and slavery, and woe. While we are in the body, we are (as believers) affected by these adverse cir- cumstances. But the more we live in the new creation, so much the more we walk in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free : the more we are occupied and en- grossed by the old creation, so much the more we are ♦Eph.l. 10. fPs, ex. 3. entangled FREE. 303 m tangled by the yoke of bondage. Being in Christ, who is the head of the new creation, and tlie author of all liberty ; we partake of his free Spirit, and become his freemen,* When we get into the elements of the world, we lose this sweet sense of freedom, and hear, if not feel, the ratthng chains of our old Egyptian servitude. Our spirits sink; and we are taught the difference between our master's service, which " is perfect freedom," and the service of him who is at once the king and the slave of slaves. As our persons are made free by Christ, so are our duties. They are wrought from life, and, according to the degree of grace, with liveliness. They are there- fore called, and are, in that true sense, through the merit of Christ and the power of the Divine Spirit, /ree- ivill offerings, ingenuous and liberal privileges in them- selves, and graciously acceptable to the Father of mercies. We are freed not only from the ruhng domination of sin, through the power of the Holy One energizing ia us ; but also from its fearful consequences, Christ hath delivered us from death by dying. He redeemed us from slavery, and for this end (O wonderful method and mystery o£ mercy !) was sold himself at the price, and died the death, of a slave. By this, he abolished death itself, and the slavery of sin which leads to it, and made us free indeed / — Free, even now, from the condemna- tion of the law, and free untohoUness, the end of which is everlasting life ; and, e'er long, perfectly free from the being of sin and the most distant approaches of evil. X It was an excellent saying for an Heathen; Deo parere,lilferfas est; "It is liberty itself to serve God." Senec. de vit, beat. c. xv. Whea 304 FREE* When a Christian's body dies, there is an end of death to him, and to all the cause of death, which is sin : from henceforth he can die no more, but lives, yea, being one with Christ, is sweetly involved in the essence of life, which endure th for ever. O what a precious Saviour is this ! how can ye but love the Lordy ye that be his saints 9 how is it possible for you to forget him, who hath done so much for your souls ? O seek his face continually ; seek his face ever^ more. In the light of his countenance, there is life — pure, animated, blissful life — and at his right-hand there are joys undefiled and everlasting. Let us prove then our freedom of access with confidence unto God, and our deliverance from the hateful bondage of corruption in the world, by living and walking according to his holy will, and by possessing a constant preparation of spirit for departure hence, and for the perpetual fellow- ship and enjoyment of the Lord and his Christ ! GATHERED. GATHERED. ^05 GATHERED. Y the fall of Adam, the generations descended from him became icanderers in every sense ; not properly at . home or in rest, but scattered, hither and thither, far . from God as from peace, over the face of the earth. From that time there was no immutable settlement for man belov^ ; and yet every man by nature is in search of it. For this he traverses the globe, mixes in all companies and affairs, is continually looking round him for another step or removal ; but, after all, when he would lie down, finds no easy pillow, where he can safely rest an unquiet and distempered head^ no shelter, that can save him from the dread or approach of that fatal storm, which hangs over him all his days, and which at last by falling finishes them. Every thing is {as it were) upon the waves, subject to unceasing agij:a- tion and trouble : and his own heart is as disquieted, as all the world about him. From this scattered and peeled state, Christ, who is the great spiritual Asaph or gatherer, collects his re- deemed out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south*' He gathers together in one, and sometimes (in respect of the fewness of their number) one by one* those, who were single or alone> * Isa. xxvli. 12, jx in SOG GAtHERED. in the worst sense ; wanderers in a solitary way, finding no city to dwell in. They are hungry and thirsty too in th]s wilderJiess, mid their soul fainting in thevi ; till Jesus leads them forth by the light way, that they might go to a city of habitation,* Of this gathering of the people to Christ, and by him and his gracious Spirit, the Scriptures are full.f It was one of the outward signs of this blessed ShiloKs appear- ing, that fo him should the gathering of the people be.t But, in the invvf\rd sense, he gathered them, from the very foundation of the world. He always had a people » created and ordained for his praise, as his first-born or heirs among the nations, as his firsf-fruits and portion from a spared world. These he hath ever been gather- ing like wheat into his garner ; and when he hath gathered the whole, according to their appointed timeSy^ the chaff and stubble will he burn with unquenchable fire. He selected th€ nation of the Jews, by whom he preached this very tliing.H Their ancients were among an idolatrous heathen ; and they themselves were com- manded ever to confess, that a Syrian ready to perish vias their father. The selection was of the Lord's free * Ps. evil. 3, Sec. t Isa. xl. 11. xlili. 5. Ivi. 8, .Ter. xxii. 8. et nl. JGen. xlix. 10. §The limn of God's people are all in hl^ %and. Tliere is no such false or foolish principle, as chance^ with him. It is to be regretted,, therefore, that EccL ix. 11, is sa perversely rendered, as k is. The wise man is showing, th«t nothing succeeds according to human abilities, but that the Jit. srasojiy and the concafcnaiion of opportune cti»cH?nstancts are pt fagrt/tcr (is beams in a byiilding) for all men; i.e. by a specfatf auU particular providence. II Dcut..vii. 55, choice* FATHERED. SOT choice. The motives were all in himself; unless their misery, unrighteousness, weakness, and repugnance, could be thought inducements to his love. They were once not a people ; but, by his own power and provi- dence, became the people of the Lord. The selection of the Jews proves, that all was of his own free grace ; and the calling of the Gentiles, that not even believers have any claim or right for their own posterity. Blessed be their Saviour, he doth collect his redeemed from among the heathen ; and with loving-kindness and mercy he gathers them. They are by nature amongst the multitude, in no respect differing from* others. Equally lost, equally undone and depraved, they neither seek his favour, nor know it. Rather, they oppose it with every corruption of their bodies and souls; Jill the sceptre of his love, reached out to their very hearts, induces them to feel and acknowledge his kind constraint. This free favour converts and renews the mind, makes the once unwilling to be willingness itself, and, by imparting a spiritual faculty to receive spiritual light, then sweetly " on the sightless eye-ball pours the day." Hencefor- ward, they humbly admire the goodness which could stoop so low, and the mercy which could rescue them so unworthy. *' Why am I chosen (will one of these say) and others, not worse than myself, (if so bad) relinquished to perish! why do I taste and rejoice in the loving kindness of the Lord : while some of these, wiser, fairer^ and apparently far more respectable, than I am, are per- mitted to live and die in the state of nature and ruin 1 —Lord, I can give, and I dare to give, no other account ior this, but what, my Saviour himself hath been pleased x2 to S09 OATIIEREl>. to give before me; even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight, — How unsearchable are thy judgements, and thy ways past finding out'." . He not only gathers his people, by his own free choice, but withhis own holy arm. No power, but that which is- almighty, couid restore the rebeUious, and thus make the very heart of the revolted to be willing.* He changes while he gathers. He not only alters the station or place, but the condition and spirit of his gathered ones. They are brought into the fellowship of his own Spirit, and have his own blessed mind established within them. They are admitted to an indissoluble union with him as their head, and, by that union, have also a vital and heart- felt communion with those that are truly saints, as his members and their own. What the Lord Christ gathers with so much toil and at so great a price, he keeps with concern and with safety. His gathered therefore are bound in the bundle of life with Jehovah their Alehim:! the everlasting essence of life is their hfe, and secures it with his own by a perpetual covenant. This is a hondy which sliall never be broken. This is a source, which can never fail. The more it is drawn, the fuller and faster it flows. They are gathered by grace for nothing less than im- mortal glory. The end of the work is answerable to the design and grandeur of the worker. He acts like himself in a sovereign and almighty way ; and he crowns all he does with an unutterable majesty and splendor. Who^ is like iinto thee, OLord ! thuu hast done wonderful things I thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth / • Ps. ex. 3. 1 1 Sam. xxv. 29, Their GATHERED. 309 Their very dust shall be gathered, however dispersed, when he shall summon the world to judgement. The same power, which created and consequently which marked out and placed every atom in the universe, can with equal ease (speaking after the manner of men) collect them when scattered, and restore them to their pristine situation. He sees and knows and comprehends all the minute and the almost infinitely innumerable particles, combined or distributed through his whole creation, with more accuracy and attention, than the first created in- tellect in heaven can know or consider any one thing. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the icorld', nor can any of his creatures either increase or ex- punge an atom, or even vary its place or use, without his permission. Fear not, then, thou poor and despised believer, who art prone to think, that thou art so little worthy of the divine attention, and so insignificant in the world, as almost to be forgotten by thy God. Fear not : the gra^ cious Asaph, the spiritual gatherer of his redeemed, will both seek and search thee out He knows more of thee, and of thy ways, than thou canst know of thyself, or of them. Thou art an object in his eye more distinguished, than the kings and emperors, as such, of this fallen world. An hair of thine head falleth not to the ground without thy father's knowledge : how much less the least of the concerns of thy precious soul ! Use not then the old complaint, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me, without acknowledging at the same time the old consolation ; can a womanforget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her X 3 womb ? SIO GATHERED. womb 9 yea, they may forget, yet idll I not forget thee (saith the Lord) : Behold;! have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; thy walls are continually before me* m When the great spiritual harvest shall be gathered in, or *' the nunaber of God's elect be accomplished ;" then shall the end come ; and the world, having answered the great design of the builder, like a useless scaffold, shall be taken down for the fuel of destruction. Then shall the holy pity, the new Jerusalem, (which will in that day be com- pletely in unity with itself) come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband: and then shall the great voice be heard out oflyeaven, saying. Behold the tabernacle of God is icith men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself ishall be with them, and be their God, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away*-" Thus hath the Alpha and Omega said, the beginning and the end, the leader and the consummator of all things.t • Isa. xlix. 15, 16. f Rev. xxl. S~^6, HEALED. tIEALEJD. 31:1 HEALED. -OL5 Christ is the great physician, so his people are, by natural contamination, sick and need to be healed. Adam impaired the spiritual, as well as natural, health pf his progeny, which nothing but omnipotence could remedy ; and therefore omnipotence, clothing itself with the flesh of Jesus, hath effectually interposed. Jehovah sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from iheir destructions. This lesson was taught in the history of the Jews at Marah.* Here they found only bitter water, of which they could not drink; and when Moses cried unto the Lord, the Lord showed [or taught] him a tree, which being thrown in, sweetened the waters. There, at that time, or upon that occasion, he established or placed before them a statute and a decree [a rule of instruction from his holy mind and will] and there he proved them. This promise was also added, upon the observance of the voice and commandment of the Lord; I will put none of those diseases upon thee, which I have brought tipon the Egyptians; for I am Jehovah, that healeth ihee, A sublime and spiritual instruction was apparently toeuded in these words. When believers have entered f Exod. XV. 23, x4 *i|)®a Sl2 HEALED. upon their pilgrimage, they find sometimes if not often, for the trial of their faith, the water, the bitter water, of affliction and trouble. Carnal professors murmur at 6uch an event, and look back for relief upon Egypt or the world, with the carnal Jews; but the real Christian, like Moses y crieth unto the Lord ; and the Lord teacheth him how to use the tree of his appointment, which can heal all his diseases, and sweeten his sorrows. This tree is the tree of life, which groweth in the midst of the heavenly paradise ; and its leaves are for the healing of the nations* The Lord Christ is this sacred and medicinal tree ; and he, that cometh by faith unto him, in spiritual disease or distress, shall find him the healer of the soul; yielding, as an olive, the oil of his grace; and, as a vine, the wine of his consolation and peace. A lesson, of the same tendency with that of the waters at Marah, was also inculcated by healing the stings of the fiery serpents, sent among the Israelites, It was in believing the word of the Lord, and in looking up to the instituted sign of a serpent of brass, that they were cured of the poisonous malady, which destroyed much people on every side. ' Thus the old serpent of fire hath bitten us all; first, our progenitor, and, through him, every one of us. As the least particle of poison from a common serpent will presently infect thc-whole frame to its destruction ; so it is not merely the number or quantity of sin, that poison of the soul, but its nature, received within us^^ • Gen. y, 9. with Rev. xxii. 2. which HEALED. 313 which has diseased us throughout, and threatens us daily with something worse than tlie grave. To Christ crucified ; to him, who became a curse, as a sin-bearing serpent itself, Hfted on high ; must we look by faith for the antidote. By faith we receive its virtue, and become healed of our plague. Jesus cures all the malady of sin, by taking it all upon himself. And he makes an end of sin, and absorbs its baleful poison, when, individually, he applies his infinite virtue to the beheving soul. His cross, which was the instrument of the most accursed death, becomes like the tree of life to the longing eyes of the Christian, and 9hanges the sorrows of his heart, like the bitter waters of Marah, into sweetness and de- light. Into all this Christ entered freely and voluntarily. The wounds of the cross, without his own will, had no power to injure or to kill; for, being the Prince of life, he could have healed and sustained himself, as well as others. He cried with a loud voice, possessing full strength to live, if he had pleased to live. He first bowed his head, and then died (contrary to the usage of mortals in the same circumstances) as the very Lord and Master of death itself, to whom he submitted without compulsion, because, as the true and availing sacrifice, he was sponte sua to lay down his life. He was the willing substitute for sinners made willing to embrace him in the day of his power. The wrath of heaven, like the fire upon the typical sacrifices, which were offered up at the first establishment of the taber- nacle and temple, fell upon this Lamb of God, who was thereby invested with the curse due to their sins, in their 314 HEALEDu their behalf and in their stead. And this perfectly insured their full and free, salvation,* Reader; hath the Lord put bitterness into thy cup, or placed sorrows in the way of thy pilgrimage? Re- member this instruction of his word, and by faith apply this tree of life, which yieldeth wisdom and comfort, to the distresses of thine heart. Use this remedy, which hath been tried for ages; and thou shalt find a distilla- tion of more j3recious balm than that of Gilead, for the wounds cf sin, or the maladies of life* Look unto him made sin, made disease, made a curse, for thee; and be saved: he invites, he commands, thee thus to look for relief Nor can he deny himself, or be worse than his word. // thou canst believe^ all things are possible to him that believeth. Cast thy cares, thy whole lot, yea, thy very soul, upon this Lord of truth, this faithful and never-failing God. Try him, as he tries thee. He sends affliction; do thou throw the care of it upon him. He proves thy confidence in him : prove thou his fidelity towards thee. Come with a single eye, and a simple sincere heart, to the throne of his gmce : ask for grace, with the holy boldness^or liberty of his children, and submit the whole to him for his own glory. Say, with Jereinidh; Heal me, Lord, my strength and my fortress, aud my refuge m the day of ajjiiction, and I shall he healed; saDeme, and I shall be saved ; for thou, thou, feven thou, art my praise.f Then wait with the patience of faith; and see, if he will not make good his truth, * See this strikingly illustrated in Lev, ix. 21, 2 Chron. vii. 1. &c. with Isa. liii. 4, 5. t Jcr. xvii. 14. with xvi. 19. either HEALED. , 315 either by causing thy grief to depart, or by enabling thee to bear it. Whatever method he uses, thou shait find it in the end for his glory, and for thy good : and what else canst thou presume to desire ? Thou art called to a warfare, but not at thy own charge. It is beyond thee to find thyself in courage, wisdom, and support, for so great a concern. Thou wouldest soon deny thy Master with Peter, and betray him like Judas ; if Satan wer^ loosed upon thee, and thou hadst no strength but thine own. All Christ's disciples, bold as they were in their professed resolutions to abide by him, and favoured as they had been by his presence, forsook him and fled in his last great conflict with the powers of darkness. They were poor too, and had almost nothing in the world to lose. And yet it is remarkable, that, at the same time, some richer disciples, who were such secretly before for fear of the Jews, now had grace given them to step forward boldly, to own their crucified Lord, to demand his dead body, and to show their love by anointing it with the richest ointments and spices. All which demonstrates, that the poor cannot confess Christ, merely because they have nothing to part with for his sake; nor the rich, because they have nothing to gain by him in the world; but that Christians, in all conditions of life, have only constancy and courage, at any time, or for any occasion, but as they derive it from him. The poor left him by himself to suffer, and the rich had not power to exert their interest either to pre- vent or to soften his sufferings; for these were absolutely needful for the salvation of both : and yet providence honored the l^st^ being eminent and conspicuous members 316 HEALED. members of the Sanhedrim, with the .care of his person and burial, that it might the more evidently appear that he hoth died and rose again, and that all the scriptures, foretelling precisely these circumstances, were per- fectly accomplished in him. Believer; lay up these things in thine heart, and trust in the Lord at all times ; for he is thine only refuge, and thine only help, in the time of need : and verihj thou ikalt not he disappointed of thine hope^ BED, FEP. 317 FED. JL HERE are many emblems, used in the scripture, t^ express the entire as well as certain dependence of the children of God for all their support and nourishment from him. Among others, it is a very principal one, tvhich was made manifest to the Israeliies, in their daily food the maniia, while they passed through the wilder- ness. This was prophetically styled bread of heaveji, bread of the mighty :* and the apostle calls it, spiritual meat f or food, that is, food having a spiritual signi- fication. This signification our Lord himself explains. The bread of God is he, ivhich cometh down from heaven^ and giveth life unto the world. — I am the Bread of XIFE.+ In saying this, he affirms his divinity; for Jehovah only is and can be the nourisher of life : and this Moses sufficiently indicates under that sign of Christ the outward manna; Jehovah /ec? thee with manna, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but |_n'in'' ^s }