Sermon Lxvi: God Not Ashamed To Be Called His People'S God - Heb. 11:16

Sermon Lxvi: God Not Ashamed To Be Called His People'S God - Heb. 11:16

SERMON LVIX

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. - 2 TIM. 2:19

HAVING, in the preceding discourse, shown that this charge is effectual with all who are the Lord's, both in this life and at death, we now proceed, as was proposed,

II. To evince the truth of the doctrine, that the charge is effectual in all who belong to God. With this view I would have you to consider the following things.

1. Consider that it was for this purpose that they were elected; Eph. 1:4, "According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame, before him in love." All whom God has chosen to life, are chosen to holiness; so that the decree of election in their favour, secures their departure from iniquity. If a person had determined to save a certain number of madmen, going about to kill themselves, with knives in their hands, the resolution to save them would import the taking the knives out of their hands; so here, reprobates may get their lusts kept, but the elect shall not. Wherefore, as sure as the elect cannot perish, and the Lord will lose none who are his, so sure shall all who are his depart from iniquity. There is no separating of the means and the end, which, in God's decree, are firmly joined together. Life is the end, departing from iniquity the means; therefore, they who are ordained to life shall infallibly depart from it. As sure as the purpose of God cannot be broken or disappointed, so sore shall they who are his depart from iniquity. It is God's purpose in election, to bring them out of their sin, to everlasting life: Eph. 1:4, "According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame, before him in love."

This purpose cannot be broken, for says God, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure," Isa. 46:10. Therefore, they shall depart from iniquity; and whoever holds it fast, are strangers to the grace of God. Consider that,

2. It is the end of their redemption by Christ Why did Christ give himself for those who are his? It was that he might redeem them from all iniquity, and purify them unto himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works," Tit. 2:14. Why gave he himself for his church? It was that "he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water, by the word," Eph. 5:26. He came to save them, but from what? From their sins, Matth. 1:21. Sin had a double hold of those who were his; it held their consciences, by the cords of guilt; and held their heart, will, and affections, by the interest it had got there. Christ shed his blood, by the efficacy thereof to loose the former, and procured the influences of his Spirit, who, by his indwelling might loose the latter.

Those for whom Christ did not die will continue in their sins, and perish in them. They are not willing to part with them, and the influences of the Spirit are not procured for them to make them willing. Had Christ been to save sinners in their sins, then those who will not be saved from their sins, might have been saved from death. But it is not so. Those for whom Christ died, shall infallibly depart from iniquity; and such are all those who are the Lord's; John 10:15, "I lay down my life for the sheep." Otherwise, the design of Christ's death is frustrated; he died in vain, and all the promises of a seed, made by the Father to his Son, in the covenant, turn to nothing; to imagine which, is blasphemous.

Christ bare a good will to those who were his from eternity, and and would have them made happy. But they were unholy, therefore he must redeem them from their iniquity, by his blood; otherwise, the gates of the city would have remained closed for ever on them. And now, that the ransom of the blood of the Son of God is paid, is it possible that the prisoners can remain undelivered? Some may be apt to say, O! will ever Christ sanctify such an unholy creature as I am? I will surely perish by the hand of my lusts, and will never get free of them. Why, poor soul, if this be thy exercise, to depart from thy iniquity, it is an evidence thou art his; and it is his honour and interest to make thee holy, and deliver thee from the dominion and power of thy powerful lusts, in so far as he shed his blood for this end. And, however worthless thou art in thyself, thou art dear bought, and therefore must not, canst not, be lost.

3. Consider, that it is the end of their effectual calling. They are called to be saints, Rom. 1:7. The world lies in wickedness. Those who are the Lord's by election, lie among them, till the effectual call come, which brings them out from among them; "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you," 2 Cor. 6:17. This call is necessarily connected with election, and it can never be effectual without the soul's being brought to depart from iniquity; "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called," Rom. 8:30. The conversion of all the elect, their regeneration, their translation from the power of darkness, are infallibly secured, and consequently their departing from iniquity. For what is conversion, but turning from sin unto God? and regeneration, but arising from the death in sin?

4. Consider that it is the end of all providences. Providence has an eye on all the children of men, but has a special eye on those who are the Lord's people. Favourable dispensations are cords of a man, to draw sinners from their iniquity: Luke 1:74, 75, "That he would graut us, that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." Afflictive dispensations are scourges, to drive them from their iniquity; Isa. 27:9, "By this therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin:" Heb. 12:10, "He chasteneth for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." True, they are not effectual on many; mercies do not allure them, judgments do not affright them. But wisdom is justified of her children. And can it be imagined that they shall not be effectual to them?

5. Consider, that it is the end of all ordinances. Wherefore does the Lord send the gospel to sinners, but that they may depart from iniquity? Titus 2:11, 12, "For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." The word is designed for the sanctification of souls; John 17:17, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." The promises, the threatening, the doctrines, all lead away from sin. The sacraments of the New Testament are also appointed for this same end. In a word, all gospel ordinances whatever, Eph. 4:12. They are all "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." These will have their effect on those who are his, however they be in vain to others.

Lastly, Consider, that since all who shall be saved shall depart from iniquity, and all who are the Lord's shall be saved, it is evident, that all who are his shall depart from iniquity. Such as continue in their sin can have no communion with God here, much less hereafter, Psalm 5:4–6, and Psalm 15 throughout. No sooner did the reprobate angels depart from holiness to sin, but God thrust them down to hell, 2 Peter 2:4. Adam was driven from the tree of life, on his sinning, Gen. 3:22. Who then can expect to see the face of God in heaven, without departing from iniquity? We now come,

III. To make a practical improvement of the whole;—and this,

First, In an use of information.—This subject informs us,

1. Whence the success of the Gospel is derived. We see it has its effect on some, in turning them from their sins unto God, while others, having the same means of grace, are untouched by them. Trace this to the spring-head, and it must be ascribed, neither to the free-will of the party, the piety or parts of the preacher, but to the eternal love of God terminating on some. There is a time of loves set in the counsel of God, respecting all the elect; and when this time comes, they shall infallibly answer the call.—We may see,

2. That the unsuccessfulness of the gospel, barrenness and impenitency under the means of grace, are matters which draw very deep. Men think little of disobeying God's charge, sounded continually in their ears, by the gospel; think little of going on in sins, from which they are charged to part; but did they consider that the charge must be infallibly complied with, by all who are the Lord's, their own sitting of it would be a terror to themselves. For, in so far as they comply not with it, so far they show themselves not to belong to God. Where God has much people, the gospel will have much success.—We may learn,

3. That iniquity is that abominable thing which God hates. It is the greatest of all evils, and therefore, as it is that thing which God sets himself particularly against, so we in a special manner should set ourselves against it. Poverty, meanness, and contempt in the world, God suffers in those who are dear to him; but he will not suffer sin to have dominion over them, and at length will quite expel it from those who are his. He will not bear with it in his own, as he hates it for itself.—We are informed,

4. That there is a divine power comes along with the charge, to all who are the Lord's people, when once the time of love is come. This is that which makes them depart, while others held fast their iniquity: Isa. 53:1, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" The elect of God are as much dead in trespasses and sins as others are; sin has the same dominion over them as over others. But with the word the Spirit enters into them, and brings them away from the tents of sin, causes them to rise up out of their graves, while others lie still in them.—We may learn,

Lastly, That departing from iniquity is absolutely necessary to evince that we belong to God, because all such do depart from iniquity. It is the fruit of election and conversion; and so the great evidence of interest in God's eternal love, and his present favour.—For understanding this, there things are to be noticed.

(1.) That a person's being in his sin, still under the dominion of it, unsanctified, unholy, is a certain evidence of his being in a state of enmity with God, in a state of wrath, and that he does not actually belong to God, but to Satan. One may pretend faith in course of sin. But his pretences are vain, his works disprove his faith, his unholy life discovers his graceless state: James 2:17, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

(2.) That a person's being still in his sin, under its dominion, will not, while he lives, prove him to be none of God's elect, excepting only in the case of the unpardonable sin, which is most rare. The reason is, that the charge is effectual in all the elect, yet it may be long in taking its effect on some, as in the case of the thief on the cross. So that while there is life, there is hope. This I note, to baffle that temptation, with which Satan attacks some, namely, That they are not elected, and therefore they need not set their minds towards religion, for it will not do with them. This is barefaced reasoning from hell; for be your case never so hopeless, though ye be quite graceless, and this never so long continued in, while you do not obstinately, and altogether maliciously, reject salvation by Christ, it cannot prove you to be none of God's elect; for at the eleventh hour may be called. Yet,

(3.) Without departing from iniquity, no person can certainly know he is elected, or that he belongs to God. By this, indeed, a person may know it, 2 Peter 1:10: but without it, no man can; for God does not allow us, nor can we at first hand go and read our names in the book of life. We must learn it by sanctification, which is the fruit of election, by which we come to know both our election and our effectual calling.—We may improve the subject,

Secondly, In an use of trial.

Hereby you may try whether you be the Lord's covenanted people or not. This may be known by your departing from iniquity, or your not departing. Here, to assist you, we shall mention the two following marks:—

MARK 1. If you are departing from iniquity, there will be a sincere endeavour after universal obedience, Psalm 119:6; aiming to please God in all things, and not indulging yourself in any known sin, being content to know, in all cases, what is sin and what is duty. The truly godly will set themselves against the first motions of sin, Rom. 7:7; against secret sins, Psalm 19:12; even against that sin which most easily besets them, Psalm 18:23; and will witness against self, in various shapes, Matth. 5:3.

MARK 2. If you are departing from iniquity, you will be wearying and groaning under the remains of sin, Rom. 7:25. However much the hypocrite may content himself with as much grace as seems necessary to secure heaven to him, yet the godly man is going on, and pressing forwards towards perfection, though he cannot reach it; and looks on the remains of sin as iron fetters, which he would fain be quit of, that he may be holy, as God is holy; and perfect, as his Father in heaven is perfect.—We may improve the subject,

Lastly, In an use of exhortation.

We beseech you, O sinners! to depart from iniquity. You have dwelt too long in the tents of sin. You are called now to arise and depart from all your sins, freely to part with them, never to return to them, but to be still departing farther and farther from them. The exhortation concerns both saints and sinners.

There are three motives, which the text affords us to prevail with sinners in drawing them from their sins. These are,—the evil of sin,—the necessary connection betwixt a person's departing from it and their belonging to God, and the obligation lying on sinners to part with it, from their naming the name of Christ. We shall consider these separately, as in their nature important and weighty; and O that we could improve them, so as to draw you all from your sins. We begin with,

MOT. 1. Sin is an evil, a great evil, from which you are called to depart. Sinners are deceived with an appearance of goodness, of profit, or of pleasure in their sins. But, God knows, it is the worst of evils, and therefore from it by all means God will have his own to depart. O that I could draw the monstrous evil in its own colours, to bring you all from it to holiness! Could you get a genuine sight of it, you would run from it as from a fire, as from hell fire; Rom. 12:9. "Abhor that which is evil." Sin is the greatest evil. This will appear, if the following things are attended to. Sin is an evil.

1. In the eyes of God: Jer. 44:4, "Oh! do not this abominable thing that I hate." God, who knows all things, and cannot be deceived with fair appearances, looks on this, which men naturally set their hearts on, as the worst of ills. Oh! shall we not think of it as God does? Consider,

(1.) It is the only thing which he condemns, and he everywhere condemns it in his word. The world cries out on many things which are not sin, but God on nothing else. Many would persuade themselves, that God looks on their sins as they do. But this he takes as an affront to his holiness: Psalm 50:21, "These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes." Look to his word, which is the indication of his his mind; and there you will see he never speaks good of sin.

(2.) It is the only thing which he pursues with his wrath, and he does this wherever it is found. It is the enemy he pursues through the whole creation, wherever it appears. It entered in among the angels, and fixed itself in the reprobate ones; wrath immediately pursued it, and tumbled them down to the pit; "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto the judgment," 2 Pet. 2:4. It got place with mankind in paradise; and wrath was at his heels there; Adam's prosperous state was quickly turned into misery. The very ground on which the sinner treads, is cursed for its sake. The sinner, in his sinful state, is in a state of wrath. It abides on him, John 3:36. The sky never clears on him, while he is a sinner. Even with his own children, God writes his indignation on it; John 12:24, "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?—Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned?" The earth is made to groan under it; and when the end comes, the defiled creation has to go through the fire to purge it. But above all, see how he pursued sin in his own Son, though it was only on him by imputation; Rom. 8:32, "He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." The sins of the elect met on him, and therefore the sorrows of wrath met in him, and left him not, till they brought him to the dust of death.

(3.) Departing from it is the only testimony of his creatures' love to him which he requires, and nothing less can be accepted. He does not seek rivers of oil, nor other costly sacrifices: "But he hath shewed thee, O man! what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" If he call them to lay down their lives for him, it is only in the way of their standing off from sin; otherwise it is not acceptable, nor required, but his law is, Suffer any thing rather than sin. Behold it in one word, "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil," Psalm 97:10.

2. Sin is an evil, and a great evil, in the eyes of the truly godly. Whenever the eyes of any person are opened by grace, then immediately they are of this mind; while the rest of the deluded world hug the serpent in their bosom, they are for flying from it at any rate. If they lose this opinion of it at any time, it is owing to the loss of their light, their falling asleep. But in their settled judgment, it is the worst of evils. For,

(1.) Of all evils it has lain nearest their hearts, and produced the heaviest complaints and groans. Psalm 51:3; Lam. 4:17. Hear Paul's complaint; Rom. 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Did ever persecutions, prisons, reproaches, or all the ills he suffered, draw such a complaint from him? In tribulations he rejoiced, in a prison he sang; but in the fetters of the body of death, he groans like a dying man.

(2.) Sin or suffer being put to their choice, they have always, when themselves, choosed to suffer rather than sin: Acts 20:24, "But none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." It is true, a godly man may sometimes be bemisted, so as not to see a thing to be sin which is sin; nay, sometimes, in a hurry of temptation, to avoid suffering, he may fall into sin against light; but otherwise, by divine grace, they will choose poverty, imprisonment, banishment, death, rather than sin; even the greatest temporal evil, rather than the least sin. Thus the cloud of witnesses gave their testimony. From these they did not "accept deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection," Heb. 11:35.

3. Sin is indeed in its own nature and properties the greatest of all evils.—To make this evident, consider,

(1.) That of all things sin is most contrary to the nature of God, who is the chief good, and therefore it is the chief evil, Lev. 26. It is walking contrary to God; it is worse than all penal evils; these met in Jesus Christ, who was God as well as man, but sin was not found in him; Heb. 7:26, "For such an High-Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." God owns himself the author of penal evils, but it is blasphemy to father sin upon him. This fights against God; and, as one says, the sinner, so far as in him lies, destroys the nature of God, dethrones him, and strikes at his very being. God, swearing by his holiness, swears by himself; but nothing is so opposite to holiness as sin is, nothing can be more or as much so: nay, it is the very thing which makes the devil evil, and therefore it is more evil itself than even the devil. Consider,

(2.) That sin is most contrary to the rational nature. Right reason condemns it; and no reason approves it, but as blinded and prejudiced. It degrades men, and makes them like beasts, the filthiest of beasts, dogs and swine, 2 Pet. 2:22; more beastly than the beasts themselves; Isa. 1:3, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." Thus the wicked man is a vile man, though never so honourable, Psalm 15:4. Hence it is, that although there are some who glory in their shame, yet sin is such a work of darkness, that no person ordinarily is disposed to father the monstrous brat. Consider,

(3.) That sin is the deformity of the soul. That is the seat of sin, which is the noblest part of man. But it is the deformity of that part; and the corruption of what is the best is certainly the worst evil. Even a deformity in the face is worse than in another part; a bloody man on a throne is worse than such a person on a dunghill. Thus the ill of sin appears in what it does to the soul; it defaces God's image there, and so mars its beauty; Psalm 14:3, "They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doth good, no not one." No running sore, canker, or gangrene, is comparable to it, for these do but prey on the body, sin on the soul. It makes men unlike God, and like the devil. God is holy, just, and good; the devil is unholy and wicked; and so is the sinner going on in his sin. It makes a person like the devil, as a child is to his father, John 8:44, therefore both go to one place in the end; Matth. 25:41, "Then shall he say also unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Consider,

(4.) That sin is a hereditary evil, and these are the worst of evils, the hardest to be cured. We were born with it; Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." It is woven into our very natures, it cannot be taken away without a miracle of grace; even such a power is necessary as is required in raising the dead, and quickening them: The whole man must be born again, new moulded, new framed, ere the person can depart from iniquity. Consider,

(5.) That sin is the mother of all those evils which ever were, are, or shall be; the teeming womb of all mischief. What cast the angels out of heaven, Adam out of Paradise? What deluged the old world, and burned Sodom? It was sin. Of all the evils on soul and body to which man is liable, sin leads the van. Behold how death, in numberless shapes, has overflowed the world! What a flood of miseries is overflowing mankind, kingdoms, churches, families, persons, souls, bodies! What has opened the sluice of these? Rom. 5:12, affords the answer, "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." There is never a sigh nor a groan in this world, under any hardship whatsoever, but it rises from the sting of this serpent; and it has filled hell with groans which will last for ever. Consider,

(6.) That where sin is removed in its guilt and power, the greatest evils cannot harm us; 2 Pet. 3:13, "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" Diseases, crosses, death itself, without it, is like a serpent without a sting, 1 Cor. 15:55, 56. The severe lashes of the just judge of heaven and earth, are turned into the rods of a loving father, Psalm 89:31, 32. Death is but the falling asleep, and dying only the shadow of death. Nay, they shall do us good; Rom. 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Out of the most dark, troubled, and confounding case, God will raise a beautiful frame. Every stone cast at them shall be a precious stone, sanctified for their good. Consider,

(7.) That whatever sin is in force, it not only strengthens other evils, but blasts and poisons all that good which a person enjoys. It not only arms diseases, death, and hell, against a man, but turns his very blessings into curses; Mal. 2:2, "If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart." In all the enjoyments and comforts of a sinner out of Christ, there is death in the pot. One man's crosses ruin him, another man's prosperity ensnares him, and proves his ruin, Prov. 30:8, 9. Nay, the very means of grace are a savour of death unto death unto some, 2 Cor. 2:16. What is the reason why sin poisons the fountain? Thus, be the waters sweet or bitter, they are killing. Consider,

(8.) That sin is the most painful and tormenting evil, when once the pain of it is raised, and the poison begins sensibly to operate; Prov. 18:14, "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?" It is true, that it is so long in working with some, that it may never thus work till in hell they lift up their eyes; but O how dreadful must it then be! Conscience is a tender part; and this, sin torments. What torment was Cain in, when his conscience got upon him! It made Felix tremble, Belshazzar's knees to smite one against another; it involved Judas in utter despair, so as to make away with himself. See Job 20:12–16. Consider,

(9.) That sin is a most deadly evil; Rom. 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." It brought temporal death into the world; and the body of man, which by its creation was not liable to death, it made mortal. But more than this, it is the cause of spiritual death. It kills the soul, separating it from God and communion, with him, and makes many a man dead while he lives, so that his living body is but a coffin to a dead soul, Eph. 2:1. And, finally, it brings on eternal death. Consider,

(10.) That sin is a most infectious evil. No plague nor pestilence is so dangerous. Many persons, in times of a raging plague, have been preserved. But as for the plague of sin, when once it seized Eve, she infected Adam, and he all his posterity. And now the world is a pest-house, where not one is quite free. Some are under the cure of grace, and in the way of recovery; but the most part are pining away in their iniquity, and every one of them infecting another more and more; Eccl. 9:18, "One sinner destroys much good." This one sinner may have the blood of many at his door, whom he has ruined by his advice, carelessness, and evil example. Consider,

(11.) That the giving up of a sinner to sin, is the concluding stroke which God gives him, so that it is the worst thing a person can meet with. Here I would have you more particularly to consider,—that when God in wrath gives a man over in this life, he leaves him, and gives him up to his sin. God deals with sinners to part with their sins, they will not; God's offers are slighted, then, as in Psalm 81:12, "He gives them up to their own hearts' lust; and they walk in their own counsels." He is at much pains with them by providences and ordinances, but nothing does with them; then in anger he gives them over: Ezek. 24:13, "In thy filthiness is lewdness; because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest on thee." Thus, "Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone," Hos. 4:17. Of the heathen world it is said, "For this cause God gave them up to vile affections," Rom. 1:26. We read of one who was given up to the devil, that he was again recovered. But where find ye a man given up to himself, to his lusts, reclaimed? Wherefore better be given up to the devil, than to sin. Fearful sentence! "Let him that is filthy he filthy still." Consider, when at death the impenitent sinner is carried out of the world into the pit, there is no more endeavours to separate betwixt him and his sin. In life he would depart from God, and so his doom is, "Depart from me, ye cursed." Then his sins are left to prey upon his soul for ever; no more pardon, no more sanctification; Prov. 14:32, "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness." God strives with the man in life to part him and his sins, but he will not part from them; so the whirlwind of death rises, and carries both away together to the pit. Consider,

(12.) When God has brought in all his elect to himself, and the last man of them has left the tents of sin, then shall the world be at an end. The sheep shall be separated from the goats, the sinners driven away in their wickedness to hell; this world defiled by sin shall be burnt up; and they, and sin, with all its effects, shut up in hell for ever, Rev. 20:14, 15. Then shall there be new heavens and a new earth, but no sin there, 2 Pet. 3:13. It shall be settled in hell for ever, as on its own base. Sin most be an evil, a great evil: For,

4. If you will continue in sin, of all things Satan loves most to have it so. It gratifies the enemy of mankind most; and this in two things, on which he is most particularly set.

(1.) The dishonour of God. Satan is a rebel against God, who has not the smallest hopes of peace, and is utterly desperate, therefore rages and maliciously sets himself against God, sinning against God himself, and tempting men to sin and continue in it, that he may have the satisfaction of their dishonouring God, and despising his Son; thus grieving his Spirit, and trampling on his laws. Satan is set upon,

(2.) The ruin of souls; 1 Pet. 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." He loves to keep them in subjection to himself, that he may reign freely in their hearts, which will be as long as they are under the dominion of sin; and to have them companions with him in eternal misery; which he is sure to accomplish if he can keep them in their sins. I come now to

MOT. 2. To prevail with you in departing from iniquity, observe this is necessary from your belonging to God, your departing from sin. Whoso are his, infallibly do depart from iniquity, whatever others do. This has been proved before.—Now, upon this consider, the weight that lies here, whether a person belongs to God or not. You need to have this cleared, whose you are, whether the Lord's people or not. For consider,

(1.) Your state for time turns upon this point. All the world is divided into two parties; one belonging to God by covenant and dedication, Heb. 8:10; another to Satan, the god of this world, 2 Cor. 4:4. See them distinguished, 1 John 5:19, "And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." The one is the family of heaven, the other Satan's family. If you belong to the former, you are justified, adopted, all is yours, and ye are Christ's. If to the latter, ye are in a state of wrath and enmity against God. Consider,

(2.) Your state for eternity turns upon this point. If ye be the Lord's, ye shall be for ever happy with him. Your names will be found written in the book of life. If not, your names will not be found there; and see the doom of such; Rev. 20:15, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire." You shall infallibly evidence, by your departing from iniquity, that you are the Lord's, Rev. 14:1–5. Sanctification is an infallible proof of election and justification, and an infallible pledge of glorification. It is a middle link of the indissoluble chain which begins with election and ends with glorification, Rom. 8:29, 30; Thess. 2:13. The spirit of holiness is God's seal upon them that are his, by which they come to be owned and discerned to be his; Eph. 1:13, "In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." But as long as you depart not from sin, it is a positive evidence that you belong not to God by accepting of the covenant, Jer. 32:30. Your cleaving to sin is an evidence you are not united to Christ, and you can have no positive concluding evidence that you belong to God by election. It is but at best a peradventure it may be. And as always the longer that a person continues in sin, there are less the hopes of his recovery, so there is the less probability of his belonging to the election of grace. And if you die in your sin, it will be beyond dispute, that you do not belong to God at all.

Depart, then, from iniquity, as ever you would have any concern for shewing yourselves to be the Lord's. Upon this let me ask you, Is it a matter of indifference to you whether you be the Lord's or not? Truly this is the language of souls careless about their salvation, and particularly about their sanctification. It is declared to you, that all who are the Lord's depart from iniquity. Yet you are careless about your departing from it. This speaks your indifference. I would further ask you, can you ever be happy if you be not the Lord's? How can you live without his favour, living on his ground, and at his cost? Acts 17:25, "He giveth to all, life and breath, and all things." How can you think to look the king of terrors in the face, without the favour of the King of heaven, which you can never have, while you do not depart from iniquity? Rom. 1:18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." I would ask you, lastly, Is it not a miserable offence against your own souls, to dispute away any saving relation betwixt God and you? Every new disobedience to this heavenly charge, is a new argument against yourselves, that you are not his. This charge in the gospel is addressed to all to whom the gospel comes; it is like a fanning wind separating the wheat from the chaff. By it the grace of God brings away the elect out of the tents of sin, leaving others to perish there. What a dismal thought, then, is it to be left, time after time, in iniquity! I come now to urge the

3. And last motive, which is, that obligation which is lying on those who name the name of Christ to depart from iniquity. The Christian profession obliges all who make it to be holy, and to walk as Christians. And here I would consider,

1st, The obligation which lies on all to depart from sin who name the name of Christ, who are Christians by profession, as we all are.

2dly, The obligation which specially lies on communicants. I would consider,

1st, The obligation which lies on all to depart from sin who name the name of Christ, who are Christians by profession, as we all are. Here consider,

1. That your baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, by which you were to be engaged to renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, and to obey the Lord Jesus, Matth. 28:19, 20. This is a seal of God's covenant, to which you have thereby consented. And since you bear the badge of Christianity, you ought to live Christian and holy lives. And God will treat you as covenant-breakers if you do not. Consider,

2. The author of your profession, from whom you take your name; Acts 11:26, "And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." From Christ we are called Christians. And pity it is that ever those who profess Christ should be called by the names of sinful and wicked men. You know those who are named for men, are so named, because they are followers of them. And so the name Christian signifies a follower of Christ, one who follows that way which Christ taught. Now, consider him, the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession Jesus Christ, Heb. 3:1. What was the author of your profession? He was holy, Heb. 7:26. His name is a name of holiness: anointed of God, for a Prophet, Priest, and King. A Christian indeed partakes of the anointing of the Holy Spirit: "Ye have an unction from the Holy One," 1 John 2:20. They are made kings and priests unto God and his Father, Rev. 1:6. Now, how does a sinful life agree with the holy name, example and doctrine of Christ? Consider,

3. The faith and religion you profess. Surely the principles of our religion are holy, and teach us to depart from iniquity, and give no allowance to live in sin. Even reason says, men ought not to give, nor can they rationally live, in contradiction to their profession and its principles. Other religions allow something sinful, but the Christian religion, proceeding from him who is holiness and truth itself, condemns every even the least evil; and therefore Christians by their profession are obliged to depart from iniquity. Consider,

Lastly, The end of your faith and profession, the way to which it directs, namely, heaven, which is a holy place. The gospel has discovered life and immortality, 2 Tim. 1:10. A happy state after this life, where holiness is perfected, Heb. 12:23. And meanwhile it directs to a life agreeable to this holy and happy state; for it "teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world," Tit. 2:12. Have you no hopes, no expectations of heaven? If you have, surely you ought to depart from iniquity; for it cannot be expected that that holy place is for dogs and swine, for such as are strangers to holiness here.

2dly, I would consider the obligations to depart from iniquity which lie on communicants in a special manner. you have in a very solemn manner named the holy name of Jesus, by partaking of the sacrament of our Lord's body and blood. Let this then engage you to depart from iniquity. Consider,

1. That these additional vows of God are upon you to depart from iniquity. You have lifted up your hand to God, and you cannot go back. The terms of the Christian life were told you, and you have, after deliberation, engaged yourselves to the Lord. Beware that after vows you begin to make inquiry, Luke 9:62. Consider,

2. That religion will be wounded by you if you do not depart from iniquity; Rom. 2:24, "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you." You will be accounted betrayers of Christ, for you will give false testimony against his way in favour of sin, as if you had tried the way of religion, and after trial found cause to cast it off. And therefore, as you would not more than ever dishonour the Lord and his way, depart from iniquity. Consider,

3. That you will be great losers if you do not depart from iniquity. You will lose all the pains which you have been at in religion: 2 John 8, "Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought." It may be, you have been at some pains to get something, and have done much in the way of God, but one thing lacking will mar all. You will lose your souls, for it is only they who depart from iniquity, so as never to return to it, that are saved: "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." Backsliding is most dangerous: Heb. 10:38, "If any man draw back, my soul," says God, "shall have no pleasure in him." The very setting off once in the Lord's way obliges to hold forward. They can never sin at such a cheap rate as before; heavier vengeance abides backsliders, and a fall from heaven's threshold is worst of all.

Now, the Lord is saying to the sinners in Zion, as Jerem. 6:8, "Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem! lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited." He is threatening to depart from the generation, since they will not depart from iniquity; and sad will the departure be: Hosea 9:12, "Woe also be to them when I depart from them." There are three sad consequences of God's departure when provoked to it, with which we are threatened this day.—There is,

(1.) Confusion in the church, the breaking of the staves of beauty and bands. There is a melancholy account of this consequence of the Lord's departure, Rev. 8:7, 8. We have already felt the former, and were threatened with the Lord's making, in his wrath, the whole mountain of his house, a burning mountain with the fire of division. A sad sight it will be, come when it will, however fond of it many have appeared. Zion's work will be heavy work, when Zion's builders are, by the Lord's anger, made like Babel builders.—There is,

(2.) Calamity in the state. Many perhaps would little value what should become of the church, if they might otherwise live at ease. But God's departure from a generation often brings nations into the deepest perplexity and distress, 2 Chron. 15:3–6. When God departs from a generation to see what their end will be, it will be a sad end, Deut. 22:19, 20. There is,

(3.) The ruin of many souls and bodies also. When God so leaves a generation, there are many snares for the soul. Confusion in the church brings deadness and darkness on, and makes havoc of the case of many souls. Calamity in the state, which removes peace far away, tends always to the ruining of temporal concerns, and often of men's souls concerns also.

O then depart from iniquity, as ever you would that God should not depart from you, nor from the generation! Our iniquities are the Achans in the camp which trouble us; the Jonah in our ship which threatens to raise the storm. God has been long calling by his word and providence to us to depart from iniquity, and reform. But, instead of this, the generation has been filling up the cup of their iniquity, and want by some one thing or other to make it run over. But whatever befal us, departing from sin will be your security; Isaiah 3:10, "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings." God's way is the only way of safety; Prov. 10:9, "He that walketh uprightly walketh surely, but he that perverteth his ways shall be known." And a good conscience will be a feast in midst of trouble, 2 Cor. 1:12. Whereas an evil conscience, made such by continuing in sin, will be a bad companion at any time, more especially in the evil day. If any should propose this

Question, What shall we do that we may depart from iniquity? I answer, Impress your spirits with your own sinfulness. Consider your sinful nature, Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Observe how it spreads itself through the whole of your hearts and lives; Isaiah 64:6, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we do all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities as the whirlwind have taken us away." How contrary is it to God's nature and law, how inconsistent with your interests for time and eternity! Make application to Christ by faith for its removal. To his blood to remove the guilt of sin, 1 John 1:7. To his Spirit to break the power of it, and to sanctify you. Faith is the great mean of sanctification; "Purifying their hearts by faith," Acts 15:9. We exhort you,

Lastly, To watch. Be ever on your watch-tower. Your spiritual enemies are still about your hands. Watch, therefore, against all occasions, temptations, and appearances of evil. Improve the season of duties. Study to be always doing good, and so your hand will be filled with other work. When departing from evil you will do good, you will seek peace, and pursue it earnestly. Amen.

SERMON LX

THE INWARD FRAME SHOULD CORRESPOND WITH THE OUTWARD PROFESSION.*

O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children for ever. - DEUT. 5:29

THAT dreadful appearance which God made on mount Sinai, in the giving of the law, and that effect it had upon the Israelites, Moses here puts them in mind of. When the Lord spoke with a great and terrible voice out of the darkness and fire, the people were affrighted, and they see their absolute need of a mediator, and therefore desire Moses would mediate betwixt God and them; and in this event they promise all obedience. The Lord gives his verdict concerning this, which consists of two parts.

1. That the words were very good. If words could have proved them saints, they would have been among the foremost. If promises could have passed for performances, they had wanted neither faith nor good works; ver. 28, "They have well said all that they have spoken." They have said two things;

(1.) They had desired a mediator, ver. 27, "Go thou near," said they to Moses, "and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it and do it." They saw so much of the majesty of God, and of their own sinfulness, that they beg of God he would not deal with them immediately, but by a mediator; and this was the great end in giving the law on mount Sinai, and that with so much terror, Deut. 18:15–18.

(2.) They promised obedience, that they would take the law out of Moses' mouth, and perform it; that they would no less highly esteem it as coming by his hand, than if God should thunder it with the greatest terror into their ears. What could look liker faith and obedience, according to the Old Testament dispensation? What could look liker accepting of the great Mediator in all his offices, according to that dispensation of the covenant, wherein types and figures of him who was to come did so much abound? How ready seem they to sit down at the feet of a prophet and learn? So that upon this the Lord promised Christ under that very notion, Deut. 18:18. How plainly do they take with guilt, and stand as criminals who have nothing to say on their own defence, acknowledge their need, and profess their desire of an intercessor, being unable to stand before the Lord without a shelter, or on their own legs. How readily do they subject themselves to the laws of their King, and stoop to take on his yoke without any exception whatsoever? But all is not gold that glitters, the heart of man seldom holds foot with the tongue.

2. The other part of the verdict follows in the text; "O that there were such an heart in them!" By which he discovers their hypocrisy, and precipitancy, their tongues running before their hearts in their engaging themselves to the Lord. The Lord speaks thus after the manner of men, so that they who would hence conclude, that man's will by nature is such, as that it is of himself flexible, either to spiritual good or evil, while the Lord stands by as an idle spectator, and puts to no hand of power, may as well conclude, that God hath eyes and hands of flesh, and that he who is not the son of Man that he should repent, and with whom there is no variableness, may even with propriety repent as to what he has done. Inefficacious wishing, properly understood, argues imperfection. (Hebrew, who will give their heart to be such in them?) Now, it is certain, God can give such a heart; Ezek. 36:26, "A new heart also will I give you." And if he will do it, who can hinder him? Job 11:10.—This declaration therefore imports,

(1.) That such an heart was not in them, for all their fair words and high pretences; that though they looked well outwardly, yet within they were naught. They had learned to speak better than they were wont; but though they had got the new tongue, they had but the old heart still; Deut. 29:4, "Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." When they were in Egypt, they were sunk into stupidity, the instructions of the patriarchs had worn out of their minds, they had almost forgotten their fall in Adam, and what sin was; and though God had made the promise to Abraham, yet they were now grown proud and secure. And though sin, and also death, were reigning over them, yet being without the law, to evidence sin and death to their consciences, they would not charge themselves with it, and so found no need of a Mediator, Rom. 5:13–20. But now the law being proclaimed with so great terror, laid their peacock-feathers a little; but though they had more knowledge of their sin and misery than before, yet they had still the old heart. This declaration imports,

(2.) That such an heart should have been in them, it was their duty to have it, God required it of them: "Make to yourselves a new heart." God requires the conformity of the heart, as well as of the conversation, to his will. It imports,

(3.) That the want of such an heart was a dead fly in all their engagements, which made all the ointment to stink; "O that there were such an heart in them!" The chief thing is wanting still, they have not yet brought up their heart to their work. It imports,

(4.) The great excellency and worth of such an heart. The Lord speaks honourably of it, as that which would bear weight in the balance of the sanctuary. It is pleasing to the Lord, it is God's delight; they want only this to make them happy. For illustrating this subject, we shall propose and consider the following doctrines.

DOCTRINE I. That men often make what ought to be the most solemn transactions with the Lord about their souls' concerns, but solemn trifling with him.

DOCTRINE II. That a heart sincerely and suitably corresponding with the profession of a covenanting people, is a most valuable and excellent thing.

DOCTRINE III. That the work of covenanting with the Lord is slight work, when it is not heart work. Or, in other words, solemn covenanting with the Lord is but solemn trifling with him, when the work of covenanting is not heart work.

We begin with

DOCTRINE I. That men often make what ought to be the most solemn transactions with the Lord about their souls' concerns, but solemn trifling with him.

Never was there a more solemn transaction which men had with God than what was here. Their ears were filled with the noise of the thunder, the lightnings flashed in their eyes, they heard God himself speak, they were most express in covenanting with God; all this time their hearts were not right with him, nor sound in his statutes. In discoursing from this doctrine, we propose,

I. To shew how far a man may go in transacting with, and engaging himself to the Lord, and yet after all he may be but trifling.

II. Shew wherein this trifling and slight work in such a weighty business doth appear.

III. Point out how people come to turn such solemn work into mere trifling.

IV. Apply the subject.

We are, then,

I. To shew how far a man may go in transacting with, and engaging himself to the Lord, and yet after all he may be but trifling. Upon this head we observe,

1. That a person may formally and expressly covenant with God, to be the Lord's, and yet after all be but trifling with God. So did this people, ver. 27, (quoted above). A person may make a covenant with God, both by word and writ, when there is no such heart in him, and the heart goes not along either with tongue or pen. It is an easy thing to say unto the Lord, that he shall be our God, but not easy to say it with the heart. The tongue is not always a faithful interpreter of the heart, especially in these things.—We observe,

2. That a person may make a very full covenant with the Lord, and yet after all be but trifling. What exception was there in this, ver. 27, "All that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, we will hear it and do it." How large a promise was this, Matth. 8:19, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." No doubt, had their hearts kept pace with their words, they had engaged to purpose. Had there been as few secret as there were open reserves, they had dealt honestly.—We observe,

3. That persons may even be morally serious in all this, thinking and resolving in the time to do as they say. It was not a season for gross dissimulation, nor to make a jest of transacting with the Lord anent soul-concerns, when the Lord was speaking out of the darkness and fire to them. Persons in this case are like those who trifle with merchants, in offering to bargain for their wares, out of mere simplicity and ignorance as to the worth of these wares, who, if they had matters set in their due light, would never once propose again so to bid for them. The foolish virgins saw not their lamps out till it was past time.—We observe,

4. That persons may do all this from a sense of their need of a Mediator. Thus did they in the text. What was it that brought this people to this? Why, they had formerly engaged with a whole heart to be the Lord's: Exod. 19:8, "And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do." But now they fall more solemnly and seriously to work. God sets the mountain on fire for a tribunal of justice; there is a trumpet whose voice waxes louder and louder; by all which God doth, as it were, summon them to compear before him. There are dreadful thunderclaps to carry the sentence of death to their hearts; there are lightnings, by the glancings of which they read the wrath of God against sinners. Yet they must not touch the mountain, lest they be consumed, to teach them how sin had laid the bar as to access to God. This fills them with terror and fear of death, and now they feel the necessity of a mediator; Exod. 20:19, "And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." And yet, after all, "O that there were such an heart in them!"

We are now,

II. To shew wherein this trifling and slight work in such a weighty business does appear.

(1.) It appears in persons engaging themselves to the Lord, without being at pains to prepare themselves, and bring up their hearts to the duty. O what a light thing do most people make of covenanting with God! It is but the saying of a word in prayer; and this is soon said. It is but taking the sacrament; and this is soon done. In the meantime, the heart, like Abraham's ass, is left at the foot of the hill; Gen. 22:5, Matt. 15:8, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their month, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." They are strangers to God who are strangers to heart-work. They who find no difficulty in bringing their hearts to duties, do not bring them to them at all. The true Christian finds much difficulty in this. "I find," says Paul, "a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me." It is but trifling to give the hand to the Lord, while the heart is far from any due concern about the business, and from that solemn seriousness requisite to get it rightly managed. This appears,

(2.) When people engage themselves to the service of the Lord, but do not give their hearts to him. Many engage with the Lord, as a married servant with a master; the master is to get his service, but another has his heart; Jer. 12:2, "Thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins." The heart may remain glued to lusts, while the soul pretends to be engaging itself to the Lord; and if it were not so, there would not be such a sad account of many who covenant with God. This is but to trifle with God, who requires the heart, or nothing; Prov. 23:26, "My son, give me thine heart." Jer. 30:21, "For who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord." It is an ill-made second marriage, when there is neither the death of, nor a divorce from the first husband. There is no right engaging with the Lord, but where the soul forsakes all others for him, and the heart takes up its eternal rest in Christ. This trifling appears,

(3.) When people have any secret reserves in their closing with Christ, as is the case when the heart is not well content to take Christ with whatsoever may follow this choice: Luke 14:26, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." There is none make right work here, but those who, weighing all things, are content to put a blank in Christ's hand, saying, "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" Acts 9:6. They do but trifle who have their right hand sins which they wish not cut off, for they will in this case mar the bargain; and also those who cannot digest that tribulation which is in the way to the kingdom. No cross, no crown. That heart which is not reconciled to the cross, is not such an heart as is required. This trifling appears,

(4.) When people overlook the Mediator in their covenant of peace with God, but transact with God for peace and pardon without respect to the atoning blood of Christ. It is natural to all men to come immediately to God without a Mediator; Exod. 19:8, "And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do." They are thus for coming without a Mediator, till the terror of God correct their rashness, and they see what a consuming fire God is, and that, if they would be safe, they must come to him under the covert of Christ's wings. If a soul sincerely desires to come to God, the first person to which they must go, is to Christ, the secretary of heaven. For "by him we have access into that grace wherein we stand," Rom. 5:2. And he is "the Mediator of the new covenant," Heb. 12:24. God out of Christ is a consuming fire. But there are beasts that will touch the mountain, though they be thrust through with a dart. Would you transact with God a covenant of reconciliation? then go to him on the mercy-seat? not the seat of mercy merely for mercy's sake, such a mercy-seat has no being in heaven, but only in the vain imaginations of men on earth; but to the mercy-seat for Christ's sake, where mercy is abundantly distributed with the cordial consent of justice: 2 Cor. 5:19. "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." It is to God as vailed with flesh, that the guilty can only approach; otherwise it is but trifling. For Jesus is "the way, and no man cometh to the Father but by him," John 14:6.

(5.) This is turned into solemn trifling with God, by people's not taking Christ for all, but only for making up that of which they may come short; thus endeavouring to patch up a garment of their own righteousness and of his together. Thus many think to please God by doing what they can to fulfil the law, and looking to Christ to make up that of which they come short. It was forbidden, under the law, to wear a garment of divers sorts of woollen and liuen together. And they will find themselves befooled, who will adventure their salvation on this party-coloured garment: Gal. 3:12, "And the law is not of faith; but the man that doth them shall live in them." A garment pieced up of sundry sorts of righteousness, is not meet for the court of heaven. That heart which would share the glory betwixt Christ and the man himself, is not right with God, and will be left to its own weight.—This trifling appears,

(6.) By persons making a covenant of works with Christ; the tenor thereof is, that if Christ will save their souls, they shall serve him as long as they live. If Christ will give them wages, they will give him work. If he will pay their debt, they shall be his servants, while they have breath in them. And upon this, men may take the sacrament to bind them the faster. And thus, I fear, many make sad work at sacraments and other ordinances. That this is but solemn trifling with God, appears, if ye consider, that this is a covenant which hath no warrant in the word of God, and therefore Christ will never set his seal to it, though we should seal it with our blood. It is quite opposite to the covenant of grace; the design of which is to draw the sinner into the debt of free grace, and to set the crown only on Christ's head, Rom. 4:14–16, and 11:6. The covenant of grace, is an everlasting covenant; once in, never out: Isa. 55:3, "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." But this is a tottering covenant, broken every day. This is a servile covenant, to give Christ service for salvation. The other is a filial covenant, where the soul takes Christ and salvation freely offered, and so is a son: "For to as many as believed on him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, John, 1:11. Therefore, they do not serve, that they may get the inheritance; but because the inheritance is theirs, therefore they serve, Gal. 4:24. and downwards. To take hold of God's covenant, is for a poor empty-handed sinner to come and live freely on Christ; this is to come and buy from him. In order to bring this charge home, I shall mention some evidences of the above practice.—Such as,

(1.) Persons looking upon, and making use of the sacrament only as seals of their vows, and not as seals of God's promises. I do not say but the sacrament is a seal, to seal our engagement to be the Lord's; but this is but the one half, and even the least half as I take it, 1 Cor. 10:16. Why then do people so overlook this, but because, not being shaken out of themselves, they look more to the confirming of their resolutions, than their faith and communion with Christ in his fulness?

(2.) A second evidence is, persons coming to the Lord in this ordinance, rather to engage themselves to duties, than to get strength for the performance of them.

(3.) A third evidence is, persons drawing their peace and comfort rather from their duties, and the performance of that to which they have engaged, than what Christ makes over to sinners in the covenant of grace. It was not so with David, for the covenant itself was all his salvation, and all his desire, 2 Sam. 23:5. But when the other works, he expects his wages; when he fails, he has no hope, as one who has broken covenant with Christ. But, when the true covenanter fails in his duty, yet all that his soul depended upon still remains a covenanted righteousness; all that he trusted to for his duties also remains, to wit, covenanted strength, Rom. 7:24, 25, and 8:1. And so there is new application for covenant-benefits; whereas when many fail in their covenant, all is gone, and it must be made over again, ere he can have any new footing. This trifling appears, when,

7. Persons lay hold on Christ with a faith of which the mighty power of God was not at the forming, Eph. 1:19; but is merely the product of a person's natural faculties. Most men's faith is like wild oats, that grow up without the labour of the husbandman. They come too easily to it to make any sure work by it. The evil heart of unbelief is not so easily shaken off as men imagine. Those who find no difficulty, do but trifle and beat the air; if the work were heartily plied, it would not be so easy. We now proceed,

III. To inquire how people come to turn such solemn work into trifling. They do so,

1. Because they have no due consideration of the worth and preciousness of their souls, they do not suitably value the great salvation; Matth. 22:5, "But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise." Men will not trifle in matters which appear to them of great concern. But men who do not duly value their souls will venture them on they know not what. But who considers eternity, and the weight which lies on the soul's transacting with God? If men had eternity in their eye, and were transacting as for eternity, communicating for eternity, they would act in another manner, and not thus trifle in so important a business. They do so,

2. Because they know not what a God they have to do with, they think that he is altogether such a one as themselves, Psalm 50:21. Men transact in their duties with they know not whom, and therefore they know not what; Joshua 24:19, "And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord; for he is an holy God, he is a jealous God, he will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins." When people have mean thoughts of God, they are ready to think any little thing may serve him. They thus trifle,

3. Because they know not their own hearts, and their deceits; Jer. 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? There are many secret biases there, to which they do not advert. Men may be hypocrites, and not know themselves to be such. The heart has a depth of deceit, which is not easy to fathom, which will make men say, with Saul, I have performed the commandment of the Lord, while, after all, the bleating of the sheep will discover the deceit. They thus trifle,

4. Because sin has never been made bitter enough to them. It is hard to wean us from the love of lusts, if the breasts of them be not laid over with gall and wormwood. We must dig deep, and build upon the rock. Where the fallow ground is not plowed up, there will be a sowing among thorns, Jer. 4:3. The consent of many to take Christ, such as it is, is too lightly win to be solid.—They thus trifle,

5. Because they are hasty and indeliberate in their engaging. They fall a-building ere they count the cost, Matth. 14:25.; what is rashly done, is but slightly done in this matter. He that would make sure work, must lay his account beforehand with what he may meet with in the Lord's way. Then, meet with what they will, they will not be offended.—They thus trifle,

6. Because they have never got a sufficient discovery of their own utter weakness and insufficiency. They think they have a stock, and therefore may trade with it, and are very ready to undertake, though their heart will certainly misgive in the performance. This is building on the old foundation of nature; whereas, there will never be sure work, till this foundation be razed. If any man will come after Jesus, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow him. It only remains that,

IV. We make some application. This doctrine may help us to see the reason why so many return with the dog to his vomit. There is an error in the first concoction. That you may beware of this, we would exhort you, to make sure work in your transacting with the Lord. O do not trifle in so important a concern! To guard you effectually against this, consider the following things.

Consider, this is to put, so far as you can, a solemn cheat on the great God: Gal. 6:7, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." It is a dangerous thing to mock God. His all-seeing eye knows how you deal with him, and can penetrate through all your pretences. Consider.

2. It is to put a solemn cheat on your own souls; you thus deceive your own souls. If you trifle with God, you will find at length a sad disappointment; Isa. 50:11, "Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow." As ye sow, ye will reap. Sow the wind of hypocrisy, and you will reap the whirlwind of wrath.

3. Consider the weight of the matter; the salvation or damnation of the soul is no small business; if you manage it right, you may get your salvation sealed; if not, see Luke 14:24, "For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper."

4. Consider, if you thus trifle with God in this matter, you will be discovered. The man without the wedding-garment was soon found out. You will not hold right to the end; you will return to the vomit; your latter end will be worse than your beginning. Consider,

5. That you have a deceitful heart; it is necessary to be sure with it; it will soon give you the slip, and break the bonds, if they be slightly put on. Consider,

Lastly, If you make sure work, you will find the eternal advantage of it. All the blessings of the covenant will be your portion. You may get a feast; "To this man will I look, saith the Lord, who is of an humble and contrite spirit, and who trembleth at my word."

I shall close with the following short DIRECTIONS:—

Set about the work of self-examination. Inquire particularly at your hearts, whether they be willing to take Christ, and renounce all other lovers, and to take him wholly, only, and everlastingly. Pray that God may examine you, and discover yourselves to yourselves; lay yourselves open to self-searching. Lastly, Put your hearts into the Lord's hand, as sensible that in yours they will miscarry. "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass."

SERMON LXI

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever. - DEUT. 5:29

YOU have been this day avouching the Lord to be your God. You have all had an offer of Christ, and there was none heard tell of protesting against him; nay, did not your hearts say within you, Even so I take him? Many of you have, before angels and men, sealed a covenant with him this day, and we may report to the Lord, that you have said you are content to be his. O that there were such an heart in you, all would be well!

Having, in the preceding discourse, offered all that we intend from the first doctrine, we now proceed to

DOCTRINE II. That a heart sincerely and suitably corresponding with the profession of a covenanting people, is a most valuable and excellent thing.

Here I shall,

I. Shew what a heart such a heart is.

II. Make it appear, that such a heart is a most valuable thing.

I. We are to shew what a heart such a heart is; and on this head, the particulars shall be mostly taken out of the context. We observe,

1. That such an heart is a heart that has got a view of the majesty and glorious perfections of that God with whom we have to do: Deut. 5:24, "And he said, Behold the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire; we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth." The eye saw this; all would have been right, if the glory of the Lord had thus shined in their hearts. An unenlightened heart in the knowledge of the Lord looks so like hell, and unlike heaven, that it cannot be such a heart. A dark heart will make a dark confused conversation. There is no right worshipping of an unknown God. This view of the Lord's glory is necessary. Moses desired it, Exod. 33; and all get it in a greater or less degree: 2 Cor. 3:18, "But we all beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." If ye have seen the King in his glory, and his train filling the temple, it is a token of good. But, alas! many see the chair of state, who behold not the King sitting in it.

2. It is a heart filled with the fear of God. "O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me." Indeed they professed it, and they had a tolerably sufficient measure of it, had it been but of the right stamp, and had it got leave to have soaked kindly into their hearts. But, alas! it was only like a seues of rain, violent in the time, but wetting only the surface of the ground, and soon dried up. But O for such a heart as would fear always! not with-a slavish distrustful fear, but a filial reverential fear, a fear of circumspection. Such a heart as would keep the eye upon the majesty of the Lord, would promise to keep right: Heb. 12:28, "Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." A heart wanting this, will be like an unruly horse without a bridle; Prov. 25:28, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."

3. It is a humble heart. O how humble did they seem to be now under the sense of their own sinfulness, and the holiness of that God with whom they had to do! A heart humbled indeed is a valuable blessing. When Christ lauces the swelling of the heart, and lets out the filthy stuff of pride and self-conceit, makes the man low in his own eyes, he is even preparing a house for himself on earth; for the Lord "dwells with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the heart of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones," Isa. 57:15. They durst not go near the mountain to touch it, they looked as they would rather have rolled themselves among the dust of the Lord's feet. "O that there were such an heart in them!" The honest heart is shaken out of self-confidence, for a right sight of the Lord in his glory, and of our own vileness, go always together; Isa. 6:5, "Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

4. It is a heart filled with wonder at the goodness of God, his condescension and patience towards sinners, vers. 24 and 26. That soul will wonder that God should ever have come in speaking-terms with vile man; that ever anything should have proceeded out of his mouth, but arrows dipped in the vinegar of the curse, to have slain the traitors outright. And will God thus indeed deal with man? It will be the wonder of that soul, that God hath not consumed it, mingled its blood with its sacrifices, struck it dead at the communion-table. O how wonderful that they should have spoke with the Lord, and are yet alive!

5. It is a heart convinced of the need of a Mediator, and resolved to employ him in all causes betwixt God and them, ver. 27. It is not every one that sees their need of Christ, and their need of an Advocate to go betwixt God and them. But he who has such a heart will look on himself, in himself, as dry stubble, as he looks on God as a consuming fire; and all his own duties and attainments as a wall of dry boards which will not keep the fire from him, but increase it, and desire to have Christ betwixt them and a holy God, as a crystal wall, which may let through the light, but not the flames of that fire. His very name will be precious to that heart, for it is "as ointment poured forth," Song 1:3. How sweet is the name of a Redeemer to a captive, and to a humbled sinner, one who may lay his hands on both!

6. It is a heart taking the Lord only for their God. They professed they would have no more to do with idols, though it was not long ere their hearts turned to their old bias: Exod. 32:8, "They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." But such a heart renounces all other lovers, gives Christ's rivals their leave, and halts no more betwixt two opinions. If thou wouldst be perfect, sell all, that is, part with all but Christ. When a man gets such a heart, there is an extraordinary uproar made in the soul; when it enters the man's breast, Satan cries as these, "They that turn the world up-side down, are come hither also." There is a strange overturning of thrones there. As when Christ and the gospel came into the world, the world, which before was wholly given to idolatry, then made great reformation; oracles were struck dumb, idols were cast to the moles and to the bats; so when the man gets such a heart, down goes the clay-god, the world, and Christ mounts the throne; neither back nor belly must be gods longer to the man, king self loses his crown, which is put upon the head of Christ, and free grace. The heart, which was divided among many lusts before, enters now on Jesus, the beauty of the Upper house.

7. It is a heart for the Lord's work, ver. 27. It is a heart which inclines the man who has taken Christ's enlisting money to fight his battles; which willingly stoops to the yoke of Christ's commandments, and is set to walk in the way of obedience. It is a heart reconciled to the law of God; the soul being married to Christ, may not be barren, but must bring forth fruit unto God. When the Lord charges the heart, the bullock is tamed, and accustomed to the yoke. To be more particular here, we observe,

(1.) That it is a heart for universal obedience, ver. 27. It wishes to neglect none of God's commands, but to have respect to them all, Psalm 119:6. When the heart is straight, it makes the conversation uniform. The Lord's stamp on every duty recommends it to the care of such a heart. The heart naturally is like some servants who promise to do all at the bargain-making, but fail in the accomplishment, like the sluggard who will not plow because of the cold. But such a heart puts a blank in the Lord's hand, and makes no exceptions. Some sins lie nearer the heart than others, some a right eye, some but a left toe. The right eye must be plucked out; thou must put to thine own hand to this hard work, it must be with thine own consent. Amen, says such a heart; let bosom-lusts yield to Christ.

(2.) It is a heart for constant obedience. They limit no time. Compare the text with John 8:31, "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." We have a sad account of Rehoboam, 2 Chron. 12:1, "When he was established in the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him." He was like many men, who make use of religion like a net, who, when they have catched their prey, fold up and lay by their net. But see the fountain of his apostacy, ver. 14, "And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord;" prepared or fixed, or established not his heart. But such an heart is for following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, in foul and fair weather, and will abide with Christ in a storm when the summer vermin is not to be seen: Psalm 19:9, "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever." Trees planted in God's vineyard, watered by his grace, having such a heart, are not like common trees, green only one while of the year, but those are ever green, and are yielding their fruit in their season, Psalm 7:3. Such an heart takes with the stock, and so lives by its sap.

(3.) It is a heart resolute in obedience. We will do it, say they, stand in the way what will. See the portraiture of such a heart, Micah 4:5, "For all people will walk every one in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever." Such a heart had Caleband Joshua, they followed the Lord fully. It made them row against the stream. It gives the man courage for the arduous enterprise. Heaven is sweet in the eyes of all; why then do so many go to hell? why, they have not such a heart. There are difficulties in the way to heaven, they have no courage to grapple with these. They see heaven afar, but there is a great gulph betwixt them and it, and they have not such a resolute heart as to venture on it, and heaven will not drop into their mouths.

(4.) It is a heart that is content to know what is duty and what is sin: "Speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it and do it." And indeed that is a very rare heart; for most people are glad to lodge lust; as some lodged intercommuned people, they are willing they should get house-room, but are desirous that they themselves should not see them, so as to know that they are there. But such a heart loves to know the whole counsel of God: John 3:20, "But he that doth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." It is a nonsuch heart, which is content to have all anatomized and searched out; which in every case is ready to say, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth;" which is content to sit down at Christ's feet and learn all; while others lodge their lusts under disguise, and loathe the discovery of them, rebel against the light, and shut their eyes, till God judicially blind them, so as that they at last come to believe lies.

(5.) It is a heart to which God's bare will is a sufficient reason both for faith and practice. Such a heart receives the speaker for the word's sake, and not the word for his, but for God's sake. Such a heart receives the kingdom as a little child, who has authority enough if father or mother say it. Such a heart bad Abraham; he gets a strange commandment, for which he could see no reason but the will of God, Gen. 22. Father and son must part, not to see other more in this world, though the son of the promise. The Father himself must do the deed. Here were many deaths both to the father and to the son; but God's will was revealed, and they were about fully to obey; then says the Lord, ver. 12, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God;" that thou hast such a heart. We go on to observe,

8. It is a heart that has high and honourable thoughts of God, ver. 24, "Behold the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory, and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire; we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth." His greatness; "O that there were such a heart in them!" They professed this. High and honourable thoughts of the husband is necessary to the comfort of the married state, and to the performance of duties. The queen stands upon the right hand, Psalm 45:9. Mean thoughts of God are the neck-break of right obedience to him. They think him such an one as themselves, Psalm 50:21. Hence mean, pitiful services are thought sufficient. They forget that he "will be sanctified in them that come nigh him, and before all the people will he be glorified, Lev. 10:3. Such a heart is let into the view of his greatness in some measure, so that its conclusions will be, Psalm 95:3, "The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods." So that the soul's familiarity with God will yet be managed with a due regard to the awful greatness and infinite distance betwixt God and the creature. And this may serve as a help to distinguish true communion with God from delusions, Hebrews 12:28, 29. John 20:28.

It is a heart which the voice of God has reached, ver. 24, (quoted above.) O that this voice had had as much access to their hearts as to their ears! Paul spoke, and God spoke, and Lydia's heart was opened. "My sheep," said Jesus, "hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me," John 10:27. To honest covenanters there is something more in preaching than a bare sound, something more in sacraments than bread and wine: these are but the vehicles of the Lord's voice to the soul, and the ordinances are empty things when there is no divine fire infolded in them. There is a voice of the Lord in our mother's house; in the public ordinances there is a good report of Christ. Sinners are invited, obtested, commanded to hear and believe. But Christ comes into the inner chamber of the elect's hearts, and there he gives his voice, which is a majestic voice, a heart-melting sound; Jer. 23:29, "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" It thaws the frozen affections. A quickening voice that puts activity in the soul; it puts the spirit in motion, so as that it rests not till it has taken up its rest in God; John 6:63, "It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak onto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

10. It is a heart which takes up with the Lord for its God, even when he appears in the glorious robes of his perfect holiness. This they professed; but "O that there were such a heart in them!" The truth is, the carnal mind is enmity against God; and none but saints indeed can give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness, Psalm 30:4. God is glorious in his holiness indeed; but none will love him for that glory, but such as are partakers of his divine nature. Those who love him for this, love him for himself. And indeed such a heart, being a holy heart, will cleave to the fountain of holiness, to the end that they may be transformed into the same image. To take God in the robes of mercy, is not strange; but God's holiness chaseth unholy hearts away from him.

11. It is a heart sensible of that vast distance which sin has made betwixt God and the soul, which has got such a sight of his own sinfulness, and God's holiness, that it sees there is no transacting with God but by a Mediator, ver. 27. Such a heart will say as Luther, "I will have nothing to do with an absolute God." Such will not offer to come into the presence of God but as introduced by the King's Son, nor will desire to look on God but as vailed with flesh, knowing that a sight of unvailed majesty is enough to confound a sinner. And truly, till the Lord touch the heart, it will not be such a heart, but, like a fearless beast, will touch the fiery mountain. Such a heart will highly prize Christ, and come to the Lord under the vail of Christ's flesh, and will have no boldness of access but what flows from the blood of Christ, Heb. 10:19, 20.

12. It is a heart reconciled to the whole law of God, ver. 27. It is not every heart which is such. They only have it, "who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit," Rom. 8:1. Hypocrites' hearts are never reconciled to the whole law of God. They cannot say they are not ashamed in having respect to all God's commandments, Psalm 119:6. There are always some parts of the Bible, which hypocrites would spend their blood on to blot them out, if that would do. Here, there is a raging lust says, yea; there, there is a holy law says, nay; the heart cannot be reconciled to both at once. Both may be in the experience both of the sincere Christian and the hypocrite. What is the difference? why, the hypocrite would fain have the law bow to his lusts, the sincere soul would have his lusts bow to the law. For he "delights in the law of the Lord after the inward man," Rom. 7:22. And his heart will approve the law, when it forbids, accuses, and condemns his corruptions, ver. 16, "If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law, that it is good."

13. It is a heart which is for taking the law only out of Christ's hand as Mediator, ver 27. The Mediator first makes the peace between God and the sinner, then bids the man work. But the law of itself first bids sinners work, and tells them they shall have their peace according to their work; which would be dreadful news to such a heart. Under the law to Christ, 1 Cor. 9:21. The law, cast into a gospel-mould, is the only law such a heart desires to meddle with, that, "being married to Christ, they may bring forth fruit to God," Rom. 7:4.; that being by Christ made partakers of the adoption, they may serve as sons, not as hired servants or slaves.

Lastly, It is a heart ready for obedience, ver. 27. The soul then stands at Mount Zion, and says, "Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth." They have had Christ's banner in the banqueting-house, as being ready to rise up and fight his battles, under the conduct and influence of their glorious leader. Such a heart has eaten the passover with its loins girt, and with a staff in its hand, ready for the journey. The heart that is for obedience, but not yet, is not such a heart; it is but a shifting heart, which will end in a refusal. It is but a civil way of putting off for altogether; Psalm 119:5, "O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!"

We now proceed,

II. To shew that such a heart is a most valuable thing.—It must be so; For,

1. Such a heart is God's delight; "O that there were such an heart in them!" This would give content to the heart of Christ. This is his rest. The very prayer of the upright is his delight; Psalm 11:7, "For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright." Such a heart is pleasing to God; and it cannot be otherwise, for it is shapen out according to his mind. The person who has such a heart is another David, a man according to God's own heart. It is a heart which, as believing, pleaseth God; a heart well pleased with him, in which God is well pleased.

2. It is that heart without which the largest profession, and the most express covenanting with God, is little worth. Without this heart men do but as the Lord's enemies, they lie unto him. And it is a dangerous thing to lie unto the Lord, like Ananias and Sapphira, who died with a lie in their mouth. They take God's name in vain. The voice indeed is Jacob's, but the hands are Esau's. It is but mocking God, and juggling with the Holy One. It is but doing the work of the Lord deceitfully, and offering the blind and the lame for sacrifice, which will bring down a curse instead of a blessing. Let a man be at never so much pains in duties, yet still the one thing is lacking while they have not such a heart.

3. The want of this heart is very grievous to the spirit of Christ. The Lord doth thus, in the text, lament their want of it. If anything pierce the heart of God, it is when, with a covenanting people, there is wanting such a heart. What can be more grievous in a married lot than when the husband has not the wife's heart? Ezek. 6:9, "I am broken, says God, with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a-whoring after their idols." There can be no contentment in that condition, as Haman said, "Yet all this availeth me nothing," Esth. 5:13. And a soul's grieving the Lord's Spirit, is a forerunner of the Lord's grieving them; Psalm 16:4, "Their sorrow shall be multiplied that hastens after another god."

4. God accepts of the duty, and is well pleased with the bargain, where there is such a heart; "O that there were such an heart in them!" There wants no more to complete the bargain betwixt them and me. Then, as they call me their God, so would I call them mypeople by a saving relation. But where such is not, the contract betwixt Christ and the soul is written indeed, but it is not signed. Would you know, then, if Christ be yours, with all the benefits of the everlasting covenant; why, if you have such a heart, you have Christ's heart, you are married to the Lord, and shall never be put away. A voice of the word without, and an echo to it of the heart within, closes the bargain; Psalm 27:8, "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." See also Jer. 3:22.

5. Where there is such a heart God will be well pleated with the person, and accept the duty, though it have many defects; albeit he be not pleased with these defects, yet in mercy he will overlook them; "O that there were such an heart in them!" As if be had said, O if they were but honest in the main, I would not be severe on them for every escape. The Lord will use the indulgence of a father for such infirmities; Song 5:1, "I have drunk my wine with my milk." Milk, that is, he accepts the meanest work where there is such an heart. A groan, a tear, a breathing after the Lord, is accepted; as the father loves more the lisping child's expression of its affection to him, than all the towering compliments of a flattering tongue, 2 Chron. 15:17; the eye of their faith, though, like a bleared eye, Song 4:9; the fire of their love, though weak, ver. 10; the hand of their confidence, though a trembling hand; the anchor of their hope, though feeble, Psalm 47:11; their feet of obedience, though lame, like Mephibosheth, yet shall they be set at the king's table; though their very sincerity be not without a mixture of hypocrisy, Gal. 2:13, yet it holds weight in the balance; Christ takes their petitions, though not every way well drawn, blots out some, fills up other things in them, and gets them answered. Their will is accepted for the deed; their grief for want of will, for the will itself; all this where there it such a heart.

6. They will never prove stedfast in the Lord's covenant without such a heart; "O that there were such an heart in them!" They have spoke fair, but they will never keep a word they say, for they have not such a heart; Psalm 78:37, "For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant." The heart it the principle of actions; such a heart is the principle of perseverance; and there can be no stedfastness without a principle; Matth. 13:6, "And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had not root they withered away." The tree which is set in the ground but does not take root in it, will be easily blown over. The house without a foundation cannot withstand the storm, Matth. 6:23. They who have covenanted with God without such a heart, will make foul work, it will appear that the devil has gone down with the sop, their former lusts will be swallowed over again, 2 Pet. 2:20–22. Their last state will be worse than the first. Their vows will be no stronger than Samson's withs; their resolutions, like the walls of Jericho, will fall down at the sound of the horn of temptation.

7. Such an heart will fence the man against apostacy; "O that there were such an heart in them!" They would not then turn away from me; they would keep by their covenant: Luke 7:15, "But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience, Cleaving to Christ with constancy, without apostasy, is the very essence of such a heart. Gold is not gold but dross, if it do not continue in the fire. Men's hearts may get some light strokes of the Spirit, some fleeting motions of the same, and the heart still unsound as the stony ground. But the Spirit of God and of glory rest not on the heart, it is not such an heart; 1 John, 2:27. "But the anointing which ye have received of him, abideth in you;" the fire of true love will be preserved, though it flame not, whatever cools there may be taking place. Such an heart has learned so math of the grace of God as to deny worldly lasts, and all fortaken lovers, when they come to court the soul. Where such a heart is, there is the root of the matter in the man, Job, 19:28.; and there is sap enough to keep in the life of it, Prov. 12:3. "The root of the righteous shall not be moved. Yea, the Root of Jease has engaged that this root shall not fail," John 4:14. They are kept through the power of God. God is careful of the leaves of Christianity, Psalm 1:3. much more of real Christians themselves; therefore says Job chap. 17:9, "The righteous shall hold on his way; and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." Be their light never so weak, it will last, yea it will grow, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. It is the abiding seed of God.

Lastly, Such a heart enriches the man who has it; "O that there were such an heart in them!" they want no more to make them happy here and hereafter. Grace and glory, and all good, is the portion of those who have such an heart Such an heart has taken Christ, is married and knit to him, and then Christ is yours, all is yours; pardon, peace, and every blessing; as he who gets a hold of the main link of a chain, draws all after him; "There the Lord commands the blasting, even life which never ends."

We shall conclude this discourse with beseeching you to be in earnest that you have such a heart. This is that which you all need, that without which you must be miserable for ever.—It is a most invaluable blessing, what you should highly prize; what is precious in God's esteem, and what he is urgent with you that you may possess: "O that there were such an heart in them!"

SERMON LXII

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children for ever. - DEUT. 5:29

HAVING considered, in the two preceding discourses, the first and second doctrines proposed from this subject, we now go on to

DOCTRINE III. and last, That the work of covenanting with the Lord is slight work, when it is not heart-work; or, That solemn covenanting with the Lord is but solemn trifling with him, when the work of covenanting is not heart-work.

In treating this point, we shall,

I. Produce some evidences, that solemn covenanting is often nothing but solemn trifling, and not heart-work.

II. Shew when solemn covenanting is not heart-work.

III. Shew how people come to make solemn covenanting but a trifling business.

IV. Shew the danger of trifling, and not making heart-work of this weighty business. And then,

V. Apply the whole.

We are,

I. To produce some evidences, that solemn covenanting is often nothing but solemn trifling, and not heart-work. It is of importance that you may be stirred up to take heed to the deceits which we may discover in this weighty business. With this view, we observe,

1. That apostacy and defection from the good ways of the Lord, persons returning again openly to the same courses which they pursued before. This is an evidence, 2 Peter 2:19–22; Matth. 12:45, "Then the evil spirit goeth, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation." They who have no root soon wither away, Matth. 13:6. There are many who, since the revolution, have solemnly covenanted with the Lord at sacraments, and many who have done it, when they durst not so well avow it as now, who have given a sad account of themselves since that time, having returned to their former courses of wickedness and profanity. Fallen stars were stars never but in appearance. To lose both life and leaf is a dreadful symptom; John 15:6, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and east them into the fire, and they are burned." Another evidence is,

2. When some lusts are maintained in Christ's room, as when an adulterous woman takes another man instead of her husband. There are some lusts from which the heart is never loosed, right eyes they cannot part with; this is secret apostacy from the Lord: Heb. 3:12, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." When the Lord offers himself to sinners, he says, if you will take me, let these go their way. Some enter into a marriage-covenant with the Lord, but they give their hearts to other lovers, Psalm 14:4, (quoted before). This is hypocritical dealing with God, which is a disease in the vitals of religion, Psalm 78:37, (quoted above). Another evidence is,

3. Persons making their covenant with the Lord, a cover to their sloth, and a pander to their lusts. It is sad work which persons make of covenanting, when it serves only to conjure their consciences, who hence can sleep more securely in their sins. Many are never more light, vain, and frothy, than after such a work; a most shrewd sign of a whorish disposition: Prov. 7:14, "I have peace-offerings with me. This day have I paid my vows. Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face." The covenant of God is a covenant of peace and war, which inclines the sinner to be at peace with the Lord's friends, and at war with his enemies. It makes the soul to say to former lusts, I have learned from the gospel, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world," Tit. 2:12. Hence, Christ no sooner enters the heart, but he comes as Captain of the Lord's host; and the person's heart thus becomes the seat of war: Gal. 5:17, "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these two are contrary the one to the other." And these lusts which were formerly gold chains, are now turned into heavy iron fetters: Rom. 7:24, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"—Another evidence is,

4. The barrenness of the lives of professors, nothing of the fruits of holiness appearing in their lives. We are, Rachel-like, barren, having no more but the leaves of a profession, the performance of external duties, to give us the name of Christians. Alas! fire from heaven seems to have blasted many of us, and the curse of the Lord is as a worm at our root. Married to the Lord, and yet barren, is a contradiction, Rom. 7:4. For the very end of this marriage it, that we may bring forth fruit unto God. Where the soul is joined to the Lord, it is made the habitation of the Spirit: and this is that which produces the fruits of holiness, Eph. 5:9, "For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth."

Here some may say, Alas! this speaks death to me, for do what I will, the weeds in the cursed soil of my heart suffers no fruit to appear there. To such I answer.—There is no fruit which grows in the heart of a believer in the world, but it has a weed of corruption by the side of it; their faith is marked with unbelief, their hope with diffidence, their very sincerity with hypocrisy. But are you at pains to pluck up these? If you should look into a garden, and saw nothing but weeds in it, yet if ye saw the gardener weeding it, you would conclude there must be something else there; so in this ease. Will you see if there be any thriving of undergrowth in your hearts, if you be growing downwards in humility, self-loathing, self-denial, depending and clearing more from a sense of need to the Lord? Eph. 4:15, 16. Barren trees use not to have their branches hanging down to salute the ground, unless they be broken off by a violent wind.—Another evidence is,

5. The having no communication of the life of grace from Christ to the soul: John 14:19, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Food and raiment are what every soul married to the Lord get from him. If the soul be truly united to Christ, it will partake of the root and sap of the vine: John 6:57, "He that eateth me, saith Jesus, even he shall live by me." True faith opens a way for a stream of blood to run through the heart, by which the soul is purged and quickened. The blood of Jesus "purges the conscience from dead works, to serve the living God," Heb. 9:14. But, alas! the faith of many is like a pipe laid short of the fountain, and so brings none of the water of life into the soul. Many covenant with the Lord as the seven women, Isa. 4:1, who take hold of one man, as it is there said, they will be called by his name; for so is Christ's spouse, in token of her marriage-relation, she loseth her name, and takes her husband's, Isa. 44:5, "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob." This will take away their reproach before the world, and it will do much to silence the blustering tongue of an ill-natured conscience. Yea, but after all this, they will eat their own bread, Isa. 4:1. They will live upon their own stock of natural and acquired abilities, for they are not, as in Matth. 3:5, "poor in spirit." They come not, as true believers, with a weak soul to a strong God, an empty vessel to a full fountain. Thus does the true believer, who says, Gal. 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but 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." But the other will live on their lusts; Christ gives rest to their consciences, and their lusts give rest to their hearts; he shall bear up their hopes, and their lasts shall satisfy their desires.—They will wear their own apparel. Rom. 10:3, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Their duties make a great figure in their own eyes, and therefore are cyphers in God's account. Hence the more they do and the better they do, the more they are in conceit with themselves, and the further from Christ It is quite contrary with true covenanters; Phil. 3:3, "They rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh:" Rev. 2:14, "They wash their robes, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb."—We shall only add as an evidence,

Lastly, The having no contentment in Christ alone. Where the soul heartily closes with Christ, he is to the soul a covering to the eyes: Psalm 73:25, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." Hence the triumph of faith, even when all external things fail; Hab. 3:17, "I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation." But, alas! how many of as have no comfort, but when the cisterns of creature-comforts are running full! how few arrive at the height of rejoicing in the Lord, when these cisterns are dried up! Matth. 13:45, 46. Every person's house stands upon two props, Christ and the creature, but the weight lies only upon one of them. Take away the world from the believer, he stands firm on the rock Christ; take away the world from the hypocrite, and all falls down together. A person may bear to have some branch of his comforts cut off; but when God strikes at the root of creature-comforts, then may the hypocrite say, Thou hast taken away my gods, and what have I more? Some can endure any thing but poverty, for covetousness reigns in them; others any thing but disrespect, for pride is their idol.

Here again some may say, If this be an evidence, we know not who will make sure work, for many time gracious persons are as much, if not more, cast down with the loss of creature-comforts, than others; To this I answer, No doubt gracious souls will sometimes be more joyful on the receipt of a temporal mercy, and more east down on the loss of them, than others: for the chief thing which affects him is the face of God appearing in it, either as favourable or frowning; so that they will be ready to say on such an occasion, as in Gen. 33:10, "For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me." And this will make a mole-hill mercy or cross appear like a mountain. The godly in this case fetch their comfort from the Lord, others fetch theirs from something else in the world; when one stream runs dry, they go to another, like the prodigal before he came home. The drying up of the streams sends the gracious soul to the fountain.

We now proceed,

II. To shew when covenanting is not heart-work, but a trifling business.—It is so,

1. When the soul is not divorced from sin. The heart is naturally glewed to sin, and it is impossible that the heart can at once be both for the Lord and lusts, Matth. 6:24. The first marriage must be made void before a second can be made sure. They must have their covenant with their lusts broken, who will have their covenant with the Lord sure; Hos. 14:8, "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?" Living lusts and the living Lord will not both get the throne of the heart. In the day of espousals, when Christ gets the crown, lusts get the cross. Many will be in suit of the heart, and the heart for a time may be halting betwixt two; but in a covenanting day with the Lord, all others must be discharged; Psalm 45:10, "Hearken, O daughter! and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house." Here some may inquire, How may a person know if their heart be divorced from sin? ANSW. That which makes the man and his lusts one, is the greedy grip which the heart takes of sin, it is the heart cleaving to its lusts: Jer. 8:5, "Why then is the people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return." The heart and affections in sin are like the hot iron, where the iron and the fire are very close together. The man's lusts are to him like a leg or an arm which is knit to the body with joints and bands. Now, where the heart is divorced, it loaths that sin which before it loved. Though sin cleaves to the man, yet he cleaves not to it, Rom. 7:17–22. Never was the captive more desirous to be loosed of his bands, than that soul to be free from sin. Like a weak honest virgin, though it cannot shake itself loose of its grips, yet it would be content if one would set it free. Solemn covenanting is trifling,

2. When the soul is not divorced from the law, Rom. 8:4, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God." Legal professors do but trifle with the Lord, and never make heart-work of covenanting with him. They may bind themselves faster and faster to duties, but there is no engaging their heart to the Lord of duties; they are as they who would draw up with the handmaid instead of the mistress; and do but bind themselves to the work of spinning out their own rain out of their own bowels. There is a generation who get some convictions of their misery by sin, the law comes and takes them by the throat, and then they cry, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Hence they bestir themselves, and fall a trading to gain something for heaven and eternal life; they set about secret duties, attending public ordinances, and take the sacrament, and the effect of all is but to wreath their necks faster in the yoke of law-bondage, and to remove themselves farther from Christ. This is but trifling.—If it be inquired, How may one know if they be divorced from the law? you have the word, Gal. 2:19, "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." The law comes home to the soul with such force and power, that it cuts off all hopes of the soul's ever mending itself by its works; makes the soul see its utter emptiness and weakness; and hence it dies off, and lies at the foot of free grace, with that prayer in its month, Jer. 31:18, "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God." Then Christ's blood is the soul's only refuge for guilt, Christ's Spirit for holiness; and the soul will have no peace but what comes from this blood; while many instead of this, lick themselves whole of their wounds by confession, mourning, prayer for pardon, and engaging not to do so any more. But it is quite different from this, when, as above, the Spirit of Christ leads his divorced bride out of the house of her former husband to Jesus himself.—It is so,

3. When the soul comes not heartily and freely to the Lord in his covenant, Psalm 78:34–37. The Lord will not meet that soul. He cares not for persons giving the hand, when they do not give him their hearts. Indeed this is a covenant which speaks out the extreme naughtiness of men's hearts, by their coming into it grudgingly and per force. The sacrifice that is dragged to the altar, will not be accepted, it will run away from it again. It will be like the strong bough which is forcibly bowed, which will soon fly back. When the Lord comes to a soul, he deals with the heart. He touches the heart, as he touched the hearts of Saul's companions, 1 Sam. 10:26; Jer. 31:3, "The Lord hath appeared to me of old, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." There is grace in the Lord's lips, heavenly rhetoric to catch a sinner's affections, Psalm 45:2. When the Spirit of the Lord pours in overcoming grace, then the man pours out his heart before him, Psalm 62:8. Thus the people become willing in the day of his power, Psalm 110:3. Here we may shortly state and consider two cases:—

CASE 1. What shall become of those, then, who are driven to the Lord by terror? I answer, Those who are only driven by terror, they will even leave him again when the terror is over, for terrors will break a heart of stone, but will not melt it. At the same time, terror may begin the work, which love will crown: Hos. 2:14, "Therefore, behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her," When the Lord is to match with sinners, they are bold and perverse, they will not speak to him, till he has shot an arrow into their flesh, till he has made them prisoners of war; and then, when he has them in chains, he makes love to them. He first drives the sinner, and then he draws him like Noah's dove into the ark, Gen. 8:9. The Lord sets the avenger of blood in pursuit of the poor criminal, he with a heavy heart leaves his own city, and his old acquaintances, and flees for his bare life to the city of refuge, to which he has no inclination, but must do is a great thing. When be comes to the gates, and sees the beauty of the place, the excellencies and loveliness of the city charm him; then he says, This is my rest, here will I dwell.

CASE 2. I often find, when I am to go to the Lord's table, a great backwardness to the duty. What should be done in this case? I answer, There is a great difference betwixt a man's turning his back and running away from his friend, and a sickly man's coming slowly to him. And if I might be allowed so to speak, I should distinguish between a backward heart, and a backwardness upon the heart; Matth. 26:41, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." A backward heart is a foolish heart, and will make sad work of a communion; Prov. 17:16, "Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?" I wish the Lord may turn this people from the Lord's table, till he has turned their hearts back to himself; or else, when they have put their hands to the plough, they will after all leave it, and injure religion more than if they had never meddled with it. But for others, our Master allows you to come as you are able, with your burden upon your back, and lay it down at his feet; Matth. 11:28, "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Psalm. 65:3, "Iniquities prevail against me; as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away." The great Physician knows very well his patient comes with heart and good will, though his sickness and indisposition makes him come with a slow pace. It is trifling,

4. When the soul comes to the Lord in his covenant for peace to their consciences, but not for victory over their lasts. Many come to the Lord, as a sick man to the physician, to cure him of his wounds, but not to live upon his charges; Psalm 78:34, "When he slew them, then they sought him; and they returned and inquired early after God." They have use for the blood, not for the water, which came from the side of Jesus. This is but half-work, not heart-work. Enemies to the spirit of holiness are enemies to Christ I never think it the best frame for a communion table when people sit down at the Lord's table chiefly for peace and comfort. A view of the King, a transforming sight which might strengthen the soul, to have this before our eyes sitting down at the feast, would certainly be most safe. To get a touch of the hem of Christ's garment, for stopping the issue of sin, will be salutary indeed. It is so,

5. When the soul accepts of conditional promises, but does not accept of and receive the Lord himself in absolute promises. This is to agree upon the less points of the covenant, and to neglect the main point, Heb. 8:10. The great thing God offers in the gospel is Christ. He is a foolish man that would claim the benefit of the contract, while he neglects to marry the woman. It is a dreadful thing to turn the covenant of grace into a mere servile or mere social covenant, as passes betwixt neighbouring independent states. It is most properly a marriage-covenant, where the soul first takes the Lord himself, and then looks for the benefits accruing to it by the happy match. Natural men fancy a very easy covenant in,—"He that confesseth his sins, shall find mercy.—Call en me, and I will answer thee.—What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"—He will accept the will for the deed; not considering that all the promises are yea and amen in Christ; and suppose they could perform the condition of these promises, yet they could not have benefit by them while they have not the Lord Christ, dwelling, living, and reigning in them.—It is solemn trifling,

Lastly, When there is not an absolute resignation of the will to the will of the Lord. This is to have reserves in our covenanting with the Lord. Man's will is the great rebel against the Lord, and must, if we make sure work, be bound hand and foot in a covenanting day. There must be a double resignation, (1.) To the preceptive will: Rom. 6:17, "Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you." The soul must no more snarl with duty, but be content to take on the yoke of Christ's commands. And they who are not content to stand and receive the same commands from mount Zion, which were thundered into their hearts from mount Sinai before, their hearts are not for this work. (2.) There most be resignation to the providential will of God. It has been long a question between the Lord and you, who shall be master of your process, who shall carve out your lot? Are you come to a point now? even to that point? Psalm 47:4. "He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved." It is well, you are wise; for our own will, and nothing else, is our wreck.

We should now,

III. Shew how people come to make solemn covenanting but a trifling business. But for this, see the third head of doctrine first.

We proceed, then,

IV. To shew the danger of trifling, and not making heart-work of this weighty business.—This will appear if we consider,

1. That the Lord rejects the work: Mal. 1:13, "Ye said also, Behold what a weariness is it, and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts, and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering; should I accept this of your hands? saith the Lord." Whatever pains persons may be at about covenanting, the Lord has no regard to it while it is not heart-work, Isa. 1:11. It is true, you may even sign the contract, but the Lord will not subscribe it, seeing it has not the upright consent of your hearts, Psalm 50:16, 17. You may expect the entertainment recorded, Matth. 22:12, "Friend, how camest thou in thither, not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless."—Consider,

2. That it puts men more securely in Satan's grips than before. In this sense that holds true which you have in Isa. 28:22, "Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong." Publicans and sinners will enter before these. Such are twice dead, where the devil goes out and returns with seven other spirits worse than himself. The last end of such a person is worse than his beginning.—Consider,

3. That it exposes men to spiritual strokes; Jer. 48:10, "Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully." Deadening strokes. These are silent arrows which fly from the hand of God into the soul without noise; Isa. 6:10, "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and he healed." Sometimes men are like Saul among the prophets, but afterwards they are knocked in the head by the secret judgment of God, because of their hypocritical dealing with him, it may be at a communion table, in so much that they have never a day to do well after; and from that time God answers them not, but they live and rot above the ground; their hearts are deadened, their affections dozened, their gifts withered, and their souls blasted; John 15:6, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Quickening strokes, whereby the man is dreadfully alarmed, the conscience is awakened, and made like Mount Sinai, where nothing but fire and smoke appear. God takes the filthy rags of their mock covenanting, wraps them in brimstone, and sets them in fire about the sinner's ears. Their wounds which were scurfed over bleed more dreadfully, while the plaster they made will not stick. Besides these, there are strokes upon their bodies. As Nadab and Abihu, Lev. 10:1, 2. A wrong look into the ark cost the men of Bethshemesh dear, 1 Sam. 6:19. God smote Uzzah, and he died by the ark, 2 Sam. 6:7. And the apostle tells us, 1 Cor. 11:30, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." Consider,

Lastly, That however quietly people may get it carried in life, it will bring them a sad disappointment at death. The house built on the sand fell by the storm, and great was its fall. A great fall from high hopes into deep despair; like the foolish virgins, who were unexpectedly shut out.

We are now,

V. To apply the subject. Which we shall do only in an use of exhortation.

I would then exhort one and all of you to make heart-work and sure work in your covenanting with the Lord, and not to trifle in so solemn a business. You have heard the danger you incur by trifling with it. But perhaps some will say with a whole heart, that as they are resolved to keep themselves out of harm's way, they will not come to the Lord's table. To this I would answer, Well, will you not enter into covenant with the Lord? if not, then you will never see heaven; Eph. 2:12, "Strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Where will you appear at the great day? Psalm 50:1–5. You must take hold of the Lord's covenant, or be damned. Sirs, if ye enter at all into this work, my exhortation reaches you. You may trifle with God upon your knees, as well as at his table. And if you be not minded to refuse this covenant, why stand you back from the seals of it? why do you not prepare yourselves for it? why slight you this love token of our dying Lord? I would think if you were in earnest for the covenant, you would not slight the seal of it. Make sure work then. To induce you to be serious in this weighty work, I would mention and urge the following motives.

MOT. 1. You have need to make sure work, for you have deceitful hearts to deal with, Jer. 17:19. Let not the bands be put on slightly, or it will soon slip them all. Therefore dig deep, by serious solemn examination of your consciences before the Lord, that you may build as on a rock.

MOT. 2. Consider the weight of the business; the business of salvation, or damnation, is not a matter to trifle with. Sirs, life and death are before you. Your eternal state lies at the stake. I bescech you then, by all that weight of glory that awaits the saints, as you would not ruin your souls which a thousand worlds cannot repair, for the loss of the soul cannot be made up, that you seriously consider the business.

MOT. 3. Consider the Lord is not trifling, but is in good earnest with you; "O that there were such a heart in them!" There is a match proposed betwixt the King of glory and the daughter of Zion, the bridegroom is willing; Rev. 3:20, "Behold I stand at the door and knock." There is nothing wanting on his part; Matt. 22:4," All things are ready, come unto the marriage." How passionately does he call for her consent in the text: And now, when the Lord is thus offering himself to you, why will you refuse or trifle with him? Here some may propose this,

OBJECTION. This is a flourish which may pass well enough in a pulpit. But, O! if the Lord were really offering himself to me, I would never refuse. To this I answer, The offer is real, though ministerial. We have our commission from our Lord to bear us out in it, and he would do the same if he were here bodily present; 2 Cor. 5:10, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God." Hence, in the days of his flesh, he offered himself both to those that did, and those that did not receive him. Consider, he said to his disciples, "He that heareth you, heareth me." We are the friends of the Bridegroom; as Abraham's servants, we are come to bring you to our Master's son. What would you have to make the offer real, if you may not take it as such from the mouth of his messengers? Would you have him leave his glory a second time, and come in person to make the offer? Or would you have him come down in his glory? If so, you know not what you ask. It would set you better to do as Abigail, bow yourself to the earth, and humbly accept of the offer, 1 Sam. 25:40, 41. So real is the offer, that if you refuse, ye will be damned for the refusal; Mark 16:15, 16, "And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned." John 17:20, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." See then what ye do. It is a serious business on the Lord's part, and there is a prize in your hands, which you would do well diligently to improve. Does he indeed offer himself to me? do you say? notwithstanding my unworthiness. Yea, to you, we make no scruple to offer him particularly to every one of you, the vilest of you all; Rev. 3:20, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me." It is not unworthiness, but unwillingness, that will mar the bargain; "The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst say, Come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely."

SERMON LXIII

A RICH FEAST PREPARED FOR HUNGRY SOULS.*

And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. - ISA. 25:6

THE prophets of old prophesied of the grace of Christ which should come unto us, 1 Pet. 1:10; and of these none more than our evangelical prophet, who, in the verse before us, foretells a rich spiritual entertainment which should be made by the Saviour Jesus Christ unto a starving world of prodigal sinners, reduced by their extravagance into extreme want. Here there is to be observed,

1. The Maker and Master of the feast, the Lord himself; it is a royal feast, with which the King of Zion entertains his own subjects. Particularly, it is the Lord Christ, the Son of God, who, pitying the famished condition of poor sinners, was at the expense of this costly feast for them; for the maker of it is the same who swallows up death and victory, ver. 8. A warlike title is ascribed to him, the "Lord of hosts," for there is a banner in Christ's banqueting-house; and this feast looks both backward and forward to a war. You will observe,

2. The guests for whom this feast is provided: it is made for "all people." Not that every person does actually partake of it, nor that every person without exception is invited to it; the event shows the contrary, there being many to whom the sound of the gospel never comes; but intimating, that the invitation is given to all who come in its way, without distinction, or exception of any sort of persons; Matth. 22:9, "Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." The invitation is to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews, to those in the highways and hedges, as well as those in the city. All who will come are welcome. You may observe,

3. The guest-chamber where this feast is held; "In this mountain," namely, mount Zion, that is, the church. To that society all must join who would partake of this feast. And as mount Zion represents both the church militant and the church triumphant, so these are one church, one body; and it is one feast, as to its substance, Heb. 12:22–24. You will observe,

4. The matter of the feast: a feast imports abundance and variety of good entertainment; and here nothing is wanting which is suitable for hungry souls. This is held forth under the notion of the best meat and drink, because what these are to the body, the same is the gospel-feast to the soul. In this valley of the world lying in wickedness, there is nothing for the soul to feed on but carrion, nothing but what would be loathed, except by those who were never used to better: but in this mountain, there is a "feast of fat things," things most relishing to those who taste them, most nourishing to those who feed on them; and these are "full of marrow," most satisfying to the soul.—In this valley of the world, there is nothing but muddy waters, which can never quench the thirst of the soul, but must ruin it with the dregs ever cleaving to them; but I here, on this mountain, are "wines on the lees," that is, the best of wines, which having been kept long upon the lees, are therefore strong and nourishing. And these wines are well refined, being carefully drawn off, and quite separated from the lees or dregs, and therefore clear and fine. They are undreggy comforts; they afford the most refined satisfaction and delight. From this subject we take the following

DOCTRINE, That Jesus Christ has prepared a most rich and delicious feast for the souls of all those who will come to him, and partake of it as presented to them.

In speaking upon this pleasant and interesting subject, it is intended,

I. To shew the absolute need that there is of this provision.

II. To explain what the provision is which Christ has prepared for the souls of a famished world.

III. To consider what sort of a feast it is.

IV. To confirm, that all people who will come, may come, and partake of this feast. And then,

V. Conclude with a practical improvement of the subject.

We are then,

I. To show the absolute need that there is of this provision.

The distinguishing need for this provision was the extreme necessity of a lost world, which, by Adam's fall, the great prodigal, was reduced to a starving and famishing condition. The King of heaven set down Adam, and his posterity in him, to a well-covered table in paradise, in this lower world, making a covenant of friendship with him, and with them in him. Man consists of an earthly part and a heavenly part, a body, and a soul: and as every thing must have nourishment suitable to its nature, so, although the body might, yet the soul could never be nourished by the best produce of the earth. Therefore, by virtue of that covenant, it was concluded, that, upon condition of perfect obedience to it, they should have provision for their souls from the King's country. But man being drawn into rebellion against God, this prospect was lost, and their table is drawn; Adam and all his posterity in his loins were driven out of the guest-chamber, the family was ruined, broken, and scattered, having nothing left them.—To impress this the more upon us, let us view how our first father left us.

1. In point of need, he left us with hungry hearts, like the prodigal; Luke 15:16, "And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks which the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him." Every man and woman naturally has a gnawing appetite after happiness and satisfaction. This is so interwoven with man's nature, that it never leaves him in any state whatever, and so will make a part of the torment of the damned: Isa. 8:21, "And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their King and their God, and look upward." Every one finds himself not self-sufficient, and therefore his soul cleaves to something without itself to satisfy it. Listen, O Christless sinner! who art destitute of holy desires, and thou shalt hear a voice within thine own breast, saying, Give, give, a continual noise. Look into thine own heart, and thou wilt see it, in respect of desires, like a nest of young birds, all gaping for a fill, but never satisfied, still gaping, after all that is put in their months.—He left us also with thirsty consciences, scorched and burned up with heat, so that most of them are in the dead-thraw, and many of them quite seared. Hence the gospel-invitation is, Isa. 55:1, "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." In a natural state there can be no conscience but an evil conscience, the thorn of guilt is not pulled out of it; it is a defiled conscience which needs to be sprinkled, Heb. 10:22. And though a sleeping conscience in many, yet such is the thirst of it in all the sons of Adam, that, when awakened, they cry out, We die, we perish, we all perish, Luke 15:17.

2. In point of supply, he left us without any prospect, for all communication with heaven was stopped. War was declared against the rebels, so that there could be no transportation of provisions from thence, Gen. 3:24. Truth had said, Gen. 2:17, "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." And therefore, though mercy might incline to supply a starving world, justice interposes, and pleads that there could be no communication betwixt God and the sinners, without a satisfaction, which they nor angels could not make; and therefore, without satisfaction, they must be famished for ever. Thus heaven's doors were closed on a starving world.—Now, there was a mighty famine upon the earth, such as was with the prodigal, Luke 15:14, "And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want." Adam's sons, abandoned of Heaven, fell a-begging at the world's door, if so be they might find rest and satisfaction in the creature. They go after a law-righteousness, if so be they might find a rest to their consciences. But it fares with them in this search, as with the unclean spirit gone out of a man. He goes through dry places seeking rest, and finding none returns disappointed. When they have traversed all the mountains of vanity for something to satisfy their hungry hearts, they find nothing but husks to feed on with the swine; which are the empty and unsatisfying things of the world, that can never feed their souls, Luke 15:16. The poor sinner out of Christ, is like the hungry infant, which sucks at every thing to which its mouth comes near, and shifting about, and getting nothing, falls a-weeping; but the appetite continuing, the infant falls a-sucking again, where formerly it was disappointed. Such is the life of every natural man, a continued tract of lustings after, and disappointments from the creature. So that he is born weeping, lives seeking, and will die disappointed, if not brought to the feast of fat things. Again, they find but dust to feed on with the serpent; Isa. 65:25, "And dust shall be the serpent's meat;" that is, they suck at the defiled breasts of their lusts, which can never satisfy, but poison the soul. They cannot find their satisfaction in lawful worldly comforts; and therefore, like hungry beasts, they break over into forbidden ground, and all to satisfy a gnawing appetite after happiness. But there they are as far from their mark as ever. For, though the enjoyment of a lust may please them for a while; yet it is but like a man, eating or drinking in a dream, he awaketh, and behold he is faint, and his soul has appetite, Isa. 24:8. There is a bitter dreg remaining behind. Striking at this rock for water, they cause fire to flash out on their faces; and sucking at these breasts, draw out blood instead of milk. Travelling through the barren region of the law for something to satisfy their scorched consciences, they can find nothing but muddy and salt waters, which can give no ease truly satisfying, but raises the thirst again. For the purging of the conscience is what the law cannot do, Rom. 6:3; compared with Heb. 9:14. What can duties do to the purging of the conscience; Isa. 64:6, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Will mud wash out mud? What can tears do for this end? Without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Even our tears must be washed in the Mediator's blood, or they will defile the conscience, and leave a new stain in it. What can trusting to uncovenanted mercy do? and such is the mercy of God in respect of all who are not in Christ, Acts 4:12; 2 Cor. 5:19. They may make a plaster for their wounded consciences of these, they may lay it on, but all their art can never make it stick, it will fall off before the wound heal.

We come now,

II. To explain what the provision is which Christ has prepared for the souls of such a famished world.—This, in a word, is his precious self; the Maker of the feast is the matter of it, even Christ crucified; his body broken for us, is that feast to which hungry souls are called, and which they are to feed upon: "Take, eat, this is my body broken for you." Gal. 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but 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." We have heard of mothers who have eaten their own children, but who ever gave themselves to be meat unto them? But Jesus died that we might live, gave himself to enliven and nourish our souls.—Let us consider,

1. The meat which is served up in this feast for the hungry heart. This is Christ's body; John 6:55, "For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." Never was there such a costly feast in the world as this, Christ's body broken and bruised by justice, that it might be food to us. This is the provision offered to you all in the word, exhibited to you, O believers! in the sacrament. And ye may eat, and must eat of it, or you will perish: John 6:53, "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Take him by faith, receive him with a faith of application, and unite with him in the covenant; relish the sweetness of Christ, improve every part of Christ, his low birth, his sorrowful life, his bitter death, his burial, resurrection, and ascension to heaven.—Christ's body is the fat things of this feast, which will completely satisfy the hungry heart; so that thy soul feeding upon it by faith, shall be filled and satisfied, like the hungry infant, when it is set to its mother's full breasts: Psalm 81:10, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." How can these things be? will an unbelieving world say. We answer, in two things,

(1.) There is a fulness of the spirit of sanctification in him, which is communicated unto all who receive him: John 1:16, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." And the more eagerly that the soul feeds on him, the more of that spirit they receive. The first entering of his spirit into the soul gives life; the further measure of the spirit, gives life more abundantly. And there is a double effect of the spirit of sanctification received from Christ.—[1.] The spirit of Christ in the soul dries up the devouring deeps of unmortified desires after the world of lusts, stops their mouths by stabbing them to the heart, that the soul may live spiritually: John 4:14, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." Never thirst, that is, at the rate he did in his natural state. Gasp they may, as a thief upon the cross, but they shall never gape so wide and so incessantly as before, the soul being determined to starve them.—[2.] The spirit of Christ in the soul stirs up holy desires in the heart, which are the predominant motions and affections there: Psalm 27:4, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." The man's choice is altered, his desires run in another channel. Sometimes it was, Who will shew us any good? but now it is, Lord, lift upon us the light of thy countenance, Psalm 4:6. Now his longings are after the Lord, Psalm 42:1, and 63:1. His sorrowings are for the want of his presence; his comfort is enjoying the light of his countenance. If he has a God in Christ to be his God, you may take from him what ye will; Psalm 73:25, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none in all the earth that I desire besides thee." Let these desires be satisfied, and he is filled as with marrow and fatness.

(2.) The fulness of the Godhead is in Christ: Col. 2:9, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The tabernacle of meeting betwixt God and the sinner is the flesh of Christ; in him they have the enjoyment of God as their God. Taking Christ by faith, God is theirs, for he and the Father are one: thus in Christ they are complete, Col. 2:10. They are at the utmost stretch of their desires as to the substance of them; for having God to be their God, they have all. And thus the soul may feed on all the perfections of God: on his power, as theirs to protect them; his wisdom, as theirs to guide, &c.; on his word and all the promises of it, which are theirs. Here there is both plenty and variety.—Let us consider,

2. The drink which is afforded at this feast for the thirsty conscience. This is the precious blood of Christ: John 6:55, "My blood is drink indeed." This is that spiritual drink which is offered in the word, and exhibited in the sacrament: "This cup is the New Testament in my blood." If ever you would have life, you must all drink of this blood, by a believing application of it to your own souls: Rom. 3:25, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God."—This is "wines on the lees, well refined," effectual for purging the conscience of the most guilty creature, when it is believingly applied to the soul: Heb. 9:14, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" This blood is atoning blood, it answers all the demands of justice, affords a covert under which a guilty creature may stand before God, and not be condemned: Rom. 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus."—It is sin-expiating blood, "shed for remission of sins unto many." Lay all your guilt over on this blood. It will blot out all the items out of the debt-book of justice; it will draw the sting out of your conscience, for which all other persons and things have been physicians of no value.—It is peace-making blood. Lay the weight of your peace with God on it: "Christ is our peace," Eph. 2:14.—It is justifying blood; by it is brought in an everlasting righteousness.—It is heaven-opening blood, for time, in access to God and communion with him on earth; and for eternity, that believers in it may be ever with the Lord, Heb. 10:19, 20. How can these things be? Why, in one word, this wine is the juice of the choice vine of heaven, it is the blood of the Son of God, and therefore of infinite value, 1 John 1:6. When the blood of bulls and of goats could avail nothing to cool the heat of scorched consciences, when rivers of oil, and the fruit of one's body, could avail nothing for the sin of the soul; the Son of God took on him man's nature, and in that nature died, shed his precious blood, to be a ransom for elect sinners, to deliver them from the pit, Job 33:22–30.

We are now,

III. To consider what sort of a feast it is.—Upon this we observe,

1. That it is a feast upon a sacrifice: 1 Cor. 5:7, 8, "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore, let us keep the feast." Justice was provoked by the conduct of self-destroying sinners. God's anger was incensed against us, and the fire of his wrath has burned up many. And when wrath was gone out against the world, the great High Priest stept in, and offered up himself a sacrifice to atone for sin, and turn away divine wrath. Here we are called to a feast on that sacrifice, to partake of its virtue and efficacy.

2. It is a covenant-feast, Heb. 13:20, 21. When Jacob made the covenant with Laban, they feasted together on the mount, Gen. 31:44–54. There is no partaking of this feast, but by the way of the covenant. All the guests must be covenanters, and they who are not pleased with the covenant of friendship and peace with God, as held forth in the gospel, cannot taste of this supper. But those who are well pleased with it, and sincerely consent to it, Christ says to them, "Eat, O friends! drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!"

3. It is a marriage-feast, a marriage-supper, Matth. 22:1–4. The Lord Christ is the Bridegroom, and the captive daughter of Zion the bride. He offers himself to each of you to whom the gospel comes, to be yours in a marriage-relation. Consent then to the match, and ye shall eat of this bread, and drink of this wine which he hath mingled. He is yours, and you have all, which he hath purchased, to feed on for time and for eternity.

4. It is a feast which has a respect to war. The Lord of hosts made it. It looks backward to that terrible encounter which Christ had with the law, with death, with hell, and the grave, upon the account of his ransomed ones, and that glorious victory which he obtained over them, by which he wrought the deliverance of his people. The gospel-feast is a feast upon the back of that victory, and the Lord's supper is particularly a feast in commemoration of that battle and victory. It looks forward to a war: Song 2:4, "He brought me to the banqueting-house, and his banner over me was love." It is provided for and presented to his people to animate and strengthen them for the spiritual warfare against the devil, the world, and the flesh; and none can truly partake of it, but those who are resolved on that battle, and are determined to pursue it, till they obtain the complete victory at death.

Lastly, It is a weaning feast, Gen. 23:8. There is a time prefixed in the decree of God, at which all who are his shall, by converting grace, be weaned from their natural food. And with this their sitting down to this feast agrees. Where is the soul which is now weaned from their sucking so long at the dry breasts of the world? that soul shall have the sweet enjoyment of this feast; and the more that they feed, the more they will be weaned.

We now proceed,

IV. To confirm, that all people who will come, may come, and partake of this feast. Not that all may immediately partake of the sacrament, but that all may and should receive Christ, with his benefits, offered to them in the gospel; they are made most heartily welcome.—To make this appear, consider,

1. Christ invites all without distinction, even the worst of sinners, to this spiritual feast: Isa. 55:1, "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." John 7:37, "If any man thirst," said Jesus, "let him come to me and drink," Rev. 22:17, "And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." These are gospel-invitations, clogged with no conditions, comprehending all who are willing to receive Christ, whatever their case is or has been.—Consider,

2. For what end does Jesus send out his messengers with a commission to invite all to come, if they were not welcome? Matth. 22:9, "Go ye, therefore, into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." Nay, the Lord is very express in the welcome given to the worst of sinners, Jer. 3:1; Isa. 1:18; and directs his messengers to invite the most unworthy and unsightly persons to this feast: Luke 14:21–33, "Go out quickly," says he, "into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."—Consider,

Lastly, That he takes it heinously amiss when any refuse to come: Luke 14:21, "He was angry;" angry, because those who were invited would not come. He not only invites you, but you are commanded on your peril to comply with the invitation: 1 John 3:23, "And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ." And do what ye will, if ye slight the offer, ye cannot please him; for without faith it is impossible to please God.—It only remains, that,

V. We make some practical improvement; and this shall be confined for the present to a use of exhortation.

1. We would exhort all hungry hearts who are suing for satisfaction in the world and their lusts, and whose consciences have no solid resting-place, O! come to Jesus Christ in his covenant, and sit down to this feast prepared for you and the like of you.—To prevail with you, I would mention the following MOTIVES:—

MOT. 1. While ye come not to Christ, you have nothing commensurable nor suitable to the cravings of an immortal soul. All other things are but as stones or ashes, they are not bread; Isa. 55:2, "Where fore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" The man was a fool, who bid his soul take ease from what he had in his barns. Nothing less than a God in Christ can ever satisfy the cravings of an immortal soul, a soul which was created capable of enjoying an infinite good. And nothing but the blood of the Redeemer will ever give solid peace to your consciences.

MOT. 2. Should not the continued tract of disappointments ye have met with at other doors, engage you to come to Christ's banqueting-house? Jer. 3:23, "Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." Have you not always found creature-comforts greater in expectation than in fruition? How often have ye looked for much comfort, where you got little? And has not your greatest crosses arisen sometimes from those quarters whence ye expected your greatest comfort?

MOT. 3. In what ye are now pursuing, consider that there is not only vanity and emptiness, which will disappoint you, but there is death in the pot, which will destroy your souls. There needs no more to ruin you, but that you be left to your own heart's lusts, and take your swing. Fearful will the reckoning be, when so much time, pains, and labour, are laid out on the pursuit of the world, and the immortal soul is quite neglected as to its eternal welfare, Eccl. 11:9.

MOT. 4. If you will come to Christ, ye shall get true rest; rest to your hearts, rest to your consciences, Matth. 11:28. Whatever your wants be, there is a suitable fulness in him; a fulness of merit, to carry off your guilt; a fountain, even the depth of the sea, to wash it away; a fulness of the Spirit to kill your corruptions; of righteousness to cover your unrighteousness; of light for your darkness; of strength for your weakness.

Lastly, Consider, if you will come, you shall be happy for time and eternity. When the lower table is drawn, you shall sit down at the upper. If not, you shall never know satisfaction, nor find rest to your souls.—I would exhort,

2. Communicants to feed on Christ at his table. Let not the feast be in vain to you. Dead sinners, those destitute of spiritual life, are not fit guests for the Lord's table, for they cannot feed. Such will eat and drink judgment to themselves, not discerning the Lord's body.—Here it may be inquired, How may one know if he has any spiritual life? To this we answer, Whosoever has spiritual life will be sincerely longing to be rid of the grave-clothes of sin; Matth. 5:6, "Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." They will be content to part with all sin, and resolved henceforth to oppose every lust, as a limb of the body of death; not only sin in general, but the iniquity which is in their hearts, and with which they are most easily beset. They are willing also to lay aside the grave-clothes of self; Matth. 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." They will look on the rags of their own righteousness but as grave-clothes also, and set themselves against all motions of this tendency. In a word, they are for doing all as if they were to win heaven this way; at the same time, overlooking all as if they were doing nothing.

Now, to you living and believing communicants, we acquaint you with Christ's welcome: Song 5:1, "Eat, O friends! drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!" Take it and use freedom in his house. Eat, drink abundantly. Let your souls feast indeed at this gospel-feast, and miss not the opportunity.—I will only say to you, as the angel to Elijah, 1 Kings 19:7, "And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee." you have a great journey to go, and it is a question if you get such another meal set before you, ere you be at the end of it. You have a twofold journey, each of which requires you to eat.—You have,

1. Your journey through the world, towards the Canaan above. It is difficult at all times; so as that many never dare venture on it others never make it out, for it lies through many difficulties. The devil, the world, and the flesh, will struggle with you, to give over this journey, of living well through the world. It is like to be more than ordinarily difficult in our times. A spirit of delusion threatens a dark and misty day. Labour to taste the power of truth, if you would be established in it. A Popish and malignant spirit threatens with darkness, blood, and confusion. This is evident, if we consider the apostacy in these nations from the once covenanted work of reformation, the blood of the saints yet lying at their doors, with the profanity and irreligion which is abounding among all rauks. As we have reason to think the Popish and malignant party in these nations, setting up for a Popish pretender, are infatuated of God to their own ruin, that they may get blood to drink; so we have ground to fear God may make them a scourge to the nations, and perhaps by them he may drive them to reformation. Whatever, then, the clouds may turn to, eat for a wilderness-journey.—You have,

2. Your journey out of the world, that is, to die well. It is a weighty journey from time to eternity. Eat for it this day, and do as you will wish to have done when you come to a dying-hour. It may be some will not have as much time to think on it when it comes, as they will have this day at a communion table. And that at a communion-table you may eat,—labour to have your appetite after Christ sharpened. Open your mouths wide, and he will fill them. Consider well your own needs, and his fullness.—Adore the wonderful condescension of the great God. Reverence his greatness; but beware of slavish fear and amazement. Look to God through the veil of Christ's flesh.—In a word, beware of unbelief. Rest not in a general faith, but exercise a faith of application: Gal. 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Amen.

SERMON LXIV

THE DISTINGUISHING PRIVILEGE OF GOD'S FAITHFUL SERVANTS.*

And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. - EXOD. 24:11

THE Lord is calling us to come up to him into the mount of solemn ordinances; and though there be some who will abide at the foot of the hill, unconcerned and stupid, like Abraham's servant and the ass, I hope there are others who will desire to go forward, though it is likely there may be a struggle betwixt hope and fear about their entertainment there. How are your hearts affected upon this awful approach? are they saying within you, as these Greeks, "We would see Jesus?" Or, as the prodigal Jew, Luke 15:17, "We perish with hunger." And at the same time with the men of Bethshemesh, 1. Sam. 6:19, "Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?" Our text gives you encouragement from this instance of the nobles of Israel. Upon God's call they came up to the mount; and (which divides the text into two parts), first, They were safe: "And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand;" Secondly, They were kindly entertained: "Also they saw God, and did eat and drink."—We shall attend to these separately.

The first part is, they were safe in their approach. Moses remarks this, to the praise of the divine clemency in a Mediator, through whom sinners may see God, and not die. Sin has set man at such a distance from God, and put his body into such a weak and mouldering condition, that consciousness of guilt and a sight of the divine glory meeting together, is more than enough to exanimate and make him faint away, to break to pieces the corrupt earthen pitcher the soul dwells in. Hence it was a common opinion, that such a sight was deadly.—Consider here,

1. The parties whose safety is particularly remarked, the nobles of the children of Israel. Some reckon Nadab and Abihu among these; but if so, why not Moses and Aaron? It is plain they were all there, ver. 9, and 10. I think, however, it is only the seventy elders who are meant; and therefore it is expressed emphatically in the Hebrew, intimating, that not only was Moses, the typical Mediator, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, who were designed to be priests, preserved; but even the elders, the representatives of the people, these also were safe.—You will accordingly observe, that the people are as welcome to the divine favour, and to gracious manifestations of God, as ministers. Tho' ministers be employed to open the doors of the temple, the people stand as fair for a sight of the glory within as they do. Though Moses, &c. went up foremost to the mount; yet no man should either value himself before the Lord, or be discouraged upon the character which he bears. Ordinarily, people will pray that ministers may be helped in their public ministrations, to preach, &c.; but they should even also be concerned, that they may be helped to believe, taste, feel, and feed, with the rest of the children.

They were nobles, great men, rulers of the people; yet they went up to the mount with Aaron, and sat down to the sacred feast there, after they had taken the national covenant of Israel with the rest of the people, ver. 8, 9.—You will thence observe, that it is the honour of the nobles of a land to see God, and to be seen upon the mount with God, at the sacred feast, as covenanters with him. This was some time the honour of Scotland's nobility and gentry; they were forward in the national covenant with God; and we have heard the days have been, when scarlet-cloaks and velvet-hoods bare great bulk in such meetings as this. But, ah! how is our gold become dross! they leave these things now mostly to the common people, with contempt of both. What wonder is it that they have been left to make themselves the tail, and not the head! to row us into deep waters, where the state is sunk, and the church is broken: to turn Babel-builders, so that for once the scaffolding is broken, and the builders, with many others, heavily crushed. For, "these that honour God, he will honour; but they that despise him, shall be lightly esteemed."

There were seventy of these nobles, the number of the children of Israel when they went down to Egypt, and so a fit number to represent the body of the people, who were now solemnly taken into covenant with God. God saw it not meet to give this sight of the divine glory to the multitude, and to set all down to the sacred feast on the mount; but, since it was covenant-entertainment, the seventy were brought to it, as the representatives of the people. Thus also the New-Testament church is represented by twenty-four elders about the throne, Rev. 4:4—From this you may learn, that safe communion and fellowship with God is the privilege of the church of believers, the Israelites indeed.—That all the people of God have not alike nearness of access to God; some come farther forward than others. Peter, James, and John, were taken up to the mount of transfiguration, and not the rest of the apostles.—That it is a mercy to have an interest in, and relation to, these who are brought near to God, especially such as will act for us in the mount with God. There may be some young ones here, whose fathers or mothers are to approach the table of the Lord. I would advise them to tell them to mind them there. Say, "I cannot go, but, O! give up my name to Christ, consent you in my name to the covenant, and tell your covenanted God, I am also content to be his." Or, if you have not father or mother, tell any other godly person ye know. And so may one distressed Christian do with another: Song 5:8. "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem! if ye find my Beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love."——We may observe,

(2.) How their safety is expressed: "He laid not his hand upon them," that is, did not hurt or destroy them, Gen. 37:22. Though they saw God, (ver. 10.) yet they died not, their lives were preserved. This imports, that he might in point of justice have laid his hand on them. They were sinful creatures; and though they were on the mount of God, yet they had a sinful nature with them, which did leave the marks of it even upon what they did there. But he overlooked their weakness, and in mercy spared them. This instructs us, that when we are at our best, if God should mark our iniquity, we could not stand before him. We are ever in mercy's debt, and cannot be one moment safe without being under the covert of blood. Even in heaven, it is under that canopy the saints will feast for ever, Heb. 7:25.—It also imports, that the weight of his hand would have crushed them. If he had but laid it on them, it would have done their business. If he had but put forth his hand and touched them in wrath, they would have gone like a moth with a touch of the hand.—From this we may learn the utter weakness and nothingness of the creature before the Lord. He can touch it to destruction, and can frown it back, when he will, into the womb of nothing. Why, then, should we strive with our Maker?—More particularly, that the greatest of men are nothing before the great God; Upon the nobles he laid not his hand. Though they caused terror to their inferior fellow-creatures, they were as unable to bear the terror of God as the meauest in the camp of Israel. All flesh is alike before God.——You will observe,

(3.) How they came to be safe. The word nobles siguifies select, separate ones, who had been set apart. They were selected out of the covenanted body of the people, to come up into the mount to the Lord, at his call. Moses gets an order for so many to come up with him, ver. 1. Having that order, he first proposes a covenant to the people, and they declare their acceptance, ver. 3.; then he writes the words of the covenant, and the covenant is most solemnly entered into, ratified, and sealed; there is an altar built to represent God in Christ, ver. 4, and twelve pillars to represent the twelve tribes. Thus these were the parties. Sacrifices were offered, ver. 5, shewing the covenant to be founded on the blood of a Mediator. The half of the blood was sprinkled on the altar, ver. 6, shewing it was not an absolute God with whom they were to covenant, but a God atoned by the blood of a crucified Saviour. Then he read the book of the covenant; thus proposing it to the people; and their second thoughts are as their first, they solemnly consent to it, ver. 7.; and he sprinkles the rest of the blood on them, and so it was sealed and ratified. Then, after all this, he and these selected elders go up to the mount, in obedience to the call formerly given; and there they saw God, and were safe notwithstanding. Thus, their separation was their security. From which you may observe, That there is safety in following God's call, be the calling never so high. Had any of the people attempted to have gone whither they went, they had smarted for it; but being called, they were safe. Some, who measure reverence of God more by their own carnal wisdom than by God's word, cry out on us for not kneeling, but sitting, at the Lord's table. But though sitting be a gesture of more familiarity than kneeling, yet seeing it is instituted, we may expect more safety in it than in their kneeling, which at the Lord's table, wants both precept and example,—We now come to the

Second part of the verse. They were kindly entertained in their approach: Also (or but) they saw God, and did eat and drink.—Here observe,

1. A glorious sight which they got.—Where consider,

(1.) The object, God more largely expressed, ver. 10, "The God of Israel." Not any visible resemblance of the divine nature, but some glorious appearance and token of God's special presence. Our Lord Jesus Christ was known to the Old Testament church by this name, the God of Israel. And that this was the Son of God, seems very plain from that word, ver. 1, "He said, Come up unto the Lord." Compare ch. 23:20–23, with Exod. 3:2–8. Now, he who sends is the Father, and it is the same who speaks here; and he speaks of another person, who also is the Lord. And, seeing we read of his feet, ver 10, he seems to have appeared in a glorious human shape, as a pledge of his future incarnation. This, then was a most glorious sight of Jesus Christ. Nothing is here described but what was under his feet; though the text seems to intimate they saw more, an inconceivable glory which mortals cannot make words of.—Consider,

(2.) The act, "they saw." This seeing imports something more than in ver. 10, for it is evident that the first part of the verse relates to that seeing, ver. 10. And so the sense requires something more to be in this. Accordingly, they are different words in the original; this here signifies to contemplate and fixedly behold; from it our word gaze seems to be derived. It might be read, "They beheld God;" importing, not a transient glance, but a fixed view: John 1:14, "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth;" which is still more admirable condescension, and accordingly it is emphatically expressed.

Now, consider this as following upon the solemn transaction of the covenant made by sacrifice.—It holds out to us, (1.) That the great end of the covenant, next to the divine glory, is the happiness of the covenanters in seeing and enjoying God. There it is completed. And beyond this the creature cannot go.—(2.) That not the sight of an absolute God, but of a God in Christ, is the covenanters happiness. None can see God in mercy but they, for there is no other way but that of the covenant; and their happy sight is no thing other than a sight of God in Christ. In Christ, all the lines of our hope meet for time and eternity. Observe,

2. A blessed feast of which they were partakers: "They did eat and drink."—Here consider,

(1.) What they did, "they did eat and drink" upon the mount. They feasted upon the remains of the sacrifices of the peace-offerings, ver. 5. And this in token of their hearty satisfaction with the covenant now made, their ready acceptance of the benefits of it, and their communion with God in pursuance of it. Thus the believers feeding on Christ and gospel-dainties is expressed in scripture: Psalm 22:25, 26, "My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before them that fear him; the meek shall eat, and be satisfied." Thus they were admitted to a holy familiarity with God, to eat and drink in his presence: "They saw him, and they did eat and drink."—Consider,

(2.) How they did it, with holy joy and comfort. This is implied in the connection, or opposition betwixt the parts of the text. They were so far from being slain with the sight, that they were not faithlessly frightened at it; but with a holy composure of spirit, they did eat and drink. What they saw was not like a cloudy sky to damp them, but as a clear one to refresh them. Holy reverence is necessary, but faithless fears in solemn approaches to God, are displeasing to him, and hurtful to our own souls, for they hinder us from eating. Happy they who can believe and fear.—From this subject, we may take the following DOCTRINES, viz.

DOCTRINE I. That a sight of God in Christ, and a holy familiarity with him, with all safety, is the privilege of God's covenant-people, especially in these solemn approaches to which he calls them.

II. That it is a wonder of grace that sinful creatures, in their solemn approaches to God, see God, and are familiar with him, and yet come off safe.

We begin with

DOCTRINE I. That a sight of God in Christ, and a holy familiarity with him, with all safety, is the privilege of God's covenant-people, especially in these solemn approaches to which he calls them.

In handling this doctrine, we shall,

I. Shew what is that sight of God in Christ, which is the privilege of his people in their solemn approaches to him.

II. What is that holy familiarity which is their privilege in their solemn approaches to him. And then,

III. Improve the subject.

We are then,

I. To shew what is that sight of God in Christ, which is the privilege of his people in their solemn approaches to him.—There is a twofold solemn approach of God's people to him.—There is a right approach,

1. When God calls them up to the mount of myrrh, where our Lord abides till the day break, Song 4:6; when he calls them to come up to the hill of God in Immanuel's land, where stands the King's palace, namely heaven. This call comes to the believing soul at death. Then, as Rev. 4:1, there is a door opened in heaven to the heaven-born soul, which is now, as it were, wrestling in a mire of corrupt flesh and blood in the body, and the voice is heard, Come up hither. This will be a solemn approach when the soul of the meanest believer shall go up thither, attended with a company of holy angels, and, like Lazarus, be carried by them into Abraham's bosom, Luke 16:22.—It will come to both souls and bodies of believers at the last day: Psalm 50:5, "Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." And then God's covenant-people, who dwell in the dust, shall awake from their sleep, come out of the lowly darksome house of the grave, and enter into the King's palace, Psalm 65.—Then they shall see God in Christ to the completing their happiness for ever. Then they shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2. We know little now of this sight in glory, 1 Cor. 2, 9; but it vastly transcends all sights got of him here.—There it will be immediate, they shall see him face to face, 1 Cor. 13:12.—Perfectly transforming, 1 John 1:2.—Everlasting, without interruption, without intermission. They shall be ever with the Lord. But on this we insist not. There is a right approach,

2. When God calls them to come up to the mount of ordinances, to meet him at the sacred feast, as the nobles of Israel in the text, and as we at this time are called, to feast on the great sacrifice in the sacrament. This is a solemn approach. Now, what is the sight of God in Christ which is the privilege here? As to this we observe,

(1.) That it is a believing sight of God in their nature, John 1:14, (above). The nobles saw the Son of God in human shape, with their bodily eyes. But the great design of it was to shew the privilege of the saints by faith. O glorious sight! to see God in our nature, the divine nature, in the person of the Son, united to our nature? O high privilege! to sit at his table, and under the teaching of his Spirit, to spell the glorious name Immanuel, God with us. O the sweetness of every letter and syllable! God the fountain of all holiness and happiness, we, the sink of all sin and misery: yet God with us. The personal union, the foundation of the mystical union; and so an holy God and sinful creatures are united through Christ. We observe,

(2.) That it is a sight of this God in the place of his special residence; on the mount to which they were invited, where he stood, as it were, on a pavement of sapphire. It is their privilege to see him on the mount of ordinances, at his table, the glorious place of his feet, Isa. 25:6, 7. O the high privilege of the saints! We were all born under a sentence of death, to see the Lord no more in the land of the living, and (as in Haman's case, Esth. 7:8.) as the word goes out of the King's mouth, our face is covered. Some live all their days in this case, come to communion-tables, and go away in it. But the believer laying hold on the covenant, Christ draws off the face-covering, and then, with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. They see the bread, the Lord.

(3) It is a sight of the glory of the place of his feet, ver. 10. It is a promise relating to gospel-days: Isa. 60:13, "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the face of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious." The ark in the temple, and gospel-ordinances in the gospel-church. It is their privilege to see a glory there, where the world see none; to see a majesty in the sacrament, a spiritual glory and heavenly lustre in the bread and wine at the Lord's table, as sacred symbols of the body and blood of Christ, 1 Cor. 11:29. This glory and majesty in the ordinances, must be discerned by faith; and because it is beyond the stretch of the natural eye, therefore carnal wisdom in Rome, and the church of England, has gone about to supply its place with a great deal of external pomp, that may work upon the senses, defacing the simplicity of the institution. But after all, to a spiritual discerner, the external glory is as far below the spiritual glory, as artificial painting would in the eyes of the nobles have been below the natural clearness of the body of heaven.

(4.) It is a sight of God as reconciled in Christ. They saw God, and did eat and drink as in the house of their friend. This is the sight to be seen in the gospel-glass, 2 Cor. 5:18–20. A refreshful sight to a soul pained with the sting of guilt. Christ has died, and his blood has quenched the fire of God's wrath against the sinner; so that when on the mount he looks to the Lord, he sees as it were a clear sky under his feet: a sure token, that the storm is blown over, that there is peace from heaven, and an offended God is reconciled to us through his own Son.

(5) It is a sight of God as their God. They saw the God of Israel. Here lay the surpassing sweetness of their sight. Such a sight got Thomas, when his faith got up above his unbelief: John 20:28, "My Lord, and my God." And for this sight is the sacrament especially appointed, that the child of God may say, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me," Gal. 2:20. The nature of the ordinance leads to it, which brings the word preached in the general to every believing communicant in particular: "This is my body broken for you."

Lastly, It is a sight of transcendent glory in him. Nothing is described but what was under his feet. For, search the universe, there is no person, no thing like him. Even what was under his feet, is described to have been a sapphire stone. But the best things on earth are not sufficient to set forth the glory even of this, and therefore it is added, "as if it were the body of heaven in his clearness." They who see him, see that of which they can never see the like.

We are now,

II. To shew what is that holy familiarity which is the privilege of God's people in their solemn approaches to him.—It is a believing, holy, humble freedom before their Lord! Eph. 3:12, "In whom we have boldness and access, with confidence, by the faith of him." In the sight before us, the sense of their own unworthiness, and a sight of his glory, did not mar their faith, nor put them in an unbelieving frame. They did eat and drink; neither did the familiarity of faith mar their holy fear, or make them forget their distance: compare 5:1, where they were commanded to worship afar off, which no doubt they did. I will mention some instances of familiarity allowed them,

1. They were allowed to come forward to God, when others must stand back, Isa. 56:6, 7; when others must abide at the foot of the hill, (and it is at their peril if they venture forward), believers may come up to the mount, and are welcome. They have a token from the Master himself: Song 5:1, "Eat, O friends! drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved!"

2. They were allowed to feast on the sacrifice set before them. Christ the sacrifice typically slain, and believers are allowed to feast on this sacrifice, to eat his flesh and drink his blood; to make a believing application of a whole Christ to their own souls for their spiritual nourishment: "Take, eat, this is my body, broken for you." You know what it is to feed your eyes on some pleasant object that is your own. The covetous man can feed his eyes on his bags of money. So believers are allowed to feed their eyes on Christ; beholding, and delighting in Christ; solacing themselves with his sweetness, and the sweetness of every part of the mystery of Christ.

3. They were allowed to converse with God freely, as one at the table of his friend. The peace being made by accepting of the covenant, the nobles were, and all believers are, set down to the feast in token of their communion with him: 1 John 1:3, "And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." The believer has liberty to tell the Lord all his mind, Eph. 3:12, (quoted above); to unbosom himself to a gracious God, and point particularly at what he would have, what he would be quit of. "What is thy petition?" says the King at the feast.

4. They were allowed to be in his secrets, to see what others have no access to. They saw God. Believers are allowed to see the glory of his person, John 1:14, (above.) The glory of his covenant: Psalm 25:14, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will shew them his covenant."—The glory of his redeeming, his everlasting love to them: Jer. 31:3, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love."—The hidden glory of his word; Luke 24:32, "And they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" Hence,

Lastly, They were allowed to lay all their wants on him. When believers come to the mount, in his light they see light clearly, and at his table they are fed. Christ says to his guests, as Judges 19:20, "Peace be on thee; howsoever, let all thy wants lie upon me." Psalm 55:22, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." The Lord allows his people to lay all their burdens upon him;—the burden of their debt, the guilt of sin, he will answer for it;—the burden of the strength of sin: Micah 7:19, "He will subdue our iniquities."—The burden of our duties, and through-bearing in the way of God: 2 Cor. 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."—The burden of afflictions, crosses, trials; Isa. 43:2, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee," &c.—The burden of their families; Jer. 49:11, "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me."—The burden of their souIs for time and for eternity: Isa. 46:4, "And even to your old age, I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear: even I will carry and will deliver you."

We now come,

III. And last place, to make some practical improvement.—And as a suitable improvement, we may observe, that this doctrine, like the cloudy pillar, has a dark and a bright side.—Dark to those that are not in the covenant.—Bright to all God's covenanted people.

1. It has a dark side to all natural men, strangers to the covenant, who are none of God's covenant-people.—Such are these,

(1.) Who are grossly ignorant of the doctrine of the covenant. It is a promise of the covenant: John 6:45, "It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of the Father, cometh to me." And therefore, such as are not thus taught, are not in it. No person stumbles in the dark into this covenant.

(2.) Those who never found the intolerable weight of the first covenant, the law. Ye cannot be in both covenants at once, Rom. 7:4. And if ye be brought into the second, ye have found the yoke of the first intolerable; Gal. 2:19, "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." Ye have been awakened to see your natural misery, and your utter inability to help yourselves by your doing or suffering; to despair of salvation in any other way, but through the obedience and death of a Redeemer.

(3.) Those who were never yet pleased with the frame of the covenant as God made it, who in all their pretended closing with Christ, have still had some secret reserves as to some beloved lust, or as to the cross.

(4.) Those who are still in league with their lusts, their hearts never divorced from them: "If ye take me," says Christ, "let these go away." If Christ get the throne, the most beloved lusts will be crucified.—It has a dark side to you as long as you continue in this state. It accordingly says to you,

If you see God at all, it will be a dreadful sight you will get of him. It will be the sight of an absolute God out of Christ, breathing out fury and vengeance against you. And he that is a refreshing sun to others, will be a consuming fire to you. And how will you be able to abide this sight? Isa. 33:14.—It says again, Though you come to his table, you cannot come in safety. You run a dreadful risk while you go thither, breaking up into the mount, without a warrant from the Lord. And it is a dangerous business for an unholy soul to be found in holy ground, 1 Cor. 11:29.—It says also, Though ye sit down at the feast, ye cannot taste the sweetness of it, the sap and juice of it, namely, a sight of God in Christ as your own God; and a holy familiarity with him as such will be denied you. For what have ye to do with the covenanted-feast, who are strangers to the covenant itself?—It says, lastly, If ye snatch at the saints' familiarity with God, you put forth your hand to that to which you have no right, and go beyond God's allowance. Remember, Matth. 15:26, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." And therefore you can expect no other than this entertainment: Matth. 22:12, "Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding-garment? and he was speechless."—But as this text and doctrine has a dark side to those who are not in the covenant,

2. It has a bright side to all God's covenant-people. Here is your privilege, O covenanters! you who are savingly in covenant. Ye are come into covenant, ye are divorced from the law; Rom. 7:4, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is risen from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." If divorced from the law, ye have given it fair count and reckoning at parting, and fallen on a way of payment to it; for the covenant to which you now belong was not made but by sacrifice. Some are like an obstinate woman, who will not stir out of her husband's house, though he should slay her; these are desperate ones. Some like a foolish woman, who runs away from her husband, without suing out a divorce, or reckoning with him for the wrongs done to him; these are the presumptuous, whom the law will bring back from the horns of the altar. But Christ's spouse, at parting with the law, acknowledged all its demands just; but being sensible of utter inability to pay, goes to Christ as the great cautioner, and turns it over upon him for all.—If divorced from the law, the law also will be dead to you. Where one is divorced from the first husband, he is as dead to her. The stream of your comfort by the law will be dried up, and it will flow from Christ alone. You will rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. You will not draw your comfort from your repentance, resolutions, vows, or reformation; but from the application of the blood of the covenant.

2. If ye be come into the covenant, your league with your lusts is broken. Though sin cleaves close to you, your hearts are loosed from it, and turned against it, Rom. 7:17. You will hate it for itself, for its contrariety to the holy nature and law of your covenanted God, and not for the grievous consequences of it on yourself only. It will be to you as the fetters on the captive, he cannot get loose of them; but well he knows they are not his choice, though they were of gold.—Your hearts will be loosed from all sin, your hearts will hate it universally; Psalm 119:128, "I hate every false way." You will have a special eye for evil on your iniquity, so that you will gladly yield the offending right eye to be plucked out, and give your consent to the cutting off of the right-hand idol.—In a word, you have taken Christ, not for a shelter to your sins, but for a destroyer to them, 1 Cor. 1:30. Your business with the Mediator of the covenant will be as much for sanctification as justification, to partake of his holiness as well as his righteousness, his Spirit as well as his blood, Matth. 1:21.

Lastly, Ye have come into the covenant, if ye have the covenant's mark. The beast has his mark, and many are fond of it this day. Christ has also his mark, which he sets on his covenant-people.—There is the ear-mark; John 10:27, "My sheep," says he, "hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." See also Exod. 24:7. Christ bores the ears of all that are his. They are taught of God, and have taken Christ for their teacher; they have a certain sense suited to discern Christ's voice from that of others, agreeable to their new nature: "A stranger they will not follow." They know the voice of their beloved, Song 2:8. They look to him to be taught the way in which they should go; their ears are open, and their hearts willing to know his will, that they may do it. They wish to have shown them his truths, his ways, and ordinances, that they may cleave to them, Acts 9:6.—Again, There is a fire-mark: Luke 14:26, 27, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." He reconciles all his to the cross; and they are content to follow him at all hazards, and are fully resolved to follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth, Rev. 14:4; to side with him whoever side against him, being determined neither to be bribed nor boasted from him. Now, this doctrine has a bright side to all such, and bespeaks them as from the holy mount in this manner:

1. Come up hither to the Lord. Rise, the master calleth you to the feast at his table. Come in, ye blessed of the Lord, to Christ's banqueting-house, why stand ye without? Trample on all your doubts, whether they arise from the heaven above you, or from hell within you, and come forward to that God whose covenant you have laid hold on.

2. If you open your eyes, ye shall get a glorious sight of God in Christ. A sight which will be satisfying, and will darken all created glory. Though but bread and wine appear at his table, a greater than Solomon is there. Only believe; faith is the eye of the soul. Let us not have occasion to challenge your hearts after this communion with that which Christ said, John 11:39, "Take ye away the stone."

3. Use a holy freedom in Christ's house, for he allows you. And do not reckon yourself a stranger at his table, seeing the feast is to confirm the covenant, Song 5:1. Make a believing application of all the benefits of his purchase. Say first of all, Song 5:16, "This is my beloved, and this is my friend;" and then conclude, that with him all is yours.

Lastly, Fear not, O trembling soul! Entertain indeed a profound reverence of God, but away with your faithless fears, which confuse and discompose the soul on the mount with God. Remember, upon the nobles he laid not his hand. Being in the covenant, you are under a covert of blood, and, by virtue of it, may assuredly expect, safety.—Here some may propose this question, How shall we manage that we get this sight? To which I answer,

Be exercised to take up the covenant in a suitable manner, ver. 1–4. Take some time this night by yourselves, and consider the covenant,—your undone state without it,—the suitableness of it to your case,—the absolute necessity of being in it. Labour to understand it, and examine yourselves, as to your willingness to come into it.—Solemnly enter this night into the covenant, ver. 3. Though ye have done it before, do it again, and do it with more heartiness, ver. 7. Let this solemn transaction with God go before your solemn approach, and do not venture to set God's seal to a blank, to sit down at his table, while ye have not honestly accepted of his covenant.—Again, sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on your souls, before ye venture to go forward, ver. 8. Apply Christ's blood by faith to your own souls, laying the weight of all your guilt over upon it; believing firmly, that it is sufficient to purge you from all sin; and in this way come forward to the Lord with holy boldness, under the covert of this blood.—Once more, shake off all worldly thoughts and affections: labour to be in a heavenly frame; the nobles left the crowd at the foot of the hill, and went up into the mount. Put off your shoes, when you come on this holy ground.—Still farther, come forward under a due sense of the command of God; they went up because they were called, and so must you from conscience of Christ's command: "Do this in remembrance of me." Labour to have the sense of this command increased upon your spirits, as necessary to produce suitable obedience.—Lastly, open the eyes of faith, and look; the mouth of faith and eat what is set before your soul there, a slain Saviour, with all his benefits. Amen.

SERMON LXV

GOSPEL PRIVILEGES WONDERS OF GRACE

And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. - EXOD. 24:11

HAVING, in the preceding discourse, considered the first doctrine taken from these words, we go on to a short illustration of

DOCTRINE II. That it is a wonder of grace, that sinful creatures, in their solemn approaches to God, are favoured with special sights of, and an holy familiarity with him, and yet come off safe.

In speaking to this point, we shall,

I. Shew that it is a wonder of grace, that sinful creatures are admitted to see God, and to be familiar with him.

II. Shew that it is a wonder that in their solemn approaches, and when they are thus favoured, yet they come off safe.

III. Explain how it comes to pass, that their safety, when thus favoured, is secured.—And then,

IV. Make some short improvement.

We are,

I. To shew that it is a wonder of grace that sinful creatures are admitted to see God, and be familiar with him. We think we need say little for proof of this. Only consider,

1. The infinite distance that there is between God and the creature in respect of perfection. The distance betwixt an angel and a moth is but finite; but betwixt God and us the distance is infinite. And therefore, no wonder that beholding the glorious perfections of God, we dwindle into nothing in our own eyes, and say with Abraham, Gen. 18:27, "Behold now, we have taken upon us to speak unto the Lord, which are but dust and ashes;" and cry out with Solomon, 1 Kings 8:27, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?" Remember, ye saints that though God has laid by his enmity, he retains his sovereignty over us; and therefore it is admirable condescension, that he is pleased to allow us to see him, and to enjoy holy familiarity with him. Consider,

2. That it is the same God who is such a severe and dreadful avenger of sin; Psalm 5:5, "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity." Hab. 1:13, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." This same God who allows his covenant-people a sight of his glory, and a holy familiarity with him on the mount of ordinances, is he who thurst Adam out of paradise,—drowned the old world,—rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah. He who gives some the cup of salvation at his table, is the same who makes others of their fellow-creatures drink the wine-cup of his fury. He who makes some feast in his presence, is the same from whose presence others shall be punished with everlasting destruction.

We are,

II. To show that it is a wonder of grace that sinful creatures, in their solemn approaches to God, and when they are thus favoured, come off safe. This will appear if we consider,

1. The infinite holiness and spotless purity of that God before whom the sinful creature appears. He is glorious in holiness, and fearful in praises, Exod. 15:11. Even angelical purity is dim in his light, and is a sort of impurity, when compared with the infinite holiness of God, Job 15:15. Even they are chargeable with folly in his sight; potential folly, (though not actual), a kind of imperfection inseparable from the nature of the creature, in any state whatsoever; Job 4:18, "Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and all his angels are charged with folly." (Hebrew, He puts, chargeth). And therefore, even the confirmed angels cover their feet with their wings, Isa. 6:2, as if they would tell us that perfect created holiness is but a dark and smoky light before uncreated holiness. Shining holiness in some of the saints on earth, has a damping power with it. The very sight of one that convincingly walks close with God, is enough to strike a damp on the heart of a loose professor or apostate. How much more may the sight of infinite holiness strike the most spiritual saints to the ground! Consider,

2. That the best carry a sinful nature even up into the mount with them. Paul, rapt up to the third heavens, brought a sinful nature down with him again, an evidence he had carried it up, 2 Cor. 12:7. Look on thyself, O saint! in thy nearest approaches, and thou wilt see the humbling sight, a sinful heart, life, and lips, Isa. 64:6; sin woven into thy very nature, and mixed with thy flesh and blood, making a vile body, Phil. 3:21; sunk into the marrow of thy spirit, and diffused through thy whole soul. And then canst thou cease to say, as in Lam. 3:22, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not." Is it not a wonder of grace, that hell, so near heaven, has not sunk with its own weight? Consider,

3. That sinful creatures never miss to leave the marks of their foul feet, even when they are on holy ground. Rom. 7:21 "I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me." Peter falls a-roving even on the mount, Luke 9:33. Even in the greatest light which ever shone about the saints, they never wrote a line so fair, but there was a blot in it. The sacrifices were carried up to the mount with the nobles, for God knew they would need them even there. And if ye will look back to your carriage, when at a communion table, you will see such mismanagements, as may make you wonder that he laid not his hand upon you. Consider,

4. The particular jealousy which God has manifested about his worship. Therefore Joshua told the people, chap. 24:19, "Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God: he is a jealous God: he will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins." And he himself declared, "he would be sanctified in them that come nigh him, and before all the people he will be glorified," Lev. 10:3. And upon this he wrote a commentary, with flaming evidence, in the blood of Nadab and Abihu, even two of these on whom he laid not his hand at this time. A slip in the holy ground is most dangerous and provoking in its own nature. To affront a king in his palace, his presence-chamber, or on his throne, stirs up his anger with a peculiar keenness. How dear did the men of Bethshemesh pay for a look, 1 Sam. 6:19; Uzzah, for a touch, 2 Sam. 6:6, 7; Annanias and Sapphira, for a word, Acts 5. Now, who is able to stand before the piercing eye of his jealousy? Is it not a wonder of his grace, that the fire of his indignation burns not up sinful creatures in their solemn approaches to him? Consider,

5. That there is a solemn awfulness about the very ordinances of grace, which the sinner could not bear if he were not supported, Dan. 10:8, 9–19. Psalm 68:35, "O God! thou art terrible out of thy holy places." Jacob understood this when he had one of the most comfortable sights which ever mortal had: Gen. 28:17, "And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." The very throne of grace stands on justice and judgment, which are its habitation, Psalm 89:14. (Hebrew, its base); the covenant founded on blood, the blood of his own Son. All our mercies from the throne are dyed red in the blood of a Mediator. Thou canst not have a gracious look from the throne, but through the Redeemer's wounds; nor a pardon, but what is written with his blood. So that such sights are sufficient to make one faint away, if they are not supported by grace. Consider,

Lastly, That the emanations of the divine glory would overwhelm sinners, burst the earthen vessels, if a gracious God did not graciously support them. Some have felt this, when they have been made to cry to the Lord to hold his hand, for the earthen pitchers were able to hold no more. We know not what spirit we are of. It is our mercy we see but through a glass darkly, and not face to face now; for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 15:50. The flesh and blood of a giant would not be able to bear that glory now. And therefore, it is observed as an instance of his goodness, Job 26:9, "He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it."

We now go on,

III. To explain how it comes to pass that the safety of God's people, when thus favoured, is secured. It is so,

1. Because they are God's covenant-people by marriage with his Son. They are married to Christ, and the Son of the Father's bosom is their husband. He has all freedom in his Father's house, and so it cannot be a strange house to them. Where he sits, his spouse may stand safely at his hand: Psalm 45:9, "Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir." They have freedom in the house of God, in the right of their Husband. He has brought them up into his chariot of the covenant; and this has access to drive up into the mount, while it procures all safety to those who are in it, "being paved with love," Song 3:9, 10.

2. Because they come up under the covert of the Redeemer's blood, Heb. 12:22–24. By faith, they have the propitiation, whereby God is atoned, and becomes their friend, Rom. 3:25. The flesh of a slain Saviour is a sufficient screen from divine wrath, and his red garments from the canopy under which they may safely feast while on the mount. Their safety is secured,

3. Because God looks on them as in his own Son, and not as in themselves; and so after a sort he overlooks their infirmities: Numb. 23:21, "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel." He looked on them in Adam, their first representative, and so drove them out of his presence; but now he looks upon them in Christ as their head, and so brings them in again. And, O! but they look fair in him, each one resembles the son of a king. In Jesus they are complete, Col. 2:10; Song 4:7, "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee." They are safe,

4. Because, though they be unclean creatures, they come up into the mount, to bathe in the fountain opened there, for sin and for uncleanness, Zech. 13:1. They come to the blood of sprinkling. A physician will not drive away his patient, because his running sores drop in his chamber. I will bear with this, says he, for the poor man has come to get himself healed. Their safety is secured,

Lastly, Because it is the end of the covenant, to bring them to God. Jacob might well promise himself to see Joseph, when the waggons were come from him for that very end, to bring him to him, Gen. 45:27, 28. The covenant looks very very low, as low as the earth, to secure the believer's daily bread, Isa. 33:16. Nay, in the bowels of the earth, to bring forth his dead body, mouldered in ashes: "I am the God of Abraham." Nay, as low as hell: "And thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell," Psalm 86:13. And it looks very high, to bring the believer up into the midst of the mount of enjoyment with God in ordinances, nay, to the top of the mount, to bring them to where the Lord of glory dwells, where they shall see him as he is: Isa. 33:17, "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off."

It only remains, that,

IV. We make some improvement of this subject.

1. Let us, then, never more think lightly of solemn approaches to God, whether in private or in public ordinances. O! it is sad to think of our rashness in venturing on holy duties, not considering that in these we sist ourselves in the awful presence of God: Eccl. 5:1, "Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools." Whenever we are to go to God, we should consider where we are going, put off our shoes, for the place is holy. Were we thus frequently exercised, we would have more access to God in our ordinary approaches.

2. Let this commend Christ and the covenant to us, especially to those who stand off from him and his covenant. It is in the Mediator the sinner may meet with God in peace; for Jesus is our peace, Eph. 2:14. It is within the bond of the covenant, he is safe from avenging wrath. There is no safety without it, God will be a consuming fire to all who live and die out of Christ and the covenant.

Hearken, ye careless spectators, and be wise at length. Are you resolved to have no part in Christ and the covenant, that ye keep so far from the place of his feet, and the seal of his covenant. Consider, you also must come before God. You must die and come before the tribunal. Could you secure yourselves a place to be mere onlookers, when the rest of the world are dying about you; and when the world shall stand before the judgment-seat, then perhaps you might be allowed to be mere spectators on such an occasion as this. But it will not be so. You must take your part with the rest. And what will it be to get the first sight of your Judge then, with whom you might have been accepted, but would not? Consider, if it be a matter of such awful solemnity to approach the throne of grace, what will it be to stand before the throne of avenging justice? If it be so solemn to come up into mount Zion, where communion is to be had with God in Christ, what will it be to come to mount Sinai, where there is such blackness, darkness, and tempest, as will confound the adversaries of the Lord? Bless not yourselves that you have not gone up into the mount, for monuments of justice you shall be, if you be not thus monuments of grace.—Consider, what madness is it to lift up the heel against God, the weight of whose hand can crash you as a moth. Would it not be your wisdom to lie down among the dust of his feet, to approach him through his Son, and in the way of his covenant, trembling, if so be that he may be pleased to stretch out the golden sceptre, and save your life? Nay, come forward yet, strive to take hold of an offered Christ and covenant. Let not his terrors deter you from him As the lepers at the gate of Samaria did, so reason ye.

3. Let us praise him for this, that upon us he has not laid his hand; that we have not left a name to the place, Perez, from the Lord's making a breach upon us; but that we may set up a pillar here, and call it Ebenezer. There has been strange fire offered to the Lord here this day; wrong touches given to the ark; unworthy communicating, faithless, fearless, stupid, confused, and hypocritical managements; who dare say they have made no stumble on the mount? The bread and wine in the sacrament have as deep relative holiness as the ark had; but had spectators and communicants been taken up as hot for their profane looking to the one, as the men of Bethshemesh were for their looking to the other, there had been a sad sight among us ere now. Glory be to our gracious God, that on us he hath not laid his hand.

4. Let us long for that day which will put an end to our sinfulness, weakness, and imperfection, when we shall see him as he is, without any danger of sinning or suffering, which is far better, Phil. 1:23. It would be a token for good that we had seen the Lord, if we were now longing for that blessed day.

Lastly, Let us apply ourselves to the duties which a gracious God calls for at our hands.—And,

1. Is there any among us who have been admitted to an holy familiarity with God? Song 1:4. Then,—Wonder at the freeness of grace, and be thankful that ever the like of you should have come so far forward; 2 Sam. 7:18, "Who am I, O Lord God! and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?"—Double your watch, and walk very softly, being careful to keep your nearness, Song 3:5; Isa. 38:15.—If there be any special errand to the throne for yourselves, or for the church of God, as no doubt there is, strike in with this golden opportunity, and lay it before the Lord, Exod. 24:8, 9.—Beware of being proud of your attainments. There is a hazard here; but when you see your peacock-feathers, remember they are borrowed, and look to your black feet, 2 Cor. 12:7.—Lay your account with a storm, and be on your guard. If you have got a larger meal than others, it is not unlike you have more to do than they. But accept that kindly, and bless God who is beforehand with you, laying in the provision before he lays on the burden.

2. Is there any among us who have seen the God of Israel? Then walk as becomes those who have beheld his glory. Blessed are your eyes, for they see. But here some may say, Alas! this sight has been withheld from my eyes.—In answer to such, I observe, that some saying this, no doubt speak true; others belie the working of God's grace towards them. Therefore we must put it to the trial; for one may get a sight of Christ, and not know that it is he, John 20:14; Luke 24:16. I ask you, then, what effect on you has the sight which you have got this day?—Has this day's sight humbled you more, made you more vile and loathsome in your own eyes, filled you with shame and blushing, and self-loathing? It is a sign you have seen the Lord, Job 42:5, 6.—Has it weaned you more from the world, sunk the value of all created excellency with you, made you see through the bulky vanity of the world, that you are resolved you shall feed no more on these husks? Matth. 13:45, 46. Rev. 12:1.—Has it made the body of sin and death heavier than it used to be?—May be some of you think, ye have been undone at this communion with an ill heart, that drew a vail between Christ and you; and now ye are crying, Rom. 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" O to be quit of this burden at any rate! O to be beyond a sinning condition! welcome grim death, so that it would take off the burden. Truly, if it be so, it has been so thin a vail, that you have got a sight of Christ through it, Isa. 6:5; Luke 2:29, 30.—Has it kindled a superlative love in your own heart to this unseen Lord? Do ye love him more than all persons and things else? Psalm 73:25. If it be so, ye have seen him, Luke 24:32. Sick of love, argues a blink of the face of the lovely one received. Therefore, bless God, and be thankful. It is bastard humility to belie the grace of God. Walk so as the world may take notice that you have seen what they never saw, and have been where their ungracious feet never carried them. And show this in personal and relative holiness, Acts 4:13. Commend the way of God to others. Tell them it is good to be on the mount. Speak good of God's house, and give it your testimony, before despisers of Christ and ordinances; especially before poor discouraged sinners, those who desert ordinances, alleging God not to be found in them.—Finally, quench not the Spirit, cherish his motions, and follow on to know the Lord.

3. Ye who have made this solemn approach, but really have not seen the Lord, set ye about your proper duty.—Search out, mourn over the cause of this, and quickly flee to the blood of Christ for its removal. You have not seen the Lord; and is there not a cause? yes, sure he has a quarrel with you, and therefore has withdrawn himself. Seek it out. The fault has been either in your state, that you are yet in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. This is a fundamental mistake. Or it has been in your frame. Either you have not been at pains to prepare, or have sat down on your preparation; or some idol of jealousy has been nourished:—or it has been in your faithless management. Wonder ye in a special manner, that ye have come off safe, and that upon you the Lord has not laid his hand. Do not fret that you are come off with nothing; but, O bless him that you are come off at all!

Lastly, Go back to the throne with all speed. Though the communion-table be drawn here, it is not yet drawn to you in heaven; Joel 3:21, "For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed; for the Lord dwelleth in Zion." Follow on to know the Lord. Be not like the mixed multitude, who, disappointed of the milk and honey of Canaan, would needs go back to the onions and the garlic in Egypt. If you do so, his soul will abhor you: Heb. 10:38, "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." Say not, I will never see the Lord now: for, wherefore has he spared you, but that you might have occasion to have your marred work amended? And if ye wait on long, wonder not, it is a mercy ye have access to wait on. Lay down the resolution in Lam. 3:49, 50, "Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without intermission, till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven;" and in Isa. 8:17, "I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him." Amen.

SERMON LXVI

GOD NOT ASHAMED TO BE CALLED HIS PEOPLE'S GOD.*

Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. - HEB. 11:16

GOD has a peculiar people in the world, though these are few in number. Satan is called the god of this world; and indeed is so, in regard the greater part of the world, even the whole natives of the weary land, are his. But there is a select company, who are in, but not of the world; a people of a peculiar character, who are strangers and pilgrims in the earth; whose heads and hearts are towards the better country.—In the text we have their peculiar privilege, "God is not ashamed to be called their God." More is implied than is here said. God, who is the God of the whole earth, is their God in a peculiar manner, by a special covenant-relation; and he will own it before all the world, however they be despised by the world. They are savingly interested in him, and he is peculiarly interested in them. As they are not ashamed to be called his people, unless it be for this, that they do not look more like him; so he is not ashamed to be called their God. (Greek, to be sirnamed.)

There are two things which make men ashamed to own a relation; one upon the part of their relatives, another upon their own part. But neither are in this case.

1. He is not ashamed on their part, to be called their God. He is not ashamed of them, (as the Greek text bears expressly), as men sometimes are of their relations because of their scandalous character, as our Lord says he will be ashamed of some, so as that he will not own them, Mark 8:38. The reason of this is intimated in the text, in the particle wherefore, which leads us back to the character of those who are indeed God's people, exemplified in Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob, ver. 13–16. The sum of it lies here: That upon the faith of God's promise of a better world, they forsook this world, and went through it even to the grave, as persons not come to the place where they expected and desired to settle. Wherefore, since they forsook this world for God, and trusted him for a better inheritance to themselves, and, upon the faith of his promise, were easy in all their wanderings and hardships, God is not ashamed of them to be called their God: Exod. 3:6, "I am," said he, "the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." In these steps all the true children of Abraham walk.

2. He is not ashamed on his own part, to be called their God; as men are ashamed, when they have no suitable entertainment to give to those who have left all others for them, and depend entirely upon them. For he has prepared for them a city. These patriarchs dwelt in tents, and went from land to land at God's call; but a city, even the New Jerusalem, heaven itself, was prepared for them by their God; a city suitable to his dignity; a city, the like of which all the world could not have furnished them. He is not ashamed to be called his people's God, whatever hardships they suffer for his sake; for be has enough to make up their losses, ready for them. He would reckon it a stain on his honour, that any of them should be losers at his hand; if he should not fully answer the trust they put in him; if he did not give them as good, nay, better than the best thing which they ever were denied for his sake.—From this subject, we observe the following DOCTRINES, viz:—

DOCTRINE I. That however mean and low those be who have forsaken this world for God, looking for a better, God is not ashamed of them, or on their part, to be called their God.

DOCT. II. That whatever hardships they may suffer for his sake, he is not ashamed on his part to be called their God, having prepared for them a heavenly city, which will make up for all their losses.—These we shall shortly illustrate in their order.

We begin with

DOCTRINE I. That however mean and low those be who have forsaken this world for God, looking for a better, God is not ashamed of them, or on their part, to be called their God.

We shall here,

I. Explain the import of this their privilege.

II. Give the reasons of the point. And then,

III. Improve it.

We are then,

1. To explain the import of this their privilege.—It imports,

1. That he is their God, how mean soever their lot be. Whatever they want, they have him for their God: Heb. 8:10, "And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." The patriarchs had a wandering life of it in the world, were always pilgrims and strangers, they could never count themselves at home, while in the world. But whatever they wanted, they had a God in Christ for their own God. O! ye who are coming away from Lebanon, forsaking this world for God, breathing and panting for the better world, assure yourselves, he is your God, by this good token, that the heart of man will never in this case loose one foot till it has another fastened, never quit the present world till it be possessed of a God to fill up its room. It will never let go the grip the one hand has of this world, till it has a believing grip of a God in Christ with the other. Hence believing is compared to buying, where the man will not part with his money, till the commodity, which for the time is better to him than money, is made over to him. So, though you were reduced to this, that ye could not tell carnal Israel's tale, Hos. 2:5, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink:" yet ye may tell David's tale, a far better one: Psalm 18:2, "The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer: my God, my strength, in whom I will trust: my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower."—Here some may propose this

QUESTION, But what can persons make of this in the want of earthly enjoyments? We answer, They may make all of it that is necessary to full satisfaction and contentment of heart, Hab. 3:17, 18. Full protection, full provision, for time and eternity, there is nothing more can be needed: Psalm 142:5, "I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living."—It imports,

2. That he takes such a pleasure in them, and puts such an honour on them, that though the world should cast out their name as evil, he sirnames himself by them, and brings their name into his. Hundreds of times, the expressions, "The Lord thy God," "The Lord your God," occur in scripture, applied to God with respect to his people. Yea, he bears up their name in his, when they are dead and gone out of the world, since they still live unto him: Matth. 22:32, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." This is a memorial of them that will last, when the monuments and marble tombs will not keep the memory of the wicked from rotting.—It imports,

3.That he allows them to call him their own God: John 20:28, "And Thomas answered, and said unto him, My Lord, and my God." They can say this, how little soever they have in the world which they can call theirs. Why should they not call him by his own name? The Lord their God is the name he has taken to himself; a plain indication of his being pleased to be called by this name.—It imports,

4. That he allows them to depend on him as their God, and to improve their relation to him for all which they need; whoever casts them off, or refuses to help them, God will never put off his people with names, without the things signified by these names. If he is called their God, he will own his name in effect and reality; and indeed be a God to them, to all the intents and purposes of the covenant: Gen. 17:7, "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant; to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." They may look for all which they need from him, and are welcome to a fill of the fulness of God; whatever their case requires, this God will be all in all to them. Hence the expectation of faith; Psalm 27:10, "When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up."—It imports,

5. That he will own himself to be their God before the world, whoever disown them. He is content that strangers call him by this name, as Nebuchadnezzar did, Dan. 3:29; and Darius, chap. 6:16. He puts marks of his respect and relation to them upon them before the world, so that the world shall be obliged to take notice of his owning them. Rev. 3:9, "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, (which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie); behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." If their corruptions will not suffer them to acknowledge so much, yet their consciences shall not get it refused. Hence David prays, Psalm 86:17, "Shew me a token for good, that they which hate me may see and be ashamed, because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me."—It imports,

Lastly, That he reckons it his honour to be their God, even though men should be ashamed to rub shoulders with them. Accordingly we find him call them his glory: Isa. 46:13, "And I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory." And in 2 Cor. 8:23, they are called the glory of Christ. He glories in his special interest in them, and takes a pleasure to come over it: Song 8:12, "My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred."

We are now,

II. To give the reasons of the point. Among other reasons, there are the following:—

1. Because they have embraced him in the covenant, for their all, in opposition to the world, and all that is therein; which shows a nobleness of spirit in them, the certain product of his own Spirit: Psalm 4:6, "There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." Psalm 73:25, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none in earth that I desire besides thee." There are two offers made to every one of us: God says, "I will be thy God," the world says, "I will be thy God." Most men fall in with the world's offer, and all men naturally incline this way. But these noble souls, as partakers of the divine nature, pour contempt on the clay idol, God's rival, refusing it; and honour him by believing and embracing his offer; so that when the Lord says in the gospel to the man, "I will be thy God," his soul echoes back again, "Then thou art mine, my God, my portion; I take possession upon the credit of thine own offer:" Psalm 142:6, "I cried unto thee, O Lord; I said, Thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living." Thus he is not ashamed to be called their God.

2. Because they quit the world's certainty for divine hope, and trust him for an unseen portion to themselves, as preferable to all that the world can afford, believing he will glorify his all-sufficiency and his faithfulness in the promise, laying all their weight upon them; Rom. 4:20, 21, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded, that what he had promised he was able to perform." Such a trust they have in God, else they would never forsake the world: for plain it is, according to the measure of the belief of a better world to one's self, so is their forsaking the present world. And since they thus honourably trust him for their all, he is not ashamed to be called their God.

3. Because they can take up with nothing less than a God for their portion, by which they discover a peculiar elevation of spirit, the effect of divine grace: Phil. 3:8, "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." They can no longer feed with the prodigal upon the husks of the empty creation. Their soul's cry is, "Give me a God in Christ, or else I die." All the world, nay, a thousand worlds, cannot fill up his room: Song 8:6, "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love is strong as death: jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." And so they press forward through temptations, and the greatest danger which the world can lay before them, to hold him as their portion, and to come to the full enjoyment of him. Song 8:7, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned." So he is not ashamed to be called their God, because they thus love and desire him.

4. Because, in their way and walk, they are of a character distinguished from the men of the world, Phil. 3:18–21. They dare not take the way of the world, their souls hate it, as being opposite to the manners of the country to which they are going. Therefore they are nonconformists to the world, in so far as it is disconformed to the way of the Lord.

We shall now,

III. Improve this point.—Hence see,

1. That carnal worldlings are none of those whose God the Lord is, Matth. 6:24. Those whose hearts are not loosed from the present evil world, are not brought within the bond of the covenant, and have no right before the Lord to the sacrament, which is the seal of it. He would be ashamed to be called their God, who make that clay idol their God. I offer two evidences of this disposition.—(1.) When it is the world, and not God himself, which has the chief room in men's hearts and affections; Matth. 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Consider what it is, whether God or the world, which your hearts do most desire, and are most set upon, Psalm 4:6, (quoted above). What it is your chief joy lies in, in the enjoyment of God, or the enjoyment of the world. Whether your chief sorrow arises from crosses in the world, or from sin that offends God, or from the hidings of his face?—(2.) When the heart can never rest in God, but must still have its rest in the creature; or no rest for it at all: and so the man's life of comfort just depends on the smiles or frowns of the present world, not upon the having or wanting the favour of God, his smiles or frowns. Perhaps the man might find a rest betwixt God and the world, but no rest of the heart in God alone, Luke 14:26.—Hence see,

2. That such as having weighed all things, have forsaken the world for God, and fixed their desires on him and the better world, intent to be there whatever their lot in this world be; and to enjoy God in Christ as their God and portion, however small their portion be of this world's good things: they may be sure God is their God, and he will own it, though, by reason of the weakness of their faith, they have much ado to plead it. They may come to the communion-table, and fully assure their hearts of it, by the seal of the covenant, which he has provided for this purpose, to shew that he is not ashamed to be called their God. It is the pilgrim's table.—Learn,

3. That God is worthy to be chosen for our God in covenant; and therefore I exhort you to make choice of him for your all, and give up with the world henceforth, that ye may be pilgrims and strangers in it.—To prevail with you as to this, consider,

(1.) He is content to take in outcasts: Psalm 147:2, "The Lord doth build up Jerusalem; he gathereth the outcasts of Israel." Never do any seek after a God in Christ for their God in earnest, till such time as they see there is no satisfaction for them to be had in the creature. Thus they find they need a God. The gospel discovers God's offer to be their God, and grace determines them to choose him for their God. And they are not rejected, because they came not till their need drove them: but are welcome, since they came on the discovery of their need.

(2.) Consider, he is a fast friend, and forsakes not on any emergency whatever. If you take him for your God, and forsake the world, he will stand by you at all times, and own you, though all the world should forsake and disown you. O! have you not need of such a friend?

(3.) Does not the world reward your love with hatred in many instances? How often is your rest in it disturbed! O take God for your God this day, and you thus make the best exchange, of a changeable world for the unchangeable God.

Lastly, If you continue to forsake God for this world, the time will come when the world will fail you, and you will not have a God to own you, and so will be absolutely helpless. He offers himself to you in the covenant. Believe and embrace him this day. Give up with the world, and all things in it. Take him for all in time and through eternity, as an upmaking portion. We now go on to a short illustration of

DOCTRINE II. That whatever hardships his people may suffer for his sake, he is not ashamed on his part to be called their God, having prepared for them the heavenly city, which will make up all losses. We are not here to launch out into the consideration of heaven under a notion of a city; but only shall,

I. Show in what respects the heavenly city is prepared for the pilgrims who have forsaken this world for God, looking for a better.

II. Lay before you the reasons of the point. And then,

III. Make some improvement.

We are then,

I. To show in what respects the heavenly city is prepared for the pilgrims who have forsaken this world for God, looking for a better. It is prepared.

1. In respect of eternal destination in the decree of election before the world was made; Matt. 25:34, "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Their forsaking of the world in time, is an evidence and fruit of their election from eternity. Their being called out of, and separated from the world lying in wickedness, is owing to that eternal free-love, which in the decree separated them from the rest of the corrupt mass of mankind. The seal of God upon them from everlasting, though undiscernible till the day of their conversion, is the cause of their departing from the tents of wickedness; 2 Tim. 2:19, "Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity." It is prepared,

2. In respect of purchase, by the sufferings and death of Christ. It is therefore called the purchased possession, Eph. 1:13. And the price of the purchase is his blood, Acts 20:28, "To feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." Eternal happiness is the proper reward of Christ's works, not of ours. It had been in vain for any of the children of Adam to have looked for a better country than this world, had not the Lord Jesus, by his obedience and death, bought it for them. None of the pilgrims had ever got footing there, had it not become the land of our Immanuel by his own purchase. It is prepared,

3. In respect of possession taken of it already in their name, by our Lord Jesus entering into it, as a public person, at his ascension: Heb. 6:20, "Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec." As Christ died in their name, and so they died in him, the law having them all legally on the cross, when it had him there; therefore it is said, "They are crucified with Christ," Gal. 2:20; so he rose again, and ascended into heaven, and took possession of it in their name. Thus they are actually and really, though not in their persons, but in the person of Christ, possessed of the city already: Eph. 2:6, "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." This Christ himself told to be his errand in going away: John 14:2, "I go," said he, "to prepare a place for you."—It is prepared,

4. In respect of readiness to receive them in their own persons. They are made habitually ready for it, in respect of their state of justification and sanctification: Col. 1:12, "Giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." And it is ready for them, of which we have two evidences.

(1.) A new gate is erected, and opened for their entry into the city. It may be called the pilgrims' gate, to distinguish it from that of the natives of the city. See it, Heb. 10:19, 20, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." All the pilgrims enter by it, and it was erected purposely for them. And it is always open, never shut: Rev. 21:25, "And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there."

(2.) The notice is already there before them, that they are coming. The King's son has carried it thither: John 17:24, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." And this his efficacious intercession removes all lets or hindrances out of the way.

We are now,

II. To give the reasons of the point—I take them up in these four.

1. Because the happiness of the city, if they were once come there, will more than balance all the hardships in their pilgrimage that they had to undergo for his sake. Why should he be ashamed to be called their God, be their lot in the world as bad as it can be? The glory of the city will more than balance all the contempt, reproach, and disgrace cast on them for his sake. He will not be in their debt for lying among the pots on his account. The glory of the city will make them whiter than ever the world could make them black, Psalm 68:13, "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold." The rest of the city will more than balance all that toil, pain, weary work, in doing or suffering which they had for God in the weary land. What though it cost them many a weary step ere they get thither? If they were there, it will all be forgotten. Then they will for ever rest from all their labours, Rev. 14:13. Abraham's bosom will make the weary body and languid spirit fresh for evermore. The riches of the city will more than balance all their wants and losses in this world, even though they should lose their very lives in the cause. Whatever their wants are now, there is enough before them in the city above. And God has more, ten thousand times more to give them, than they can lose for him: Rev. 21:7. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." The eternity of the city, and all that is in it, will more than balance the continuance of their hardships in this world, to whatever length holy Providence sees meet to spin them out: 2 Cor. 4:17. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." However dark and long their night be, that morning cometh which will never be succeeded by another night.

2. Because they are not far from the city: They will soon be there: Psalm 90:10, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength, they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon out off, and we fly away." They are within a hand-breadth of the city, Psalm 39:5. It is but through the wilderness, over Jordan, and they are at it. And they cannot complain then, they are so near home, however harsh their entertainment be in the way.

3. Because in the meantime there is a communication betwixt them and this city, so that the whole of what they need may come from it. Pilgrims need never go to the world's door. They always may have provision from this city for their wilderness-journey. Though the Israelites could neither have provision and supply from Egypt, nor Canaan, while they were in the wilderness, they wanted not, they got it from heaven.

Lastly, Because the very faith and hope which they entertain as to this city, is sufficient to support them under all their hardships, 2 Cor. 4:17, 18. Faith believing the word of promise, and hope waiting for its accomplishment, bring down heaven to them till they go up to it; Heb. 9:1, "Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Rom. 8:24, "For we are saved by hope." Thus there is no reason he should be ashamed on his part to be called their God.

We now come,

III. To improve this point.—It serves,

First, To pour shame on the wisdom and way of the world. And this,

1. In that they reckon it wisdom not to quit a seen advantage for an unseen one, certainty (as they call it) for hope: Psal. 4:6. "Who will shew us any good?" Therefore they embrace the present world, tack about, and sail with every wind; making the way of the world, and their own ease, the mark by which to steer their compass, rather than the word and glory of God, and the dictates of conscience, according to the word. When they have done this, they reckon they have done wisely: Hosea 12:7, 8. "He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance." But either this is brutish folly, or God may be ashamed to be called the God of pilgrims in this world, who take quite another way, and look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, 2 Cor. 4:18. But God is not ashamed of pilgrims, therefore the men of the world are fools; and they will be seen to be so with a witness; for God's promise is better than the world's hand-payment. It pours shame upon the wisdom of the world,

2. In that they are ready to be ashamed of God's people, because of the hardships they are laid under in their pilgrimage through the world. This their way is their folly; for whatever their lot be God is not their God and portion. The world's esteem is little worth, but heaven's esteem of the saints never alters, whatever alterations may be in their outward condition. This point,

Secondly, Serves to instruct in several duties, those who profess to be pilgrims in the world, and to have taken God for their God, looking for a better world. Such as,

1. Be not ashamed of him, to be called his people; Mark 8:38, "Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels." Be not ashamed to own him, and avouch him to be your God. Whatever bears his image and the stamp of his authority, cleave to it confidently. Be not ashamed of any of his truths, ways, ordinances, whatever may be thought of them by the world, for worldly men are not the proper judges of these things, and cannot discern their real worth.

2. Be not ye a shame and dishonour to him, by your cleaving to the world, and the way of the world; Rom. 2:24, "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you." Remember it is they who forsake the world, whom God is not ashamed to be called their God. If you go back again to your former lusts, you blot out your name out of that number, and rank yourselves among those who have their portion in this life. If he be your God, cast not dishonour on him, by hanging on about the door of the world, and your lusts, like them who have no other God to depend on. If you make as little conscience of your thoughts, your words, your actions, and dealings with God or man, as the men of the world do, for all your profession, God will do with you as a man with bars which stick to his clothes, he plucks them off, and casts them into the fire.

3. Do not decline the hardest piece of the doing-work of religion for him. Engage in the whole without exception. Have respect to all his commandments, Psalm 119:6. The internal duties of religion must by all means be done by you, at the same time leave not the external undone. Mortification of your lusts, and watchings against them, in the faith of the promise, should be your daily work, and stick not at cutting off right hands, and plucking out right-eye sins. All this is but a very small thing in comparison of what he has prepared for you: Rom 8:13, "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

4. Shift not the cross of Christ, but be ready to suffer for him as he may call you; 2 Tim. 2:12, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us." No Christian sufferers for him shall ever be losers by him, lose what they will in the world. Narrow not your notion of suffering for Christ, to suffering of violence by persecutors. But remember, that though it may come to this, that you must either sin or have to suffer some hardships to keep your conscience clean, (and this you may meet with in the most peaceable times of the church); yet then the Lord calls you to suffer for him. And suffering hardships for your adherence to any duty of the ten commandments, out of love to God and his holy law, is as really suffering for Christ, as if you laid down your liberty or life in defence of the articles of your faith.

5. Walk like the expectants of heaven, citizens of the city above prepared for you by your God. This city will far more than compensate for your sufferings, for all the difficult and hard steps ye may have in your way thither.—Live by faith, and keep the promise in your eye;—the promise respecting the end of your journey, the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which awaits you, 2 Cor. 4:17;—the promise respecting your through bearing by the way; 2 Cor. 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Carry meekly and patiently under all the hardships of the weary land, like the followers of Christ Men do not fret and vex themselves, because the midges flee about them, when they travel in a hot summer-day. Christians need be as little surprised that they meet with one rub after another in the way through this wilderness; and because they may be of long continuance, Christians should arm themselves with patience in the faith of a better world; Col. 3:15, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." Be resolute to get through, and never to make trace with the world, come what will come, but press forward in the way of duty over all impediments, where the Lord points out your way; Matth. 11:12. "And from the days of John the baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."—Carry cheerfully and courageously, as knowing better times are coming: Heb. 10:34. "For ye had compassion on me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourself that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance."

Lastly, Spend the time of your sojourning in making ready and preparing for that city which the Lord has prepared for his people; Rev. 19:7, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." There was much cost and pains at preparing it for them; no wonder that pains be necessary in them to make ready for it. All the Lord's people are habitually, in respect of their state, prepared for heaven; but what they have to do is, to get themselves prepared actually, in respect of their frame; therefore labour to be dying daily to this world, and to get your hearts more and more weaned from it; that ye may be like ripe corn forsaking the ground.—Cherish quick and vigorous longings to be rid of the body of sin and death; maintain the battle against heart-corruptions constantly; and this will make you long for deliverance. Be watchful, as not knowing when your Lord cometh.—In a word, be much conversant in this city; solace yourselves with believing prospects of it; and see that your heart be there, for there unquestionably your heart must be where your treasure is, Col. 3:1–5. Amen.

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