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Did Chrift execute his offices with fuch defire, delight, and joy, in a state of humiliation; and will he not much more do it in a state of exaltation? Yea, furely he will; for he is "Jefus Chrift, the fame yesterday, and to day, and for

ever."

6. Confider, that both the Father and the Holy Ghost are engaged for the execution of thefe offices of Chrift. The Father is engaged, because he ordained him to these offices, and ordained him with the folemnity of a decree, Pfal. ii. and with the folemnity of an oath, Pfal. cx. and with the folemnity of a proclamation from heaven, Matth. iii. at the close, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Now, may faith fay, was Chrift ordained with fuch folemnity to his mediatory offices by his Father; and will not the Father fee to the execution of them with respect to my foul, that puts its truft in him? Again, as the Father, fo the Holy Ghoft is concerned in the execution of these offices. The Holy Ghost furnished him with gifts and graces for this very end: If. lxi. 1. "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound," &c. Now, will ever the Spirit of the Lord lofe his labour? No, no: God has

put his Spirit upon him, therefore he will bring forth judgement to the Gentiles, and the ifles fhall wait for his law." Thus you fee, that faith has all the fecurity that Heaven can afford for the execution of his offices. Thus, then, come up from the wilderness, leaning upon the beloved.

Queft. 3. How is faith to act upon a God in Chrift, who is the ultimate object of faith?

Anfw. In thefe particulars. 1. Let faith view a God in Chrift in a way of appropriation, as its own God. This we find has been the way of the faints in all ages and generations; it still lays claim to God in Chrift, with its appropriating my, &c. Pfal. xvi. 2. “O my foul, thou haft faid unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord." And, ver. 5. "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup," &c. And Pfal. lxxiii. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the ftrength of my heart, and my portion for ever." And if you afk, Upon what ground doth faith go, in laying claim to a God in Christ as its own God? l anfwer, It goes upon the ground of his affuming our nature in the perfon of his eternal Son, and the covenant-grant and promife through him; "I am the Lord thy God; I will be your God, and ye fhall be my people." Faith fets to its amen unto the grant, and fays, "This God is my God for

ever;" and it fhall be fo, because he has faid it; and, "Has he faid it, and will he not do it? hath he spoken it, and shall it not come to pafs?"

2. Having fixed thy claim unto a God in Christ as thy own God, then proceed to take a view of all his attributes and perfections; for every one of them (as I fhewed before) is a pillar and strong rock, on which thy faith may lean with the greateft confidence and fecurity, even "though the earth fhould be removed, though the mountains fhould be caft into the midst of the fea." Ö, will faith fay, my God is a God of infinite power, and "doth whatever pleafeth him in the armics of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth;" and this power is through Chrift engaged for my prefervation, "He will hide me as in a pavilion in the evil day." My God in Chrift is a God of infinite wifdom; and therefore he will lead me in the quay I know not, and make me wife to falvation. He is a God of infinite juftice; and therefore, having accepted a fatisfaction for my fins in the Surety, he is "faithful and just in forgiving," he will "blot out mine iniquities as a cloud," &c. He is a God of unfpotted holiness; and therefore he will fanctify me according to his covenant; "I will fprinkle them with clean water," &c. He is a God of infinite bowels and mercy; and therefore he will pity and pardon me, and "hear me when I cry," &c. He is a God of infinite faithfulness, this is the "girdle of his loins and reins ;" and therefore he will not fuffer his promise to fall, "his covenant he will not break," &c. Thus faith leans and refts on the divine attributes as they are manifefted in Christ.

3. Faith leans upon a God in Chrift, as one that is infinitely bountiful and liberal; and argues as the apoftle doth, Rom. viii. 32. "He that fpared not his own Sor, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not with him also freely give us all things?" Faith fees that his treasures can never be diminished, far lefs can they be spent or exhaufted; and Oh how heartfomely doth faith lay claim to thefe treafures, when it hears him faying, as James i. 5. "If any man lack wifdom, let him afk of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not: and it fhall be given him."

4. Faith views the providence of a God in Christ as calculate and defigned for the advancement of his own glory, and levelled at the good of them that love him; and this quiets the foul amidst all the reelings and fhakings of this lower world. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice: let the multitude of ifles be glad thereof."

5. Lafly, Faith, acting upon a God in Chrift, will fee an eternity of happiness beyond time, in the immediate fruition

and

and enjoyment of him; hence is that of David, Pfal. Ixxiii. 26. "My fleth and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

THE TRUE SUBSTANCE AND STRENGTH OF A
CHURCH AND NATION.

TWO SERMONS,

PREACHED AT THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER AT DUNFERMLINE, JUNE 10. AND 11. 1733.

IN

ISA. vi. 13.-So the holy feed fhall be the fubftance thereof.

N this chapter we have, first, An awful vision of God made unto the prophet Ifaiah. He got a view of the infinite JEHOVAH, in the perfon of his eternal Son; for fo Christ himfelf explains it, John xii. 41. "These things faid Efaias, when he faw his glory." Chrift had a glory with the Father before his incarnation, yea, before the world was; and Isaiah got a view of this glory. Queft. What did he fee? Anfw. 1. He faw his throne, high and lifted up. 2. He faw his temple, his church on earth, filled with the train of his glorious excellencies. 3. He faw the bright attendants that furround his throne, Cherubims and Seraphims, covering their faces with their wings, because of the dazzling floods of glory that brake out from his prefence. 4. He heard fome of their anthems, or fongs of praise, whereby they celebrate the glory of his unfpotted holiness; and then fall a-wondering, that the brightness of that glory should ever thine in this lower world: O, say they, "the whole earth is full of his glory," ver. 3. They are not furprised to see his glory fhining in heaven, where fin never entered: but to see the glory of God shining through a vail of

flesh,

flesh, and displayed in this dunghill-world of fin and mifery, is what fills them with eternal wonder.

:

Secondly, We have the effects of this vifion. 1. Upon the temple; where, it is like, Ifaiah got the manifestation, ver. 4. "The pofts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the earth fhook, and the houfe was filled with smoke." A cloud was caft over the face of his throne, and the posts and pillars of the temple fall a-trembling, as a fignal of the deftruction of the city and temple; firft by the Babylonians, add afterwards by the Romans. 2. Upon this the prophet is ftruck with confternation at the fight of the divine glory, ver. 5. "Wo is me, for 1 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 hofts." 3. We have the filencing of the prophet's fears by the good and comfortable words which the angel fpake unto him; and a fign given him of the remission of his fin, as a preparation for his converse with God, ver. 6. 7. " Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me, having a live-coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and faid, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy fin purged." 4. We have an awful commiffion given unto the prophet. An inquiry is made, by a Trinity, for a man that would bear the commiffion; the prophet offers himself: ver. 8. " Whom shall I fend, and who will go for us? Here am I, (fays the prophet), fend me.” The prophet is a volunteer in his Mafter's fervice, ready to encounter the greatest difficulties in the work; he knew, that if he had God's commission, he should have his countenance and affiftance; he fends none a warfare upon their own charges. The Lord takes the prophet at his word, and gives him his commiffion, ver. 9. to the clofe. Where he gives him to understand three things. (1.) That the generality of the people to whom he was fent, would turn a deaf ear to his meffage, which would be followed with a judicial stroke of blindness, deadness, and stupidity, ver. 9. 10. (2.) That the confequence of this would be their utter ruin, ver. 11. 12. (3.) That a remnant should be fpared as a monument of divine mercy, ver. 13. "But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it fhall return, and fhall be eaten ; as a teil-tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them, when they caft their leaves:" fo the holy feed fhall be the fubftance thereof.

Where, in general, you may fee, that in the worst of times, in the times of the greatest defection and backfliding, God has a little remnant that keep their garments clean, and that in the midft of the moft fweeping and defolating calamities he will

take

take special notice of for good. More particularly, we have four or five things afferted in this verfe, with refpect to the Lord's remnant.

1. That the remnant will be but small, "In it fhall be a tenth;" a certain number put for an uncertain: a very small number, in comparifon of the multitude that shall perish in their unbelief, and be flain in the common calamity. The tenth or tithe was God's proportion under the law, confecrated for his use.

Obferve, That, among the multitude of mankind that fall to the devil's fhare, God's remnant are but a small number; his flock is but a little flock, like the gleanings after the vintage. But yet them he will not want, though he fhould invade helt to recover them: If. liii. 12. "I will divide him a portion with the great, and he fhall divide the fpoil with the strong." And this portion, this remnant, fhall be confecrate to his fervice and honour, as the tenth was under the law.

2. It is afferted of this remnant, that they fhall return ; that is, they fhall return from their fins and backflidings, and the common defections and backflidings of the church of Ifrael; and they excite one another, faying, "Come and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath broken, and he will bind us up," Hof. vi. '1. And they fhall return alfo from their captivity in Babylon to their native land; and when God turns back their captivity, it will be refreshing like fouth-running ftreams of water.

3. It is afferted of this remnant, that it shall be eaten ; that is, (fay fome), this remnant, after they return, fhall be eaten, confumed, or devoured a fecond time by the kings of Affyria.

Obferve, That God's remnant when they are delivered out of one trouble, they muft lay their account with another; when they have run with the footmen, they must contend with borfes.

Or, as fome, particularly Henry on the place, understands it, fhall be eaten, that is, fhall be accepted of God as the tithe was, which was meat in God's house. The faving of this remnant shall be meat to the faith and hope of them that with well to God's kingdom and intereft.

4. It is faid of this remnant, that it fhall be "as a teil, and as an oak whofe fubftance is in them, even when they caft their leaves." As if he had faid, Though they may be stripped. of their outward profperity, and fhare of the common calamity; yet they shall recover like a tree in the fpring, and sprout and flourish again; although they fall, they thall not be utterly

caft

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