name of Chrift, and the name of the Father of Chrift in them and upon them. Indeed the world cannot read this name of God that is on the faints, and therefore they defpife them, and account them as the "drofs and off-fcourings of the earth," and perhaps prefer the man with the gold ring and the gay clothing to them; and many times the faints cannot fee it themselves; but the day comes, when all the duft and rubbish whereby this name that is upon them is obfcured, fhall be wiped off, and men and angels fhall read it on them in legible characters: 1 John iii. 2. "Beloved, now we are the fons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know, that when he fhall appear, we fhall be like him; for we fhall fee him as he is." Inf. 9. See hence how faith goes to work in laying claim to God, as our own God in Chrift. Why, here it is: My name or nature is in him, fays God: Well, fays faith, my name and nature is in him too; and therefore God and I are met together in him, in sweet peace, amity, and friendship. Oh the encou ragement of faith in God that lies in that sweet name "Emmanuel, God-man, or God with us!" Oh! fays the Father, I truft him, for my nature is in him: Oh! fays the believer, my nature is met with the nature of God in him, and therefore I will truft him too. My fulness, "all the fulness of the Godhead," is in him, fays the Father: And my stock, my all, is in him, fays the believer. My life is in him, fays God: And my life is in him too, fays the believer, "Our life is hid with Chrift in God." My glory is in him, fays the Father: And he is my glory too, fays the believer, "In him fhall all the feed of Ifrael be juftified, and thall glory." Oh the fweet meeting and centering between God and the believing foul in Chrift! Oh Sirs! wonder and admire at this meeting, that our name is met with the name of God in Chrift: here is a brighter crown of glory put upon our head, than ever did shine upon the head of Adam in innocence: yea, the highest angel or archangel has not fuch a title of fibnefs to the name of God, as the meanest member of Christ upon the earth. Inf. 10. See hence what good reafon to record his name, by preaching the gofpel, and adminiftrating the facraments of his intitution, and why every gracious foul loves fo much to hear of the name of Chrift, and to speak of it; why, it is no won der though they that know him flock and refort to thefe ordinances where his name is recorded; no wonder though minifters and Chriftians ftudy to cause his name to be remembered in all generations; why, his Father's name is in him, and therefore they cry, "Let his name endure for ever, and let his name name laft like the fun, for men fhall be bleffed in him, and all generations fhall call him bleffed." Inf. 11. This doctrine may serve as a mythe or directory both to ministers and people, how to steer an even and fleady course in this dark, divided, and cloudy day, when fome are faying, Lo, he is here, and others, Lo, he is there; fome faying, This is the way, others, That is the way; fome faying, Thefe men should come in to the church, and join her judicatures, others crying, No, it is duty to continue in a feceflion. This doctrine ferves to fhew what we are to do in such a distracted day; why, we are neither to regard the cries on the one fide or the other, but to look to him who has his Father's name in him, who has the Urim and Thummim in his breaft, and to follow him: " Behold I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people ;" and therefore let the people follow their leader. The great inquiry at this day fhould be, Where ftands the ftandard-bearer among ten thousands? where ftands the name of God, and teftimony of Jefus ? for where that stands there we are to stand. If judicatories be holding the reformation-ftandard of Chrift, we are to hold with them; but if they be pulling down the reformation-standard, we are to ftand off from them, as we would not partake of their plagues. EXOD. xxiii. 21.-My name is in him. THE THIRD SERMON ON THIS TEXT. USE SE fecond may be of Trial. What knowledge or acquaintance have you of him that has his Father's name in him? Has he, either at this occafion, or formerly, manifefted his own and his Father's name unto you, as he speaks in that forecited John xvii. 6. "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world?" Take the following marks, whereby you may know this. 1. If so, then his name will have a fweet favour and relish in your very fouls, fo that you will eat it, and it will be to you "the joy and rejoicing of your hearts: Because of the favour of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee." Oh Sirs! how goes the name of Chrift away with you? You that are contented with dry dry faplefs harangues of morality, and the airy flourishes of hu man rhetoric, pleased with fermons wherein fcarce any thing of the name of Chrift is to be found; you never yet had his name or his Father's name manifefted to you, ye are ftrangers to it; for to them that know his name, that fermon, that ordinance, that communion, where the name of Chrift is not recorded with honour, it is unfavoury, to them taftelefs like the white cf an egg, in which there is no relish. 2. You will frequently think on his name with pleasure, and roll it as a sweet morfel under your tongue. Oh! fays David, "My meditations of him are fweet, and I will be glad in the Lord: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches, my foul fhall be fatisfied as with marrow and with fatnefs." It is given as a character of the faints, especially in an evil day, that "they feared the Lord, and thought upon his name," Mal. iii. 16. and If. xxvi. 8. "In the way of thy judgements, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the defire of our foul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee." 3. You will be often speaking to the commendation of his name, and of his Father's name that is in him. Oh! will the foul fay, that I had a tongue like a trumpet, that could found through all the corners of the univerfe, to proclaim the glory and excellency of his name; "Now bleffed be his glorious name for ever and ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory." And you will be ready fometimes to call in the whole powers of your foul to "blefs his holy name," and to fummon" angels that excel in ftrength, and all his minifters that do his pleasure, and all his works in all places of his dominions," to help you to celebrate the glory of his worthy name. 4. If you be acquainted with the name of God as it is in Christ, you will make much ufe of that name in all your addreffes to God, and you will lay the only ftrefs of your acceptance upon that name; when you offer up either prayers or praifes to God, you will fet the name of Chrift before you, and the name of God in him, as that which will bear you through, and render you accepted; Eph. i. 6. "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Heb. x. 19-22. you fee there that it is in the name of our great New Teftament high priest, that we are to draw near with full affurance of faith." See Heb. iv. at the clofe. Now, try yourfelves by this, whether you be acquainted with the name of God in Chrift; when you go about any duty, whether it be praying, praifing, communicating, or whatever it be, you will do all in the name of the Lord Jefus, to the glory of God through him. 5. LE 5. If you be acquainted with the name of God as it is in Chrift, you will be ready to bow at or in the name of Jefus, and you will put equal honour upon him as upon his Father: "For this is the will of him that fent him, that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father; and to him every knee must bow, and every tongue fhall confefs, that Jefus Chrift is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Sirs, you entertain mistaken notions of the Deity, if you think that it is a flight put upon the Father, to give the fame divine worfhip and homage to him as to the Father, for God the Father is glad when every knee bows unto Chrift. And therefore try yourselves by this. God the Father fays, " Kifs the Son; hear him: He is thy Lord, and worship thou him." Now, do you obey this command, do you trust in his name, do you glory in his name, and obey and honour the name of God in him. 6. You will be very tender of his name, you will fanctify it in your hearts, and make it your fear and your dread; you will be tender of his honour, when you hear his name profaned, Pfal. xlii. 10. "It is as a fword within my bones, while they fay daily unto me, Where is thy God?" tender of his laws, afraid of fin yourselves, and grieved when you see his laws broken by others; tender of his Spirit, afraid of grieving it; tender of his members and minifters that have his name upon them; tender of his houfe, and the concerns thereof will be dearer to you than the concerns of your own houses; "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up," fays David; more concerned to see these thieves and robbers spoiling the house of God, than if you saw your own house riffled before your eyes. Ufe third of this doctrine fhall be of Exhortation unto all in general, both to faints and finners, both to communicants and others, in a few particulars. Is it fo as you have been hearing, that the name of God is in Christ, in such a way and manner as has been explained? Then, First, See that you study to know the name of God in him. The knowledge of God in the works of creation and providence, is the foundation of all natural religion; and the knowledge of the name and nature of God in Chrift, is the foundation of the Chriftian religion: and therefore we find that commonly in fcripture, the knowledge of God, and of his name, as it is revealed in Chrift, is put for all religion, John xvii. 3. "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jefus Chrift whom thou haft fent." 2 Cor. iv. 6. "God who commanded the light to fhine out of darkness, hath thined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the VOL. II. giory Rr glory of God, in the face of Jefus Chrift." And therefore, Sirs, I would commend it to you above all things, to know this name of God, as it is revealed in Chrift. Motive, It is revealed in him on purpose that it may be known by the children of men. God in Chrift is juft God "manifested, and manifested in the flesh;" and why is a thing manifested, but that it may be known? the manifeftation of it is vain, and to no purpose, except the knowledge of it be attained. Shall God manifeft himself to us in Chrift, and fhall not we purfue the knowledge of him as he is in Chrift? It is the firft commandment of the law, to know the name of God as it is in Christ, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," i. e. thou fhalt know and acknowledge me, as I have revealed myself in the person of my eternal Son. And till you obey this commandment, and know this name of God in Christ, you can obey no commandment of the law to purpose; and when you obey this one, you will furely obey all the commandments; when you come once to know God as he is in Chrift, you fhall know him as your own God, and fo come at a faving intereft in him. When he is ta ken up as the God and Father of Chrift, we take him up as our own God, and our own Father in Chrift, and are enabled to cry with Thomas, "My Lord, and my God;" agreeable to what Chrift declares before he left this lower world, "I af cend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." If you come not at the knowledge of the name of God as it is in Chrift, you fhall know his name, as it is out of Chrift, through all eternity. And Oh how terrible is his abfolute name! it is "a confuming fire to the workers of iniqui ty." And therefore, for the Lord's fake, feek to know the name of God as it is in Chrift, the great Angel of the covenant. (6 as Direct. 1. If you would know the name of God as it is in Chrift, fearch for it in the volume of his book, for there it is revealed. Take heed to the word read and preached, unto a light fhining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-ftar arife in your hearts." As a man's name and character is known by his teftimonial, fo Christ's name and character is to be known by the word, "for these are they that testify of him ;" and therefore "fearch the fcriptures" for his name, dig for it there as for a hid treasure. 2. Attend carefully upon the ordinances of his appointment, where you may have them difpenfed in purity, by these that bear Chrift's commiffion; for there it is that his name and his Father's name is recorded. As it is faid of Paul, fo it may be faid of every faithful minister of Chrift, "He bears the name of Chrift unto the Gentiles;" and the work of minifters, particularly in the difpenfation of word and facrament, is just to blazon |