1. When the number of faithful minifters and Chriftians is greatly decreased: when they that are valiant for the truth are thin fown, as in ver. 1. &c.

2. When fin is become univerfal, as ver. 4. 5. 7. all ranks corrupting their ways.

3. When folk are turned refolute in fin, as ver. 3.

4. When folk turn impudent in fin, as in ver. 3.

5. When trials and other means do not reclaim, ver. 3. "Stricken, but not grieved," &c. when the word does no good, Heb. vi. 8.

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6. When the fins of a people are greatly multiplied, as ver. 6. Jer. xxx. 14. 15. Hof. iv. 1-3.

7. When folk turn fecure, and ftupid in a way of fin, promiling themfelves impunity, as ver. 12. 13. fo If. xxviii. 14. 15. 16..17. I.

Queft. 3. What is to be done in order to prevent matters coming to that pafs, that the Angel" will not pardon ?" Anfw. Take care to obey his voice. But this leads to another exhortation, which I muft refer to another occafion.

EXOD. xxiii. 21.-Obey his voice: for my name is in him.

THE SEVENTH SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

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Fifth exhortation I offer from the doctrine is this: Seeing it is fo that the name of the great God is in Christ, the great Angel of the covenant; then follow the advice given here; fee that ye obey his voice. You fee in the context, the verse immediately following, that the voice of the Angel is the very fame with the voice of his eternal Father, ver. 22. "If thou fhalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I fpeak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies," &c. The three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, are one God, the fame in fubftance, equal in power and glory; and therefore, when one of the witneffes in heaven fpeak, a whole Trinity speaks. The reafon here given, why we should obey the voice of Chrift, is, Because my name is in him. Says God the Father, I am in him, and therefore obey his voice. Hence Christ, when here upon earth, in a state of umiliation, tells the fons of men, "He that heareth me,

heareth

heareth him that fent me; and he that defpifeth me, defpifeth him that fent me." And therefore I exhort you, Sirs, who are before me, to fee that ye obey the voice of Chrift, the great Angel or Apoftle of the New Teftament church. Three feveral times was this charge repeated by a folemn proclamation from heaven, while Chrift was here upon earth, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." And fee an awful charge given to the fame purpose by the apostle, Heb. xii. 25. See that ye refufe not him that fpeaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more fhall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven."

But that I may enlarge this exhortation, I fhall endeavour, 1. To inquire what we are to understand by the voice of Chrift.

2. Inquire more particulary what his voice and language is to the prefent generation.

3. What it is to obey his voice.

4. Offer fome confiderations to excite and quicken finners to obey his voice.

5. Offer fome characters of these that are obedient to his

voice.

6. Conclude with fome advices how his voice is to be obeyed.::.

Queft. 1. What is the voice of Chrift, which we are required to hear and obey?

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Anfw. For clearing of this you would know, that we are not to expect to hear the voice of Chrift in that manner that Ifrael heard it at the delivery of the law upon mount Sinai, "which voice they that heard it, intreated that the word fhould not be fpoken to them any more: for they could not endure that which was commanded" yea, Mofes himself was made to own, " I exceedingly fear and quake," Heb. xii. 18. 19. 20. 21. Neither are we to think of hearing the voice of Chrift in a way of immediate revelation, as the prophets under the Old Teftament, and apoftles under the New, to whom he spoke "at fundry times, and in divers manners," by dreams and vifions. I do not think indeed that the Lord has fo limited his adorable fovereignty, but that he may notify his mind, as to fome particular events of providence, to whom, and after what manner he pleases. But although these things may be premonitions and warnings, yet they are not the grounds of our faith, that being laid in the " more fure word of prophecy, to which we do well to take heed, as unto a light fhining in a dark place." Neither muft we think of hearing his voice in an oral and perfonal way, as the difciples

and

: no,

and others heard him, when he was perfonally here upon earth: "the heavens are to contain him, until the time of the restitution of all things." Now, when he is upon the throne of glory and majesty at the right hand of God, he fpeaks not in an immediate, but in a mediate way, by his heralds and ambaffadors. Hence John Baptift is called "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." 2 Cor. v. 20. “Now then we are amballadors for Chrift, as though God did befeech you by us: we pray you in Chrift's fead, by ye reconciled to God."

But more directly for an answer to the question, you would know that the voice of Chrift, or of God in him, is conveyed to the children of men two ways, either by his providence, or by his word.

1. By his providential difpenfations, whether of mercy or of judgement. There is not a mercy that the hand of Providence reaches to thee, O man, whether it be preventing mer cy, providing mercy, fparing, or delivering mercy, but the voice of it is there. "Knowelt thou not, Oman, that the goodnefs of God leadeth thee to repentance ?" Rom. ii. 4. Oh! how fweet are they that take up, or answer this voice of God, or are led to repentance by his bounty and liberality to them! The more liberal that God is to many folks in this generation, the more they do kick against God, like Jefhurun. But let fuch remember that awful caveat which you will find in the place laft cited, that by the abuse of divine mercy, and impenitence under it, thou art "treafuring up unto thyfelf wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgement of God." But then the voice of God is conveyed not only in his favourable, but in his frowning difpenfations. There is not a rod or judgement fent upon a perfon, a family, a city, or land, but the Lord's voice is there: Mic. vi. 9. "The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall fee thy name hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." And by this voice of judgement the Lord feems to be crying unto this city, and to all ranks in it, at this day. He has cried long to it by the voice of his fervants, rifing up early and fending them; but this voice of God has not been regarded by the generality, who have stopped the ear, and pulled away fhoulder; and therefore now he is beginning to speak after another manner, even by the voice of his awful judgements, and wrath-like difpenfations. Oh that, "when his judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world," and the inhabitants of this city," may learn righteoufness."

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2. The voice of Chrift, and of God in him, is conveyed in his word either read or preached. And here again his voice is

various.

various. For inftance, there is the ftill and calm voice of the gofpel, where, like a "charmer, he charms never fo wifely." And then there is the thundering voice of the law, iffuing forth from mount Sinai, making the guilty confcience of the finner, like the wildernefs, to quake.

ift, In the law we may hear fometimes his commanding voice, requiring duty, "fhewing us what is good, and what the Lord our God requireth of us." There is his forbidding voice. "Oh do not this abominable thing that my foul hates." Many of the commands of the moral law are uttered in a way of prohibition, discharging and inhibiting us from this, and that, and the other fin. There we fhall hear his warning and threatening voice, telling finners what will be the iffue, if they adventure upon fin, which is a tranfgreffion of the divine law. There he warns finners, that however sweet their fin morfels may be under their tongue, yet they will be turned into bitternefs in their belly, and bite like a ferpent, and fting like an adder, that the curfe of God will follow it, and pursue the finner to the loweft hell. There we have his reproving voice, rebuking finners when they have turned away from the duty enjoined in the law. "I will fharply reprove thee, and fet thine iniquities in order before thine eyes.' And Oh but his rebukes are awful, and full of majefty, whether in his word or providence. "We perifh (fays the church), at the rebuke of thy countenance." Here we have this fwearing voice, for the fupport of his veracity, engaged in the penalty of his law against rebellious and obftinate finners, Pfal. xcv, we are told that God did "fwear in his wrath, that the rebellious Ifraelites fhould not enter into his reft:" and If. xxii. 14. "As I live, faith the Lord God of hofts, your iniquity fhall not be purged from you, till ye die." And, lastly, we have his fentencing and finally condemning voice; he has told us what is to be the doom of the ungodly world at the laft day, Matth. xxv. 41. "Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

2dly, His voice, I was faying, is to be heard in the gospel as well as in the law. And here we have a diverfity of joyful founds that it makes in the ears of finners.

Here we have his teaching voice. Every doctrine of the gofpel is a leffon, by which he would let finners into the knowledge of God, and of his mind and will, as to the way of falvation through himfelf. And here his voice is meek and lowly; and how fond is he to open the deep things of God to us? "Come hither, ye children, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord." See how he, as it were, infinuates him

felf

felf upon finners, commending his inftructions to them, Prov. viii. 6.-10.

In the gofpel we have not only his teaching but his promifing voice. He begins after the fall with the voice of promife, Gen. iii. 15. "The feed of the woman fhall bruise the head of the ferpent ;" and with this voice he spoke to Abraham, "In thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be bleffed." These two promifes are opened and multiplied in a vast variety of other promifes through the word to the very end of the Revelation, where the canon of the fcripture is fhut up. And he delights much in uttering this voice, because it is the immediate ground of faith, his faithfulness and mercy being engaged therein.

In the gofpel we have his counselling voice, as to Laodicea, Rev. iii. 18. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire," &c. Here we have his calling and inviting voice, utter ed as it were by the found of a trumpet from the high places of the city of God, Prov. viii. "Wisdom crieth on the tops of the high places, and chief places of concourfe: Unto you, O men, do I call, and my voice is to the fons of men." That none may pretend ignorance, he orders his fervants to "go out to the streets and broad ways," crying, as If. lv. 1.." Ho, every one that thirfteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, let him come; come, buy wine and milk, with out money and without price."

We have his expoftulating voice fometimes in the gofpel: Oh!" wherefore do ye fpend your money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which profits not? O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? teftify againft me." His befeeching and intreating voice: "We befeech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye prefent your bodies a living facrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable fervice. We pray you in Chrift's ftead, be ye reconciled to God."

Sometimes we may hear his arguing and reafoning voice: he is willing to difpute the matter with finners, and to let them fee what a bad caufe they have by the hand, and how advantageous it will be unto them to comply with his invita tions and offers: If. i. 18. "Come now, and let us reason together, faith the Lord: though your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be as white as fnow; though they be red like crimson, they fhall be as wool." He challenges them to a difpute, l xli. 21. "Produce your caufe, faith the Lord; bring forth your ftrong reafons, faith the King of Jacob." Sometimes we find him entering into a difpute with himfelf, as if he were at a ftand whether to let juftice or mercy take place, toward

the