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pofe we shall all die the common death of all men. But after death, the fpirits of those who have walked with GoD, fhall return to GOD that gave them; and at the morning of the refurrection, foul and body fhall be for ever with the LORD. Their bodies fhall be fashioned like unto CHRIST's glorious body, and their fouls filled with all the fulness of GOD. They fhall fit on thrones; they fhall judge angels. They fhall be enabled to fuftain an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, even that glory which JESUS CHRIST enjoyed with the Father before the world began. O gloriam quantam et qualem, says the learned and pious Arndt, juft before he bowed down his head, and gave up the ghoft. The very thought of it is enough to make us "wish to leap our seventy years,” as good Dr. Watts expreffes himself, and to make us break out into the earneft language of the royal Pfalmift, "My foul is athirst for GOD, yea for the living GOD. When shall I come to appear in the immediate prefence of my GOD?" I wonder not that a sense of this, when under a more than ordinary irradiation and influx of divine life and love, caufes fome perfons even to faint away, and for a time lose the power of their fenfes. A lefs fight than this, even a fight of Solomon's glory, made Sheba's queen astonished; and a still leffer fight than that, even a fight of Jofeph's waggons, made holy Jacob to faint, and for a while, as it were, die away. Daniel, when admitted to a diftant view of this excellent glory, fell down at the feet of the angel as one dead. And if a diftant view of this glory be fo excellent, what muft the actual poffeffion of it be? If the firft' fruits are fo glorious, how infinitely must the harvest exceed in glory?

And now what fhall I, or indeed what can I well fay more, to excite you, even you that are yet ftrangers to CHRIST, to come and walk with GOD? If you love honour, pleasure, and a crown of glory, come, feek it where alone it can be found. Come, put ye on the LORD JESUS. Come, hafte ye away and walk with God, and make no longer provifion for the flesh, to fulfil the luft thereof. Stop, stop, O finner! turn ye, turn ye, O ye unconverted men! for the end of that way you are now walking in, however right it may feem in your blinded eyes, will be death, even eternal destruction both of body and foul. Make no long tarrying, I fay: at your peril, I charge you, ftep not one step further on in С 2

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your prefent walk. For how knoweit thou, O man, but the next step thou takeft may be into hell? Death may, feize thee, judgment find thee, and then the great gulph will be fixed between thee and endless glory, for ever and ever. Q think of these things, all ye that are unwilling to come and walk with GOD. Lay them to heart. Shew yourselves men, and in the strength of JESUS fay, Farewel luft of the flesh, I will no more walk with thee! Farewel luft of the eye, and pride of life! Farewel carnal acquaintance, and enemies of the cross, I will no more walk and be intimate with you! Welcome JESUS, welcome thy word, welcome thy ordinances, welcome thy Spirit, welcome thy people, I will henceforth walk with you. O that there may be in you fuch a mind! GOD will fet his almighty fiat to it, and feal it with the broad feal of heaven, even the fignet of his Holy Spirit. Yes, he will, though you have been walking with, and following after, the devices and defires of your def perately wicked hearts, ever fince you have been born. " I the high and lofty one," fays the great Jehovah, “ that inhabiteth eternity, will dwell with the humble and contrite heart, even with the man that trembleth at my word." The blood, even the precious blood of JESUS CHRIST, if you come to the Father in and through him, fhall cleanfe you from all fin.

But the text leads me to fpeak to you that are faints, as well as to you that are open or unconverted finners. I need not tell you that walking with GOD is not only honourable, but pleasant and profitable alfo: for ye know it by happy experience, and will find it more and more fo every day. Only give me leave to ftir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, and to beseech you by the mercies of God in CHRIST JESUS, to take heed to yourfelves, and walk clofer with your GOD, than you have in days paft: for the nearer you walk with GOD, the more you will enjoy of Him whose prefence is life, and be the better prepared for being placed at his right-hand, where are pleasures for evermore. O do not follow JESUS afar off! O be not fo formal, fo dead and ftupid in your attendance on holy ordinances! Do not fo fhamefully forfake the affembling yourfelves together, or be fo niggardly, and fo indifferent about the things of GOD. Re

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member what JESUS fays of the church of Laodicea, "Because thou art neither hot nor cold, I will fpew thee out of my mouth." Think of the love of JESUS, and let that love conftrain you to keep near unto him; and though you die for him, do not deny him, do not keep at a diftance from him in any wife.

One word to my brethren in the miniftry that are here prefent, and I have done. You fee, my brethren, my heart is full; I could almost fay it is too big to speak, and yet too big to be filent, without dropping a word to you.. For does not the text fpeak in a particular manner to those who have the honour of being filed the ambaffadors of CHRIST, and ftewards of the mysteries of God? I obferved at the beginning of this discourse, that Enoch in all probability was a public perfon, and a flaming preacher. Though he be dead, does he not yet speak to us, to quicken our zeal, and make us more active in the service of our glorious and ever-bleffed Mafter? How did Enoch preach? How did Enoch walk with GoD, though he lived in a wicked and adulterous generation? Let us then follow him, as he followed JESUS CHRIST, and ere long, where he is, there fhall we be alfo. He is now entered into his reft yet a little while, and we fhall enter into ours, and that too much fooner than he did. He fojourned here below three hundred years; but bleffed be GOD, the days of man are now shortened, and in a few days our work will be The Judge is before the door: he that cometh will come, and will not tarry his reward is with him. And we fball all (if we are zealous for the LORD of Hofts) ere long fhine as the ftars in the firmament, in the kingdom of our heavenly Father, for ever and ever. To Him, the bleffed JESUS, and eternal Spirit, be all honour and glory, now, and to all eternity. Amen, and Amen.

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Abraham's offering up his Son Ifaac.

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GENESIS Xxii. 12.

And he faid, Lay not thine Hand upon the Lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son, thine only Son from me.

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HE great Apostle Paul, in one of his epiftles, informs us, that “whatsoever was written aforetime was writ ten for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the holy fcripture might have hope.". And as without faith it is impoffible to please GOD, or be accepted in JESUS, the Son of his love; we may be affured, that whatever instances of a more than common faith are recorded in the book of GOD, they were more immediately defigned by the holy Spirit for our learning and imitation, upon whom the ends of the world are come. For this reafon, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, in the xith chapter, mentions fuch a noble catalogue of Old Testament faints and martyrs, "who subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, &c. and are gone before us to inherit the promises." A fufficient confutation, I think, of their error, who lightly efteem the Old Teftament faints, and would not have them mentioned to chriftians, as perfons whofe faith and patience we are called upon more immediately to follow. If this was true, the apoftle would never have produced fuch a cloud of witnefies out of the Old Teftament, to excite the chriftians of the first, and confequently pureft age of the church, to continue stedfast and unmoveable in the profeffion of their faith. Amidst this catalogue of faints, methinks the patriarch Abraham fhines the brighteft, and differs from the others, as

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one ftar differeth from another star in glory; for he fhone' with such distinguished luftre, that he was called the "friend of GOD," the "father of the faithful;" and those who believe on CHRIST, are faid to be "fons and daughters of, and to "be bleffed with, faithful Abraham." Many trials of his faith did GOD fend this great and good man, after he had commanded him to get out from his country, and from his kindred, unto a land which he should fhew him; but the laft was the most severe of all, I mean, that of offering up his only fon. This, by the divine affiftance, I propose to make the fubject of your present meditation, and, by way of conclufion, to draw fome practical inferences, as GOD fhall enable me, from this inftructive story.

The facred penman begins the narrative thus; verse 1. "And it came to pass, after these things, GOD did tempt Abraham." After these things, that is, after he had underwent many severe trials before, after he was old, full of days, and might flatter himself perhaps that the troubles and toils of life were now finished; " after thefe things, GoD did tempt Abraham," Chriftians, you know not what trials you may meet with before you die notwithstanding you may have fuffered, and been tried much already, yet, it may be, a greater measure is still behind, which you are to fill up." Be not high-minded, but fear." Our last trials, in all probability, will be the greateft: and we can never fay our warfare is accomplished, or our trials finished, till we bow down our heads, and give up the ghoft. "And it came to pass, after these things, that God did tempt Abraham.”

"GOD did tempt Abraham." But can the fcripture contradict itself? Does not the apostle James tell us, " that GOD tempts no man ;" and GoD does tempt no man to evil, or on purpose to draw him into fin; for, when a man is thus tempted, he is drawn away of his own heart's luft, and enticed. But in another fenfe, GOD may be faid to tempt, I to try his fervants; and in this sense we are to underftand that paffage of Matthew, where we are told, that, "JESUS was led up by the Spirit (the good Spirit) into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." And our LORD, in that excellent form of prayer which he has been pleased to give us, does not require us to pray that we may not abso

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