8. You will dearly love all that bear their Father's image, and the image of him who is the exprefs image of the Father; and the more resemblance they have unto him, you will love them the better: 1 John iii. 14. By this we know that we have paffed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." You will efteem them, as David, the excellent ones of the earth; with them will be all your delight.

Laftly, All the offspring and iffue of God's houfe, they have a zeal for the standing of their Father's houfe; they "love the habitation of his houfe, and the place where his honour dwells; and therefore will have fomething of the Spirit of the first-born, of whom it is faid, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." Is it poffible that a true child of a family can be unconcerned, when he fees robberies committed on his houfe, or the house of his father turned into a den of thieves? Or will a true born child herden and affociate himself with fuch, without oppofing them, and witneffing against them? A true child of the family will be ready to fay of fúch, as Jacob faid of Simeon and Levi, " They are brethren in iniquity: O my foul, come not thou into their fecret," &c. Thus I have given you fome marks which have a relation to the firft character given to believers in the text.

I come next to purfue a trial, with an eye toward the second character or defignation of veffels of different fizes, veffels of cups, and veffels of flagons, all hanging upon the nail fastened in a fure place. In the church, which is the houfe of the living God, there are veffels of mercy and veffels of wrath, veffels of honour fitted for the Mafter's use, and veffels of wrath fitted for destruction.

Now, here fome may readily put the queftion, How may I know if I be a veffel of mercy and honour? For clearing the way to the answering of this question, you will confider, that all the children of men fprung of Adam by natural generation, the elect of God as well as others, are, in the eye of the law, veffels of wrath fitted for deftruction, through the pollution and guilt of original or actual fin. And until God come in a day of power, and dig the veffel of mercy from under the filth and rubbish of the fall of Adam, no man can make a difference betwixt the veffels of mercy, and of wrath, because this is among fecret things that belong to the Lord.

But if the queftion be, How may a perfon know if he be yet a veffel of mercy fitted by regenerating and fanctifying grace for the Mafter's ufe? Hath God yet formed me for himself? Hath he taken me out of nature's quarry, out of the miry clay, and washed, and juftified, and fanctified me in the name of the Lord Jefus, and by the Spirit of our God? Now,

I fay, if this be the question, I will give you a few marks of the veffels of mercy and honour.

1. Every veffel of mercy in the house of our God (whether they be veffels of cups, or veffels of flagons), has feen himself to be a veffel of wrath by nature, condemned already, full of the vermine of fin and corruption, treasuring up to himself wrath against the day of wrath. Hence all God's Ifrael are

ready to take up that melancholy fong, "A Syrian ready to perifh was I: At that time I was afar off, an alien to the commonwealth of Ifrael, a ftranger to the covenant of promife," without God, without Chrift, and without hope in the world." Hence,

2. All the veffels of mercy are taken up in admiring the rich and free mercy of God, in taking up the like of them from among the pots. Not by the works of righteoufness, but according to his mercy he faved us, by the washing of regeneration," &c. Oh, fays Paul, "I was a blafphemer, a perfecutor, an injurious perfon, but I obtained mercy. He took me (fays David) out of the horrible pit, and miry clay, and fet my feet upon a rock, and put a new fong in my mouth, even praises unto our God."

3. All God's veffels of mercy have undergone the hammer of the law in a greater or leffer measure: "Is not my word as a hammer, faith the Lord, that breaketh the rock in pieces?" The law is a school-mafter, to lead us unto Christ. So much hammering by the law is neceffary, and no more, as serves to beat the heart and hands of a finner off from the broken nail of the law, in point of righteoufnefs. "I through the law (fays Paul), am dead to the law." So much of this hammer is needful, as to beat down the vain and towering imaginations of our own goodness, holiness, wifdom, and righteoufnefs; the Dagon of felf, in all the fhapes and forms of it, must be broken down for ever. The vellel of mercy fhall never more fay with the proud Pharifee, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men ;" or, with Laodicea, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and stand-in need of nothing."

4. All the veffels of mercy are made heartily content to change their holding. All mankind have their holding either on the first or fecond Adam; they are either hanging by the broken nail of the covenant of works, or by the gofpel-nail of the covenant of grace; they are either feeking life and righteousness by the works of the law, or by the grace of the gofpel. Now, in a day of converfion, the finner having his hands knocked off from his first holding, he, by the hand of faith, which is God's gift, receives Chrift, and takes hold of that covenant whereof he is head, faying, "In him will I be juftified, VOL. III.

P

and

and in him will I glory; for in him have I righteousness and ftrength; he is to me the end of the law for righteousness; for he was made fin for us, though he knew no fin, that we might be made the righteoufnefs of God in him;" fo Paul, Phil. iii. 8. 9.

5. All the veffels of mercy are melted in the fire of gospel grace and love, and made pliable to the will of God. The heart of stone is melted into a heart of flesh, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. The iron finew of the obftinate will, through the heat of divine love, is made to give way, and yield unto the divine will, Pfal. cx. 3.; the language of every veffel of mercy, is, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do ?" The adamantine heart is dif folved into evangelical repentance, so that the man now looks on him whom he had pierced, and mourns," Zech. xii, 10.

6. All the veffels of the house are washed, and will be frequently washing themfelves, in the fountain of a Redeemer's blood, from fin and from uncleannefs, Zech. xiii. 1. The veffels of the houfe, through remaining corruption, tempta tion, and frequent falls into the puddle of actual fin, gather duft, and become dim and unfit for the use and service of the great Father and Manager of the houfe; and therefore he will have them fprinkled with clean water; he will have their hearts fprinkled from an evil confcience, and their bodies washed with pure water: "Except I wash thee (fays Christ to Peter), thou haft no part in me." And this washing is what they themselves cry for, especially when defiled with any fall hence they cry, with David, Pfal. li. 2. " Wath me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanfe me from my fin." And, ver. 7. " Purge me with hyffop, and I fhall be clean: wash me, and I fhall be whiter than fnow."

7. All the veffels of the house, from the leaft to the greatest, have the name of the Father of the houfe, and of the Manager of the houfe, and of the houfe or city they pertain to, engrayen upon them. It has been, and fill is, the cuftom of great men, to have their names and arms graven on their gold and filver veffels; fo is it in the house of our God. All the veffels of mercy have his name and motto engraven upon them: Rev. xiv. 1. "Lo, a Lamb ftood on the Mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thoufand, having their Father's name written in their foreheads," They have the name of Chrift, the great Manager of the houfe, written on them, particularly that name, Jer. xxiii. 6. "The Lord our righteoufnefs;" and in this name of his do they rejoice all the day long, for in his righteoufnefs are they exalted. And then, as we are told, Rev. iii. 12. the name of the new Jerufalem, which cometh down from God out of heaven, is engraven on ... them;

them; for they prefer Jerufalem unto their chiefeft joy. In a word, God's name, his glory, honour, and authority, his truth, his worship, his caufe, and intereft, the word of God, the teftimony of Jefus, the prerogatives of his crown and kingdom, every true believer hath thefe, as it were, engraven on his heart, and will ftudy to profefs and maintain them before

the world.

8. If you be the veffels of mercy and honour, the Master of the houfe will now and then be making use of you, by pour ing the wine, the oil, the water, or milk of his grace and Spirit into you: " For out of his fulness do we all receive, and grace for grace." Every veffel of the houfe is anointed with the fresh oil of the Holy Ghost: "We have an unction from the holy One." And they that want this anointing of the Spirit, in one degree or another, the Manager of the house will not own them as his "If any man have not the Spirit of Chrift, he is none of his." They will be found among the foolish virgins, whofe veffels had no oil, when the mid-night cry was heard," Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him." But, I fay, all the veffels of mercy have a greater or smaller measure of the anointing of the Spirit; and every anointing of the Spirit, enlargeth the veffel to hold more, infomuch, that, through the frequent communications of the Spirit, a cup vessel at first becomes a large veffel, or a vellet of flagon, until it be ready to be tranfported from the lower to the upper ftorey of the houfe, where every veffel fhall be filled rimful of God.

Queft. Some exercifed foul may be ready to fay, O how happy would I be, if I knew that I were but the least veffel in the houfe of God, hanging on the nail faftened in a fure place! but, alas! I am fuch a poor, worthlefs, useless creature, that I am afraid I am none of them.

Anfw. It is the nature of all the veffels of mercy in the houfe of God, yea, of the great flagons, to efteem themselves worthless, and among the leaft, yea, lefs than the least of all the veffels of the houfe. Eph. iii. 8. fays the great apoftle Paul," I am lefs than the least of all faints." And the lower that they fink in their own eyes, the higher do they rise in the efteem of the great Lord of the house, If. lvii. 15. and the more of his grace and favour do they receive, for " he giveth grace unto the humble.”

Object. 2. May another fay, I am fo broken and toffed with worldly trials, that I am ready to think I am none of the off fpring or veffels of his houfe. Anfw. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and through many tribulations we muft Enter into the kingdom." Chrift himfelf fuffered before he

entered

entered into his glory, and fo have all the cloud of witneffes, Heb. xi. And therefore it is a false conclufion to think you do not belong to the Lord, because of multiplied roots of affliction; for "if we be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are we baftards and not fons. Whom the Lord loveth, he chafteneth." God's gold and filver veffels go frequently into the furnace, and there is a need be for it, to purge away their drofs; and therefore learn to say with Job, "When thou haft tried me, thou shalt bring me forth as gold."

Object. 3. I am fuch a vile polluted creature, that I cannot think I am one of his offspring by regeneration, none of the veffels of honour, but rather a veffel of wrath, fitted for destruction. Anfw. God will not caft away his gold and silver veffels, becaufe of the drofs and alloy of fin and corruption that is about them. A man will take up a veffel of his houfe, though it be lying in a dunghill. So here; David, Solomon, Peter, and many others of the faints, fell into the mire of fin, and yet the Lord took them from the dunghill, and made them like the wings of a dove., And therefore, feeing God will not caft off for ever, do not you caft off yourself.

Object. 4. I a. fo haraffed with Satan and his fiery darts, that I am afraid I am none of God's children, none of his veffels; I am tempted to evils and abominations that I am afraid to name to any in the world. Anfw. Chrift himself was tempted in all things as we are, that he might be a merciful high priest, to fympathize with them that are tempted. Again, confider, for thy encouragement, that ufually the devil gives the foreft pulls and pushes at the offspring of God's houfe, at the gold and filver veffels of his family and if you did not belong to God, Satan would not purfue you fo much. When Ifrael came out of Egypt, then Pharaoh and his hoft pursued most vigorously. Again, "The God of peace fhall bruise Satan under your fect Gortly."

Object. 5.I am none of the offspring or veffels: for God is hiding, and carrying to me as an enemy, infomuch that the very remembrance of him is a terror to me. Anfw. This is no unprecedented cafe among God's children. David, when he" remembered God, he was troubled;" Afaph cries, " Is his mercy clean gone?" Heman, Pfal. lxxxviii. "While I fuffer thy terrors, I am diftracted." Yea, Chrift, the firstborn and beloved Son, is under fuch agony of foul, that he cries out, "I am exceeding forrowful, even unto death. It is hard to tell how far fatherly difpleafure and chastisement may be carried; but this is an uncontroverted truth, that the foundation of God tandeth fure, and God will never dif

inherit