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men. O come, come, come, Sirs, and get from the glorious Reftorer what you have loft, what you ftand in need of, through time and eternity! O come and get your life, your God, and your fouls again for a prey!

Since the rebellion commenced, many a man has loft very much; fome have loft their land, fome their houses, fome their legs, and fome their arms, and many their lives. And now, if the Duke of Cumberland, the King's fon, fhould iffue forth a proclamation, to every man to come and get his loffes repaired, in his father's name, I believe you would not be shy to put in your name, and tell that you have loft this and that. Well, the Son of the King of heaven, the great JEHOVAH, he hath all his Father's treasures in his hand, and he hath fent us to tell you to come and get your loffes repaired. O Sirs, what are men's temporal loffes in comparison with their foul loffes! "What is a man profited, though he fhould gain the whole world, and lofe his own foul?" Well, come and get your fouls for a prey from the Son of God.

1 might make use of many motives to perfuade you. Pray you, confider only the goods you loft are in Chrift's hand, and that they are in his hand that they may be restored again to you. He invites you to come, "Incline your ear, and come unto me," &c. He not only invites you, but counfels you, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire," that is, I counsel you to get your loffes restored. He not only counfels you, but commands you, "This is his commandment, that ye believe in his Son," &c. He not only commands, but he promises; he gives all manner of fecurity that your loffes fhall be made up, if you come to him for a reparation, Pfal. lxxii. 4. "He fhall judge the poor of the people, he fhall fave the children of the needy." Come then, poor and needy finner. He is grieved to the heart when finners will not come and get their lofles repaired; he was grieved when Jerufalem would not be gathered as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings. I will tell you, many a man have got their loffes repaired; an innumerable company have got reftitution from him, Rev. vii. 9. "I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, ftood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." Now, when others have come and got reparation, will not ye come and get reparation too?

O Sirs, confider what you are doing. Mind, there is no hope of reparation after death; but if you come for reparation, you must come now to the King's Son; therefore, “To

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day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation."

Upon this last day of the feaft, I cry to all mankind, if my voice could reach them, to come and get their loffes repaired by the Son of God, who reftores that which he took not away. Do not fay, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and stand in need of nothing;" for I can affure you, that he who is infinitely wife, and knows you better than you do yourselves, declares, that you are "poor, miferable, wretched, blind, and naked," through the robbery that fin hath committed. Say you, I cannot get time to come, because of worldly business. But let me tell you, that your wordly bufinefs is but mere trifles in comparison with this; therefore make all other bufinefs but by-bufinefs in comparison with this one thing needful. Says another, I will get time enough afterwards. I will tell you, delays are dangerous; what know you, man, what a day may bring forth? Death may come, and then you are gone for ever through eternity.-Says another, I am afraid the time is gone already, and that he will not make a reparation of my loffes. No, Sirs, I will tell you, that while there is life there is hope, and the Son of God is at the back of your heart, crying, "Behold, I ftand at the door, and knock: If any man (out of hell) hear my voice, and open I will come in to him, and will fup with him, and he with me."But O fay you, I fear my loffes are irreparable. I will tell you, poor finner, as broken a ship has come to land, as we use to say; as great finners as you have got a reparation of their loffes, and a full pardon to the boot. What think you of Manafeh, and Mary Magdalene, and Paul? The fame hand that repaired their loffes is ready to repair yours; "his hand is not fhortened, that it cannot save," &c.-Says another, What if I be not among the number of the elect? I answer, You have nothing a-do with election; for "fecret things belong unto the Lord, but that which is revealed unto us and our children."? Election does not belong directly and immediately to the bufinefs of believing, but only things revealed and if revealed things belong unto us, then put in your claim; for "the promise is to you and your feed."-Say you, I am impotent, and cannot come. I anfwer, That was one of the loffes Chrift came to restore; "he gives ftrength to the weak, and to them that haye no might he increaseth ftrength."-Say you, My will is an iron finew, it will not anfwer. Anfw. He that reftores that which he took not away, offers to restore your good heart and your will," Thy people fhall be willing in the day of

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thy power." Ezek. xxxvi. 26. "I will take away the heart of ftone, and give the heart of flesh."-Says another, I would fain come to get my toffes repaired, but I think when I come to him he boasts me away. Do not think fo; for he fays, "Whofoever will come to me I will in no wife caft out." When he frowns upon you, and calls you a dog, be as the Syrophenician woman, do not give over, and you shall prevail, Truth, Lord, I am a dog, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the mafter's table;" the Lord repaired her loffes, and granted her all the defires of her heart.

I should conclude with a word to believers, who have got their loffes repaired by the glorious Immanuel. I only fay two or three things to you by way of advice. (1.) O fing praffes to the bleffed Reftorer, "O my foul, blefs the Lord, who hath redeemed thy life from deftruction, and crowned thee with loving kindness and tender mercies," Pfal. ciii. 1.-4. (2.) Whenever you meet with new loffes, come back to the bleffed Reftorer. Satan will be about with you, he goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, and to take away any good you have got on this folemn occafion; but when the enemy has robbed you, I fay, come back to Chrift by faith, and you will find reftitution again. Again, my advice to you is, O love the Lord with your heart, trength, and mind; let him have the ftrength and flower of your affection, lay nothing in the balance with him; and, as an evidence of your love, keep his commandments, walk worthy of the Lord, to all well pleafing, contend for the faith once delivered to the faints; ftudy, with the church, to cause his name to be remembered to all generations, that the people may praife him for ever and ever, who restored what he took not away.

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PREACHED UPON A THANKSGIVING DAY, AFTER THE SACRA MENT, IN DUNFERMLINE, MONDAY, JULY 1737.

PSAL. cxliv. 3.-Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him? or the fon of man, that thou makeft account of him.

HERE

ERE is a queftion put, that is both answerable and unanfwerable; it is both eafy and difficult: it is eafy to tell what man is, for the end of his perfection 'is foon difcovered; but why God takes knowledge of man, or makes fo great account of him, as to heap his favours on him, is a thing that God only can beft account for. David, in the two preceding verfes, declares, firft, what a reconciled God in Chrift was to him, and makes it the ground of his praife and triumph 1. Says he, My God is my ftrength; he is the ftrength of Ifrael, the glory of their ftrength. However feeble and weak the faints be in themfelves, yet "their Redeemer is strong, the Lords of hofts is his name. O bleffed is the man whofe ftrength is the Lord Jehovah, with whom there is everlasting ftrength; for he fhall go from ftrength to ftrength, till he appear before the Lord in Zion," &c. His God was his goodness; for "there is none good but one, that is, God;" who, as he is the chief good himself, so he is truly good to Ifrael; good to them that wait upon him, and to the foul that feeks him. And whatever goodness is in any of the fons of men, or faints of God, he is the glorious fource and fountain of it; "for every good and perfect gift cometh down from above," from an infinitely good God, &c. 3. His God was his fortrets and his high tower. David faw himfelf in God, as a man is in his caftle, that can look down on all his enemies with contempt: and hence we find him frequer tly expreffing himfelf with the greateft confidence of fafety, "I will not be afraid of ten thousands of mine enemies against me round about:" O! who can hurt them that have

"the eternal God for their refuge, and his everlasting arms underneath them?" 4. His God was his deliverer. Many a danger David had been in, from Saul, from Abfalom, and his other enemies; but his God had always interpofed for his prefervation; probably he may have his eyes upon the great deliverance that God wrought for him, and all his faints, by Jefus Chrift, in finding a ranfom for him, that he might not go down to the pit, &c. 5. His God was his fhield: as a fhield in the day of battle defends against darts and arrows that are shot against a man's body, and wards off the blows that are levelled against him; fo his God had protected him against the malicious arrows of reproach and malice, & 6. His God had made him a skilful and fuccessful foldier: his hands had been used to the fhepherd's crook, and the mufician's harp; but God had taught his hands to war, and his fingers to fight," and to lead and head the armies of Ifrael, &c. 7. His God had taught him not only to manage the fword, but to fway the fceptre; in the clofe of verfe 2. "He subdueth my people under me." He who had ordained him to be king of Ifrael, in the room of Saul, fwayed the hearts of all the tribes to acknowledge him as their king and ruler; juft fo he, in a day of power, bends and bows the wills and minds of men to fubmit to the government of the Son of David, Christ Jefus, every one crying, Thou haft delivered us out of the hands of our enemies, therefore rule thou over us.

Well, David having thus viewed the goodness of God unto him, and remembering the greatnefs, glory, and majesty of his Benefactor, who had done all this for him; he extends his views unto the goodness of God to mankind in general, and especially to the faints, and cries out, in a rapture of wonder, in the words of my text, Lord, what is man, that thou takeft knowledge of him! and the fon of man, that thou makeft account of him! So then the words are a question of admiration. And more particularly we may note, 1. The fubjectmatter of the question, and that is man; earthly man, as fome read it; man that is "fprung of earth, and whofe foundation is in the duft" man who was "made a little lower than the angels," but who is now funk into the greatest ignominy and contempt, by his apoftafy from God. 2. We have a question of contempt put, concerning this creature, man, or the fon of man, what is he? or wherein is he to be accounted of? We may hear the folution of this queftion afterwards. 3. Notice to whom this question is propofed; it is to the Lord: Lord, what is man? The Lord is a God of knowledge, VOL. III.

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