fhadow of a profeffion, and fome form of godlinefs; but yet
the world is fet in their hearts, their God is their belly, they
mind earthly things, fuch as wealth, eafe, credit, preferment,
and the like. Such profeffors are fwept away like chaff when
the above winds are let blow, Phil. iii. 19. 2 Pet. ii. 15. Jude 10.
Hence alfo, 1 Tim. vi. 1o. the love of money is called "the
root of all evil; which, while fome coveted after, they have
erred from the faith." I am afraid, earthly confiderations,
and worldly gain, keeps many men back from owning the
truth and teftimony of the day; it would not ftand with their
employments, Acts xix. 25.

2. By the fea, the fame commentator underftands, light un-
ftable profeffors, who are fixed in nothing, but, like Reuben,
their motto is, "Unftable as water, thou shalt not excel."
"The apostle Jude calls them, ver. 13. "Raging waves of
the fea, wandering ftars, and clouds that are carried with a
tempeft:" like fome among ourselves, that are keen Presbyte-
rians one day, the next day Independents, and the next day
joining hands with Prelacy; one day keen for fupporting a
testimony, for the covenants and reformation, and the next
day for burying it. Such unftable profeflors, they are "like
"the fea, driven with the wind, and toffed."

3. By the trees he understands profeffors, who, for their gifts of knowledge, learning, utterance, and the like, are high above others, both in their own conceit, and in the opinion of other men; but not being rooted in Chrift by faith of God's operation, when the wind blows, they are like the lofty trees plucked up by the root, and overthrown by the winds of error, delufion, or perfecution. And do not we fee this alfo fulfilled in our own day, men that feemed once in a day to be pillars in the church, and like tall cedars in Lebanon, overthrown with the prefent winds of error and delufion.

II. The fecond thing was, to inquire who are thofe fervants of
God for whofe fake the hurtful vinds are restrained, that provi-
hon may be made for their jajety when they do actually blow. I
hall not stand much upon this, but only refer you unto a de-
fription given of them in two particulars in this fame book
of the Revelation, chap. xii. 17. where the apofile, by the
Spirit, is defcribing thefe against whom the dragon makes war,
and cafts out the flood of malice and enmity; they are "the
ied of the woman, that keep the commandments of God,
an: have the testimony of Jefus Chrift."

keep the com-
1. The fervants of God are fuch as
randments of God;" i. e. (1.) They are holy perfons; the
nctifed and preferved in Chrift Jefus." They have the law

of

of God in their hearts, and therefore have a refpect unto all his commandments, Pfal. cxix. 6. Although they cannot in this life attain to perfection in holinefs, yet it is what they ain at; and therefore forget things behind, and reach forth unto perfection; like these that shall attain unto the refurrection of the juft. Holinefs is the badge and diftinguishing motto of all the true followers of the Lamb, therefore called "an holy nation, and the people of his holiness. Holiness becometh thy houfe, O God, for ever." Or, (2.) as Durham obferves, they "keep the commandments of God," it is to be understood of a keeping the laws, ordinances, and inftitutions of Christ, in oppofition to a fet of men in the Antichristian church, who, through their traditions, were making void the commandments of God. Obferve, That it is the character of Christ's faithful fervants, whether minifters or Chriftians, to obferve and do all things whatever he has commanded them in his word. It is not what kings, parliaments, or affemblies, command, but what God commands, is the rule by which they walk; the laws of man must be tried by the law of God. There is a generation of men in our day called minitters, who, instead of keeping the commandments of God, are very careful to keep the commandments of men, though even cross to the command of God: if they be commanded by men to profane the Sabbath, to profane the pulpit, and ministerial character, and to prostitute the headship of Chrift, and turn heralds to another head than Chrift, they will do it, and de fend the deed when they have done. Such fervants of men cannot be the fervants of Chrift Jefus, but they ferve their own bellies. And yet fuch men at this day, though we hear nothing of their repenting of their evil deeds, and though they be holding faft deceit, and refufing to return, fome would have us to believe are honoured of God as great inftruments of the converfion of fouls. I fhall only fay, that I cannot help thinking, that as fuch minifters do only carry a counterfeit commillion, fo the feals of their miniftry are but counterfeit feals. For my part, I fhall never believe thefe noify converfions to be of the right ftamp, until I fee both minifters and converts following the practice of Judah, and ifrael, when returning to the Lord after a courfe of defection, Jer. 1. 4. 5. " In thofe days, and in that time, faith the Lord, the children of Ifrael fhall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they fhall go, and feek the Lord their God. They fhall afk the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, faying, Come, and let us join ourfelves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant, that thall never be forgotten. The reason is set down in the two following veries, which are applicable in the

I

prefent

prefent cafe of the church of God in this land: "My people hath been loft fheep: their fhepherds have caufed them to go aftray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their refting place. All that found them have devoured them, and their adverfaries faid, We offend not, becaufe they have finned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers." And thereupon they depart out of Babylon, and their minifters or fhepherds become as hegoats before the flock.

2. The faithful fervants of God, are faid to be fuch as "have the teftimony of Jefus." By the teftimony of Jefus, we are to understand the gospel of Chrift, or the doctrine of faith in its purity, which only is "the power of God unto falvation," Rom. i. 16. The whole word of God is divided into law and gofpel; and fometimes the whole word is called by the one, and fometimes by the other, as you fee frequently in the 119th Pfalm. Now, the question is, What is it to "have the teftimony of Jefus ?" Anfa. (1.) it implies a firm faith of the record of God concerning his Son Jefus Chrift; this is called a "believing the report, and fetting to the feal that God is true." (2.) A firm trust in Chrift as the only Saviour, upon the testimony of God. They credit and truft him for the execution of all his faving offices, as a Prophet, Prieft, and King, for wisdom, righteoufnefs, fanctification, and complete redemption. (3.) A holy care to preferve the doctrine, worship, and the government of Chrift's houfe, in its purity, and according to the pattern fhewed in the mount; together with a steady contending for the faith, and a standing faft in the liberties wherewith Chrift has made his people free, in oppofition to error in doctrine, corruption in worthip, and all tyranny in government and difcipline. Now, thefe are the fervants of God that are here intended to be fealed, in order to their being preferved from thofe hurtful winds that blow in the visible church; thefe are they against whom the rage of the great red dragon and his angels is levelled, against thefe the flood caft out of his mouth doth run. But now I proceed to,

III. The third thing propofed in the method, which was, to Speak a little of the feal that is fet upon the fervants of God. And here I fhall propole and answer two or three questions. Query 1. Who is he that feals them?

Anfw. It is Chrift, the great Angel that hath the feal of the living God. He himself was fealed as God's Secretary and Plenipotentiary unto this lower world, John vi. 27. And he VLO. III.

H

hath

hath the feal of the living God committed to him; for he hath "given him power over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to as many as he hath given him," John xvii. 2. He hath the roll of election committed to him, that he may put his mark, his own name, and his Father's name, upon them: Rev., iii. 12. "Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he fhall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the newJerufalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my new name." There you fee that Chrift makes the overcomer a pillar in the temple of God; but that is not all, he writes his name upon them, and the name of his God, he puts his own image and Spirit in and upon them, as he is the exprefs image of the Father. Thus you fee that it is Chrift that seals the fervants of our God.

Query 2. What is implied in the fealing them?

Anfw. It implies, 1..That he is their great owner and proprietor; for a man feals his own goods, that it may be known they are his." The Lord's portion is his people, and Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." They are his by election, and his Father's donation, by purchase, and by covenant, and by the inhabitation of his Spirit: and "the foundation of God ftandeth fure, having this feal, The Lord knoweth them that are his."

2. A feal is for diftinction, to diftinguish one man's goods from another. And fo it implies, that God will have a difference put betwixt his own people, and others; for they are his gold and coin of his own mint, the rest of the world are but the drofs; they are his wheat, and others are the chaff; and "what is the chaff to the wheat? faith the Lord." He has his fan in his hand, and will throughly purge his floor, &c.

3. A feal is for confirmation. The king's feal appended unto a charter eflablishes and confirms it. And fo it may import, that, before the winds are fuffered to blow, Chrift will have his own fervants established and confirmed in the faith of thefe truths, which were to be most expofed to the winds, that they might not be carried about like children with every wind of doctrine, but might be like mount Zion, which cannot be removed for ever.

4. A feal is fometimes for fecrecy. We read of a book, Rev. v. 1. which was fealed with feven feals, becaufe of the great fecrets and hid mysteries contained in it. No man can warrantably break up a fealed letter, but he to whom it is directed, because it is hid and fecret to any other. And so it

may

may import, that God's people are his hidden ones, and that his fecrets are imparted to them, and not to others. God's people they are a hidden people: "They have confultedagainst thy hidden ones," fays the pfalmift. God's doves they abide in the clefts of the rock, and in the fecret places of the ftairs. He has them hid in the fecret of his prefence as in a pavilion; he has his fecret chambers in which he hides them, until the indignation be overpaft, If. xxvi. 20. And then as they are fecret hidden perfons, fo he imparts his fecrets unto them, which he hides from the rest of the world: "The fecret of the Lord is with them that fear him. Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to others it is not given."

5. A feal is a badge of honour, love, and esteem. And fo it implies, that his fervants are honourable perfons, precious in his fight: If. xliii. 4. "Ever fince thou waft precious in my fight, thou haft been honourable," &c.

6. A feal is for cuftody and prefervation. So the faints and fervants of God, they are " the preferved in Chrift Jefus, kept by the power of God through faith unto falvation."

Query 3. When and how are they fealed?

Anfw. 1. From all eternity, they were fealed with his electing and everlasting love. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love," &c. "He hath chofen us in him, before the foundation of the world." He predeftinates them unto the adoption of children.

2. In their converfion and effectual calling, they are fealed in their own perfons with the image of the fecond Adam, being predeftinate thereunto from eternity; they are renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created them; they are feparate from the reft of the world, and become "a chofen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that they fhould fhew forth the praifes of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light."

3. They have a feal of blood fet upon them in their redemption and juftification; for as you fee, ver. 14. of this chapter, "they have their garments wafhed, and made white in the blood of the Lamb."

4. They have the feal of the Spirit of premife fet upon them: Eph. i. 13." After that ye believed, ye were fealed with that holy Spirit of promife, which is the earnest of our inheritance." The Spirit of God dwells in them as in a temple; he fanctifies them by the truth, he, as a Spirit of adoption, teaches them to cry, Abba, Father, and comforts them in all their tribulations with the confolations of God, with the oil of glad nefs, wherewith he was anointed above his fellows.

Query 4.