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faith on the Son of God; for " by faith ye ftand. He that trufteth in the Lord fhall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever."

2. Cry that the wind of heaven may awake, and come and blow away the hurtful winds of hell: Cant. iv. ult. " Awake, O north-wind, and come, thou fouth, blow upon my garden, that the fpices thereof may flow out." Ezek. xxxvii. 9. "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these flain, that they may live." And then the dead and dry bones will ftand up as a numerous army to fight the battles of the Lord. And learn to diftinguish the winds that come from heaven, and these that come from another airth. And particularly remember, that every wind, however fpecious, that blows against the prefent truth or teflimony, is a hurtful wind. A teftimony is lifted up for the covenanted doctrine, discipline, worship, and government of the church of Chrift, which the greatest enemies are not able to disprove, being fo evidently founded on the word of God. Now, every wind that blows against the truth, though it appear like a heavenly wind, yet it must be rejected, as coming from a bad airth; If. viii. 20." To the law and to the teftimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

3. In order to your being preferved from all hurtful winds, hide the word of God in your hearts: Pfal. cxix. 1. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not fin against thee. It is faid of the righteous man, "The law of his God is in his heart, none of his fteps fhall flide." And therefore, take heed to the fure word of prophecy, as unto a light fhining in a dark place, for by it vou fhall be throughly furnished unto every good work, and fecured against the wind of error, delufion, temptation, profanity, or apoftafy from the truth.

4. Hold faft what you have received, that no man take your crown. Have you received Chrift Jefus the Lord, and been determined to embrace him who is the unspeakable gift of God? hold faft the gripe you have gotten of him, as the fpoufe did, "I held him, and would not let him go." Have you received any of his love-tokens on this occafion? lay them up, and hold them fast, for Satan will do his best to spoil and rob you of them. Have you received the teftimony of Jefus, and made a profeffion of your faith? then hold faft the profeffion of your faith without wavering, stedfaft unto the end; be ftedfaft and immoveable in your profeflion, particularly in your profeffion of the prefent truth, against which the main benil of the prefent wi.ds are levelled. If a thief or robber enter a houfe, and be carrying away any part of your furniture

er goods, your prefent care is to preferve or recover that part of your furniture which is in greatest hazard of being loft. "God hath given Jacob for a fpoil, and Ifrael to the robbers, even he against whom we have finned.” The houfe of God. is in danger of being quite plundered, and spoiled, much of his valuable furniture is carried off; ftudy then to recover what is loft, and hold faft what remains of the covenanted doctrine, worship, difcipline, and government, of the church of Christ in this land.

5. Keep a ftrict and watchful eye upon all the enemies of Chrift, and of your own falvation. You have enemies both within and without doors. Take heed, in the first place, of an evil heart of unbelief, that it do not turn you away from the living God; for when you are turned away from God, you caft yourselves out of his protection, and then you are an eafy prey to all your other enemies, and are fair to be driven away like chaff before the wind. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." Be not ignorant of Satan's devices, and wiles, who cafts himself into every fhape in order to catch the prey, and who at this day is transforming himself into an angel of light, by counterfeit convictions, converfions, and raptures of joy, which (it is well known through the land) leave men and women juft where they were, if not worse; because, imagining themfelves to be in a state of grace, they are proof againft all that can be faid to the contrary, until God come and fweep away the refuge of lies.

6. Lafly, Take care what minifters you own and hear as the ambaffadors of Chrift. This is as neceflary a caveat in our day, as it was in the days of the apoftles, 1 John iv. 1. "Beloved, believe not every fpirit, but try the fpirits whether they are of God: because many falfe prophets are gone out into the world." And if you afk, How thall we try them? Christ anfwers the question, Matth. vii. 15. 16. "Beware of falle prophets, which come to you in fheeps clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye fhall know them by their fruits." But, fay you, what are their fruits by which they may be known? Anfu. Do you fee any of them fithing up and down for worldly gain? do you fee them ftrengthening the hands of those that are pulling down the carved work of reformation, and weakening the hands of thofe that are minting to build it up? do you fee them tormented by a teftimony for the Lord's work in the land, and fiding with these that are carrying on a courfe of backfliding? do you fee them entering any other way than by the door of the house? depend upon it, they are not the true prophets of Chrift, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. And therefore do not own them as the amVOL. III. K bafadors

baffadors of Chrift; they do not carry Chrift's commission; and therefore, though they fhall fay, "Lo, here is Chrift, or lo, he is there," whatever pretenfions they may make to the Spirit of Chrift, yet go not after them, because thefe fruits are not the fruits of the faithful prophets of Christ's sending; and if he never fent them, they cannot profit their hearers, however, perhaps, they may have the art of touching the imagination, or railing paflions unto strange and unaccountable effects.

CHRIST CONSIDERED AS THE NAIL FASTENED IN A SURE PLACE, BEARING ALL THE GLORY OF HIS FATHER'S HOUSE.

A SERMON

Preached at Stirling, December 28. 1743, immediately before the Renovation of our folemn Covenants, by the Minifters of the Affociate Prefbytery. And fome other Sermons preached afterwards upon the fame subject.

PSAL. XX. 5.-In the name of our Gad we will fet up our

banners.

PREFACE.

MY friends, we are met together this day about a very great and weighty work, namely, renewing of our folemn covenant-engagements to the Lord, which, for a great many years back, have been lying buried in oblivion, by the generality of the inhabitants of the land. Many grave ftones have been cast upon them, fince they were laft renewed by authority both civil and ecclefiaftical. Their obligation was refcinded by act of the Scots parliament they were ignominiously burnt at Edinburgh, by the hand of the public executioner; many have fuffered upon fcaffolds and gibbets, in the fields and citics, for afferting the obligation of

thefe

thefe covenants, under fome reigns before the Revolution; and, fince that period, they have lain much neglected, yea, measures gone into, both by church and state, inconfiftent with a covenanted reformation. However, we, the minifters of the Affociate Prefbytery, are this day met together, in order, through grace, to renew thefe folemn covenants, in a fuitableness unto the circumstances wherein we ftand in holy providence, and, in the Lord's ftrength, to effay the rolling away the ftones from the grave, in which they have been fo long buried, and to bring them forth again to the light. We that are minifters are only concerned in the work of this day, that we may, like the he-goats, lead the way to the Lord's flock, who, I hope, in due time thall follow.

There are two things which I judge fomewhat remarkable, with refpect to the work we have in view, namely, the time, and the place of it. 1, As for the time, I judge it pretty remarkable, that this fame time hundred years, the Solemn League for reformation was fworn by perfons of all ranks through the three kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland; and that, notwithstanding of the strong efforts of hell and earth, fince that time, to have them buried in utter filence, yet this day, God, in his adorable providence, is making thefe covenant-engagements with him to peep from under the ground. 2dly, I judge the place of their begun returrection fomewhat remarkable, namely, in the town of Stirling, where that faith. ful witness, Mr James Guthrie, minifter of the place, was ftoned, and otherwife maltreated and abused, by a malignant party, for his faithful adherence unto the covenanted reformation, and who alfo fuffered martyrdem in the fame caufe, in the Grafsmarket of Edinburgh. And although we be fhut out of the legal fynagogue of the place, have not access to speak in the pulpit of that eminent light of our Ifrael, yet, it is worthy of our obfervation, that God has, in his holy providence, brought a place of worship out of the old quarry, where we may worship him, even in Stirling, and fet about the renovation of our folemn covenant-allegiance unto the exalted King of Zion.

Perhaps fome may fay, as in Neh. iv. "What will these feeble affociates do? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the ftones out of the heaps of the rubbish, which are burnt ?" I anfwer, It is all one with God to work by many or by few; by the weak things of the world, or by the great and mighty, who appeared for this caufe at our reformation. I remember a fcripture or two that has been comfortable to myself fince the first beginning of the work that God has been employing us in for fome time paft. One you have, Mic. ii. 13. "The Breaker is come up before them; they have broken up, and have paffed through the gate, and are gone out by it, and their King fhall pafs before them, and the Lord on the head of them." The other is, Matth. xxviii. ult. being Chrift's parting word of promife to his difciples immediately before he afcended up on high," Lo, I am with you alway even

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unto the end of the world." In the faith of his faithful word of promife, though our hands be weak and few, we are to fet forward in this great work. The apostles were but twelve poor fishermen, fent out to build the kingdom of Chrift, and to encounter hell and earth, principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world; and yet the Breaker going up before them, the Jewish œconomy is unhinged, the idolatries of the Gentile nations fallen down, and the power of the Roman empire is made to floop to the obedience of Chrift, the Prince of the kings of the earth. And what do we know. but the Lord may fo far countenance the little mint we are making to own the royal authority of Zion's King, this day, as to determine all the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland, in his own time, to do the fame, and again, like Ethiopia, to ftretch out their hands to God, and to return to him, from whom they have fo far departed. His bleffing upon this ef fay will do it effectually; for " his hand is not fhortened, that he cannot fave; neither his ear heavy, that he cannot hear."

Is. xxii. 24. And they fall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's houfe, the offspring and the iffue, all veffels of (mall quantity from the veffels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.

:

THE FIRST SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

N this chapter, from ver. 20. we have an illuftrious prophecy of the kingdom and government of the glorious Meffiah, under the type of Eliakim's preferment and promotion in the kingdom and government of Judah, as appears by comparing ver. 22. with Rev. iii. 7. where Chrift applies this paffage to himself. More particularly we have,

1. Eliakim's call unto his honourable employment, whereby is reprefented Chrift's call unto his mediatory work and office ver. 20. "And it fhall come to pafs in that day, that I will call my fervant Eliakim the fon of Hilkiah. Chrift did not run unfent, like many in our day, who intrude themselves into the office of the miniftry, If. xlii. 6. Heb. v. 4. 5. he did not take the honour unto himself, but was called of God, as was Aaron.

2. We have the badges of honour bestowed upon him in confequence of his call: ver. 21. 22. " And I will clothe him with thy robe, and ftrengthen him with thy girdle, and I will com

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