and do them." Where you fee that the form and fashion of the church of the New Teftament, among the Gentile nations," is reckoned by God fuch a facred thing, and of fo great importance, that the prophet, and confequently all minifters of Christ, are commanded exprefsly to fhew the form and fashion of it, from the pattern described in the mount of divine revelation; and not only fo, but to write it in a book, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances. thereof, and do them. I do not know if, in any nation under heaven, this precept has been more literally and expressly obeyed and fulfilled. The form of doctrine, and of found words, is drawn out of the fcriptures, in the Confeffion of Faith; the form of worship, in the directory for the public worfhip of God through the three kingdoms; the form of church. government, the ordination of minifters, and books of difcipline, all drawn out of the fcriptures of truth, and written or printed in a book, and the whole land brought under the bond of a folemn covenant to obferve and do accordingly; which covenant we that are minifters are about to renew this day. And feeing this is the cafe, what fhall we think of the doctrine of Mr George Whitefield, who lately traverfed up and down the land with fo great applaufe and diffeminate his latitudinarian principles, as if the church of Chrift had no form of go. vernment established by Chrift, and therefore non-effential, and a matter of indifference whether the church of Chrift be of the Epifcopal, Prefbyterian, or Popish form, providing that people were acquainted with the effentials of Chriftianity, and were good men in the main? All this poisonous doctrine he hath propagate under the fpecious pretence of advancing a catholic love and communion among good men of all denominations. Who does not,fee this to be a battery raifed against the covenanted form of doctrine, difcipline, worship, and government of the church of Chrift in the three kingdoms, and particularly the lait, viz. the Prefbyterian form of government? which yet is fo clearly founded upon the word of God, that when the articles of government, and the fcriptures that fupport them, were read to him (Mr Whitefield) by a company of minifters here prefent, he had not a mouth to object against any one of them. And yet how lamentable is it to fce fuch a number of profeffed Prefbyterian minifters, and others, blown away from their covenanted Prefbyterian principles, into the latitudinarian and fectarian camp, by the breath of an English prieft, whom they took into full church communion with them? No wonder though they were left to adopt that awful delufion that has followed upon his miniitrations in this land, agreeable unto the threatening denoun

ced

ced against those who do not receive the truth in the love of it, 2 Theff. ii. 10-12. It is true, they who have been left to adopt his miniftrations, and to partake of that delufive influence that has attended-it, they cry it up as an excellent work of the Spirit of God; but fome of us have not wanted oppor tunity to know the contrary, that instead of being a spirit of truth and love, it is a spirit of malignancy and enmity against the truth, and covenanted caufe of God in this land, and that it infpires the convicts and fubjects of it with an inveterate prejudice against those who bear up the teftimony of Jefus, and do not ftrike fail unto the corrupt established church, and the course of defection she is carrying onțin oppofition to folemn covenants for reformation. The walls and ramparts of Prefbyterian church-government have endured many a blaft of the wind of hell in this land, and no wonder, because it is founded upon a rock; and I make no doubt but it shall stand this effort of the gates of hell alfo. The form of the house of God, I say, is glorious, as is the form of every work of his hand. And therefore let us ftill "walk about Zion, and go round about her, and mark her towers and bulwarks, that we may tell it," in a way of testimony and folemn covenanting, " unto the generations following; for this God," who has fet up the towers and walls of his church among us, "is our God in covenant for ever and ever, and he will be our guide even unto death," Pfal. xlviii. at the close.

3. The door or entry of the houfe is glorious. And if you afk, What is the door of the church visible or invifible? I anfwer, Christ answers the queftion, John x. 9. "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he fhall be faved, and fhall go in and out, and find pafture." This is the gate of God, by it the just fhall enter in; and by it the finner may enter in, and become juft: no fooner doth he enter this door by faith, but he is clothed with the garment of falvation, and covered with the beft robe of the imputed righteousness of Chrift; yea, becomes the righteoufnefs of God in him, he being "the end of the law for righteousness unto every one that believeth."

4. The pillars of the house are glorious: Prov. ix. 1. "Wifdom hath builded her house, the hath hewn out her seven pillars." Thefe pillars are the perfections of the divine nature, as they are displayed and manifefted in Chrift, his wisdom, power, holinefs, juftice, mercy, love, and faithfulness; all which do, with a pleafant harmony, combine to fupport the fabric of the houfe of mercy, which God has faid fhall be built up for ever.

5. The ordinances of the houfe are glorious; there Chrift

and

and his family do meet, and have fellowship one with another. David, Pfal. lxxxiv. cries out, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hofts! One day in thy courts is better than a thoufand: I had rather be a door-keeper in thy house, than dwell in the tents of fin." And when he was, through the fury of Saul, and other perfecuting enemies, driven to the wilderness of Judea, and fo deprived of accefs to these galleries of the King of glory, where he used to enjoy communion with him, how doth his heart and flesh cry out after the living God? Pfal. Ixiii. and Pfal. xlii. And they that have David's experience of fellowship with God in his ordinances, will be ready to fay with him, "I love the habitation of thy houfe, and the place where thine honour dwelleth."

Not to multiply particulars, all the offspring of the house are glorious: "The King's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold." The fervants of the house are glorious in the eye of the church: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace!"

Thus I have given you a fhort hint concerning this house and its glory; neither time nor strength will allow me to go on to the other particulars propofed in the profecution of the doctrine, and therefore must refer them till God fhall give another occafion; and because the great work of the day is before us, therefore I fhut up at prefent with two or three inferences from the text and doctrine.

1. See hence what happy and privileged perfons believers are, who are the offspring and iffue of this family, being born f God, and having a name and a place in his house, even an everlasting name which fhall never be cut off. O, fays David, "Bleffed are they that dwell in thy houfe, for they are ftill praising thee. Happy art thou, O Ifrael: who is likefunto thee, O people faved by the Lord!" Only let it be remembered, there is a great difference between a free-born fon, and a fervant in the houfe, who is working for his lawful wages; for the fon abideth in the house for ever, but the fervant at term day is turned to the door. There is a difference between a coming into the house for a while, and a being planted there by regeneration; for "they that are planted in the houfe of the Lord, thall flourish in the courts of our God," &c. They are the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, in whom he will be glorified.

2. See what a dangerous risk they run who do injury to this houfe; instead of building the houfe of God, do their utmost to pull it down, and raze it to the foundation. There are a generation of men in our day, who turn the houfe of Chrift's

Father

Father into a den of thieves, who plunder the house of its valuable furniture, and spoil the offspring and iffue of the house of their valuable privileges. They call themselves the fervants of the house, and yet, contrary to the laws of the house, they beat and cast out their fellow-fervants, for no other caufe but for contending and witnefling against them in giving away the rights of the church, and of the Lord's little ones, unto the world's great ones, particularly in the important affair of elect ing minifters, that are to have the charge of fouls. In a word, truth falleth in the streets, equity cannot enter, error in doctrine is patronized, the keys of difcipline perverted; they go to, as with axes and hammers, to break down the carved work of reformation, which, by the authority and oath of God, we are bound to maintain, preferve, and defend. Well, but shall they always trample on the divine authority, and break God's covenant, and efcape? No, they fhall not, fays God, Ezek. xvii. 18. Jerufalem will yet be a burdenfome ftone; and the head-stone of the corner, which they reject, will in the event fall heavy upon their heads, and grind them to powder, Zech. xii. 1-3. Pfal. ii. 1-4. Dan. ii. 44, 45. &c.

3. If Chrift be the fole manager of his Father's house, and doth all the glory of it hang upon him? then it ill becomes any crowned head to wear the jewel of fupremacy in and over the church, which is the houfe of the living God, fave he only whom God hath anointed King over his holy hill of Zion. The Pope, or Antichrift, pretended to this fupremacy; and when King Henry VIII. of England renounced the Pope's jurifdiction, he took that jewel of the crown of Chrift, and fet it in his own crown, and got himself proclaimed head in all causes, not only civil, but ecclefiaftic, and the oath of supremacy impofed in confequence thereof upon the fubjects of England, and there it ftands to this day. This fupremacy, at the restoration of King Charles, was extended to Scotland, and an abfolute power granted to the king, to mould the church of Chrift according to his pleasure. Upon which, contrary to the oath of God, lying upon himfelf and the whole land, the whole covenanted work of reformation from 1638, and the obligation of our folemn covenants for reformation, were refcinded by acts of parliament, fome of which are not to this day abrogate. Our forefathers witneffed against these things, and many of them fealed their teftimony with their blood. Their teftimony, for Scotland's reformation and folemn covenants, has never been fairly adopted by the church of Scotland, fince the deliverance God wrought for us at the Revolution; but, on the contrary, a confpiracy has been found among the prophets of our Ifrael, for burying that tefli

mony,

mony, and our folemn covenants for reformation, in utter filence and oblivion. However, God, who takes the wife in their own craftinefs, and turns the counsel of the froward headlong, has, in his over-ruling providence, raised up that teftimony, and a judicatory upon the footing of the covenanted reformation, who are this day met together, on defign to revive and renew our covenant-allegiance unto the exalted King of Zion, after the example of our worthy forefathers, and the precedents thereof which ftand upon record in fcripture, particularly, Deut. xxix. 10-16. Neh. ix. 38. But these things I cannot infift upon at prefent.

I fhall only add another inference from the text, though I have not yet infifted on the doctrinal part from which it flows. Is it fo, that all the glory of the house of God, the offspring, iffue, and all the veffels of the house, hang upon Christ, as upon a nail faftened in a fure place? This ferves to fhew where the ftrefs of our covenanting in a way of duty doth lie, namely, upon the great Manager: for without him, we can do nothing, and without faith in him and a fingle dependence upon him, it is impoffible to please God; he is the strength of Ifrael, and the horn of falvation, upon whom all our engagements to duty muft hang. And therefore let us fet about this work with the eye of faith fixed upon him, as the glory of our strength, faying with David, "We will go in the ftrength of the Lord God, making mention of his righteoufnefs, even of his only." But neither time nor ftrength allows me to go farther at prefent. The Lord blefs what has been faid.

The author not having time or ftrength to overtake the main purposes of the text in his firft difcourse, and confidering, that, through the divine bleffing, his other difcourfes on that fubject may be edifying to the body of Chrift, he confented to their being tranfcribed alfo from his notes for the prefs.

Stirling, April 27.

1744.

E. E.

Is.