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into his Fold, and live for ever! "My Sheep fhall hear my Voice, (faith Chrift) and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal Life, and they fhall never perish," John x. 28. Again, he faith, "furely they are my People, Children that will not delight in Lying nor Slandering: fo he was their Saviour. In all their Afflictions he was afflicted, and the Angel of God's Prefence (which was Chrift) faved them: in his Love and in his Pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them (in his Heart) all the Days of old. And did lead his Church through the Deep (the Red Sea) as on dry Ground, to make himself a glorious Name," Ifa. Ixiii. 8, 9, 13, 14. And he drowned all their Enemies, the Egyptians, who maliciously followed them, there was not fo much as one of them left; but all Ifrael on firm Ground, fhouting the triumphant Song, Exod. xiv. 28.

GRANT us, O Lord, an bumble Heart, to dip in

the cleansing Rivers of fpiritual Jordan, viz. in the precious Blood of a fuffering Emmanuel. And as Simeon faw bis Salvation fure, having Christ in bis Heart, as well as in his Arms. May all Believers, being made Priests unto God, take up Chrift, the Ark of the new Covenant under the Gospel, and through thẹ Merits of the feven Streams of his precious Blood, walk round fpiritual Jericho by Faith, until Satan's strong Holds within us fall down.

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God's peculiar Care of his Church, and his fiery Indignation on her Enemies. The Church ardently wishes to live to God's Glory.

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UR bleffed Redeemer having refcued his Church out of the Hands of her temporal Enemies, and drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea, is certainly a glorious Type of the fpiritual Deliverance of the Church, by the Blood of Chrift, to be feen by the Eye of Faith in all Believers, who are come from the Egyptian Bondage of Sin, and have travelled through the Wilderness, and Horror of Conviction; apprehenfive they could not efcape for their Life by the Way of the ten Commandments, high as Baal zephon's Mount, &c. and broad as the Sea, and the Terrors of Hell behind, when they faw the Lord their Salvation a present Help in Time of Trouble. In fuch Streights was the Church, or God's Ifrael of old, they faw they could not pass over the Red Sea, and if they went back, there were all their Enemies, Sword in Hand ready to flay them; fo that they were fore afraid: Thus it is with a Sinner who has feen the Law fo exceeding broad, curfing every one that continueth not in all Things written in the Book of the Law to do them, Gal. iii 10. and if he goes back to his Sins, then he falls into the Hands of the Devil, and all his fpiritual Enemies, who war against the Soul as with Swords and Spears: efpecially he be comes the Object of all the Curfes of God, denounced, upon Mount Ebal, which make him fore afraid,

afraid, Deut. xxvii. 4.

Thus is the repenting Sinner in the utmoft Diftrefs, when he has been fo long under that fevere School mafter (the Law) that he abfolutely defpairs of the Benefit of Salvation by his utmoft Obedience thereunto. " For whofoever fhall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one Point, he is guilty of all," James ii. 10. "Therefore by the Deeds of the Law, there fhal no Flesh be justified," Rom. iii. 20. "For the

Law made nothing perfect," Heb. vii. 19. but obliged us to look for a better Covenant, which we have in Chrift, the only Mediator, Heb. viii. 6. Therefore is the doubting Sinner continually flying forward and backward in his Imaginations, like Noah's Dove over the troubled Waters of God's Difpleasure, and can find no Reft for the Sole of his Foot, until he comes to Chrift, the true GofpelArk, Gen. viii. 9. Until then, I fay, he feels the Pangs of the New birth, and wanteth Strength to bring forth, Ifa. lxvi. 9. He is in Sorrow as a Woman in Travail, John xvi. 21. and like finking Peter cries out, Lord! fave, or I perish, Matth. xiv. 30. Thus we may obferve, when Ifrael cried unto the Lord in their Diftrefs, Mofes bid them "ftand ftill, and fee the Salvation of God: The Egyptians, faid he, whom you have feen to-day, you fhall fee them no more for ever. The Lord fhall fight for you, and ye fhall hold your Peace. Then Mofes made Interceffion with God (doubtless with Groanings which could not be uttered, Rom. viii. 26.) And the Lord faid unto Mofes, Wherefore crieft thou unto me? Speak unto the Children of Ifrael that they go forward. But lift thou up thy Rod, and stretch out thine Hand over the Sea, and divide it and the Children of Ifrael fhall go on dry Ground through the midst of the Sea. (For Man's Extremity is God's Opportunity) And they were

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all

all fafely led through the Red-Sea, (and that too in Faith, by which they became all baptized, as Saint Paul faith, 1 Cor. x. 2.) when they faw the Salvation of God, (viz. their great Deliverance). And the Waters were a Wall unto them on the right Hand and on the left. And the Egyptians purfued, and went in after them into the midft of the Sea. And the Waters returned, and covered all the Hoft of Pharaoh, that were in Purfuit after them, there remained not fo much as one of them, (as noted already). And Ifrael faw the Egyptions dead upon the Sea fhore. And Ifrael faw the great Work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; and the People feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his Servant Mofes," Exod. xiv. 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23, 28. So when the Soul, confcious of Guilt, is apprehenfive of falling a Prey to that frightful Enemy, the great red Dragon, more terrible than Pharaoh and his Hoft, following him with all the Curfes of God's Law, which appear as to many glittering Weapons formed for his Deftruction: then the Cry is, I am undone, I have deAroyed my poor Soul for ever! (For when in reviveth the Sinner dieth, Rom. vii. 9. For having made God his Enemy, by the firft Revolt in Adem, and his own actual Sinning, he finds God's wrathful Displeasure and fiery Indignation burning within him, whereby Sin appears exceeding finful. And the trembling Sinner convinced of the abfolute want of a Saviour, will efteem Chrift exceeding precious, and in his Extremity will cry mightily to God; and he who heareth the Prayer of the Poor will attend to their Voice. And Jefus our great Deliverer, who always attentive to the good of his Church, and zealous for his Father's Glory, in the Days of his Flesh groaned in Spirit, John xi. 33. to his Father in Heaven, and with his Voice called dead

Lazarus

Lazarus from the Grave, and dry'd the Mourners, Tears. He, I fay, will compaffionate the mourning Sinner, and bid him "fear not, but stand still, believe and fee the Salvation of God," as Mojes faid, to the Children of Ifrael, God would fhew to them to Day: "For the Egyptians (or Sins, which you have feen (and were fore afraid of) to Day, you thall fee them no more for ever. For the Lord will fight for you, and ye fhall hold your Peace. Then faid the Lord unto Mofes, (and now unto JESUS) Wherefore crieft thou unto me? (God fpeaks now in Chrift to Man's Heart, as he did then to Mofes) fpeak unto the People, to the Ifrael of God, that they go forward." And lift thou up thy Shepherd's Rod, thy Word made effectual by thy Spirit, with which thou doft rule, comfort and guide the redeemed Race; and stretch forth thy glorious Arm, Display the Banner of thy Love, and lead the Van, through the Red Sea of thy Sufferings, thine Agony and bloody Sweat, thy Crofs and Paffion, and let the noble Army of Martyrs march boldly on, furrounded by the heavenly Cloud before and behind, and conducted by an unerring Guide, the Leader of Ifrael, whofe Arm brings forth Salvation. Thus the ipiritual Ifraelits, who by Faith commit their Souls to his Conduct, through the Sea of his, Blood, to the promised Inheritance, escape from the Hands of all their Enemies, and from all the Demands of the Law, and fing the triumphant Anthem. Thus he gently leads them that are with Young, thofe in whole Hearts Chrift is formed, or the heavenly Seed rooted: he tranfplants them from the State of Nature to a State of Grace; and as Ifrael were not brought back to Bondage again, fo we receive not the Spirit of Bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of Adoption to cry, Abba, Father! The God that brings to the Birth, gives

Strength

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