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for Service: By Wine we are refreshed and revived when thirsty and fainting; fo from the Body of Chrift which was broken as an atoning Sacrifice, and his Blood which was poured out for us, we derive our spiritual Life and Strength. The Application of thefe Symbols is moft fimple, and natural alfo: We are commanded to wash with the Water, to eat the Bread, and to drink the Wine: moft proper Representations of our Participation of thefe Benefits.

Thus much of Figures and Emblems did the all-wife God think proper to appoint and continue in his Church, when he brake the Yokes of Jewish Bondage, and abolished a Multitude of Rites and Ceremonies of his own ancient Appointment. How plain, how natural, how glorious, how divine are thefe two Chriftian Institutions, Baptifm and the Lord's Supper, if furveyed and practised in their original Simplicity! but they are debased by the Addition of any fantastic Ornaments.

What think ye of all the gaudy Trappings and golden Finery that is mingled with the Chriftian Worship by the Imaginations of Men in the Church of Rome? Are they not like fo many Spots and Blemishes caft upon a fair Jewel by fome foolish Painter? Let the Colours be never fo fprightly and glowing, and the Luftre of the Paint never fo rich, yet if you place them on a Diamond

they

they are Spots and Blemishes ftill. Is not this a juft Emblem to reprefent all the gay Airs, and rich and glittering Accoutrements wherewith the Church of Rome hath furrounded her Devotions and her public Religion?

The Reformers of our Worship in the Church of England were much of this Mind, for they boldly pafs this Cenfure on many of the Popish Ceremonies, that they entered into the Church by undifcreet Devotion and Zeal without Knowledge: They blinded the People, and obfcured the Glory of God, and are worthy to be cut away and clean rejected: That they did more confound and darken, than declare and fet forth Chrift's Benefits unto us, and reduced us again to a Ceremonial Law, like that of Mofes, and to the Bondage of Figures and Shadows: This is their Sentence and Judgment concerning many of the Romish Rites, in the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer. Happy had it been for Great Britain if they had thought fo concerning all of them, fince they had all the fame or a worse Original, and they all tend to the fame unhappy End! How. ever, let others take their Liberty of colouring all their Jewels with what Greens and Purples and Scarlets they pleafe; but for my own part I like a Diamond beft that has no Paint upon it.

XVI. Bills

may yield us two hundred, and we gladly confefs the Bill is well paid. Some of these Promises, these Bills of heavenly Treasure, are not made payable till the Hour of our Death, as, Blessed are thofe Servants whom when the Lord comes he fhall find watching, &c. Luke xii. 37. He that endureth to the End the fame fhall be faved. Matt. xxiv. 13. Be thou faithful to the Death, and I will give thee a Crown of Life. Rev. ii. 10.

Others are not due till the Day of the Refurrection; as, Them who fleep in Jefus will God bring with him. 1 Theff. iv. 14. I will redeem them from Death. Hof. xiii. 14. Col. iii. 4. When Chrift who is our Life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in Glory. Phil. iii. 20, 21. He shall change our vile Body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body. 1 Pet. v. 1, 4. And when the chief Shepherd fhall appear, ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not a

way.

Now when the great Day fhall come, in which our Lord Jefus Chrift hall give up his mediatorial Kingdom to the Father, and render an Account of al! his Stewardship, how fair will his Books appear! how just a Ballance will ftand at the Foot of all his Accounts! Then fhall he fhew in what Manner he has fulfilled the Promises to the Saints, and prefent to the Father all the Bills that

he

he has received and discharged; while all the Saints fhall with one Voice atteft it, to the Honour of the High-Treasurer of Heaven, that he has not failed in Payment even to the smallest Farthing.

XVI. The Saints unknown in this World.

UT of the Millions of Mankind that

OUTF

fpread over the Earth in every Age, the great God has been pleased to take fome into his own Family, has given them a heavenly and divine Nature, and made them his Sons and his Daughters. But he has fet no outward Mark of Glory upon them; there is nothing in their Figure or in their Countenance, to diftinguish them from the Rabble of Mankind. And it is fit that they should be in fome measure unknown among their fellow Mortals: Their Character and Dignity is too facred and fublime to be made publick here on Earth, where the Circumftances that attend them are generally fo mean and defpicable. Divine Wifdom has appointed the other World for the Place of their full Discovery; there they shall appear like themselves, in State, Equipage and Array, becoming the Children of God and Heirs of Heaven.

Their bleffed Lord himself, First-born Son, was a mere

who is God's Stranger and unknown

unknown amongst Men; he laid afide the Rays of Divinity and the Form of a God, when he came down to dwell with Men, and he took upon him the Form of a Servant. He wore no divine Majefty on his Face, no Sparks of Godhead beaming from his Eyes, no glaring Evidence of his high Dignity in all his outward Appearance. Therefore the World knoweth us not, because it knew him not. But he fhall be known and adored when he comes in the Glory of his Father, with Legions of Angels, and we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. The Life of the Saints is hidden with Chrift in God: But when Chrift, who is their Life fhall appear, they also fhall appear with him in Glory. 1 John iii. 1, 2. Col. iii. 3, 4. In that Day they fhall ftand forth before the whole Creation in fair Evidence, they fhall fhine in diftinguished Light, and appear vefted in their own undoubted Honours. But here it seems proper there fhould be fomething of a Cloud upon them, both upon the Account of the Men of this World, and upon their own Account too, as well as in Conformity to Chrift Jefus their Lord.

First, Upon their own Account, because the prefent State of a Chriftian is a State of Trial. We are not to walk by Sight as the Saints above and Angels do; they know they are poffeffed of Life and Bleffedness, for they fee God himself near them, Chrift in

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