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and that be applied to him for pardon; and then he will ferve the living God. freely and chearfully and indeed, no one can look into eternity with comfort, and think of a future state with any fatisfaction, unless he has a good hope through grace, of an intereft in this blefling; but when he fees that God has in love to his foul, caft all his fins behind his back; and in his mercy to him, has thrown them into the depths of the fea; fo that when they are fought for they shall not be found, being all freely and fully pardoned; then, though upon the brink of eternity, and just launching into another world, he can fing and fay, O death, where is thy fting; O grave, where is thy villory? The fting of death is fin, and that is taken away by Chrift; The strength of fin is the law, and that is fulfilled by him: But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory over fin, law, hell and death, through our Lord Jefus Chrift", his blood, righteoufnefs, and facrifice.

5. The Lord also bleffes his people with a justifying righteousness, and with fresh views of their intereft in it, whilft they are ferving him in places where he records his name, by the miniftration of the gospel; for therein is this righteousness revealed from faith to faith; from one degree of it to another, until they arrive to a full affurance of its being theirs: and they are happy indeed, who receive this bleffing from the Lord; even righteousness from the God of their falvation; they are truly bleffed, thrice happy perfons that are favoured with this grace, and indulged with a lively fenfe of it: David defcribeth the blessedness.. of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works; but it is not easy to give after him the whole defcription of that happiness: fuch have acceptance with God; God is well pleased with Chrift, and with all his people in him, being clothed with his pure and perfect righteousness; with which righteoufnefs he is. well pleased; because by it the law is magnified and made honourable; his juftice is fatisfied; and all his perfections reconciled and honoured in the juftification of his people by it; and not only are their perfons accepted with God in the beloved, through the righteoufness of Christ, and for the fake of it; but their fervices and duties; their facrifices of prayer and praise alfo. Moreover, fuch have great peace in themfelves, much quietnefs and ease of mind; for, the work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever2; not of the righteousness of man, which is impure and imperfect, and cannot justify before God; and, therefore, can never lay any folid foundation for peace'; but of the righteousness of Chrift, by which thofe that are justified, have peace with God, and in themfelves; for, the kingdom of God, in them, is righteousness. and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost; that is, thefe are the fruits and effects of the righteousness of Chrift, being received by faith, and fo making a part of

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that kingdom of grace, in the heart of a believer, which can never be moved: to which may be added, that fuch who have an intereft in this righteousness, are fecured from condemnation and wrath; there is no condemnation to them that are in Chrift, and are juftified by his righteoufnefs; for his blood-fhed, fufferings, and death, which are a principal part of this righteoufness, are their fecurity from condemnation; fo that they fhall never enter into it, but fhall pass from death to life; and they may affure themselves, that as they are justified by the blood of Chrift, they fhall be faved from wrath, through him: to fay no more; they must needs be bleffed and happy, fince they are hereby intitled to eternal life. Hence, juftification by Chrift's righteoufnefs, is called, the juftification of life; for, being juftified through it, they are made heirs, according to the hope of eternal life, and shall moft affuredly enter into it; for, this righteousness will anfwer for them in a time to cone, and give them admiffion into the kingdom of heaven; which a man's own righteoufnefs, be it what it will, will leave him short of.

6. Such as ferve the Lord, and worship him in a spiritual manner, where his name is recorded, are bleffed by him with eternal life itself; for, there the Lord commands the bleffing, even life for evermore'; they are here bleffed with an enlarged view of it; life and immortality, or an immortal life, being more clearly brought to light by the gospel", and the miniftration of it; that prefenting to faith the best account that is given of the unfeen glories, and invisible realities of another world; and here, under the gofpel-miniftry, faints are fometimes indulged as with a fight of the King in his beauty; fo with a profpect of the good land that is very far off"; their hope of poffeffing it is more and more encouraged, and their faith of it increased; and are, indeed, made to rejoice in the believing views, and hope of the glory of God, they have fome glimpse of; yea, he that believes bath eternal life, in fome fenfe, already; he has it in promife, and in faith and hope; and he has the earneft and pledge of it, yea, the beginning of it, which is grace in him, and the knowledge of God in Chrift; for, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jefus Christ, whom thou baft fent; which fpiritual and experimental knowledge, unto which life eternal is annexed, is increased yet more and more, by means of the word and ordinances, the memorials of the name of God in his houfe; thefe are appointed for that purpose, and continued for that end; till we all come in, or into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the ftature of the fulness of Chrift; and this is no small encouragement to attend upon them: and when all this is confidered, in how many inftances, and by how many ways, God bieffes his people, that meet and worship him, VOL. I.

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M m
Pfalm cxxxiii. 3.
P Ephes. iv. 13.

2 Tim. i. 10.

where

where he records his name; it will clearly appear what a regard he has to fuch, places, and what inducements there are to his people to attend them.

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This will be more evident, if it be observed, that these bleffings are bleffings indeed; true and real ones; fuch as Jabez prayed for, when he said, O, that thou wouldst bless me indeed; or, "in bleffing, bless me:" fome bleffings have only an appearance of bleffings; are rather imaginary than real; at least they are not to be mentioned with these; as the outward bleffings of life, temporal good things; for they fometimes are turned into curfes, and are curses to wicked men; but these are covenant-bleffings, the fure mercies of David, which come from a covenant-God, through Chrift the mediator of the covenant; and in a way of covenant-grace, which makes them fure to all the fpiritual feed of Chrift:. these are spiritual bleffings, are of a spiritual nature, in diftinction from corporal ones, from bleffings of the basket, and of the store; are fuited to fpiritual men, and make for the welfare of the fpirit and foul of man; and are brought down,: and brought near, revealed, and applied by the holy Spirit of God, who takes them, and fhews believers their intereft in them: these are folid and fubftantial bleffings; in comparison of which, temporal ones are things which are not, that have no folidity and fubftance in them, mere nonentities; but the blessings of grace, which faints are made to inherit now, are fubftance; and that glory they fhall poffefs hereafter, is a better and more enduring fubftance, than any thing enjoyed here. In a word; the bleffings God bleffes his people with, who are found true and fpiritual worshippers of him, where he records his name, are unchangeable, irreversible, and for ever; he never repents of them, nor revokes them; when God gives commandment to blefs his people, and does blefs them, they are bleffed; and it is not in the power of men or devils to reverfe fuch a commandment, or fuch bleffings; they come from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, nor fhadow of turning; and they are like him, invariable and unalterable; what Ifaac faid to Efau concerning Jacob, is applicable to these bleffings; I have blessed him, yea, and be shall be blessed. And, it may be ftrongly argued from hence, that if a poor, frail, weak, and dying man, would not make any alteration in a bleffing he had conferred on his fon, though earnestly folicited to it; much lefs will that God, who is the immutable Jekovab, the everlasting I Am, make any change in, or reverse the bleffings he has bestowed on his people: no, whatever he does in this way, is for ever; there is an infeparable connection between the bleffings of grace, and eternal glory; to whom he gives the one he gives the other; whom he did predeftinate, them be alfo called; and whom he called, them be alfo juftified; and whom he justified, them be alfo glorified.

91 Chron. iv. 10.

▾ Gen. xxvii. 33

. Rom. viii. 30.

To

To conclude; We fee how ftrong are the reasons, how forcible the arguments, how great the encouragement, to engage us to attend the house and ordinances of God; for, if his prefence and bleffing are not fufficient, what will be? The Lord, to encourage the people of Ifrael to wait at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, promised to meet them there, and commune with them: and Chrift, to encourage his minifters and churches to attend to his word and ordinances, promifed his prefence with them, to the end of the world; than which nothing greater could be fuggefted to them: and, fince God is to be met with in public places of worship; his grace is there difplayed and communicated; Chrift is to be found, and with him life, and righteousness, and falvation, and the love and favour of God to be obtained and enjoyed; this may induce us to a constant attendance in them; Blessed is the man, fays wifdóm, or Chrift, that beareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors; for whofo findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But then it should be obferved, that the places where attendance is to be given, in a religious way, are where the name of the Lord is recorded; there only his prefence and blessing are to be expected; not where there is no mention of him; where the free grace of God, in the falvation of men, is not fet forth; where the name of Chrift is not spoken of, but ftudiously concealed, and but only occafionally, or now and then taken notice of under fome low epithet or another; but, instead thereof, man's free-will is exalted; the power and purity of human nature cried up; juftification and falvation are attributed to the works of men, and only a moral icheme is advanced and enforced; in fuch places, the prefence and bleffing of God are not to be met with; and, indeed, they are here rarely thought of, or fought for: but, if the name of God is recorded in a place, in the fenfe in which it has been explained, it matters not what the place is, or is called, as has been obferved; fince Jehovah dwelleth not in temples made with hands", at least is not limited and restrained unto them; nor does he regard the form and manner in which they are built; he dwells in a more stately temple than any that can bet erected on earth; the heaven is his throne, and the earth his footstool; and, therefore, he may well fay, where is the boufe that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? Since there is none built, or can be built equal to the glory of his Majefty; therefore our great concern fhould be, to worship him in a fpiritual manner, with our whole fpirits, in the exercise of spiritual graces, and under the influence, and by the affiftance of the Spirit of God, and to give unto him the glory due unto his name, even to each divine perfon; to the Father, who has chosen us to holiness and happiness; to the Son, who has redeemed us by his precious blood; and to the Spirit, who has regenerated and fanctified us, and is the earnest of our future glory.

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Prov. iii. 34, 35.

Acts xvii. 24.

* Ifai. lxvi. 1.

SERMON

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And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.

MOSES being called up to mount Sinai, the Lord delivered to him two

tables of stone, with the writing of the law upon them; when he defcended from thence, perceiving that the children of Ifrael had finned, by making and worshipping the golden calf, in great indignation at it, he caft them out of his hands, and broke them at the bottom of the mount: for this fin wrath came upon the people, and many of them fell by the fword of the fons of Levi; upon which Mofes had compaflion on them, and intreated the Lord for them; who promised to make his goodness pass before him, and proclaim his name gracious and merciful; and ordered him to hew two tables of stone like the first, and come up into the mount, and bring them with him, and he would write upon them the fame words which were on the firft; and alfo directed him to make an ark of fhittim wood to put them in; all which he did: for having hewed two tables of ftone, he carried them up to God in the mount, who wrote on them the ten commandments, according to the firft writing, and gave them to Mofes; who having received them, turned himself, as our text fays, from the place where the divine Majesty was; and came down from the mount, from mount Sinai, with the two tables in his hands, and the writing of God on them, one table in one hand, and the other in the other hand; and put the tables in the ark which he had made, or ordered to be made by Bezaleel; for it was the fame with that he made, and not a temporary one made for the prefent purpose till that was finished: and there they be as the Lord commanded me; there the two

tables

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