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their works, and caft into the lake of fire; where they will be in company with the devil, the beaft, and false prophet, and be tormented with them for ever and ever ".

This will iffue in the ultimate glory; when the faints fhall be for ever with the Lord; fhall fee him as he is; enjoy uninterrupted communion with Father, Son, and Spirit; have the company of angels, and be in poffeffion of those things which eye bath not feen, nor ear beard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive of. But my intention being only to give you an account of the glorious things that shall be in the spiritual and perfonal reign of Chrift; here I ftop, here I end, and close all with a word or two.

1. All this fhews and proves, that the church and people of God are the objects of his love; that he loves the gates of Zion indeed; the church is his Hephzibah, in whom he delights, and to whom he is married; and therefore has he said these glorious things of her; and therefore will he make them good and if the faints have an interest in the love of God, they need not care what the world say or think of them, or what they can do unto them; though they are with them the offscouring of all things, they are precious in the fight of God.

2. It is evident from hence, that the church of Chrift is lafting and durable, and cannot be deftroyed; its foundation is in the holy mountains; it is built on a rock the gates of hell cannot prevail against; its walls, in the fpiritual reign, are falvation, and its gates praife; and what a defcription have we of it, of its wall and foundation, of its fecurity and glory in the perfonal reign, under the name of the new Jerufalem? It will continue through every age, and come into every state it is faid it should, and will endure to all eternity.

3. Seeing fuch glorious things are spoken of it, and that by the Lord, we need not doubt, but fhould believe, there will be a performance of them; and fhould be looking for them, and at the worst should lift up our heads with joy, fince our redemption draws near.

4. Happy are thofe that belong to this city, who are fellow-citizens with the faints, and of the boushold of God; whofe citizenship is in heaven, and they have a right to enter in through the gates into the holy city, the new Jerusalem; but miserable will those be, that will be without, for without are dogs: and then be that is unjust, will be unjust ftill; and he that is filthy, will be filthy ftill; and he that is righteous, will be righteous ftill; and he that is holy, will be holy ftill".

Rev. xx. 7-15.

A Rev. xxii, 11.

SERMON

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Faith in God and his Word, the Establishment and Prosperity of his People. Preached at a Wednesday's Evening Lecture in Great Eaftcheap, Dec. 27, 1753.

IN

2 CHRON. XX. 20.

Believe in the Lord your God, fo fhall ye be established; believe bis Prophets, so shall ye profper.

N the beginning of this chapter, we have an account of an invafion of the land of Judea in the times of Jehoshaphat, by the neighbouring nations, who joined in confederacy against the Jews. These people were always a typical people, and in this their case and circumstances were an emblem of the church and people of God; who in their prefent ftate are militant. They are furrounded with enemies, as the Jews were, which are many, lively and ftrong; they have numerous fleshly lufts which war against their fouls; and fome enemies that are not flesh and blood, but fpiritual wickedneffes, with whom they wrestle; and even the whole world is against them, and hate, oppose, and perfecute, them in one shape or another, to the uttermoft; so that upon one account or another, for the most part, without are fightings, and within are fears a.

The method Jehoshaphat and his people took in this their distress, was to seek the Lord by prayer, and ask help of him. Prayer is a special piece of the christian armour; it is the last that is mentioned in the account of it; it is the dernier refort of believers, and which they often ufe to good purpose and great advantage. There were fome fort of devils in Chrift's time, who could not be difpoffeffed by any other other means; Satan has often felt the dint of this weapon of our warfare, and dreads it; and dreaded it has been by fome of his inftruments. Mary queen of Scots used to say, that fhe dreaded more the prayers of John Knox, a famous Reformer, than ten thousand armed men; fo effectual is the fervent prayer of the righteous, as for the bringing down the bleffings of the covenant of grace upon them, fo for the intimidating of their enemies, and for their protection from them.

2 Cor. vii. 5.

The

The excellent prayer of Jehoshaphat on this occafion is recorded; which begins with taking notice of the place of the divine refidence, heaven; in like manner as our Lord taught his difciples to pray, faying first of all, Our Father which art in heaven; and of the fovereignty of God over all the kingdoms of the world; and of his uncontroulable and irresistible power; and of his being the covenant-God and Father of his people; all which are neceffary to be observed by us in our addreffes to him, to raise in our minds juft ideas of him, and to encourage our faith and hope in him. The royal faint goes on to make mention of the works of God of old; his works of power and might, of grace and goodness, in driving the heathens out of the land of Canaan, and giving it to the feed of Abraham for ever; from whence he hoped and concluded, it would not be given up again into the hands of their enemies. He takes notice of the fanctuary or temple that was built in it, where Jehovah dwelt, granted his prefence to his people, and heard and helped them in the times of their distress; which was a type of Chrift's human nature, the temple of his body, the true tabernacle which God pitched, and not man, in which dwells all the fulness of the Godhead; and for the fake of him the Lord hears and answers the prayers of his people, when they look, as Jonah did, towards his holy temple; and which, with great pertinency, is here abferved. Next the ingratitude of their enemies is taken notice of; when Ifrael came out of Egypt, and paffed through the wildernefs, they were bid not to meddle with or diftrefs the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, but turn away from them, as they did; who now reward them evil for good, by attempting to difpoffefs them of the land given them to inherit: and therefore it was hoped the Lord would judge their caufe, and right their wrongs; fince the king and his people had no power to oppofe fuch a numerous army that was come up against them; but their eyes were to the Lord, and on him were their dependence, and with him they left the iffue of things.

The Lord presently fhewed himself to be a God hearing and answering prayer; for immediately, as the king and all the people ftood before the Lord to hear what he would fay unto them, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel a Levite, who stood up and prophefied, and bid the people not be dismayed at the number of their enemies; told them where they were to be met with; assured them of victory, nay, that they had no need to fight, the Lord would fight for them; and that they had nothing to do, but to stand still and see the salvation of God; which meffage Jehoshaphat and the people received with faith, with holy reverence and godly fear, bowing their heads and worshipping and fo fully affured were they of the truth of what was promised them, that they sung the praises of God, before the deliverance was wrought; upon which they marched out to meet the enemy, when Jehoshaphat at the head of his army addreffed C Jonah ii. 4.

b Matt. vi. 9.

it

so

it in the words first read; believe in the Lord your God, fo fhall ye be established; believe his prophets, fo fhall ye profper: "do not truft in your numbers, nor in "your own ftrength, courage, and skill; but trust in your covenant-God, fo "fhall ye be ftrengthened, confirmed, and animated to engage your enemies "with true fortitude of mind; believe what he has faid by his prophets, parti

65

cularly by Jahaziel, who has just now delivered a meffage from him to you; "fo fhall ye fucceed against your enemies, and obtain a compleat victory over "them." This is the fenfe of the words refpecting the prefent cafe; but they may be applied to believers in any age or period of time, in whatfoever cafe or circumstances they may be; the main and principal thing in them is faith or believing concerning which,

I. I fhall confider the kind and nature of it.

II. The objects of it, as here expreffed, the Lord God and his prophets.
III. The advantages arifing from it, establishment and profperity.

I. I fhall confider the kind and nature of faith: There are various forts of faith, as the apoftle fuggefts, when he fays, though I have all faith; that is, all forts of faith, which he supposes a man may have, and not have charity, love or true grace; he means all forts but one, namely, fpecial faith; for whoever has that, has charity or love; for faith worketh by love: however there are several forts or kinds of faith.

1. There is a faith of miracles, or of doing miracles; and which the apostle in the above words has in view, fince it follows, fo that I could remove mountains; referring to what our Lord faid to his difciples; if ye have faith as a grain of mustard-feed, ye shall fay unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it fall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you'. Chrift, when he gave his difciples a commiffion to preach the Gospel, gave them power of working miracles to confirm it; he gave them power over unclean fpirits to caft them out, and to heal all manner of difeafes; and Judas no doubt had this power as well as the reft; for a man in these times might have fuch a faith, and such a power, and yet not have that fpecial faith which iffues in falvation. We read of fome that caft out devils in the name of Chrift, and yet are not, and will not be known and acknowledged by him as his.

2. There is a faith which is commonly called an hiftorical faith; which is a mere affent to a fett of propofitions as true, and which are true in themselves, as, That there is but one God: that there is a God may be known and believed by the light of nature, may be concluded from the things that are made by him and that this God is but one, is the voice of reafon and revelation; the language

both

1 Cor. xiii. 2.

e Gal. v. 6.

f Matt. xvii. 20.

Matt, vii. 22, 23.

both of the Old and of the New Teftament; the faith of Jews and Chriftians; and it is right to believe it; and which may be done where there is not true fpecial faith thou believeft that there is one God, thou dost well; the devils also believe and tremble; that is, they believe there is one God, and know there is but one, and tremble through fear of his awful majefty.

With this fort of faith a man may believe all that is faid and is true of Jefus Christ; as that he is God over all blessed for ever, the true God and eternal life: that he is the Son of God, and Saviour of the world; that he is God and man in one perfon; that he became incarnate; that he fuffered and died for the fins of men; that he was buried, and rofe again from the dead; that he afcended up to heaven, is fet down at the right hand of God, and will come a fecond time to judge the world; all which a man may believe, and yet be destitute of the true grace of God. There are indeed fome ftrong expreffions in the epiftle of the apostle John, where he says, that every spirit that confesseth that Jefus Chrift is come in the flesh, is of God; and whosoever believeth that Jefus is the Chrift, is born of God: whereas now there are whole nations that believe these things, of multitudes of whom it cannot be thought that they are regenerate perfons. It will help us over this difficulty a little, by confidering times, and times in the apostles times, thefe truths were generally denied; the whole world, Jews and Gentiles, opposed them; and then for a man to believe and profess them in the face of all oppofition, and under the scandal of the cross, was a great matter; it was reckoned a proof of true grace, and a criterion of a man's regeneration: but now, fince chriftianity is established, and become the religion of nations, to believe all this is no mark or fign of being born again; for fuch a national faith is no better than the faith of Indians and Mahometans, only it happens to have a better object; for the ground and reafon of it is the fame; namely, being born and brought up among those who generally believe in the fame way. Though it may be, the true fenfe of the above expreffions is this; that every one that embraces, profeffes, or preaches that Chrift is come in the flesh, or is become incarnate, is on the fide of God and truth; and that whoever believes that Jefus of Nazareth is the true Meffiah, is a regenerate perfon; that is, not barely affents to this truth; but whereas his work, as the Meffiah was to make atonement for fin, and procure the pardon of it, and bring in everlasting righteousness, and obtain falvation for men; he deals by faith with him for these things; with his atoning facrifice for the expiation of fin; with his blood for pardon and cleanfing; and with his righteousness for juftification; receives him as a Saviour, and depends upon him for life and falvation; otherwife, barely believing him to be the Meffiah, is no other than what the devils themVOL. I. L felves

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