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at laft. The gofpel is as uncertain as your life; God hath made no fuch fettlement of it, but that he may at pleasure remove it, and will certainly do fo, if we thus trifle under it; 'tis but a candlestick, tho' a golden one, Rev. ii. 5. and that you all know is a moveable thing; and not only your life, and the means of your eternal life, I mean the gofpel, are uncertain things; but even the motions and ftrivings of the Spirit with your fouls are as uncertain as either. "Work out your own "falvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh "in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure," Phil. ii. 12, 13. That God now works with you, is matter of great encouragement to your work: but that he works at his own pleafure, as a free arbitrary agent, who can ceafe when he pleases, and never give but one knock at your hearts more, should make you work with fear and trembling.

9. Think what a fearful aggravation it will be, both of your fin and mifery, to perish in the fight and prefence of an offered remedy; to fink into hell betwixt the outstretched arms of a compaffionate Redeemer, that would have gathered you, but you would not.

Heathens, yea devils will upbraid you in hell for fuch unaccountable folly and defperate madness: heathens will fay, Alas, we had but the dim moon-light of nature, which did indeed discover fin, but not Chrift the remedy. Ah, had your preachers and your bibles been fent among us, how gladly would we have embraced them! furely faith God to Ezekiel, "had I fent "thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee,” Ezek. iii. 5, 6, Matth. xi. 21. The very devils will upbraid you;

had never

O if God had fent Mediator in our nature, we
rejected him as you have done; but he took not on him the
nature of angels.

10. Laftly, How clear as well as fure, will your condemnation be in the great day, against whom fuch a cloud of witnesses will appear! O how manifeft will the righteoufnefs of God be! men and angels fhall applaud the sentence, and your own confciences fhall acknowledge the equity of it. You that are Chriftless now, will be fpeechlefs then, Matth. xxii. 11.

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Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord, I perfuade men," 2 Cor. v. 11. as one that trembles to think of being fummoned as a witness against any of your fouls. O that I might be your rejoicing, and you mine in the day of our Lord Jefus Chrift.

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REV. iii. 20. Behold [1] ftand at the door, &c.

HAVING, in the former fermon, pondered Chrift's solemn

preface to his earnest fuit; the next thing that comes under our confideration, is the person folliciting, and pleading for admiffion into the hearts of finners, which is Chrift himself.

Behold [1] ftand. The only difficulty here is rightly to apprehend the manner of Chrift's prefence in gofpel adminiftrations for it is manifeft the person of Chrift was at this time in, heaven; his bodily prefence was removed from this lower world above fixty years before this epiftle was written to the Laodiceans. John's banishment into Patmos is by Eufebius, out of Irenæus and Clemens Alexandrinus, placed in the fourteenth year of the emperor Domitian, and under his second perfecution, which was about the ninety-feventh year from the birth of Christ.

Yet here he faith, Behold I ftand; not my meffengers and minifters only, but I by my fpiritual prefence among you, I your fovereign Lord and owner, who have all right and authority by creation and redemption to poffefs and difpofe of your fouls; it is I that ftand at the door and knock, Î by my Spirit, folliciting and moving by the miniftry of men. You fee none but men; but believe it, I am really and truly, though fpiritually and invifibly, present in all those adminiftrations; all thofe knocks, motions, and follicitations, are truly mine, they are my acts, and I own them, and fo I would have you conceive and apprehend them. Hence the fecond note is this,

Doct. 2. That Jefus Chrift is truly prefent with men in his ordinances, and hath to do with them, and they with him; though he be not visible to their carnal eyes.

Thus runs the promife: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them," Mat. xviii. 20. The middle place was the feat of the president in the Jewish affemblies, where he might equally hear and be heard of all. So will I be in the midst of the affemblies of the faithful, met together in my name and authority, to bless, guide, and protect them. Hence the church is called the place of his feet, Ifaiah xvi. 13. a manifeft allufion to the ark, called God's footftool, Pfalm. xcix. 5. And agreeably hereunto, Chrift is faid to walk among the feven golden candle

fticks, Rev. ii. 1. There are the fpiritual walks of Christ, there his converses and' communion with men and this prefence of Christ was not the peculiar privilege of the firft churches, but is common to all the churches of the faints to the end of the world, as appears by that glorious promise so comfortably extended to the church from first to laft; "Lo, I am "with you always to the end of the world," Mat. xxii. ult. This promife is the ground and reafon of all our faith, and expectations of benefit from ordinances; and the fubjects of it are not here confidered perfonally but officially, to you, and all that fucceed you in the fame work and office; not to you only as extraordinary, but to all the fucceeding ordinary standing officers in my church. As for the apoftles, neither their perfons nor extraordinary office was to continue long, but this promise was to continue to the end of the world.

Nor is this promise made abfolutely, but conditionally; the connection of the promife with the command, enforces this qualified fenfe; as 2 Chron. xv. 2. "The Lord is with you, whilft you are with him.". Ignorant, idle, unqualified perfons cannot claim the benefit of this gracious grant.

Once more, this promife is made to every hour and minute of time. I am with you, all the days, as it is in the Greek text; in dark and dangerous, as well as peaceable and encou raging days: and it is closed up with a folemn Amen, So be it, or, So it fhall be.

To open this point diftinctly, we are to confider that there is a three-fold prefence of Christ.

3. Spiritual.

1. Corporeal. 2. Represented. 1. There is a corporeal prefence of Chrift, which the church once enjoyed on earth, when he went in and out amongst his people, Acts i. 21. when their eyes faw him, and their hands handled him, 1 John i. 1. This prefence was a fingular confolation to the difciples, and therefore they were greatly dejected when it was to be removed from them. But after redemption-work was finifhed on earth, this bodily presence was no longer neceffary to be continued in this world, but more expe dient to be removed to heaven, John xvi. 7. as indeed it was, and must there abide until the time of the reftitution of all things, Acts iii. 21. And in this refpect he tells the difciples, John xvi. 28. I leave the world, and go to my Father."

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2. There is a reprefented prefence of Chrift in ordinances. As the perfon of a king is reprefented in another country by his Ambaffadors, fo is Chrift in this world by his minifters: VOL. IV. Hhh

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"We then are ambaffadors for God; as tho' God did befeech "you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to "God," 2 Cor. v. 20. Chrift is about other work for us in heaven, but we fland in his ftead on earth. And this speaks the great dignity of the minifterial office; whatever abuses or contempts are caft on them, they reflect upon Chrift: "He "that defpifeth you, defpifeth me," Luke x. 16.

teacheth us whence the validity of gofpel-administration is; Chrift ratifies and confirms them with his own authority. It alfo inftructs us how wife, fpiritual, and holy minifters should be, who reprefent Chrift to the world. A drunkard, a perfe cutor, a fenfual worldling, is but an ill representative of the bleffed and holy Jefus.

3. Befides, and above the two former, there is a fpiritual prefence of Chrift in the churches, and ordinances; and this prefence of Chrift by his fpirit, who is his Vicegerent, is to be confidered as that from which all gofpel-ordinances derive, 1. Their beauty and glory.

2. Their power and efficacy.
3. Their awful folemnity.

4. Their continuance and ftability.

1. From the prefence of Christ by his Spirit, the ordinances and churches derive their beauty and glory: "To fee thy pow. "er and thy glory, fo as I have feen thee in the fanctuary," Pfal. xxvii. 4. Look as the beauty of the body is a result from the foul that animates it; and when the foul is gone, the beauty of the body is gone alfo; fo the beauty and glory of all ordinances comes and goes with the Spirit of Chrift, which is the very foul of them. The churches are indeed golden candlesticks, but the candleflick hath no light but what the candle gives it; hence that magnificent defcription of the new temple is clofed up in this expreffion, "The name of that city fhall be, The "Lord is there," Ezek. xlviii. ult.

2. From this fpiritual prefence of Chrift, all gofpel-ordinances derive all that power and efficacy which is by them exerted upon the fouls of men, either in their converfion or edification. This power is not inherent in them, nor do they act as natural, neceffary agents, but as inftituted means, which are fuccefsful, or unfuccefsful according as Chrift by his fpirit co-ope rates with them: "He that plants is nothing, neither he that "watereth, but God that giveth the increafe," 1 Cor. iii. 7. That is, they are nothing to the purpose, nothing to the accomplishment of mens falvation, without the concurrence of the Spirit of Christ, For when the apostle makes himself and Apollos,

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with all other ministers, nothing, we must understand him Speaking not abfolutely, but comparatively, and relatively; they are neceffary in their places, and fufficient in their kind, for what they are appointed to, elfe it would be a reflection upon the wifdom of God that inftituted them: But fingly in themselves, and disjunctively confidered, they are nothing; as a trumpet or, wind-inftrument is nothing, as to its end and ufe, except breath be infpired into it, and that breath modulated by the art and kill of the infpirer; like Ezekiel's wheels that move not but as the Spirit that was in them moved, and dir &ted their motions. If ordinances wrought upon fouls naturally, and neceffarily, as the fire burneth, then they could not fail of fuccefs upon all that come under them: But it is with them as with the waters of the pool at Bethesda, whose healing virtue was only found at that feafon when the angel defcended and troubled them.

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3. This fpiritual prefence of Chrift gives the ordinances of the gospel that awful folemnity which is due, upon that account, to them. The presence of Christ in them commands reverence from all that are about him. "God is greatly to be feared in "the affemblies of his faints, and to be had in reverence of all "that are round about him :" hence is that folemn caution or threatening, Lev. xxvi. 23, 24. "If you walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary unto you." The Hebrew word in that text fignifies to walk rafhly, or at an adventure with God, fine perfona difcrimine, without confidering with whom we have to do, and what an awful majesty we stand before. And the punishment is fuitable to the fin; I also will walk at an adventure with you, making no discrimination in my judgments betwixt your perfons and the perfons of the worst of men. O that this were duely confidered by all that have to do with God in gofpel-inftitutions!

4. It is the fpiritual prefence of Chrift in his churches and ordinances that gives them their continuance and ftability: whenever the Spirit of Chrift departs from them, it will not be long before they depart from us; or if they should not, their continuance will be little to our advantage. When the glory of the LORD difmounted from betwixt the cherubims, when that fad voice was heard in the temple, migremus hinc, Let us go hence, how foon was both city and temple made a defolation and truly Chrift's prefence is not fo fixed to any place, or any ordinances, but the fins of the people may banish it away, Rev. ii. 5. Who will tarry in any place longer than he is welcome, if he have any where clfe to go?

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