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ful. To prevail with you in complying with this exhortation, I fhall lay before you the following MOTIVES.

"Ye

Mot. 1. If you be not the fervants of God, you are the fervants of the devil: John, viii. 44. are of your father the devil, and the lufts of your father ye will do." There is never a fpare fervant in this cafe. If the finner depart from God, whofe he is, and whom he ought to ferve, prefently Satan picks him up as a ftray, and fets him to his work; and his fervice is fad fervice. To make this appear, you may confider,—(1.) His work is fin. Satan is the Egyptian tafk-mafter, who feduces poor mortals, who will not work out their own falvation. He puts another task in their hand, to work out their own ruin and deftruction. And is not this the work about which most of the world are bufy, who are twisting cords of guilt every day to bind their fouls under God's wrath?-(2.) His wages is death, eternal death: "For the wages of fin is death," Rom. vi. 22. Satan goes about, like a roaring lion, feeking whom he may devour. He is the father of lies, has had a long trade of it, deceiving poor finners, catching fome with one bait, fome with another; that first he may be a prevailing tempter, and then a cruel tormentor, who, because he is beyond hope himfelf, would wish to have all the world as miferable as himfelf.

Mot. 2. God is the best of Mafters, and his fervice is the beft of fervice. This have all the faints witnessed, and fo fhall all of you, upon a full trial of it.-To make this good, confider,

(1.) That it is the moît honourable fervice. He who ferves God, ferves him who is the fountain of all honour: Pfal. xxxvi. 9. "For with thee is the fountain of life: In thy light fhall we fee

light

light" Surely it is far more honourable to be a fervant of the Lord, than to be a mighty king. What great work is there at times to get into the fervice of great men, especially of kings and princes! but O! why fo little to get into the fervice of the King of kings?-Confider,

(2.) That it is the most rational fervice: Rom. xii. 1. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye prefent your bodies a living facrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable fervice." Is he not our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, our univerfal Benefactor, and our covenanted God? Is there any who has that right to our service which he has? Can it be our intereft fo much to be in the fervice of any other as it is to be in his fervice? -Confider,

(3.) That it is the moft pleasant and comfortable fervice: Prov. iii. 17. " Her ways are ways of pleafantnefs, and all her paths are peace." There is a joy in the fervice of God, even the hardeft. of it all, which, whoso taftes of, will not exchange Chrift's crofs for the world's crown. Hear the pfalmift's judgement of it: Pfal. lxxxiv. 10. "For a day in thy courts is better than a thoufand. I would rather be a door-keeper in the houfe of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickednefs." How did Hannah rejoice after a prayer! the Eunuch after a fealing ordinance ! If fome find it not to be fo pleasant, it is either because their nature is not renewed at all, or grace is low, and corruption trong.

(4.) Confider that it is the most advantageous fervice. Never was fervice forewarded, as God's fervice is. There is a reward in hand, which accompanies the work: Pfal. xix. II. "In keeping of thy commandments, there is a great reward." There

There is also a reward in hope, -the eternal weight of glory. They fhall be Courtiers of the King of heaven in glory for evermore: Rev. xxii. 3. "And there fhall be no more curfe, but the throne of God and the Lamb fhall be in it; and his fervants shall serve him: And they shall fee his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads." Amen.

GOD'S

GOD'S GRACIOUS CALL AND PRECIOUS

PROMISE CONSIDERED *.

SERMON XL.

PSAL. lxxxi. 10. Open thy mouth wide, and I will

THE

fill it.

HE great defign of the gofpel, and of all gofpel-ordinances, is to make fouls happy, and for this end to bring them to God through Chrift, in whom they may find solid and complete fatisfaction. All men defire to be happy; they are confcious to themselves of wants, which the natural defire of happiness influences them to get fupplied. But, alas! they apply to improper quarters, and fuck at thofe breafts which can never fill them, even those of their lufts. Since Adam forfook God for the creature, mankind have been fo intoxicated with creature-sweetness, that they stand as it were chained at the creature's

door,

*Delivered at Wamphray, Saturday, June. 30. 1711. immediately before the difpenfation of the Lord's fuppe r there.

door, begging fatisfaction, even after a thousand denials. They cannot lift their eyes to the Lord, they cannot move their feet towards him, till grace break the bands of iron and brass with which they are held.

In the text, the Lord comes to finners as thus fituate, and outbids all others which they in their hearts and lives are following after; and he does this even while they will not look over their fhoulder to him, from their madness on their idols. This is the scope of the text; for in this verse, the Lord pleads the grand purpose of love laid down, ver. 9. which is, that they fhould renounce all others for him, give up with their idols, and take him for and inftead of all. And to enforce this, he thus reafons with them: 1. I have done for you what all your idols never did, and never could have done, "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt." Where were all your strange gods, when Pharaoh refu. fed to let you go o? Deut. xxxii. 11. "So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no ftrange god with him." Look to all the real good that ever you met with, and fay, Was it the Lord or your idols that did it for you ?-2. I will do and can do for you, what they cannot all do for you: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it abundantly. Many a time you have opened your mouths, and wide enough, to your idols; fo wide that it has been no fmall pain to get them fhut again; and yet they remain ftill empty for them, they were never filled. But fays the Lord, Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Where more particularly obferve,

1. That there is an emptiness supposed in poor finners, which needs to be filled. They have loft God, and a thousand worlds cannot fill up his VOL. II.

I i

room.

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