Heart, that drew a vail between Chrift and you; and now you are crying, Rom. vii. 24. "O wretched man that I am! who fhall deliver me from the body of this death?" O to be quit of this burden at any rate! O to be beyond a finning condition! welcome grim death, fo that it would take off the burden. Truly, if it be fo, it has been fo thin a vail, that you have got a fight of Christ through it, Ifa. vi. 5. Luke, ii. 29. 30.--Has it kindled a fuperlative love in your heart to this unfeen Lord? Do ye love him more than all perfons and things elfe? Pfal. Ixxiii. 25. If it be fo, ye have feen him, Luke, xxiv. 32. Sick of love, argues a blink of the face of the lovely one received. Therefore, blefs God, and be thankful. It is ba-ftard humility to belie the grace of God. Walk fo as the world may take notice that you have seen what they never faw, and have been where their ungracious feet never carried them. And 'fhow this in perfonal and relative holinefs, Acts, iv. 13. Commend the way of God to others. Tell them it is good to be on the mount. Speak good of God's houfe, and give it your teftimony, . before defpifers of Chrift and ordinances; efpecially before poor difcouraged finners, thofe who defert ordinances, alledging God is not to be found in them. Finally, quench not the Spirit, cherish his motions, and follow on to know the Lord.

3. Ye who have made this folemn approach, but really have not feen the Lord, fet ye about your proper duty.-Search out, mourn over the caufe of this, and quickly flee to the blood of Chrift for its removal. You have not seen the Lord; and is there not a cause ? yes, sure he has a quarrel with you, and therefore has withdrawn himfelf.-Seek it out. The fault has been either in your state, that you are yet in the gall of bitter

Li 3

nefs

nefs and bond of iniquity. This is a fundamen tal mistake.— Or it has been in your frame. Either you have not been at pains to prepare, or have fit down on your preparation; or fome idol of jealoufy has been nourished :-or it has been in your faithless management. management. Wonder Wonder ye in a special manner, that ye have come off fafe, and that upon you the Lord has not laid his hand. Do not fret that you are come off with nothing; but, O blefs him that you are come off at all!

Laftly, Go back to the throne with all speed. Though the communion-table be drawn here, it is not yet drawn to you in heaven: Joel, iii. 21. “For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed; for the Lord dwelleth in Zion." Follow on to know the Lord. Be not like the mixed multitude, who, difappointed of the milk and honey of Canaan, would needs go back to the onions and the garlic in Egypt. If you do fo, his foul will abhor you: : Heb. x. 38. "If any man draw back, my foul fhall have no pleasure in him." -Say not, I will never fee the Lord now: For, wherefore has he fpared you, but that you might have occafion to have your marred work amended? And if ye wait long on, wonder not, it is a mercy ye have access to wait on. Lay down that refolution in Lam. iii. 49. 50. "Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without intermiffion, till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven;" and in Ifa. viii. 17. I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the houfe of Jacob, and I will look for him." Amen.

GOD NOT ASHAMED TO BE CALLED HIS

PEOPLE'S GOD *.

SERMON LXVI.

HEB. xi. 16. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a

city.

Go

OD has a peculiar people in the world, though thefe are few in number. Satan is called the god of this world; and indeed is fo, in regard the greater part of the world, even the whole natives of the weary land, are his. But there is a felect company, who are in, but not of the world; a people of a peculiar character, who are ftrangers and pilgrims in the earth; whofe head's and hearts are towards the better country.-In the text we have their peculiar privilege, God is not ashamed to be called their God. More is implied than is here faid. God, who is the God of the whole earth, is their God in a peculiar manner, by a fpecial covenant-relation; and he will own it before all the world, however they be despised by them. They are favingly interefted in him, and he is peculiarly interested in them. As they are

not ashamed to be called his people, unless it be for this, that they do not look more like him; fo he is not afhamed to be called their God. (Greek, to be firnamed).

There are two things which make men afhamed to own a relation; one upon the part of their relatives, another upon their own part. But nei-ther are in this cafe.

1. He is not ashamed on their part, to be call ed their God. He is not ashamed of them, (as the Greek text bears exprefsly), as men fometimes are of their relations because of their scandal, us character, and as our Lord fays he will be afhamed of fome, fo as that be will not own them, Mark, viii. 38. The reafon of this is intimated in the text, in the particle wherefore, which leads us back to the character of those who are indeed God's people, exemplified in Abraham, Sarah,. Haac, and Jacob, ver. 13.-16. The fum of it lies here: That upon the faith of God's promife of a better world, they forfook this world, and went through it even to the grave, as perfons not come to the place where they expected and defired to fettle. Wherefore, fince they forfook this world for God, and trusted him for a better inheritance to themselves, and, upon the faith of his promife, were eafy in all their wanderings and hardships, God is not afhamed of them to bet called their God: Exod. iii, 6. "I am," faid he,. "the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the. God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob." In thefe fteps all the true children of Abraham walk.

2. He is not ainamed on his own part, to be called their God; as men are afhamed, when they have no fuitable entertainment to give those who have left all others for them, and depend entirely upon them. For he has prepared for them a

city. These patriarchs dwelt in tents, and went from land to land at God's call; but a city, even the New Jerufalem, heaven itself, was prepared for them by their God; a city fuitable to his dignity; a city, the like of which all the world could not have furnished them. He is not ashamed to be called his people's God, whatever hardships they fuffer for his fake; for he has enough to make up their loffes, ready for them. He would reckon it a ftain on his honour, that any of them fhould be lofers at his hand; if he fhould not fully answer the truft they put in him; if he did not give them as good, nay, better than the best thing which they ever were denied for his fake. From this subject, we obferve the following doctrines, viz.

DOCT. I. That however mean and low those be who have forfaken this world for God, looking for a better, God is not afhamed of them, or on their part, to be called their God, DocT. II. That whatever hardships they may fuffer for his fake, he is not afhamed on his part to be called their God, having prepared for them a heavenly city, which will make up for all their loffes.-Thefe we fhall fhortly illustrate in their order.

WE begin with

DOCTRINE I. That however mean and low those be who have forfaken this world for God, looking for a better, God is not afhamed of them, or on their part, to be called their God.

WE fhall here,

I. Explain the import of this their privilege. II. Give the reafons of the point. And then, III. Improve it.

WG