that will put their trust in him." (3.) Study to know the near relation he ftands under to you, both by his human nature, and by his offices as Mediator, Redeemer, Prophet, Priest and King, Head and Hufband, for the knowledge of thefe breeds trust and confidence. A wife trufts in her bufband, a child in his parent, the members truft their head. (4.) Be well acquainted with the great and precious promises of the covenant of grace, and how the condition of them all is fulfilled to your hand by Chrift, as a fécond Adam, in his fulfilling the do and die of the covenant of works. Legal conceptions of the covenant of grace, as if our faith, love, obedience, repentance, were the condition of the covenant, brangles faith in the free actings thereof on Christ and the covenant of grace. We must come without money or price to take hold of the covenant, and to apply the bleffings there of, because Chrift has already paid the money and price that juftice demanded. (5.) Pray much for the Spirit of faith; and, under the conduct of the Spirit, habituate yourselves to a frequent acting of faith, that fo the life you live in the flesh may be "by faith on the Son of God." I come now to offer a word to believers, under the notion of veffels hanging upon the nail which God has faftened in a fure place. And here I might, (1.) Offer a word to the oef fels of cups. (2.) To the veffels of flagons, or believers of a higher ftature. (3.) A word to both in common. 1. A word to weak believers, who are defigned veffels of cups. I only fuggeft thefe two or three things unto you. (1.) It is a high privilege to occupy the least room in the houfe of our God. The prodigal fon, when he came to himfelf, only begged of his father that he might have the place of a hired fervant; he was glad to be under his father's roof, and to eat in his father's houfe, at any rate. (2.) God has fervice for the least veifel of his houfe, as well as for the largeft. God never made an ufelefs creature, and he does not form any ufelefs veffels; no, every veffel is formed of himfelf, to fhew forth his praife. (3) The leaft veffel is God's property, and he will not difown, but maintain his property, and own it before nien and angels, faying, They are mine," in the day when he makes up his jewels. (4.) The bands, by which you hang upon the nail faftened in a fure place, are as frong as thofe by which the veffels of flagons are fecured; for he has faid as to both, "They fhall never perish, neither fhall any pluck them out of my hand." (5.) The weakest measure of grace is a pledge of more; for "to him that hath fhall be given." What grace you have got is the arles-pen 06 ny ny of more a-coming, for "his goings forth are prepared as the morning," as the break of day is a pledge of more light to follow: "The path of the juft is as the fhining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." The least meafure of grace has glory connected with it, according to the order of the covenant, Pfal. lxxxiv. 11. "The Lord God is a fun and fhield, he will give grace and glory;" firft grace, and then glory. $6 I next offer a word of advice unto the veffels of cups, I mean weak believers. Although you are not to envy or grudge at God's bounty or liberality to others, in making them veffels of flagons, yet you may and ought earnestly to covet more grace than you have yet received; and therefore we are commanded to " grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift." In order to which, be humble under a fenfe of your own weakness and emptinefs; for "he giveth grace to the humble." Be diligent in the improvement of what grace you have received; for the hand of the diligent maketh rich," Be frequently coming to the Manager of the house for more grace: “To whom coming, as unto a living ftone,ye alio as lively ftones, are built up," &c. Improve all the means of God's appointment for your edification, fuch as, the word, facraments, pray-. er, Chriflian conference, that you may add to your faith, virtue; to virtue, knowledge; to knowledge, temperance; to temperance, patience; to patience, godlinefs; to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity; for if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye thall neither be barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jefus Chrift, 2 Pet. i. 5-8. 2. A word to the vessels of flagons, believers of a higher Aature. To you I would fay, ift, Be not proud of grace received, but walk humbly with your God. "Who made thee to differ? and what haft thou that thou haft not received? His foul that is lifted up is not upright in him." True grace, where it is genuine, the more a man receives of it, he is always the more humble and empty, as you fee in Paul, Eph. iii. 8. "Lefs than the leaft of all faints." To keep your fails low, co fider that the most eminent faints have difcovered the greateft weakness, even in the graces wherein they most excelled; as we fee in the cafe of Abraham, Mofes, David, Peter, and others. They that have the greatest measure of grace, they get as much to do with it; ftrong corruption, ftrong temptation, and strong trials to grapple with: and the more talents that a man doth receive, receive, the more hath he to account for, as to the improvement of them; for " to whom much is given, of them much fhall be required." 2dly, Inftead of defpifing others that are not come your length, ftudy to be helpful and serviceable unto them. The veffels of cups are ordinarily filled out of the flagons; so study to impart and communicate of your grace, of your faith, love, hope, knowledge, and other graces, unto thofe that are weak in grace. The ftrong children in a family are helpful to the young and weak. Thus it is in the natural body, the ftrong member is helpful unto the weak and infirm; so ought it to be in the mystical body of Chrift. And when you see any fall through weakness, do not triumph over them; but "ftrengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees ; fay to them that are of a fearful heart, Be ftrong; restore such an one with a spirit of meeknefs. 3dly, Whatever grace you have received, be not strong or confident therein, like Peter; but be ftrong in the grace that is in Chrift Jefus, and let the life you live be by faith in the Son of God. Grace received will foon give way in a day of trial and temptation. An innocent Adam, left with the stock in his hand, foon turned bankrupt, and ruined all his pofterity. And therefore, I fay, do not truft to the life or grace you have in hand, but in the grace and life you have in your head Jefus Chrift, the glorious Manager and Steward of his Father's houfe. Still remember, that all the veffels hang upon him; and therefore let all the weight lie where God has laid it. 3. A word of advice unto veffels of all fizes, whether they be veffels of cups, or vesels of flagons. that put ft, Adore the riches of divine grace and mercy, a difference between you and others, for naturally you were as bad as others. 2dly, Let every one poffefs his veffel in fanctification and honour. Do not debafe or defile the veffel of thy foul or body, by proftituting it unto the fervice of fin, Satan, or any abominable luft. You was once lying in the miry clay of nature, but God has washed, juftified, and fanctified you; and therefore ftudy to keep yourself clean and holy in heart, life, and in all manner of converfation. If you defile yourselves with fin, the Manager of the houfe will be fair to caft you into a furnace of affiction, or, like Jonah, to plunge you inta deep waters, till you acknowledge, "Mine own iniquities correct me, and my backflidings do reprove me." When you 3dly, (which you will never mifs while in the body), flee to the fountain opened for fin and for uncleannefs in the house of David. Be often bathing thy foul in the blood of Jefus, which cleanfeth from all fin. 4thly, Come to the fountain for fupply under all wants, that you may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. "Out of his fulness do all we receive, and grace for grace." Let thy veffel juft lie under the flowing of this bieffed fountain, that it may never be found empty when the midnight cry is made," Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him." Laftly, Pray for a plentiful outpouring of the Spirit, according to the promife, If. xliv. 3. "I will pour floods upon the dry ground," that fo all the empty veffels of the land, that are deftitute of the waters of God's grace, may be filled; and those that are hanging upon the first Adam, and under the curfe of the law, may, by the power of grace, change their holding, and hang upon the nail that God has faftened in a fure place. A ROBBERY COMMITTED, AND RESTITUTION MADE, BOTH TO GOD AND MAN*. A SERMON, PREACHED UPON A THANKSGIVING DAY, AFTER THE SACRAMENT, IN DUNFERMLINE, MONDAY, AUG. II. 1746. PSAL. Ixix. 4.-Then I reftored that which I took not away. IT is abundantly plain, that there are several paffages in this pfalm applied unto in the fcriptures of the New Teftament; particularly that in the 9th verfe of the pfalm, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up," we find it ap plied I have perufed the following notes of my fermon, preached at Dunfermline August haft, taken from my mouth in the delivery. My other work cannot allow me time to tranfcribe it. However, I have corrected and amended what I thought might mar the fenfe. If the doctrine of the gospel here delivered be understood, I am not anxious about the wisdom of words, left the gospel should be of none effect. Stirling, Dec. 27. 1746. E. E. plied to Chrift, John ii. 17.; and likewife that immediately following, "The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me," Rom. xv. 3. ; fo likewise in the 21st verse, "They gave me alfo gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," applied to Christ, Matth, xxvii. 48. and Mark xv. 23. But I need go no further to prove this, than the firft word of the verfe where my text lies, "They hate me without a cause," Chrift applies it to himfelf, in John xv. 25. We find our Lord here, in the verfe where my text lies, he is complaining of his enemies; he complains of their causeless hatred in the first clause of the verfe," They hate me without a caufe;" he complains of their multitude, “ They are more than the hairs of mine head;" he complains of their implacable cruelty, "They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty." Now our bleffed Lord is thus treated by the world, whom he came to fave. When there is fuch a powerful combination of hell and earth against him, one would have been ready to think, that he would have ftopped, and gone no further but he did not faint, nor was be difcouraged, for all the oppofition that was made against him; for you fee, in the words I have read, what he was doing for loft finners, when he was meeting with harsh entertainment from them. Then, even then, says he, I refiored that which I took not away. In which words you may notice these following particulars. (1.) You have here a robbery difclaimed; a robbery was committed, but it is difclaimed by the Son of God; I took not away. There was fomething taken away from God and from man; by whom it is not faid, but it is easy to say, that furely an enemy did it. But then, (2.) We have a reflitution made of that robbery that was committed: Ireflored, faith Chrift, I rejtored what I took not away. The work of man's redemption, it is a reftitution both unto God and unto man of what was taken away by fin and by Satan. When once the work of redemption is completed, there will be a reftitution of all things; for we read, A&ts iii. 21. of the “ reftitution of all things." Again, (3) We have an account of the perfon restoring. Who made the reftitution? It was I, faith the Lord; I restored what I took not away. I who fpeak in righteoufnefs, and who am mighty to fave, I the child born, and the fon given to the fons of men, whofe name is "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, and The Prii ce of peace;" I, even I restored what I took not away. Again, (4.) You have the voluntarinefs and franknefs of the deed. No man is obliged to make resti |