1 more worthy of credit, than the Son of God, who is truth itfelf. How full of curfed blafphemy is such an imagination! Who would not tremble, to be found guilty of it ?-Thus for the fecond Motive. Mot. 3. Confider the great danger of not receiving the teftimony of Chrift. As there is As there is great fin against Christ, so there is great danger unto men's fouls, in not receiving. the teftimony of Jefus Chrift. Particularly, in two words 4. There is great danger of being given up to damning errors. When men do not receive the teftimony of Christ, concerning the truth and goodness of the matters revealed by him, fo as firmly to believe them as true, and embrace them as good, God many times gives them up to the embracing of damning herefies, as a juft punishment of their unbelief and indifferency. 2 Theff. ii. 10, &c. Them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be faved. And for this caufe God shall fend them ftrong delufions, that they might believe a lie: That they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but bad pleafure in unrighteoufnefs. Such awful inftances of divine dereliction, are more frequent in providence, than is ufually confidered. 2. There is great danger of being given up to damning practices. When men do not believe, love, prize and obferve those practical truths, which Chrift reveals to them, he many times gives them up to vile and wicked courses. Thus the beatben, that did not fuitably and practically entertain the light of nature, were given up of God to most abominable practices; as the apoftle fets forth at large, Rom. i. 21,-30. So when the people of Ifrael did not hearken to what God teftified to them, he in judgment abandoned them to the power of their lufts. Pfal. lxxxi. 11, 12. My people would not bearken to my voice, and Ifrael would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own bearts luft; and they walked in their own counfels. Such fpiritual plagues as thefe, were inflicted upon the unbelieving Jews, in the days of our Saviour and his apostles. apoftles. They rejected the teftimony of Jefus Chrift and of his apoftles and for this, they were fmitten with blindness of mind, and hardness of heart, and left to fill up the measure of their fins, till wrath came upon them to the uttermoft - then let us beware, left we fall after the fame example of unbelief.-Let us fee to it, that we do receive the teftimony of Chrift; and that we receive it, as it ought to be received. Here particularly, 1. Receive it with faith. Faith, refpecting Chrift as a witness, means the yielding a firm affent of the mind, unto the truths attefted by him. Whatever Chrift teftifies to be true, we fhould fted faftly believe it to be true. There fhould not be the least doubt in our minds, concerning the truth of it. His bare teftimony, fhould be enough to fettle us in the belief of it. He is a witnefs immediately given of God and coming from God; and therefore his teftimony is infallible: fo that we cannot poffibly be deceived, in giving all credit to it. Q then let us not be faithless, but believing-Though fome things revealed by him, be very mysterious, and incomprehenfible by us, yet let us believe them: and fo fet to our feal, that he is true. All his doctrines, are certain truths, how much foever they may tranfcend car capaci ty. The fublimeness of them therefore, fhould be no hindrance to our believing of them but we fhould be strong in faith, giving glory to him, in his veracity.-Some things, again, there are revealed by him, which we are apt to look upon as too good to be true. They are things fo full of grace, fo furprizing to convinced finners, that they can fcarcely believe them. Yet we fhould entertain them with full belief, feeing they are teftified by him that is in the bofom of the Father, and given by him to be a witnefs to us. Does he then fay, that he was fent to be the Saviour of finners, to feek and to fave that which was loft ? Does he fay, that all who are weary and beavy laden, fhall bave reft given to them, if they come to him? Does he fay, that be will in no wife caft off those that come unto him? O believe him, and doubt not. 2. Receive 2. Receive his teftimony with love. That which Chrift teftifies, is truth; and the truth is to be received with love, 2 Theff. ii. 10. This love, fhould extend itfelf, to the whole of that truth, which is witneffed by Chrift. Not only to fpeculative and to promiffory truths, but also to practical and even comminatory truths. Thofe practical truths, which enjoin duty and forbid fin, are to be embraced with love. All the commands and prohibitions of Chrift, are to be loved as being holy, juft, and good. Pfal. cxix. 127, 128. I love thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. I efteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every falfe way. Nay, the very threatnings of Chrift are to be entertained with unfeigned love to them, as juft and equal, and useful to awaken us out of fecurity, and caufe us to be watchful against fin. Of all the threatnings of Chrift, we should fay, as Hezekiab did of the threatning denounced against his house, 2 King. xx. 19. Good is the word of the Lord, which thou haft spoken. He approved of it, and acquiefced in it. The threatnings will not hurt us, but help us, if the fault be not our own. 3. Receive the teftimony of Chrift with obedience. Jefus Chrift as a witness, teftifies to us what God requires of us and would have us to do. Now this teftimony of his we should entertain, by a ready compliance with whatever he reveals to us, to be the mind and will of God. What he reveals to be our duty, we should make no question but that it is our duty, and fhould immediately fet about the practice of it. There is no better way of receiving the teftimony of Chrift, than by a practical conformity to the whole will of God, which he makes known unto us. And not only in a way of active obedience, but also in a way of paffive obedience, we fhould fet our feal to the teftimony of Chrift, if called of God thereunto. Rev. i. 9. I am your companion in tribulation— for the teftimony of Jefus Chrift. Chap. xii. 11. They overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their teftimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. death. They laid down their lives, in bearing witnefs, and adhering, to the teftimony of Jefus Chrift, in the gofpel. 4. Receive the teftimony of Jefus Chrift with all thankfulness. The things which Chrift witneffed to the world, are moft juft caules of greatest thanksgivings to God; as has been fhewn. The glorious perfon alfo, whom God has fent to be a witnefs to us of these things, calls for our entertaining him with thanksgiving and praise. It is no meaner a person than his own Son, who is the brightnefs of his glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon. How fhould fuch a one be welcomed with the voice of joy and praife! We fhould take up the fong of praise uttered by Zacharias, and say with him, as in Luk. i. 68, 69, 78, 79. Bleffed be the Lord God of Ifrael, for be bath vifited and redeemed bis people, and raifed up for us an born of falvation in the boufe of bis fervant David.Through the tender mercies of our God, the day far from on high bath visited us, to give light to them that fit in darkness, to guide our feet into the way of peace. O then let us blefs God, for this bright and morning ftar, for this fun of righteousness, for this light of the world, by whom the clouds of ignorance are difpelled, and by whom the light of truth is made to fhine upon a dark world. Blefs God, for the full and clear revelation he has given to us, of eternal life and the way that leads thereunto, by this great witness Jefus Chrift. Thus let us especially do at the table of the Lord [the next Lord's day] where we fhall be called, to behold Christ fealing the truth of his teftimony with his own blood; that fo our faith and hope might be ftrengthened, in the expectation of the great and glorious things, which he has made over to believers in the gofpel. Yea, there we may hear Jefus Chrift teftifying to us that truth of truths, that moft joyful and furprizing truth, even, that he died a facrifice, to make atonement for our fins, and to obtain the pardon of them for us. There he fays to us, This is my body which is broken for you, This is my blood blood which is fhed for the remiffion of your fins.-A commandment he had from God the Father, thus to die for us. Job. x. 18. I lay down my life for my fheep; this commandment bave I received of my Father. A commandment alfo he had from the Father, to witness to us this his dying for us. For he spake nothing, but what his Father gave him a commandment, that he should fay and speak. (Job. xii. 49.) How worthy then is the great and gracious God, to inherit our high praises, on the account of his giving his Son Jefus Chrift to be fuch a witnefs to the people; and to that people, of whom we are a part? DOCT. II. Jefus Chrift was given of God the Father, to be a Leader to the people -This is the fecond title here given to Jefus Chrift. And this title of a leader, does, in a more especial manner, point out the directive power of Jefus Chrift, or his conducting and guiding of us in the way wherein we should go. Two things may here be enquired into. Queft. 1. How is Jefus Chrift a leader to the people? Anfw. 1. By his doctrine. The holy fcriptures are the word of Chrift, Col. iii. 16. Now, in this word, he fhews us the way to life and falvation. His word therefore is faid to be as a light that shineth in a dark place, 2 Pet. i. 19. It ferves to guide us, while we are in this world, which is full of ignorance and error. This is a light unto our feet, and a lamp unto our paths, Pfal. cxix. 105. So in Prov. vi. 23. The commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. It is as a candle in the night, yea, as the light of the fun by day, to direct us in the way to the kingdom of heaven.-The word alfo is called a way or path, Pfal. cxix, 14, 33, 35. As a way or path is a guide to us, from one place to another, fo the word of Chrift is a guide to us from earth to heaven. The walking in this way will conduct us to heaven. Jefus Chrift then guides us by his word, and therein fays unto us, This is the way, walk ye in it, Ifai. xxx. 21. Anfw. 2 |