ence between the true and faithful children of God, and any particular vifible church. Why, all true be lievers have this promife fecured in their perfons, that God will never leave them till he hath accomplished all his promifes of grace and mercy to them. He hath faid, "I will never leave thee, nor forfake thee:" but it cannot be faid of any particular vifible church, that God will never leave them. God hath left many particular churches, and called them, Lo-AMMI, faying, Ye are not my people, and I will not be your God,” Hofea i. 9. And how far he may leave the Church of Scotland, who can tell? The glory fometimes departs from the threshold to the mountains; and God feems to be making fearful removes from the prefent generation. I would not love to give any juft offence, nay, nor to grate the ears of any hearers with reflections upon any that are but poor, mortal, finful men, like ourfelves, fubject to the like paflions, and clothed with the like infirmi ties; but I would defire to keep mine eyes on a higher hand than any finful inftruments of the church's mifery and confufion. They could do nothing if God were not provoked by our fins to leave them to themfelves, and to their violent measures. "Who gave Jacob to the fpoil, and Ifrael to the robbers? Did not the Lord, he against whom we have finned?" May we not fay of the Church of Scotland, "Her rowers have brought her into great waters?" Ezek. xxvii. 26. But it is our fins that have provoked God to leave the rowers and managers, who could do nothing either against the facred office of minifters, or the Chriftian rights of the people, except it were given from heaven, as Chrift faid to Pilate, "Thou couldeft have no power against me, except it were given." As I love not to offend or grate any, as I faid, fo I would not be chargeable with finful filence in fuch a time, when God feems to be faying, "Cry aloud, and fpare not; tell the houfe of Ifrael their fins." Wo would be to us, if we fhould be afraid of man, that fhall die; or the fon of man, that shall be as grafs, Ifa. li. 12. May we not confider, as a matter of lamentation, how far God feems to have left the Church Church of Scotland and her judicatories? I fhall not affert, at this time, what I fhall fpeak by way of fuppofition, and leave it to every one to judge whether it be matter of lamentation before God in cafe the fuppofition fhould be found a truth. And I fhall fpeak in the first perfon of the plurál number, that I may take in myself as having a hand, as well as others, in provoking the Lord to leave us. If God hath left us and our judicatories to make unfcriptural and unwarrantable acts, denuding the Lord's people of their juft rights, and Chriftian privileges; would it not be lamentable ?-If he hath left us fo far as to make thefe acts terms of communion, fo as none shall have communion with us that dare oppose these unwarranted proceedings. Again, if he hath left us fo far as to indulge Arians and Blafphemers, and deal gently with thefe that are guilty of fundamental errors, and yet to proceed violently and furioufly against some of the friends of truth, and to fhew hardly fo much regard for the fupreme authority and dignity of the Son of God, as we fhew for the fupreme authority and dignity of our erring affemblies; if this were fo, would it not be lamentable ?-If God hath left us fo far as to destroy ourselves, by facrificing a covenanted reformation and covenanted principles, together with the facred office of miniliers, and the spiritual rights of people, that would adhere thereto, and fall unto what we call church-authority and good order, which yet is but another name for church tyranny, and dreadful confufion; would not this be very lamentable? If God hath left us to caft out of our bofom fome that are, perhaps, the friends and favourites of heaven, and that, becaufe of their faithful teftimony against the evils and defections of the day; would not this be lamentable, and evidence that God hath very far left us?Thefe and many other things I might fuppofe. * That thefe particulars, fuggefted here only by way of fuppofition, are but too juft, nay, pofitive facts, may be seen evinced above, Vol. I. P. 232. Vol. II. p. 304.305.466. Vol. III. p. 146.--See alfo Vol. V. Serm. LXXXII, LXXXIII, LXXXIV. What is the world faying, but that our rowers have brought us into great waters? Ezek. xxvii. 27. What is this they are faying of the judicatories of the church of Scotland in our days? Are people faying, that God hath left us and our judicatories, fo far as to make unfcriptural and unwarrantable acts, and impofe finful terms of communion? &c. Are they faying, that Bethel is turned to Bethaven? That Philadelphia is turned to Laodicea? It would be good news if there were no truth in what the world are now faying of us. But if there be any truth in it, then furely God hath left us very far; and who knows how far he may yet remove? Better fword, famine, and peftilence among us, than that God fhould utterly leave us. But how far foever he may leave a vifible church, yet he will never leave his invifible remnant: for to them he hath faid, I will not leave thee till I have done that which I bave spoken to thee of. 7. Hence fee reafon to try what fide you are upon, whether you be a Jacob or an Efau. They were born of the fame mother, and lay in the fame womb, but the one was bleffed and the other curfed. You may be of the fame mother-church, yet born after the fiefh, and not after the Spirit. If you be the true feed of Jacob, then you will know fomething of a Bethel-interview with God, Hath God ever brought you to a wildernefs, and there met with you, and fpoke comfortably to you? Have you ever feen the glory of God in Chrift as a ladder to heaven, the way, the truth, and the life, fo as you were made to clofe with him, and afcend up to God by this ladder?" For, by him we believe in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God." Have you heard God fpeaking to you, and communicating his mind, or difcovering himself as a promifing God in words of grace to your humiliation, fanctification, and confolation? O man, woman, if all places be alike to you, fo as you never met with God in a place that might be called Bethel; and if all words of fcripture be alike to you, fo as you know no no word on which he hath caufed you to hope, you are yet a ftranger in Ifrael: but if you can point at the place where the Lord God of the Hebrews met with you once a day, fo as you can fometimes look back upon it with pleafure, faying, O! I thought it was a Bethel, a houfe of God; and if you point at the word with which God opened your heart, as he did the heart of Lydia, and made it the porch both of holiness and comfort, it is good. Did he make the word to you, as it was to Job, better and more precious than your` neceffary food; and as it was to Jeremiah, the joy and rejoicing of your heart; and as it was to David, fweeter than the honey, or the honey-comb, and the very ground on which he hath caufed you to hope? and are you from that time to this ftill hoping in his word, when the Lord reftores your foul out of its fleepy fit? Why, then, it feems you are a child of promife, to whom God hath faid, I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I bave spoken to thee of 8. Hence fee the duty of all who hear me, both unbelievers and believers. [1.] Ye that are unbelievers, and know not the God of Bethel, but are ftrangers to the covenant of promise, living without God and without hope in the world; living in the lufts of the flesh; poor, wretched, worldly creature, drunkard, whore-monger, Sabbath-breaker, or hypocrite, that may-be comes to communions, but never had communion with God there, and never came out of Sodom to this day, that was never brought to a wilderness of fear and defpair, and then to a Bethel of hope and comfort in God, as a promifing God in Chrift; I would tell you your duty in two words. (1.) It is your duty to confider the dangerous flate you are into. And I muft tell you a terrible word for awakening your feared confcience, if God would blefs it for that end. As you have been hearing that God is bound, by his own promife, never to leave his children, till he doth that which he hath fpoken to them of in the gofpel: fo, on the other hand, that fame God is bound and obliged, by his threatening, if you remain in that flate, never to leave contending with you, D4 until until he hath done that which he hath fpoken of in the law; that is, you are under the curfe of the law, and God is obliged to curfe you. He that is faithful to his promife, and will accomplish it to all that flee in to Chrift, is as faithful to his threatening, and will accomplifh it to all that remain out of Chrift.-What a trembling heart would you have, man, woman, if you were but in Paul's cafe, when more than forty men bound themfelves with an oath, that they would not eat or drink till they had killed him? If fo many men were bound under oath to kill and deftroy you, I fuppofe it would take fleep from your eyes, and make you restless how to escape their fury; and yet their oath could relate but to a temporal life. But tremble and fear to think, that the great God is bound, by folemn oath, to damn and destroy you to all eternity, if you remain in that Chriftlefs ftate; "He hath fworn in his wrath, that you fhall not enter into his reft," Heb. iii. 11. (2.) It is your duty to flee from this wrath to come, by fleeing to Bethel, to the God of Bethel, to a promifing God in Christ. You will never get to heaven, if you go not to Bethel by the way; I mean, if you remain ftrangers to Chrift. Think not thefe are words of course that we are fpeaking to you; for, as knowing the terrors of God, we perfuade you to flee out of Sodom, and away from the divine wrath: fo, I hope, knowing the comforts of God, as the God of Bethel, we would perfuade you to come and fee what is to be feen at Bethel, and to come and hear the voice of a promifing God that is to be heard there. What we have heard and feen, may we not declare unto you, that there is fuch a thing as Bethel-interviews with God? And wo to us who are minifters, if we be preaching to you an abfolutely unknown God, an unknown Bethel, an unknown Jefus! If we know neither the terrors nor comforts of God at any time, I think we would have no commiffion to fpeak any of them to you, my dear friends, whom I never expect to fee all again in our prefent circumstances, till we fee Christ coming in the clouds |