SER. CXX. are one" And as the Sent and Sealed of the Father, to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

(3.) He is fent to make known the Spirit, as he is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son; and as Tuch, promifed to be fent of Chrift to apply, by his power, all that Chrift purchased by his blood; and to be fent in the moft plentiful manner after Chrift's afcenfion to heaven; "If I go, I will fend him." And, "When he is come, he will convince the world of fin, of righteoufnefs, and of judgment: He fhall teftify of me. He fhall glorify me."-Thus Chrift is fent to make known a glorious Trinity, God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, and the concern that each perf n hath in our falvation and deliverance out of Egypt, and the houfe of bondage.

And is he now come to feek and fave you after this manner? Shall I not afk you, "Do you now believe?" Or, will you come now to him, and be delivered? Will you now come and welcome the deliverer? "Now is the accepted time;" and what if it be now or never? You have been long in Egypt, fome of you.-Some of you have been long enough in the Egypt of a corrupt, perfecuting church. What if this day's work be a call to you to come out of that Egypt, and join in with the witneffes for Chrift, and the doctrine, difcipline, worship, and government of his houfe, against the defections, errors, corruptions, and ungodly meafures of the day?Some of you have been long enough in the Egypt of a natural ftate, in a state of fpiritual darkness and death; and behold now Chrift is fent to give you the Spirit of light and life! And, if you believe in him, as the fcripture hath faid, John vii. 38. out of your belly, out of your bowels and heart, fhall flow rivers of living waters: "This he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him thould receive." But then it is faid, "The Spirit was not then given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." But now he is glorified; having run the errand on which he was fent of the Father, he is gone back again to the Father, that he may fend the Spirit, and to give the Holy Ghoft more plentifully: and, if you now believe in the Sent of God, then the Holy Ghoft is here, the living water is running through your heart: the quick

4

ening Spirit is within you, as a well of water, fpringing up to everlasting life.

O Sirs, he is come! he is come to open the fountain of living water, and he is faying, "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." Any man, be who he will; if you be of the race of Adam; if any man need a drink of thefe quickening, purifying, healing waters of the fanctuary, let him come to me and drink; for, "He that believeth on me, fhall never thirst;" either with a thirst of total want again, or with a thirst of greedy defire after worldly lufts and paffing vanities again; nor after the flesh-pots of Egypt. O poor foul, do you now believe in him, who is come down to Egypt for you, down to your hell of fin and mifery for you? Say not, Where is he, that I may believe in him? Nay, you need not fay, "Who fhall afcend, to bring him down? or defcend, to bring him up? He is near you in this word," by his Spirit that he promifes to fend and what if, by the hand of a poor fervant, fent to fpeak in his name, he be faying to you, juft now, as he faid to the woman of Samaria, "I that fpeak unto thee am he?" I am "the Meffiah; I am the Sent of God, to deliver you; "I am the refurrection and the life, he that believeth "in me, though he were dead, yet fhall he live." And if you now believe, then life is begun, that fhall never end.

O Sirs, may it be evidenced by your walk and deportment, and converfation for the future, that the Sent of God hath got his errand, that you are delivered out of Egypt, and are on your way to the heavenly Canaan! Depend upon this glorious Deliverer, a greater than Mofes is here: whatever Red-feas be in your way, or wilderneffes of temptation and trouble be in your way, he is able to carry you mercifully through it, as on eagles wings, till he bring you to the Jordan of death; and he will not leave you there, as Mofes did Ifrael, no; he can make the waters of Jordan to divide before you, and bring you fafely to the reft that remains for the people of God.

May the Lord follow with power what is delivered in weakness. To his name be praife.

SERMON

And the Lord faid, Simon, Simon; bebold, Satan bath defired to have you, that he may fift you as wheat: but I bave prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, ftrengiben iby brethren.

THE

HE quarrel between the feed of the woman, and the feed of the ferpent is ancient, mortal, and implacable. It is almost as old as the world, Gen. iii. 15. This enmity is maintained between the church militant, and the church malignant; between the fynagogue of God, and the fynagogue of Satanas between the If raelites and the Philiftines. Each of thefe parties have their champion; as the Ifraelites had David, and the Philistines, Goliath.-Satan's armies are legions of evil fpirits, and evil men, feduced by errors, deceived by falfe promifes, and hired by the wages of unrighteoufnefs: their general is the Devil or Satan.-CHRIST'S armies are the good angels, who encamp about them that fear God, as fo many horfes and chariots of fire, as Gehazi faw, when his eyes were opened; and faints, who are as an army with banners; with banners difplayed,

*This fubject was handled in three fermons, preached on Saturday, Sabbath, and Monday, before, in time of, and after the celebration of the facrament of the Lord's fupper at Stirling, June 13, 1742.

ready

ready to fight, having put on the whole armour of God: But the great General and Captain of the hoft, is the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who did encounter our grand enemy two remarkable times, once in the wilderness, and once on the crofs and both times killed him with his own weapons, once by fcripture, and once by death, as David cut off the head of Goliath with his own fwerd: and fo, “Through death, did deftroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;" and, in fign of victory, brought away the keys, Rev. i. 18. "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen: and have the keys of hell and of death." Forevermore! there is our part, and our hope. He is alive for evermore, until he fhall tread down Satan under our feet, Rom. xvi. 20. 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25. Till then, we muft neither look for peace nor truce, but ftand upon our ground with our fwords drawn, and our watch fet, and our armour girt on; knowing that our cause is good, our captain great, our conqueft certain, and our crown immortal, that fadeth not away.

This enmity in Satan proceeds from malice and envy, two active and stirring principles; malice to God, and envy to men for, not being able, with his poifon, to reach God, he cafts it out upon man, his image-bearer. Now, as the quarrel is old, fo it is deadly. He is a murderer from the beginning; a ferpent, a lion, a dra. gon, an enemy, an accufer, a deftroyer: yea, the older the fubtiler; having ftill the more experimental fubtilty. And knowing that his time is fhort, he rages the more; as a ftone moves fafteft, when it comes neareft the centre. He is now the old ferpent, the red dragon, Rev. xii. 3. the roaring lion, 1 Pet. v. 8." A murderer from the beginning." John viii. 44. Satan practised his cruelty upon the first pair of men that ever were in the world, and prevailed, when Cain flew his brother; and upon the old quarrel, because Abel's works were good, and Cain's evil, 1 John iii. 12. Ever fince the blood of Abel, red hath been the church's colour, and fanguine hath been her complexion; their conftancy in fuffering being an evidence of the truth they fuffered for. Yet they had not been more forrow

ful

ful than fruitful; for, the blood of the martyrs hath ftill been the feed of the church. From Abel's time, to this day, the ferpent hath never been idle: the devil hath never be en afleep: never hath he changed in his mind, abated in his malice, nor defifted in his mifchief, wherein he hath prevailed upon the children of men. His method hath ftill been either by fubtilty or cruelty; fometimes as a crooked ferpent, by the infinuation of error, herefy, and delufion, wherewith the church hath been dangerou fly infefted; at other times, like a flying dragon, or a roaring lion, by the fury of threatenings and tortures, battering down and devouring with tyranny, and perfecution. Hard and difficult is it to tell in which of thefe he hath been moft fuccefsful. No fooner had the church reft and peace from the bloody fword, but they fell out in factions; infomuch that the church hath grown moft, when moft oppreffed, as Ifrael multiplied in their bondage. It was fo from the beginning; it was fo in the fir and beft days of the church; as a ferpent he began, and he will be but the old ferpent ftill. It was fo when Chrift himself was prefent in the army; "Simon, Simon; Satan hath defired to have you, that he may fift you as wheat," &c.

L

Thus powerful, and thus malicions is our enemy; thus vigilant and thus implacable. What then hall we do? Shall we hang down our heads in defpair? Or, like cowards, truft to our heels, as if they were better foldiers than our hands? No, Lays our Lord; as David of Goliath, 1 Sam. xvii. 32. Let no man's heart fail because of him;" more are with us than against us: yea, "If God be with us, who can be against us ?” Rom. viii. 31. is the motto of the Chriftian warrior. Chrift, the captain of our falvation, is furely more vigi. lant for the fafety of the church, than Satan can be for their ruin. He can break the lion's teeth, and take awy the ferpent's fting. His wifdom ca in baffle the fubtilty of Satan, unbottom his depths, and defeat his wiles; eafily break thro' his forces; yea, "The God whom we ferve, is able to deliver us:" for, as he hath promifed, "The gates of hell fhall not prevail." Neit. her his fubtilty nor cruelty fhall be able to overthrow the faith of the elect,

as