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himself went to his Father, and our Father to his SERM. God, and our God. And yet,

VI.

xiv. 2.

'Tis the Son who went to prepare a Place for us, and who comes again to receive us to him- John xx. Self, that where he is he may be alfa. Our Robes 7: are made white in the Blood of the Lamb, by Rev. vii. which alone we have a Right to enter through 14. the Gates into the City. Upon this Foundation we are before the Throne of God, and ferve him Day and Night in his Temple. And yet again,

'Tis the Work of the Holy Spirit, who has produced Faith in us, fo that we die in Faith. Tis through the Power of the Holy Ghost that we are kept in the Love of God. He that fhews the Things of Chrift to us here, will fhew them hereafter; as we find by the Apostle's Argument; the Lord is that Spirit, and where the 2 Cor. iii. Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty: We 17, 18. all with open Face beholding, as in a Glafs, the Glory of the Lord, are changed into the fame Image from Glory to Glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Indeed, thefe Words relate to the great Discoveries of the Gofpel, as transcendent to thofe of a legal Difpenfation: But they will never have their full Senfe, till we fee no longer through a Glafs, but Face to Face. And if the Spirit is the Author of thofe Vifions by which we are brought into the Church below, 'tis from him. we shall have thofe of a fuperior Kind above.

The whole Paffage is a Quotation from Exod. xxxiv. 33, 34. Till Mofes had done speaking with the Children of Ifrael, he put a Vail on his Face, but when he went in before the Lord, he took the Vail off. Well, faith the Apoftle, we do not as Mofes, put a Vail upon our Faces; that was an Emblem of the Imperfection of their Fellowship with God, that the Children of Ifrael could not look ftedfaftly to the End of that

SERM. which is abolished. Their Minds are blinded; VI. for until this Day remains the fame Vail untaken

John xiv.

20.

Heb. ii.

13.

Eph. v. 27.

away in the Reading of the Old Teftament, which Vail is done away (to us) in Christ, nevertheless when it [that is Ifrael] fhall turn to the Lord, then fhall the Vail be taken away. They are now as Mofes was out of the Mount, but they shall be as he was in it, with no Vail upon them. He went without a Vail to fee the Lord: Now, faith he, the Lord is the Spirit, whom they are to fee; and we are changed into this Glory by the Lord [or Jehovah] the Spirit.

7.) Our Entertainment in Heaven is from each Rev. i. 4. Perfon in the divine Nature. From him who is, and was, and is to come, from the feven Spirits that are before his Throne, and from Jefus Chrift the faithful Witness. In that Day we fhall know that Chrift is in the Father, and the Father in him, and he in us. He prefents us to the Father in thefe Words, behold here am I, and the Children whom God has given me. He prefents us to himself a holy Church, without Spot or Wrinkle, or any fuch Thing. We have no Phil i. 23. higher Notion of that Happiness than to be with Jefus For the Lamb that is in the midft of the Throne shall feed us, and lead us to Fountains of living Water, and God fhall wipe away all Tears from our Eyes. And, will not the Spirit, who bids us come, make us welcome? Shall we not have above what we fo often hear of below, the Grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost?

Rev. vii.

17.

2 Cor.

xiii. 14.

Now, is any one able to fuppofe, when all the Glories of the new Covenant are laid down in this promifcuous Language, as the Gift of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, that they are not equal in Power? Why fhould the Scripture enfnare us, by making no Difference in the Direction

of

of our Faith and Hope, if there was a Difference SERM. of Nature among the Perfons upon whom we VI. depend?

3. They are declared to be equal in the Glory we give them, of which Baptifm is a Part and Pledge. It fignifies no lefs than Dependence, Worship, Profeffion, and eternal Praises.

(1.) In Baptifm we profefs our Dependence on that God by whofe Name we are called. We give up ourselves or our little Ones to be the Lord's. And is this to any less than Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Don't we defire an Union to each of them? In ftating the Covenant that's ordered in all. Things and fure, David tells us what the Spirit of the Lord fpake by him, and what the 2 Sam. Words were that he put into his Mouth.

xxiii. I.

I.

'Tis plain, that we are given up to the God and Father of us all, who is above all, and with Eph. iv. all, and in us all. And yet, how often is Chrift 6. Jefus called our Hope, which is too great a Name 1 Tim. i. for us to give, or for him to take, if he is not God. Curfed be the Man that makes Flesh his Jer. xvii. Arm; and bleffed alone is he whofe Hope is in 5the Lord his God. He is the Hope of Ifrael, and Ver. 13. the Saviour thereof in a Time of Trouble. They ufed to call God the Hope of their Fathers, and yet the Promise of a Redeemer is that Hope to Acts xxvi. which their twelve Tribes ferving God Day and 7• Night expected to come. Our rejoicing is in Chrift Jefus, though the Salutes are only to be joyful in the Lord. In him we have believed, and are perfuaded that he is able to keep what 2 Tim. i. we have committed to him against that Day.

12.

'Tis the Spirit we depend on for that Bleffing, John vi. without which the Flesh profits nothing.. What 64. is it that we truft to for the Communion, the Holiness, the Security, the Heaven, that are fignified

9.

SERM. fignified in the Ordinance of Baptifm, but the VI. Holy Ghoft dwelling in us? For if any Man have not the Spirit of Chrift, he is none of his. 'Till Rom. viii. he comes and blows upon the Garden, our Beloved has nothing to invite him thither. If this Spirit is vexed, as he was of old, he will turn against us, and be our Enemy, but where he dwells, though the Body is dead because of Sin, the Spirit is Life becaufe of Righteousness.

If. lxiii.

10.

(2.) Worfhip is another thing fignified, performed, and confeffed in Baptifm, and we pay it to all the Three. In giving up ourfelves to be the Lord's, we engage to a Newnefs of Life, in a perpetual Covenant, that shall never be forPf. lxxx. gotten: That if he quickens us, we will not turn back, but call upon his Name.

ult.

Phil. ii. 14.

Now, is it not the Spirit who quickens? We live and walk in the Spirit, and don't we adore that God who works in us both to will, and to do of his own good Pleasure? He that creates us anew does it to good Works; and if our Works John iii. are wrought in God, fhall they not be devoted to him? Muft he live in a Temple and not be ferved there? Are you the Temple of the Holy Ghoft, and is not the Holy Ghoft to be worshiped in Places of his own Confecration, in the House that is called by his Name?

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We truft in Jefus, we pray to him, we derive from him, we have Communion with him, and is not this Worship? If not, it is Idolatry. Shall we give up ourselves to him equally with the Father in Baptifm, and afterwards draw back? Then, his Soul will have no Pleasure in us. If 1 Cor. i. 2. we take his Name upon us, 'tis the Name we are If.xlv. 22. to call upon in every Place. He makes the Proclamation, Look unto me, and be ye faved, all the Ends of the Earth, for I am God, and there is none elfe. I have fworn by myself, that to me

every Knee shall bow, and every Tongue fhall SERM. fwear. The Apostle gives us no other Expofi- Ví. tion of that Paffage than that in the Name of Jefus, every Knee fhould bow, of Things in Hea- Phil.ii. 9. ven, Earth, and under the Earth, and every Tongue confefs that Jefus is Lord or Jehovah.

(3.) Another Glory we pay in Baptism, and oblige ourselves to go on with, is a couragious Profeffion of the Name we have owned in every Article belonging to it. One Greek Teftament, that I have, reprefents thofe Words in another Manner than our Tranflators have writ them, Heb. x. 22. Having our Bodies washed with pure Water, let us bold fast the Profeffion of our Faith without wavering, for he is faithful who has promifed. The Perfon he fpeaks of is Chrift Jefus, the High-Prieft over the Houfe of God, who in another Part of that Epiftle is called the HighPrieft of our Profeffion. The Profeffion that we make is of an equal Devotion to Him with the Father and Spirit. This we are to hold faft without wavering. Many would take it from us, or weaken it in us; but we must hold it anλwn, without any leaning to the one Side or the other, without any inclining to the Enemy, or declining from the Truth, and to that we are obliged by. having our Bodies wafhed with pure Water. baptized Coward is a Scandal to his Character; an Antitrinitarian Baptift is a Fugitive from his Principles; fuch as thefe have Damnation, becaufe they caft off their firft Faith. That Water had better have been fpilt upon the Ground. 'Tis of no Service to have it fprinkled on the Forehead, if the Name of Chrift is not always to be read there; and of as little Value is a greater Quantity, if it's only wafhing away the Filth of the Flefh, and not attended with the Answer of a good Confcience towards God.

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