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be brought up there; it will be a blessed source of provision for the children of God in another part of the world. This is the grand design I am going upon; this is my visible cause; but I never yet went to them, but God has been pleased to bless my ministration among them; and therefore after I have finished the Orphan-house affair, I intend to go along the continent by land, (which will keep me all the winter and spring,) and when I come to the end of it, which will be New England and Canada, then I hope to return again to this place; for let people say what they will, I have not so much as a single thought of settling abroad on this side eternity; I shall set out like a poor pilgrim, at my own expense, trusting upon God to take care of me, and to bear my charges; and I call God to witness, and I must be a cursed devil and hypocrite, to stand here in the pulpit and provoke God to strike me dead for lying, I never had the love of the world, nor never felt it one quarter of an hour in my heart, since I was twenty years old. I might have been rich; but though the Chapel is built, and I have a comfortable room to lie in, I assure you I built it at my own expense; it cost nobody but myself any thing. I have a watchcoat made me, and in that I shall lie every night on the ground, and may Jacob's God bless me. I will not say much of myself, but when I have been preaching, I have read and thought much of those words with pleasure, "Surely this is the house of God." "And I will bring thee again to this land." Whether that will be my experience or not, blessed be God, I have a better land in view: and, my dear brethren, I do not look upon myself at home till I land in my Father's kingdom; and if I am to die in the way, if I am to die in the ship, it comforts me that I know I am as clear as the sun, that I go by the will of God; and though people may say, will you leave the world? Will you leave the Chapel? O, I am astonished that we cannot leave every thing for Christ; my greatest trial is to part with those who are as dear to me as my own soul; and however others may forget me, yet I cannot forget them; and now may Jacob's God be with you; O keep close to God, my dear London friends; I do not bid you keep close to Chapel, you have done so always: I shall endeavor to keep up the word of God among you in my absence; I shall have the same persons that managed for me when I was out last, and they sent me word again and again by letter, that it was remarkable, that the Tottenham-court people were always present when ordinances were there.

You see that I went upon a fair bottom; I might have had a thousand a year out of this place if I had chose it; when I

am gone to heaven you will see what I have on earth ;* I do not like to speak now, because it may be thought boasting; but I am sure there are numbers of people here, if they knew what I have, would love me as much as they now hate me. When we come before the great Judge of quick and dead, while I stand before him, God grant you may not part with me then, it will be worse than to go into the fire, to be among the devil and his angels; God forbid it! God forbid it! God forbid it! O remember that my last words were, come, come to Christ; the Lord help you to come to Christ; come to Christ, come to Jacob's God; God give you faith like Jacob's faith.

You that have been kind to me, that have helped me when I was sick, some of whom are here that have been very kind to me; may God reward you, my friends, and God forgive my enemies; God of his infinite mercy bless you all; you will be amply provided for, I believe, here; may God spread the gospel every where: and may God never leave you, nor forsake you. Even so, Lord Jesus. Amen and Amen.

SERMON XXI.

god, a believER'S GLORY.

ISAIAH IX. 19.

And thy God thy Glory.

I LATELY had occasion to speak on the verse immediately following that of our text; but when I am reading God's word, I often find it is like being in a tempted garden, when we pluck a little fruit, and find it good, we are apt to look after and pluck a little more, only with this difference, the fruit we gather below often hurts the body at the same time that it pleases the appetite, but when we walk in God's garden-when we gather fruit of the Redeemer's plants, the more we eat the more we are delighted, and the freer we are, the more welcome; if any chapter in the Bible deserves this character and description of an evangelical Eden, this does.

* The greatest part of the substance this man of God left behind him, which was not much, was bequeathed to him by deceased friends.

It is very remarkable, and I have often told you of it, that all the apostles preach first the law, and then the gospel, which finds man in a state of death, points out to him how he is to get life, and then sweetly conducts him to it. Great and glorious things are spoken of the church of God in this chapter; and it struck me very much this evening, ever since I came into the pulpit, that the great God speaks of the church in a singular number. How can that be, when the church is composed of so many millions, gathered out of all nations, languages, and tongues? How is it, that God says thy Maker, and not your Maker, that he speaks of the church as though it consisted of only one individual person? The reason of it is this, and is very obvious, that though the church is composed of many members, they have but one head, and they are united by the bond of one spirit, by whom they have the same vital union of the soul with God; and therefore it teaches christians not to say of one another, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, or Cephas, but to behave and live so, that the world may know that we all belong to one common Christ. God revive, continue, and increase this true christian love among us! Of this church, thus collectively considered, united under one head, the blessed evangelical prophet thus speaks: "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates, (where the magistrates assemble, and the people go in and out,) praise." From this text a great many good and great men have gathered what they call the millenium, that Jesus Christ is to come and reign a thousand years on earth; but I must acknowledge that I have always rejected a great many good men's positive opinion about the season when this state commences, and I would warn you all against fixing any time; for what signifies whether Christ comes to reign a thousand years, or when he comes, since you and I are to die very soon; and therefore instead of puzzling our heads about it, God grant we may so live that we may reign with him for ever; and it seems to me, that whatsoever is said of this state on earth, that the millenium is to be understood in a spiritual sense, as an emblem of a glorious, eternal, beatific state in the kingdom of heaven. "The sun shall no more be thy light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light;" and in order to prepare us for that light, and show us the nature of it, while we speak of it may it come with light and power to our souls. He adds in our text, and thy God shall be thy glory. This is spoken to all believers in general, but it is spoken to all fearful believers in particular; and I do not know that I can possibly

close my poor feeble ministrations among you here, better than with these words; though, God willing, I intend, if he shall strengthen me this week, to give you a parting word next Wednesday morning; and O that what has been my comfort this day in the meditation on this passage, may be yours and mine to all eternity. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the evangelic prophet saith, Thy God thy glory.

The Holy Ghost seems, as it were, particularly fond of this expression when God published the ten commandments upon mount Sinai, he prefaced it thus, I am the Lord, and not content with that, he adds, thy God: and the frequency of it, I suppose made Luther say, that the gospel deals much in pronouns, in which consists a believer's comfort; but if there were no other argument than this, it would cut up that destructive principle by the very root which pretends to tell us that there is no such thing as appropriation in the Bible; that our faith is only to be a rational assent to the word of God, without a particular application of that word made to our souls this is as contrary to the gospel, and to the experience of every real saint, as light is contrary to darkness, and heaven to hell. My brethren, I appeal to any of you, what good would it do you, if you had ten thousand notes wrote in large characters by the finest hand that can write in London; suppose you have them, as many men have, and as it is a very convenient way, that they were put into your pockets, made on the inside of your coat; suppose you should say, my coat is buttoned, I have all these here next my heart: when I come to look at them, I find there is not one note payable to me, they are all forged, or payable to somebody else, and therefore are good for nothing to me. All the promises of the gospel, all that is said of God and Christ, is ours. The great question therefore is, whether the God we profess to believe in is our God: not only, whether he is so in general-that the devils may say; but whether he is our God in particular. The devils can say, O God; but the devils cannot say, my God: that is a privilege peculiar to God's chosen people, who really believe on the Lord Jesus Christ: and therefore, my brethren, a deist cannot say my God, my Christ, because he does not believe on that medium by which God becomes our God. That was a noble saying of Luther, I will have nothing to do with an absolute God; that is, I will have nothing to do with a God out of Christ. Now this is a deist's glory. Lord Bolingbroke values himself upon it; I am astonished at that man's infidelity and cowardice. I do not like those men that leave their writings to be published after their death: I love to see men bold in their writings: I like an honest man that will put

out his writings while alive, that he may see what men can say against him, and then answer them; but it is mere cowardice to leave it to the world to answer for it, to set us a caviling after they are in the grave: says he, I will have nothing to do with the God of Moses; and I suppose the principles of that deist, made one pretty near to him ask, as soon as the breath was out of his body, where do you think he is gone? Another replies, where do you think, but to hell. God grant that may not be the portion of any here!

The question then is, how God is our God; thy God. My brethren, our all depends upon it; what signifies saying, this is mine, and that is mine, if you cannot say, God is mine. The best thing that God has left in the New Testament, is himself; "I will be their God," that is one of the legacies; and "a new heart also will I give them," that is another; "I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their hearts," that is another: but all that is good for nothing, comparatively speaking, unless God has said at the same time, for they are all inseparable, "I will be their God and they shall be my people." Now how shall I know that God is my God? I am afraid, some people think there is no knowing; well then, if you think so, you set up a worship, and go and erect an altar, and instead of receiving God in the sacrament as yours, go and worship an unknown God. I am so far from believing that we cannot know that God is ours, that I am fully persuaded of it, and would speak it with humility, and I would not choose to leave you with a lie in my mouth, that I have known it for about thirty-five years, as clear as the sun is in the meridian, that God is my God. And how shall I know it, my brethren? I would ask you this question, didst thou ever feel the want of God to be thy God? Nobody knows God to be their God that did not feel him to be his God in Christ out of Christ, God is a consuming fire. I know there are a great variety of ways in people's conversions, but still, my brethren, we must all feel our misery, we must all feel our distance from God, all feel that we are estranged from God, that we bring into the world with us a nature that is not agreeable to the law of God, nor possibly can be; we cannot be said to believe that God is our God, till we are brought to be reconciled to him through his Son. Can I say a person is my friend, till I am reconciled to him? And therefore the gospel only is the ministration of reconciliation. Paul says, "We beseech you as ambassadors of Christ, that you would be reconciled unto God;" this is to be the grand topic of our preaching; we are to beseech them, and God himself turns beggar to his own creatures to be reconciled to him: now this

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