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happiness, namely, perfection of holiness in the soul. Secondly, The other is, a spiritualized body, which may not only enjoy perfect health and vigour, but also, instead of being a clog to the soul, as the case now is, may be fitted to assist and serve it in all its holy operations and employments. Such is the now glorified body of Jesus unquestionably, and such shall be the resurrection-body of all his saints, for he shall fashion them like unto his glorious body by his mighty power. Of this point I say nothing further at present, as it will have a distinct consideration in the end of the Creed. Only suitably to our purpose I remark, that Jesus must give this glorified body; for surely no man can take it up of himself, and that it is what our professor waits for at his hands. The glorious prospect refreshes his spirit under present pain and approaching dissolution. "I know that my Redeemer liveth," he is ready to say on every pressing occasion, "and that he shall stand at the latter day on the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.'

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"And when that happy day shall be come, when the last enemy (glorious thought, the last! therefore Satan shall have been put under my feet before, therefore sin shall have been destroyed before, therefore all danger of hell shall have been past before), when the last enemy shall be destroyed, then what remains for me but an endless weight of glory? I shall see God, I shall see him as he is, I shall be like him, I shall be for ever with the Lord. How glorious then my services! I shall sing the song of the Lamb for ever. I shall rehearse to listening saints the story of my salvation; and provoke attending spirits to join my praises. I shall sit at the feet of my Lord, secure, happy, ravished with unutterable joy everlastingly. Glorious expectation! But when, my soul, shall these things be? Why, the last enemy is death, and death is near at hand. It is but till death, my soul, and then all thy sorrows cease, all behind is glory. Be steadfast, my soul; thy hope is not in vain. O the love, the power, of Jesus! Jesus, save me! thou art able to save me every way: thou art all my salvation. Here I am, Jesus! I believe in thee, as the guide of my feet, as the Lord my righteousness, as the Lord my strength, as my full

and final Deliverer from all my enemies, I believe in thee; and, renouncing all other help, unto thee I commend my soul."

Let us now collect together the whole, and see in one view what is the full force and meaning of these words, I believe in Jesus. I am a fallen creature, the offspring of sinful Adam, every way wretched and helpless, ignorant, guilty, impotent, and without hope in the future eternal world. But I know there is a Saviour, Jesus, who, I am well assured from the word of God, and from what I am told therein of his person, offices, and transactions, is fully able to help and save me. I have heard his free and full invitations, and, being encouraged by them, I do, as my duty is, take him to be my Saviour, renouncing all hope from myself or any other beside him. And accordingly I do hereby declare, in the presence of God and of his church, that I avouch Jesus for my Saviour; that I have no allowed dependence on my own wisdom to instruct me in the things relative to the interests of my soul; but that I do implicitly give myself up to the words of Christ, desiring to be directed into the knowledge of them by the illumination of his Spirit, and determining that however they be above my comprehension, or contrary to my pride and inclinations, I will receive them as the only rule of my faith and practice. I do further confess, what I steadfastly believe, and whereon I rest my soul, that in the obedience and death of Jesus there is hope. alone for poor guilty sinners like myself: I disclaim all other confidence. I own, in this most public manner, that I have taken refuge in the Redeemer's righteousness; and whatever boldness I now have to call upon God as a Father, or whatever prospect of being with him as my God for ever, it has no other foundation, I desire it may never, and I am fully persuaded it can never have any other foundation than the obedience and death of Jesus. And as I have taken him to be my righteousness, so also to be my strength. I know myself insufficient to anything good. I ascribe it to Jesus that I am not still dead in trespasses and sins, that I have the least grain of faith in God, or spark of love towards him in me. I am perfectly satisfied that without him I can do nothing, and that his grace is sufficient for me. Sincerely desiring deliverance from all

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sin, and the sanctification of my whole spirit, soul and body, to God's use and glory; I do and desire always to depend upon him to work this all-effectually upon me by his holy Spirit, waiting for it in prayer, patience, and thankfulness. And finally, I avow him to be all my salvation for the eternal world, to perfect my soul in holiness, to raise my body from the dust, and to give me everlasting life. In the full force and meaning of all which, and of whatever else lies within the scope of his saving power, I say here, in the presence of you all, I believe in Jesus.

Now, brethren, can we adopt these words in this their proper meaning? Ah, that we could all of us! how happy should we then be! For, verily, blessed is he that believeth. You see plainly that to believe in Jesus is the whole of Christianity; therefore to be without this faith, this practical faith, is but to have at best a name to live. Let us examine our hearts. Let us prove ourselves, whether we be in the faith. It will not fail to do us good one where or other; it will show us our hypocrisy, if we be insincere; and, if we be found faithful upon the trial, what comfort will it not afford us? May the great God, who made us for his glory, give us grace to believe in his Son Jesus Christ, to the praise of his name, and to our eternal salvation, through him the same Jesus Christ our Lord!

SERMON XIV.

ACTS xvi. 30, 31.

What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

IN speaking to the second branch of the Creed, relative to the Son, and his work of redemption, I told you that it contained two parts. First, a profession of faith; I believe in Jesus. Secondly, A declaration of the grounds upon which such belief doth stand. The former having been fully spoken to, we enter now on the latter. And the first thing, whereon we profess our belief of the sufficiency of Jesus to save us, is, that we know and are sure that he is Christ, duly set apart, and duly qualified, for the office and work of a Saviour.

As to the meaning of the term Christ, it is no other than Anointed, which also the word Messiah signifies. But we must consider the force of the expression, as it belongs to Jesus. Now it is plain that he is called Christ in the New Testament, in an eminent and extraordinary way; so that, though others before him were indeed anointed, yet to none of them beside him is the title Christ applied, as it were for a name whereby to be ordinarily distinguished. And because of this peculiar eminency he is often called The Christ; which manifestly implies that he is such in a manner peculiar to himself; as also it denotes an expectation, grounded upon promises, that such a Christ in that eminent way, of which all other anointed persons were but shadows and figures, should appear in the world.

Among the Jews, three sorts of persons, Prophets, Priests, and Kings, were solemnly set apart to their respective offices by the ceremony of anointing with oil. In conformity with which, the Saviour, in whom the whole design of the Jewish constitution centred, in whom it was to have its intended issue,

and who was to execute all these three offices, in the whole saving discharge of them, unto the church, must of necessity also be anointed thereunto. As a Prophet, he was to reveal the whole will of God; as a Priest, he was to make satisfaction and intercession for sin; as a King, he was to gather, govern, and protect his people. Upon his full discharge of which offices depends the whole success of his mediatorial undertaking, both as the glory of God and our salvation are concerned in it.

Consider the peculiarity of this undertaking, and you will see the necessity of his being authoritatively appointed unto it, as also furnished for it. The matter stands thus: man, by Adam's sin, was fallen from God. Hereby, on the one side, divine Majesty had suffered an insult, which could not be passed over, consistently with the glory due thereto, without a reparation made to it, and which, whether it should be made at all in behalf of the offender, and of what kind it should be, lay entirely in the will of God, the injured party; and, on the other part, through the same apostasy, there was such a departure as amounted to downright enmity against God; man was as unwilling to come to any terms of accommodation with his Maker, as he was unable to find out any; or, should he have found them, to perform the condition of them in any manner that would at once comport with God's glory and his own salvation. Perfectly to heal this breach was to be the business of a Mediator; and you find his business was to make God satisfaction for the wrong done him; and to prevail with man to accept of an offer of peace made by God, in consideration of that satisfaction, and to return to his place and duty. In which views it is manifest that he must be duly authorized to make a satisfaction for the offender which God would accept (for it must needs be made according to God's pleasure, and in such a way as he could be content with); and then not only must he be authorized to make this satisfaction, but also in God's name to declare and publish God's having accepted it, and his inviting and commanding all men to come unto it; nor is this all, he must have authority also to confer the whole benefits of this satisfaction on such as should seek to have the blessing of it. But, not only must he be thus endued with proper authority on God's part, he must have also a power to work on the hearts of men,

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