even through the wounds of our Redeemer. If this do not kindle in you a defire to draw near, what can we say to kindle it?

I told you laft Sabbath, that you may draw near to God in Chrift, and that you ought to draw near, &c. Is there any here who fo love their outcast condition, that they will not come back, nor draw near to God, though they are invited ? Then I must leave you, to speak to others. But, before we part, confider,

1. What a miserable state you are in while far from God. As God faid to Adam, Gen. iii. 9. we may say to you, "Where art thou ?" Like the prodigal, Luke, xv. 13. thou art in a far country, far from God, his covenant, his grace, his Chrift, Eph. ii. 12. And while you will not come back, you are far out of your fenfes. Tell me, finner, in fober earnest, (if you be capable of a sober thought), Are you not in want? Is there not a principle of restleffness in that foul of thine, which thou canft find no way to quiet, but fometimes by the fulfome breafts of lufts which may furfeit, but at no time can fatisfy? The dry breafts of the world, fqueeze them as you will, can never give full content, ftill there is fome thorn of uneasiness in your bed, make it where you will. Thou doft hunger after happiness, but fhalt never find it till thou come near to God in Chrift.--Confider,

2. If thou art able to hold on to the end without coming near to God. Though thou canft live this way, wilt thou be able to die in this state, and continue fo for ever? Art thou ftill able to make thy part good without him, yea, against him, so that thou art refolved never to knock at his door? If not, thou art wretchedly foolish, to flight a kind invitation from him, to whom at length thou must bow. Therefore, Ifa. lv. 6. "Seek ye the Lord,

while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near."-Confider,

3. If thou wilt not draw near now, the time will come, when God will drive thee from him with a vengeance, and will give thee thy heart's fill of distance from him for ever: Matth. xxv. 41. "Then shall he say to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Now he bids thee draw near, and thou wilt not; this voice will draw to an end with thee, and thou wilt hear that other voice, Depart from me; and thou must go, though thou wouldst gladly stay. As, then, you would not be forced to depart for ever, draw near to God now, while he is drawing near to you.-Confider,

Laftly, That the accefs to God, now in your offer, will make your departure from him to hell the more dreadful: Matth. xi. 24. "It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement, than for you." Ye are guilty of a fin of which heathens are not capable, nay, which devils cannot commit it. They departed, but they never got a call to come back again. It was never faid to them, Let us draw near. There is a way opened at the expence of the blood of Christ, for you to come back to God, and therefore your neglecting to improve it must be inexcufeable.

But now, as for you who defire to draw near to God, ye have a fair occasion at all times for it, there is a ready way from earth to heaven, through Christ, wherever you are. You have a special occafion at this time in the holy facrament, an ordinance in which the Lord comes very near to his people, in which the greatest nearnefs may be enjoyed. The facraments and death resemble one another. In the former, the Lord comes to us,

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in death we go to him. We should labour fo to manage the former, as that a fure foundation may be laid for fafety and comfort in the latter. Here God appears on a throne of grace in Chrift, the vail of Chrift's flesh appears facramentally rent, that you through it may draw near to God. And you must by faith pafs through the vail this day, that you may get forward even to his feat, drawing near him as rebels accepting the King's peace, the offered indemnity through the blood of his Son, drawing near as fupplicants, as fervants of the house, to serve our Lord, to wait upon him, and behold his glory.

In these circumstances, your question, I prefume, will now be, How fhall we fo manage this approach, as that it may be fuccefsful for the honour of God, our foul's good for time and eternity? If you manage right, you are made up for ever, and therefore your mifmanagement will be an unfpeakable lofs. I fhall farther explain unto

you the apostle's directions in the text. I fear the hints already given to you as to the nature of drawing near to God, may not be fufficient to clear you in this matter; therefore, that ye may not walk in the dark, know plainly, in a word, that we draw near to God by faith, and our believing in God is our drawing near to him. Hence the apostle's advice in the text is not, Come in by faith, for this is the very coming itself, but, fays he, " in full affurance of faith." So the scripture explains it, while it fhews that that coming to the Lord, which is fo much preffed on finners in the Old and New Teftament, is believing: John, vi. 35. "And Jefus faid unto them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh unto me fhall never hunger, he that believeth on me fhall never thirst." How does the finner depart from God, but by unbe

lief? Heb. iii. 12. "Take heed, brethren, left there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Therefore it is by believing we draw near (Greek, come) to God. This is the great uniting grace which joins a finner to the Lord while in this world. How can we come to God, but by believing? for this drawing near is a spiritual motion of the soul. Our fouls indeed move towards God in spiritual defires; but if these be not completed by faith, which is the comprehenfive motion, the foul ftill ftands off from God. So alfo in love, this is fet a-going by faith, and its motion is towards God, when the foul is brought near to God by faith 1 John, iv. 16. " And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

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Now, the object of faith is Jefus Chrift held forth in the word of the gofpel, in whom the fulnefs of the Godhead dwells bodily, that is to fay, God in Chrift. See the fum of the gofpel, 2 Cor. v. 18. 19. "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the miniftry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Chrift, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trefpaffes unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Faith does not ftand ftill in the vail, that is, his flesh, but goes through the vail, Heb. x. 20. to the Godhead, that is, within it, and there, only there, it refts, or can rest. Now, the perfons of the Trinity being one, he who believeth in Chrift the Son, believeth in the Father and the Holy Ghoft: John, xiv. 9. "He that hath feen me," faid Jefus, "hath feen the Father." More particularly, that you may take

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your aim right in this matter, I think drawing near by faith lies in three things, namely,

1. It lies in accepting God for our God in Christ. I fay in Christ, for no other way have we him offered to us, nor can a foul in any other way accept him; out of Christ, he is a confɑming fire. Thus, from the mercy-feat in Chrift he offers the covenant, which faith accepts: Heb. viii. 10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Ifrael after thofe days, faith the Lord: I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they fhall be to me a people." And there, even in Chrift, the foul takes him for its God, and gives itself away to him: Isa. xliv. 5. "One shall fay, I am the Lord's, and another fhall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and furname himself by the name of Ifrael." Thus the finner is joined to God in Chrift by a marriage-union: Ifa. liv. 5. " For thy Maker is thy Hufband." (Heb. thy Makers is thy husband). 2 Cor. vi. 16. "For ye are the temple of the living God: as God hath faid, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they fhall be my people;" and then we are near indeed. Drawing near by faith lies,

2. In claiming God for our God in Christ. This is the very proper work of faith: Pfal. xvi. 2. "O my foul, thou haft faid unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord," at all times, but especially at a communion-table. What fays the Lord to the foul then, but as he did to Thomas? John, xx. 27. "Be not faithlefs, but believing." Let us draw near, then, by faith, and anfwer, ver. 28. "My Lord, and my God." Faith has the word of the everlafting covenant to bear it out in its claim; it has

the