bear record of the WORD of God, and bear witness of the LIGHT, that all men may believe: Sowers, that fou the WORD of the kingdom; holding forth the WORD of life.

What is the Devil? An enemy, who fows the tares of error in the night of ignorance, while men fleep in carnal fecurity. What are falfe Apoftles? Men, that corrupt the WORD of God, that handle the WORD of God deceitfully, and preach another gofpel; whofe WORDS eat as does a canker What are Believers? People, that hear the WORD of God and keep it; that are begotten of God by the WORD of Truth; that are born again by the WORD of God; that hear the SAYINGS of Christ, and do them; in whofe hearts the WORD of Chrift dwells richly; who receive it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the WORD of God, which worketh effectually in them that believe it: They are perfons, that receive with meekness the engrafted WORD, which is able to fave their fouls; that have tafted the good WORD of God; that defire the fincere milk of the WORD, that they may grow thereby; that gladly receive the WORD; have God's WORD abiding in them; are made clean thro' the WORD, which Chrift peaks, by his minifters, his fcriptures, his fpirit, his works, or his rod; and in whom the feed of that wORD produces thirty fold, fixty. fold, or an hundred fold, according to their light, faithfulnefs, and opportunity.

Again, What are Unbelievers? Antinomian hypocrites, that hear the SAYINGS of Chrift, and do them not; or pharifaic defpifers, that stumble at the WORD, Speak against those things, which are Spoken by God's meffengers; contradicting and blafpheming; and who, by putting the WORD of God from them, judge themfelves unworthy of eternal life. What are Martyrs? Witneffes of the truth, flain for the WORD of God. And what are Apoftates? Believers, in whom the WORD is choaked by the cares of this world, or the deceitfulness of riches; who fall away when perfecution arifeth becaufe of the WORD; by reafon of whom the way of TRUTH is evil spoken of; and in whom the feed of the WORD becometh unfruitful. Thus all turns ftill upon TRUTH and the WORD of God.

SEC

SECTION III.

That according to reafon and scripture, there is a faving, almighty power in TRUTH, and the WORD of God.

SH

HOULD the reader afk here, how it is poffible, the WORD and the TRUTH fhould be fo nearly related to our Saviour, that to receive them is to receive Him, and to reject them is to reject Him, and his falvation: I anfwer, that, in the spiritual, as well as in the political and mercantile world, it is impoffible to do bufinefs without fome figns to convey our thoughts and refolutions. Hence the ufe of letters, notes, bonds and charters; of revelations, traditions, fcriptures, and facraments. Now an honeft man's word is as good as his bond or pledge, and as true as his heart; his word or bond being nothing but his mind or determination, fairly conveyed to others by the means of his tongue, or of his hand. Therefore, in the very nature of things, to receive the Word of Chrift, is to receive Chrift, who dwells in our hearts BY FAITH; whom believers know now after the flesh no more; who commiffioned his favourite apoftle to fay, He that abideth in the DOCTRINE of Chrift, hath both the Father and the Son; and who perfonally declares, My mother and my brothers are these, that hear the wORD of God, and keep it.

As the legislative power has appointed, that pure gold duly ftamped, and bank-notes properly drawn. up, fhall reprefent the value, and procure the poffeffion of all the neceffaries and conveniencies of life, which can be bought with money: So our heavenly Lawgiver has fixed, that the Word of Truth fhall anfwer in his fpiritual kingdom, the end of gold and letters of exchange in the kingdoms of this world: And this fpiritual gold, this Word tried to the uttermoft, he offers to all that are poor and blind, and naked, that they

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may be rich in faith. "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayft be rich."

Again: as a will conveys an immenfe fortune; and a death warrant, a capital punishment: fo does the Word of God convey the unfearchable riches of Chrift to obedient believers, and the dreadful punishments of the damned to obftinate unbelievers. I readily grant that a bank-note is NOT gold, that a will is NOT an eftate, and that a death-warrant is Nor the gallows; nevertheless, so strong is the connexion between thofe feemingly infignificant figns, and the important things, which they fignify; that none but fools will throw away their bank-notes, or the wills of their friends, as wafte-paper; none but mad men will fport with their death-warrant as with a play-bill. Now if the written sword of men {who, thro' forgetfulness, ficklenefs, impotence, or unfaithfulness, often break their engagements] can nevertheless have fuch force, as wills, bank-notes, and death-swarrants; how excefively fool-hardy are finners, that difregard the WORD of the King of kings, who cannot lie! the proclamations of the God of Truth, with whom NO WORD is impoffible! the promises and threatnings, the will and teftament of the Almighty, who fays, Heaven and earth fhall pass away, but My WORD shall not pass away!

Once more: Altho' no man knows the Father immediately but the Son, yet the Father may be mediately known by his Works, his Word, and his Son. For, [leaving room for the liberty of moral agents and their works] God's Works are always as his Word: Hence we read, God SAID, Let there be light, and there WAS light: Curfed be the ground for man's Jake, and the ground was curfed: For he SPAKE, and it was DONE; he COMMANDED, and it STOOD FAST. As God's Works are the exprefs image of his Word uttered without of his out-going Word (if I may so speak :) fo his out-going Word is the exprefs image of his immanent, fential Word, which is his eternal mind, and which the fcriptures call indifferently the Word, the Wijdom, the Son of God, or the exprefs image of his Fa

ther's

ther's glory. Hence it appears, that as the effential
Word, Chrift, is one with the Father; fo the word of
faving Truth is one with the Son and that David,
Solomon and St. Paul spoke noble truths when they
faid: Whofo defpifeth the WORD fhall be destroyed-By
the WORD of thy lips I have kept me from the ways of
the deftroyer.
The law, or word of the Lord is an un-
defiled word: it is fure and giveth wisdom to the fimple :
it is right and rejoiceth the heart, it is pure and giveth
light: it is true and righteous altogether; more to be de-
fired than gold, yea, than much fine gold-better to me
than thousands of gold and filver;—fweeter also than
honey, and the honey comb :--It is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path: - - by it is thy fervant taught,
and made wife to salvation, thro' faith on his part; and
in keeping of it there is great reward, even the reward of
the inheritance, a kingdom of grace here, and a king-
dom of glory hereafter.

But let our Lord himself be heard, and he will join himself in myftic trinity to the Word, and to the Trath of God. He promifcuoufly ufes the expreffions Truth and Word, which make the burden of the last fection. When he recommends his difciples to his Father, he fays, Sanctify them thro' thy TRUTH, thy WORD is TRUTH: Hence it appears, that the Truth and the Word are terms of the fame import; that the Word of Truth is a fanctifying emanation from God, and the ordinary vehicle of the divine power; and that our Lord uttered a rational mystery when he faid, He that receiveth you [the witneffes of my Truth, and the fowers of MY WORD] receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that fent me. But, Whosoever shall be afhamed of ME, and of MY WORDS, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father. And imperfect believers he encouraged thus: If ye continue in my WORD, &c. ye shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH fhall make you free, &c. If the SON fhall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Important fcriptures thefe, which show the connexion of the TRUTH with the Son of God! Bleffed fcriptures,

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which

which St. Paul fums up in the following words! Say net in thy heart, Who shall afcend into heaven? (that is to bring CHRIST down from above) Or, Who shall defcend into the deep? (that is to bring up CHRIST again from the dead.) But what faith the righteousness which is of faith? The WORD is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the WORD of Truth, the wORD of faith, which we preach.

Nor is this doctrine of the apoftle contrary to what he fays on another occafion: The kingdom of God is not in WORD, but in POWER, i. e. true religion does not confift in fine talking, but in powerful believing and holy living: For what is more powerful than Truth? "Truth is great, and will prevail:"Truth is the ftrongest thing in the world: It overturns the thrones of tyrants, and fupports God's everlasting throne.

Again, the word of man brings ftrange things to pafs. Let but a general speak, and an army of Rufjans marches up thro' clouds of fmoke, flames of fire, and volleys of iron balls, to form heaps of dead or dying bodies before the entrenchments of the Turks. An admiral gives the word of command, it may be only by hoiling a flag; and a fleet is under fail; artificial clouds and thunders are formed over the fea; the billows feem to be mingled with fire; and the king of terrors flies from deck to deck in his mott dreadful and bloody forms.

If fuch is the power of the sword of a man, who is but a worm; how almighty must be the word of God! -By the WORD of the Lord were the heavens made, faith David: The worlds were framed by the WORD of God, adds St. Paul, and he upheldeth all things by the WORD

of his power. That word, no NECESSARY agents can refift. It rolls the planets with as much ease as hurricanes whirl the duft. If FREE agents can resist his WORD of COMMAND, it is only because he permits it for their trial. But, woe to them that refift it to the end of their day of probation: For they shall feel the RESISTLESS force of his wORD of PUNISHMENT: "Depart from me, je cursed, into everlasting fire"

And