pose we shall all die the common death of all men. But after death, the fpirits of those who have walked with GOD, shall return to God that gave them; and at the morning of the refurrection, soul and body shall be for ever with the LORD. Their bodies shall be fashioned like unto CHRIST's glorious body, and their fouls filled with all the fulness of GOD. They shall fit on thrones; they shall judge angels. They shall be enabled to sustain an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, even that glory which JESUS CHRIST enjoyed with the Father before the world began. O gloriam quantam et qualem, says the learned and pious Arndt, just before he bowed down his head, and gave up the ghoft. The very thought of it is enough to make us " wish to leap our seventy years," as good Dr. Watts expresses himself, and to make us break out into the earnest language of the royal Pfalmift, " My foul is athirst for God, yea for the living GOD. When shall I come to appear in the immediate presence of my GOD?" I wonder not that a sense of this, when under a more than ordinary irradiation and influx of divine life and love, causes some perfons even to faint away, and for a time lose the power of their senses. A less fight than this, even a fight of Solomon's glory, made Sheba's queen astonished; and a still lesser fight than that, even a fight of Joseph's waggons, made holy Jacob to faint, and for a while, as it were, die away. Daniel, when admitted to a distant view of this excellent glory, fell down at the feet of the angel as one dead. And if a distant view of this glory be so excellent, what must the actual poffeffion of it be? If the firft fruits are so glorious, how infinitely must the harvest exceed in glory?

And now what shall I, or indeed what can I well say more, to excite you, even you that are yet strangers to CHRIST, to come and walk with God? If you love honour, pleasure, and a crown of glory, come, seek it where alone it can be found. Come, put ye on the LORD JESUS. Come, haste ye away and walk with God, and make no longer provifion for the flesh, to fulfil the luft thereof. Stop, stop, O finner! turn ye, turn ye, O ye unconverted men! for the end of that way you are now walking in, however right it may feem in your blinded eyes, will be death, even eternal destrudtion both of body and foul. Make no long tarrying, I fay: at your peril, I charge you, step not one step further on in your

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your present walk. For how knowest thou, O man, but the next step thou takest may be into hell? Death may seize thee, judgment find thee, and then the great gulph will be fixed between thee and endless glory, for ever and ever. Q think of these things, all ye that are unwilling to come and walk with God. Lay them to heart. Shew yourselves men, and in the strength of JESUS say, Farewel luft of the flesh, I will no more walk with thee! Farewel lust of the eye, and pride of life! Farewel carnal acquaintance, and enemies of the cross, I will no more walk and be intimate with you ! Welcome JESUs, welcome thy word, welcome thy ordinances, welcome thy Spirit, welcome thy people, I will henceforth walk with you. O that there may be in you such a mind! God will fet his almighty fiat to it, and seal it with the broad seal of heaven, even the fignet of his Holy Spirit. Yes, he will, though you have been walking with, and following after, the devices and defires of your defperately wicked hearts, ever since you have been born. “I the high and lofty one," says the great Jehovah, "that inhabiteth eternity, will dwell with the humble and contrite heart, even with the man that trembleth at my word." The blood, even the precious blood of JESUS CHRIST, if you come to the Father in and through him, shall cleanse you from all

fin.

But the text leads me to speak to you that are saints, as well as to you that are open or unconverted sinners. I need not tell you that walking with GOD is not only honourable, but pleasant and profitable also: for ye know it by happy experience, and will find it more and more so every day. Only give me leave to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, and to beseech you by the mercies of GOD in CHRIST JESUS, to take heed to yourselves, and walk closer with your God, than you have in days paft: for the nearer you walk with God, the more you will enjoy of Him whose presence is life, and be the better prepared for being placed at his right-hand, where are pleasures for evermore. O do not follow JESUS afar off! O be not so formal, so dead and stupid in your attendance on holy ordinances! Do not fo shamefully forsake the assembling yourselves together, or be fo niggardly, and so indifferent about the things of GOD. Remember

member what JESUS says of the church of Laodicea, "Because thou art neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth." Think of the love of JESUS, and let that love constrain you to keep near unto him; and though you die for him, do not deny him, do not keep at a distance from him in any wife.

One word to my brethren in the ministry that are here present, and I have done. You see, my brethren, my heart is full; I could almost say it is too big to speak, and yet too big to be filent, without dropping a word to you.. For does not the text speak in a particular manner to those who have the honour of being stiled the ambassadors of CHRIST, and stewards of the mysteries of GOD? I observed at the beginning of this discourse, that Enoch in all probability was a public person, and a flaming preacher. Though he be dead, does he not yet speak to us, to quicken our zeal, and make us more active in the service of our glorious and ever-blessed Master? How did Enoch preach? How did Enoch walk with GoD, though he lived in a wicked and adulterous generation? Let us then follow him, as he followed JESUS CHRIST, and ere long, where he is, there shall we be also. He is now entered into his rest: yet a little while, and we shall enter into ours, and that too much sooner than he did. He sojourned here below three hundred years; but blessed be GOD, the days of man are now shortened, and in a few days our work will be over. The Judge is before the door: he that cometh will come, and will not tarry: his reward is with him. And we shall all (if we are zealous for the LORD of Hosts) ere long shine as the stars in the firmament, in the kingdom of our heavenly Father, for ever and ever. To Him, the blessed JESUS, and eternal Spirit, be all honour and glory, now, and to all eternity. Amen, and Amen.

SERMON III.

Abraham's offering up his Son Ifaac.

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GENESIS xxii. 12.

And be faid, Lay not thine Hand upon the Lad, neither - do thou any thing unto him, for now I know that thou fcarest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son, thine only Son from me.

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HE great Apostle Paul, in one of his epistles, informs us, that "whatsoever was written aforetime was writ ten for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the holy fcripture might have hope.". And as without faith it is impoffible to please God, or be accepted in JESUS, the Son of his love; we may be assured, that whatever instances of a more than common faith are recorded in the book of Gon, they were more immediately designed by the holy Spirit for our learning and imitation, upon whom the ends of the world are come. For this reason, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, in the xith chapter, mentions such a noble catalogue of Old Testament faints and martyrs, "who fubdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, &c. and are gone before us to inherit the promises." A fufficient confutation, I think, of their error, who lightly esteem the Old Testament saints, and would not have them mentioned to chriftians, as persons whose faith and patience we are called upon more immediately to follow. If this was true, the apostle would never have produced such a cloud of witnesses out of the Old Testament, to excite the christians of the first, and confequently pureft age of the church, to continue stedfaft and unmoveable in the profeffion of their faith. Amidst this catalogue of faints, methinks the patriarch Abrabam shines the brighteft, and differs from the others, as

one star differeth from another star in glory; for he shone' with such diftinguished luftre, that he was called the " friend of God," the "father of the faithful;" and those who believe on CHRIST, are faid to be " fons and daughters of, and to " be blessed with, faithful Abraham." Many trials of his faith did God send this great and good man, after he had commanded him to get out from his country, and from his kindred, unto a land which he should shew him; but the last was the most severe of all, I mean, that of offering up his only fon. This, by the divine assistance, I propose to make the subject of your present meditation, and, by way of conclusion, to draw some practical inferences, as God shall enable me, from this instructive story.

The sacred penman begins the narrative thus; verse 1. "And it came to pass, after these things, GOD did tempt Abraham." After these things, that is, after he had underwent many severe trials before, after he was old, full of days, and might flatter himself perhaps that the troubles and toils of life were now finished; " after these things, God did tempt Abraham." Christians, you know not what trials you may meet with before you die: notwithstanding you may have fuffered, and been tried much already, yet, it may be, a greater measure is still behind, which you are to fill up." Be not high-minded, but fear." Our last trials, in all probability, will be the greatest: and we can never fay our warfare is accomplished, or our trials finished, till we bow down our heads, and give up the ghost. "And it came to pass, after these things, that God did tempt Abraham."

"GOD did tempt Abraham." But can the scripture contradict itself? Does not the apostle James tell us, " that God tempts no man;" and God does tempt no man to evil, or on purpose to draw him into fin; for, when a man is thus tempted, he is drawn away of his own heart's luft, and enticed. But in another sense, God may be said to tempt, I mean, to try his servants; and in this sense we are to understand that passage of Matthew, where we are told, that, "JESUS was led up by the Spirit (the good Spirit) into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." And our Lord, in that excellent form of prayer which he has been pleased to give us, does not require us to pray that we may not absolutely

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