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SER M. indeed can be, Rom. viii. 7. For This XVI. reason, the Apostle befeeches us, as being

Strangers and Pilgrims here, to abstain from fleshly Lufts, which war against the Soul; that is, which unfit us for our heavenly Country, the habitation of everlafting Righteousness and Peace, 1 Pet. ii. 11: and exhorts us, not to be conformed to This World, Rom. xii. 2. but to be tranfformed by the renewing of our Mind; that is, to prefs forward towards the Mark of the Prize of our High Calling, forgetting thofe things which are behind: After the example of the Patriarchs, Heb. xi. 15. who truly if they had been mindful of That Country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned; But now they defire a better Country, that is, an Heavenly. Where, if We alfo have our converfation Now, we shall together with them be glorified likewise bereafter.

SERMON

SERMON XVII.

Of the Spiritual Nature of the
Gospel.

[Preached on Whitfunday.]

2 COR. iii. 17, 18.

Now the Lord is That Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty; But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord, are changed into the fame Image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit. of the Lord.

T

HE Holy Ghoft having been S ER M.
poured forth upon the Apo- XVII.
ftles at Pentecost in so very
fingular and plentiful a man-
ner, as that, before that time,

'tis faid, comparatively, not to have been

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given

SER M. given at all, Joh. vii. 39; and Those who XVII. were not yet acquainted with That day's Miracle, are reprefented as not having heard fo much as whether there was any Holy Ghoft, Acts xix. 2. that is, whether there had yet been any such plentiful Effufion of it, as the Prophets had foretold: For This reason, St Paul in the 8th verfe of this chapter, whereof my Text is the Conclufion, elegantly ftiles the Gospel, by way of Eminence, the Miniftration of the Spirit. And from That confideration, through the whole chapter, he magnifies the Doctrine of Christ, as being more clear and plain, more powerful and efficacious, more illustrious and glorious, than the Law of Mofes. Ver. 3. re are, faith he, the epistle of Christ, miniftred by Us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of ftone, but in the flefly tables of the heart: His meaning is, The Power and Efficacy of the Gospel, is as much greater than that of the Law, as can be expreffed by comparing that which is written in a Book, with that which is imprinted inwardly in very Heart and Soul itself. The fame

the

Argument

Argument he pursues, ver. 6. God bath S ER M. made us able minifters of the New Tefta- XVII. ment, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life; That is, The Gospel gives us thofe fpiritual precepts, whereof the legal Ordinances were but types and shadows; (that is the meaning of their being called the letter or dead letter;) and teaches us the way to eternal life, whereas the rigour of the Law could end only in mens condemnation. And from hence he proceeds to magnify the glorious manifeftation of the Gospel, by comparing it with the Glory that shined in Mofes's countenance; which, though fo bright that the children of Ifrael could not stedfaftly behold it, yet was but temporary and tranfient, and only a type or figure of that permanent glory of the Gofpel, which was to continue for ever; ver. 7. If the ministration of Death, written and engraven in ftones, was glorious, fo that the children of Ifrael could not stedfaftly bebold the face of Mofes for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; How shall not the miniftration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the miniftra

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SER M. miniftration of condemnation be glory, XVII. much more doth the miniftration of righ

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teousness, (of juftification, it should be rendred,) exceed in glory;-----For if That which is done away was glorious, much more That which remaineth (That which is Perpetual) is glorious. And hereupon he takes occafion elegantly to defcribe the Blindness of the Jews after our Saviour's time, in not seeing through the types and figures and imperfect notices of the Old Teftament; he defcribes it elegantly, by comparing it to the Veil which Moses put upon his Face to conceal the Brightness of it: Ver. xiv. Their Minds (faith he) were blinded; For until This day remaineth the fame Veil untaken away, in the reading of the Old Teftament; which Veil is done away in Chrift: But even unto This day, when Mofes is read, the Veil is upon their Heart. Nevertheless, when it fhall turn to the Lord, (that is, when they fhall believe in Chrift,) the Veil fhall be taken away. And then he fums up and concludes his whole Difcourfe, in the words of the Text: Now the Lord (fays he) is That Spirit; and where the Spirit

of

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