only carry a counterfeit commission, so the seals of their ministry are but counterfeit seals. For my part, I shall never believe these noisy conversions to be of the right stamp, until I see both ministers and converts follow the practice of Judah, and Israel, when returning to the Lord after a course of defection, Jer. 1. 4, 5: “In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant, that shall never be forgotten.” The reason is set down in the two following verses, which are applicable in the present case of the church of God in this land : “My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place. All that found them have devoured tbem, and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers." And thereupon they depart out of Babylon, and their ministers or shepherds, become as he-goats before the flock.

2. The faithful servants of God, are said to be such as “ have the testimony of Jesus.” By the testimony of Jesus, we are to understand the gospel of Christ, or the doctrine of faith in its purity, which alone is “the power of God unto salvation,” Rom. i. 16. The whole word of God is divided into law and gospel ; and sometimes the whole word is called by the one, and sometimes by the other, as you see frequently in the 119th Psalm. Now, the question is, What is it to " have the testimony of Jesus?" Answ. (1.) it implies a firm faith of the record of God concerning his Son Jesus Christ; this is called a “believing the report, and setting to the seal that God is true.” (2.) A firm trust in Christ as the only Saviour, upon the testimony of God. They credit and trust him for the execution of all his saving offices, as a Prophet, Priest, and King, for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and complete redemption. (3.) A holy care to preserve the doctrine, worship, and the government of Christ's house, in its purity; and according to the pattern shown in the mount; together with a steady contending for the faith, and a “standing fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made his people free,” in opposition to error in doctrine, corruption in worship, and all. tyranny in government and discipline. Now, these are the servants of God that are here intended to be sealed, in order to their being preserved from those hurtful winds that blow

in the visible church; these are they against whom the rage of the great red dragon and his angels is levelled, against these the flood cast out of his mouth runs. But now I

proceed to,

III. The third thing proposed in the method, which was, to speak a little of the seal that is set upon the servanis of God. And here I shall propose and answer two or three questions:

Query 1. Who is he that seals them?

Answ. It is Christ, the great Angel, that hath the seal of the living God. He himself was sealed as God's Secretary and Plenipotentiary to this lower world, John vi. 27. And he has the seal of the living God committed to him; for he has "given him power over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to as many as he hath given him," John xvii. 2. He has the roll of election committed to him, that he may put his mark, his own name, and his Father's name upon them: Rev. iii. 12: “ Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” There

you see that Christ makes him that overcomes a pillar in the temple of God; but that is not all, he writes his name upon them, and the name of his God, he puts his own image and Spirit in and upon them, as " he is the express image of the Father.” Thus you see that it is Christ that seals the servants of our God.

Query 2. What is implied in the sealing them ?

Answ. It implies, 1. That he is their great owner and proprietor; for a man seals his own goods, that it may be known they are his. “ The Lord's portion is his people, and Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." They are his by election, and his Father's donation; they are his by purchase, and by covenant, and by the inhabitation of his Spirit: and “the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his."

2. A seal is for distinction, to distinguish one man's goods from another. And so it implies, that God will have a difference put betwixt his own people, and others; for they are his gold and coin of his own mint, the rest of the world are but the dross; they are his wheat, and others are the chaff; and “what is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord.” He has his fan in his hand, and will thoroughly purge his floor, the wheat he will gather into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.”.

3. A seal is for confirmation. The king's seal appended

to a charter establishes it and confirms it. And so it may import, that, before the winds are suffered to blow, Christ will have his own servants established and confirmed in the faith of these truths, which were to be most exposed to the winds, that they might not be carried about like children with every wind of doctrine, but might be like mount Zion, which cannot be removed for ever.

4. A seal is sometimes for secrecy. We read of a book, Rev. v. 1, which was sealed with seven seals, because of the great secrets and hidden mysteries contained in it. No man can warrantably break up a sealed letter, but he to whom it is directed, because it is hidden and secret to any other. And so it may import, that God's people are his hidden ones, and that his secrets are imparted to them, and not to others. God's people are a hidden people: “ They have consulted against thy hidden ones,” says the psalmist. God's doves “abide in the clefts of the rock, and in the secret places of the stairs.” He has them “hid-in the secret of his presence as in a pavilion;" he has his secret chambers in which he hides them, “ until the indignation be overpast,” Is. xxvi. 20. And then, as they are secret hidden persons, so he imparts his secrets to them, which he hides from the rest of the world: 6. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." - Unto you it'is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to others it is not given."

5. A seal is a badge of honour, love, and esteem. And so it implies, that his servants are honourable persons, precious in his sight: Is. xliii. 4: “Ever since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable,” &c.

6. A seal is for custody and preservation. So the saints and servants of God, are the preserved in Christ Jesus,"

“ “ kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.”

Query 3. When and how are they sealed ?

Answ. 1. From all eternity, they were sealed with his electing and everlasting love. • I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with everlasting kindness have I drawn

“ He hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world.” He “predestinates them unto the adoption of children.”

2. In their conversion and effectual calling; they are sealed in their own persons with the image of the second Adam, being predestinated thereto from eternity; they are “renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created them;" they are separated from the rest of the world, and become "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that they should show forth the praises of

thee."

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him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light."

3. They have a seal of blood set upon them in their redemption and justification; for, as you see, ver. 14, of this chapter, " they have their garments washed, and made white in the blood of the Lamb."

4. They have the seal of the Spirit of promise set upon them: Eph. i. 13: “ After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.” The Spirit of God dwells in them as in a temple; he sanctifies them by the truth, he, as a spirit of adoption, teaches them to cry, Abba, Father, and comforts them in all their tribulations with the consolations of God with the oil of gladness, wherewith he was anointed, above his fellows.

Query 4. But why are they said to be sealed in their foreheads?

Answ. The forehead, you know, is the upper part of the face, the most conspicuous part of a man's countenance; and I conceive the seal upon the forehead may import two things.

1. Their visible profession of Christ, and their open owning of the Lord, and his way and cause, in the time of the greatest opposition, when error, and delusion, and persecution, were most rampant in the visible church. Sirs, it is not enough to be night-disciples, when Christ is calling us to confess him before men; no, we must come forth to the open field, when called up “ to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” “He did not hide his face from shame and spitting, but openly endured the cross, and despised the shame;" and yet shall we be ashamed of him, or afraid to own him before the world? It is dangerous to come near the borders of denying him and his cause before men, lest he should “deny us before his Father, and before his angels." Christ's plough, his cause, and testimony, drive heavily for many professors in Scotland at this day, and because they have been so slack-handed this way, God is leaving some, both ministers and people, to put hand to another sort of plough, which will produce a melancholy crop ere all be done.

2. Their being marked or sealed in the forehead implies, that, in the time of common calamity, God will make such a visible difference between his own faithful servants and others, that he that runs may read, according to that [declaration) Mal. iii. 18: “ Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.” The righteous and the wicked live together now (as I was saying ;) but ere it be long, God will put such a visible mark of favour upon the one, and of vengeance upon the other, that all men and angels shall know the one from the other, and at the end the separation will be as wide as between heaven and hell.

IV. The fourth thing in the method was, to inquire into the reasons why Christ, the Angel of the covenant, will have his servants marked in their foreheads, when the winds are to be let blow? · Answ. 1. In so many words, he will have them sealed, because they are his Father's gift: “ Thine they were, and thou gavest them me;" and for the Father's sake that gave them, he will have them sealed.

2. Because he hath bought them at a dear rate, even with the price of his precious blood, not with silver, or gold, or such corruptible things, &c.

3. Because they are his shcep, his lambs that he carries in his bosom, Is. xl. 11.

4. Because they are his servants, the servants of God, their ear he has bored, they love their Master, &c.

5. Because they are his peculiar friends: “ I call you no more servants, but friends," John xv. 14, 15.

6. Because they are his seed, Is. liii. 10; Psal. xxii. 30: “A seed shall serve him,” &c.

7. Because they are his spouse and bride, he their Husband and Bridegroom, Is. liv. 5; Hos. ii. 16, &c.

8. Because they are his members, and he their Head, they are his bone and flesh, they “ hold the head,” &c.

9. He seals them, because they believe in him, Eph. i. 13: “ After that ye believed, ye were sealed,” &c.

10. He seals them, because they love him, so as to mourn for injury done him, Ezek. ix. 4.

11. He seals them, because they are his faithful witnesses, that confess him, when others deny him,

12. He seals them, that they may not suffer hurt by the destroying winds that blow in the visible church. They keep the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus; and therefore he will keep them in the hour of temptation, according to the promise, Psal. xci. 3, 7,

V. The fifth thing was the Application of the doctrine.

And the first use I shall make of it, shall be by way of Lamentation over the many hurtful winds that have blown, and are still blowing, in our land. God seems in our day to have given a commission to his angels, the ministers of his wrath, who fulfil his pleasure, to let loose the winds, that the earth,