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reconciliation is brought about by a poor sinner's being brought to Jesus Christ; and when once he sees his enmity and hatred to God, feeling the misery of departing from him, and being conscious that he is obnoxious to eternal wrath, flies to Jesus as to a place of refuge, and expects only a reconciliation through the blood of the Lamb; without this, neither you nor I can say, God is my God: "there is no peace saith my God, to the wicked." The ministers of Christ must take care they do not preach an unknown God, and we must take care we do not pretend to live upon an unknown God, a God that is not appropriated and brought home to our souls by the efficacy of the Spirit. But, my brethren, we cannot say, God is our God, unless we are in Jesus Christ. Can you say, such a one is your father, unless you can give proof of it? You may be bastards, there are many bastards laid at Christ's door. Now, God cannot be my God, at least I cannot know him to be so, unless he is pleased to send into my heart the spirit of adoption, and to admit me to enjoy familiarity with Christ.

My brethren, I told you the other night that the grand controversy God has with England, is for the slight put on the Holy Ghost. As soon as a person begins to talk of the work of the Holy Ghost, they cry, you are a Methodist; as soon as you speak about the divine influences of the Holy Ghost, O! say they, you are an enthusiast. May the Lord keep these methodistical enthusiasts amongst us to the latest posterity. Ignatius, supposed to have been one of the children that Jesus took up in his arms, in his first epistle, (pray read it) wrote soon after St. John's death, and we value nothing so authentic as what was wrote in the three first centuries, bears a noble testimony of this truth. When I was performing my first exercises at Oxford, I used to take delight to walk and read it, and could not help noting and putting down from time to time several remarkable passages. In the superscription of all his epistles, I remember, he styles himself Theophoros, i. e. Bearer of God,* and believed that those he wrote to, were so too. Somebody went and told Trajan, that one Ignatius was an enthusiast, that he carried God about him: being brought before the emperor, who, though in other respects a good prince, was a cruel enemy to the christians; but many a good prince does bad things by the influence of wicked counsellors, like our king Henry V., who was brought in to persecute the poor Lollards, for assembling in St. Giles' fields to hear the pure gospel, by false accusation of being rebels against him. Before such a prince was Ignatius brought; says Trajan, who

* Deum ferens; inspired, divine, holy.

is this that calls himself a bearer of God? Says Ignatius, I am he, for which he quotes this passage, I will dwell in them, and will walk in them, and they shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. The emperor was so enraged, that, in order to cure him of his enthusiasm, he ordered him to be devoured by lions; at which Ignatius laughed for joy. O! says he, am I going to be devoured? And when his friends came about him, he almost danced for gladness; when they carried him to execution, he smiled, and turning about, said, now I begin to be a martyr of Jesus Christ! I have heard that the lions have leaped from the martyrs, but when they come to me, I will encourage them to fall on me with all their violence. God give you such enthusiasm in a trying hour! This is to have God for our God; "he that believeth hath the witness in himself," as it is written in this blessed word of God, and I hope it will be the last book that I shall read. Farewell father, farewell mother, farewell sun, moon, and stars! was the language of one of the Scotch martyrs in king Charles' time, and it is amazing to me that even Mr. Hume (I believe) a professed deist, in his history of England, mentions this as a grand exit, and also that seraphic soul Mr. Hervey, now with God, that the last words of the martyr were, Farewell thou precious Bible, thou blessed book of God. This is my rock, this is my foundation; it is now about thirty-five years since I began to read the Bible upon my pillow. I love to read this book, but the book is nothing but an account of the promises which it contains, and almost every word from the beginning to the end of it, speaks of a spiritual dispensation, and the Holy Ghost, that unites our souls to God, and helps a believer to say my Lord and my God! If you content yourselves with that, the devil will let you talk of doctrines enough. O you shall turn from Arminianism to Calvinism. O you shall be orthodox enough, if you will be content to live without Christ's living in you. Now when you have the Spirit, then you may say, God is mine. O this is very fine, say some, every body pretends to the Spirit; and then you may go on as a bishop once told a nobleman-My lord, these Methodists say they do all by the Spirit, so if the devil bids them murder any body, they will say the Spirit bid them do it; and that very bishop died, how? Why horrid! the last words he spoke were these, The battle is fought, the battle is fought, the battle is fought, but the victory is lost for ever. God grant you and I may not die with such words as these. I hope you and I shall die, and say, The battle is fought, the battle is fought, the battle is fought, I have fought the good fight, and the victory is gained for ever.

Thus died Mr. Ralph Erskine-his last words were, Victory, victory, victory! and they that can call God their God, shall by and by cry, victory, victory! and that for ever. God grant that we may all be of that happy number.

If we can call God our God, we shall endeavor by the Holy Ghost to be like God, we shall have his divine image stamped upon our souls, and endeavor to be followers of that God who is our Father: and this brings in the other part of the text, thy God thy glory. What is that? The greatest honor that a poor believer thinks he can have on earth, is to boast that God is his God. When it was proposed to David, that if he killed an hundred Philistines, he should have the king's daughter for his wife, and a very sorry wife she was, no great gain turned out to him: says he, "do you think it is a small thing to be the son-in-law to a king?" A poor stripling as I am here, come with my shepherd's crook; what! to be married to a king's daughter; do you think that a small thing? And if David thought it no small thing to be allied to a king by his daughter, what a great thing must it be to be allied to the Lord by one Spirit? I am afraid there are some people that were once poor that are now rich, that think it a great thing, that wish, O that my family had a coat of arms; some people would give a thousand pounds, I believe, for one. Coats of arms are very proper to make distinction in life; a great many people wear coats of arms that their ancestors obtained honorably, but they are a disgrace to them as they wear them on their coaches. But this is our glory, whether we walk or ride, whatever our pedigree may be in life, this is our honor, that our God may be our glory. "O what manner of love is this," saith one, "that the Lord doth bestow on us, that we should be called the sons of God !" born not of the will of man, born not of flesh, but born from above. O God grant that this may be your glory and mine!

My brethren, if God is our God and our glory, I will tell you what we shall prove it by: whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we should do all to the glory of God. Religion, as I have often told you, turns our whole life into one continued sacrifice of love to God. As a needle, when once touched by a loadstone, turns to a particular pole, so the heart that is touched by the love of God, turns to his God again. I shall have occasion to take notice of it by and by, when I am aboard a ship: for as soon as I get on board I generally place myself in one particular place under the compass that hangs over my head, I often look at it by night and by day; when I rise, the needle turns to one point, when I go to bed I find it turns to the same point: and often, while I have

been looking at it, my heart has been turned to God, saying, Lord Jesus, as that needle touched by the loadstone, turns to one point, O may my heart, touched by the magnet of God's love, turn to him! A great many people think, they never worship God but when at church; and a great many are very demure on Lord's days, though many begin to leave that off. I know of no place upon the face of the earth where the Sabbath is kept as it is in Boston; if a single person was to walk in Boston streets in time of worship, he would be taken up; it is not trusted to poor insignificant men, but the justices go out in time of worship, they walk with a white wand, and if they catch any person walking in the streets, they put them under a black rod. O! the great mischiefs the poor pious people have suffered lately through the town's being disturbed by the soldiers! When the drums were beating before the house of Dr. Sawell, one of the holiest men that ever was, when he was sick and dying, on the Sabbath day, by his meeting, where the noise of a single person was never heard before, and he begged that for Christ's sake they would not beat the drum; they damned and said, that they would beat to make him worse; this is not acting for the glory of God; but when a soul is turned to God, every day is a Sabbath, every meal is a spiritual refreshment, and every sentence he speaks, should be a sermon; and whether he stays abroad or at home, whether he is on the exchange, or locked up in a closet, he can say, O God, thou art my God!

Now, my dear friends, can you, dare you say, that your God is your glory, and do you aim at glorifying the Lord your God: if your God is your glory, then say, "O God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world." What say you to that now? Do not talk of God's being your glory, if you do not love his cross. If God is our glory, we shall glory not only in doing, but in suffering for him; we shall glory in tribulation, and count ourselves most highly honored when we are called to suffer most for his great name's sake. I might enlarge, but you may easily judge by my poor feeble voice this last week, that neither my strength of voice, or body, will permit me to be long to-night, and yet I will venture to give you your last parting salutation; and though I have been dissuaded from getting up to preach this night, yet I thought as my God was my glory, I should glory in preaching till I died. O that God may be all our glory! All our own glory fades away, and there is nothing will be valuable at the great day, but this, Thou art my God, and thou art my glory. It was a glorious turn that good Mr. Shepherd of Brad

ford mentions in one of his sermons, where he represents Jesus Christ as coming to judgment, seated upon his throne, in a sermon preached before some ministers. Christ calls one minister to him, pray what brought you into the church? O, says he, Lord, there was a living in the family, and I was presented to it because it was a family living: stand thou by, says Christ. A second comes: what didst thou enter the church for? O Lord, says he, I had a fine elocution, I had good parts, and I went into the church to show my oratory and my parts: stand thou by, thou hast thy reward. A third was called: and what brought you into the church? Lord, says he, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I am a poor creature, vile and miserable, and unworthy, and helpless, but I appeal to thee my glory, thou sittest upon the throne, that thy glory and the good of souls brought me there. Christ immediately says, make room, men; make room, angels, and bring up that soul to sit near me on my throne. Thus shall it be done to all that make God their glory here below. Glorify God on earth, and he will glorify you in heaven. "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," shall be your portion: and if so, Lord God Almighty make us content to be vilified whilst here, make us content to be despised while below, make us content to have evil things spoken of us all for Christ's sake, yet a little while; and Christ will roll away the stone: and the more we are honored by his grace to suffer, the more we shall be honored in the kingdom of heaven. O that thought! O that blessed thought! O that soul transporting thought! it is enough to make us leap into a fiery furnace; in this spirit, in this temper, may God put, every one of us.

If there be any of you that have not yet called God your God, may God help you to do so to-night. When I was reasoning within myself, whether I should come up, or whether it was my duty or not; I could not help thinking, who knows but God will bless a poor feeble worm to-night. I remember, a dear friend sent me word after I was gone to Georgia, “Your last sermon at the Tabernacle was blessed to a particular person;" I heard from that person to-day, and who knows but some may come to-night, and say, I will go and hear what the babbler has to say; who knows but curiosity may be overruled for good? Who knows but those that have served the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, for their god, may now take the Lord to be their God? O! if I could but see this, I think I could drop down dead for you.

My dear christians, will you not help me to-night, you that go and call God your God? Go and beg of God for me, pray

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