alfe will deny us. The profpect of this made the martyrs cleave to him in the face of cruel deaths.

(3) To feal the end of all their own doubts, jealoufies, and fears, 1 Cor. iv. 4. Many a time it is a queftion with the believer, whether he belongs to Christ or not even when he has in all fincerity embraced the covenant, yet these like fo many ghofts haunt him. No doubt by that time they will all begone, but by this acknowledgement their departure will be fealed.

(4.) For the increase of their joy, and the fhame of their enemies, If. lxvi. 5.

4. They fhall be adjudged to everlasting life, and folemnly invited to enter to the poffeffion of the kingdom, Matth. xxv. 34. Come ye, &c. in which every word has a weight of glory.

5. Lastly, They being themselves abfolved, fhall be honoured toe Chrift's affeffors in judging of the wicked, 1 Cor., vi, 2. Do ye not know that the faints fhall judge the world? They fhall judge them by way of communion with Chrift their head, this work being a part of the Mediator's honour redounding to all his members: By way of approbation of the Judge's fentence against them, faying Amen to the doom of the wicked, even the godly parent to that of the wicked child, the holy husband to that of the unboly wife, &c. Rev. xix, 1. 3. See Rev. iii. 21,

Thirdly, We fhall confider the confequents of the refurrection after the judgement, Believers fhall be made perfectly bleffed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity. Here I fhall fhew,

1. Wherein perfect bleffednefs lies,

2. What shall make believers perfectly bleffed, 1. I am to fhew wherein perfect bleffednefs lies. It lies in two things.

ft, Freedom perfectly from all evil whatsoever, whether of fin or mifery. Thus bleffed fhall believers be then, perfectly free from fin, Eph. v. 27. and free from fuffering any manner of way2 Rev. xxi. 4.

2dly, Full fatisfaction to all the defires of the foul, Phil. xvi. 11. Their defires fhall be fully fatisfied, they fhall have that beyond which they can crave no more. For where there is any want, there can be no perfect bleffedness.

2. I am to fhew what fhall make them thus perfectly bleffed. It is the enjoyment of God. They fhall have his glorious prefence with them, Rev. xxi. 3. They fhall fee him as he is, 1 John iii. 2. the man Chrift with their bodily eyes, and the invifible God with the eyes of their minds, called the beatific vision, the most perfect knowledge of God which the creature is capable of. They fhall be knit to him glorioufly, Rev. xxi. 3. juft quoted. Love then will be at its height. And they fhall enjoy him to their full happinefs.

(1.) Immediately; not in the ufe of means and ordinances, but there they fit down at the fountainhead, Rev. xxi. 22.

(2.) Fully; God will with-hold nothing of himself from them they fhall be stinted to no measure but what their own capacity makes; and in him they fhall have what will fatisfy all their defires.

(3) Laftly, Eternally, 1 Theff. iv. 17. So fhall we ever be with the Lord.

I conclude this fubject with a few inferences,

Inf. 1. Come out now from among the wicked world. A feparation there will be betwixt the godly and the wicked. If it be in your favour, it will begin now. Leave them now, if ye would not be left with them after the refurrection.

2. Beware of rafh judging those that have any lineaments of Chrift's image upon them. Ye may judge and condemn the evil actions of the belt of men, if ye be fure from the word that they are evil. But, O my foul, enter not into the fecret of those who prefumptuously take upon them to judge mens flate, hearts, and confciences, upon flips of human infirmi ty and weakneís.

3. Let none be ashamed to own Chrift and his truths and ways before the world, remembering that the day cometh in which he will confefs those that confefs him, and deny thofe that deny him.

4. Though the day of judgement be an awful thought, it will be a happy day to believers, as they will then be for ever delivered from all moral and penal evils, and admitted into the greateft felicity in the enjoyment of their God and Redeemer for ever.

5. That there is no true happiness till we come to the enjoyment of God, nor full happiness till we arrive at the full enjoyment of him.

6. Lastly, Miferable is now, and at the refurrection will be the ftate of the wicked, where the reverse of all the happiness of the faints will be found, and that in the moft dreadful manner. Let us then all feek to be found among thofe who fhall be partakers of the better and glorious refurrection.

Of the Duty which God requireth of Man.

I SAMUEL XV. 22.

And Samuel faid, Hath the Lord as great delight in burntofferings and facrifices, as in obeying the voice of the

Lord?

TH

HIS text is a reproof given to one that wore a crown, teaching him, that though he was Ifrael's fovereign, he was God's fubject. Saul had been fent, by God's exprefs command, on an expedition against the Amalekites, with a folemn charge utterly to destroy all that they had, and fpare them not; but to flay both man and woman, infant and fuckling, ox and Sheep, camel and afs, ver. 3. The expedition was crowned with fuccefs. Saul having deftroyed all the people, took Agag their king prifoner, and faved the beft of the cattle; and when quarrelled by Samuel for

this his partial obedience to the heavenly mandate, he pretended that the people had fpared the sheep and oxen, which had been devoted to deftruction as well as the people, to facrifice unto the Lord in Gilgal. The words of the text contain Samuel's anfwer to this filly apology: Hath the Lord, fays he, as great delight in burnt-offerings and facrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? importing, that obedience to the voice and will of God is more acceptable to him than all the facrifices in the world.

In the words we may notice, 1. The duty which God requires of man; which is obedience. This is required of man, of all men, rulers and ruled: those whom others must obey, must obey God. 2. What they are to obey; the voice of the Lord, whereby he manifefts his will: it is his revealed will, whatever way he is pleafed to notify it to them. Hence obedience in the text is called hearkening; the foul first receiving the knowledge of God's mind, and then complying with it. 3. The excellency and eminency of this duty. (1.) God delights in it. (2.) All other things muft yield to it, but it to none. Burnt-offer

ings and facrifices, even the fat of them, are nothing in comparison of this.

The text affords the following doctrine, viz.

DocT. "The duty which God requireth of man, "is obedience to his revealed will."

In difcourfing from this doctrine, I fhall,

I. Explain it; and,

II. Deduce a few inferences for application.

I. For explication, let us confider the duty which man owes to God, of whom he requires it, the rule of it, the properties of it, and on what accounts we

owe it.

First, Let us confider the duty which man owes unto God. That is obedience. We are in a state of fubjection to God. He is our fuperior, and his will VOL. II. 3 A

we are to obey in all things. He is our King, and we must obey him as his fubjects, by complying with all his ftatutes and ordinances. He is our Father, and we must fhew him all refpect, reverence, and affection, as his dutiful children. . He is our Lord and Mafter, and we must yield him the most chearful and unHe is our limited fervice, as is our reasonable duty. fupreme Lawgiver, and we must receive the law at his mouth, every law and precept, every ordinance that is ftamped with his authority, whatever is fuperfcribed with a Thus faith the Lord, readily obeying it.

Secondly, Let us confider of whom the Lord requires this duty. Of every man without exception, capable of knowing his will. The greateft are as faft bound to this obedience as the meaneft, the poor as well as the rich, Pagans as well as Chriftians, kings as well as fubjects. No man can be free from this duty more than he can be a God to himfelf. Not a fon or daugh ter fprung from Adam can plead an exemption from this duty of obeying the will of the Lord. It is an eafy yoke wreathed upon the necks of all, and is impofed on them by an indifpenfable law.

Thirdly, Let us confider the rule of that obedience. It is the will of God. His will is our fupreme law. Not the fecret will of God; for that which God never revealed to man, cannot be his rule; but the revealed will of God, Deut. xxix. 29. The fecret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children. Men may fulfil the fecret will of God and determination of his providence, and be deeply guilty, as we fee the Jews did in crucifying the Lord of glory, Acts ii. 23. under the guilt of which hainous fin that people groan to this day. But conformity to God's revealed will is our duty. Whatever is revealed in the facred fcriptures as the will of God, whether relating to what man is to believe or what he is to practife, is to be performed and done, and that at our peril.