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[2] We fhall now conclude with a word to thefe who have attained this appropriating faith, which hath in its nature this property of applying Chrift with a Me, Me; He loved MF, and gave bimfelf for ME. Have you

win to make application upon the ground of the word of grace? Then, O believer,

1. Be very thankful. Tell me, when you was under a fenfe of fin, a fear of hell and wrath, what would you have given for the things you now partake of?\ And what was your refolution, in cafe God fhould deliver you from your bonds of fear and dread? Therefore now perform your vows of gratitude, and glorify God: for this end he made heaven and earth, and every creature, that he might get glory. And ought, not you, especially to glorify him, not only in your heart, but also in your life and walk?

2. Be very humble; for, "Who made you to differ?" Know you not, that thousands and millions are going to hell every day, who are in many refpects better than you? Yet, out of fovereign grace you are plucked, as a brand out of the burning; and they are paffed by, without ever getting grace to improve the warrant they have of applying Chrift to themselves by faith, for their falvation.

3. Be very active in making progrefs; know that your falvation is but begun, all is not over: you have much work ado, a great warfare to accomplish; therefore, prefs forward, forgetting the things that are behind: let your faith work by love.

4. Be very confcientious, that you may be in cafe to fay, "Herein do I exercife myself, to keep a confcience void of offence toward God, and toward man." This will be a continual feaft; and faith will be evidenced and furthered this way.

5. Take care, that you never misconstruct the providence of God, however hard and trying; knowing, that whatever his outward difpenfations be, yet he is ftill the fame, and his word is ftill the fame. Beware of putting harfh commentaries upon his dealings and difpefals. Have you believed his love with particular application, upon the ground of his own word of grace? Then let his

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word of grace and promife be the rule of your judging of his love, and not any alteration of your inward frame or outward lot.

6. Endeavour to maintain your relation to him, even under all dark providences, hidings, and defertions, faying, "My God, my God," even when you have occafion to fay, "Why haft thou forfaken me?"

7. Live near your ftrength; and let the life you live be by the faith of the Son of God. "He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit." Renounce all confidence in the flesh, and in every piece of duty: “Go in his ftrength," for affistance, "making mention of his righteoufnefs," and his only for acceptance: fo thus maintain the life of faith that is begun.

8. Let it be your care and study to get others called effectually, as well as you: endeavour to call them out of darkness by your fhining light; "Let your light fhine in darknefs:" and particularly endeavour to open up the grounds of faith to them, that they may fee what ground they have, as well as you, to make particular application of Chrift to themselves, and to embrace him for their falvation. If you have been brought to a Me, Me; He loved ME, and gave himself for ME; you will defire alfo that others may partake with you, because there is enough in him for them and you both.

9. In a word, plead the promise of the Spirit for caufing you to walk in his ftatutes, and enabling you to continue in the faith; and in this applicatory way of believ ing his love, that fo his love may conftrain you to his fervice; and that the joy of the Lord may be your ftrength while you ftand to it by faith, faying, He loved ME, and gave himself for ME.

SERMON

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That thou mayeft remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy fhame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou haft done, faith the Lord.

AFTER great convictions of fin, and great denuncia. tions of judgments againft Ifrael, in the preceding part of the chapter, the Lord here, in the clofe, remembers mercy in the midst of wrath, and ends all his fad and heavy words with a sweet nevertheless, ver. 60. And, indeed, mercy muft begin on God's fide: "Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee, in the days of thy youth; and I will eftablifh unto thee an everlafting covenant." And what will be the effect of this, we fee in ver. 61. "Then fhalt thou remember thy ways, and be afhamed." It is worthy our obfervation, that when God fays, "I will remember my covenant," then he adds, "Thou fhalt remember thy fins." Hence it is evident, that never a good thought, never a penitent thought would have come into our hearts, had not fome thoughts

* This fermon. was preached before the Affociata Prefbytery, on Tuesday, Auguft 28th. 1739. being a Faft-day, appointed to be obferved by them, in the parish of Kinrofs.

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of peace and good-will come into God's heart.

When he remembers his covenant of mercy for us, fo as not to remember our fins against us, then we remember our fins against ourselves with fhame.

And in the latter part of the verse he adds, "When thou shalt receive thy fifters, thine elder and thy younger:" that is, when the Gentile nations, fome of them greater than thou art, and fome leffer, both ancient and modern, fhall be received into church-communion, and owned as members of the church of God; "And I will give them to thee for daughters:" they fhall be my gift unto thee as daughters; they fhall be nurfed up and educated by that gospel, that word of the Lord that fhall come forth from Zion, from the Jews; infomuch, that Jerufalem below may, in fome fenfe, be called the mother; and Jerufalem, which is above, which is free, fhall be acknowledged to be the mother of us all, Gal. iv. 26. "They fhall be thy daughters, but not by thy covenant;" that is, thy covenant of duties, or which thou turnedft. to a covenant of works; not by that old covenant, which was violated; but by that covenant, which promifed to write the law in the heart, and to put the fear of God into the inward part. Now, when thou fhalt receive them, and when Jews and Gentiles fhall be united in Chrift, the covenant-head, "Thou shalt be afhamed of thine own evil ways." Thou shalt blufh to look a Gentile in the face, remembering how much worse than the Gentiles thou waft in the day of thy apoftacy.

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He farther fignifies his gracious purpose, verfe 62. “I will establish my covenant with thee." He had before faid, "I willestablish unto thee an everlasting covenant," ver.60. This covenant is God's covenant: it is of his making with his Son Jefus Chrift: "I have made a covenant with Chofen and it is eftablished in him unto us; and therefore may be faid to be established with us. As if he had faid, As I will eftablish it with him, unto thee; fo I will re-establish it in him, with thee. And then the effect of that re-establishment of it fhall be, "Thou fhalt know that I am the Lord;" that I am JEHOVAH, a God of power, and faithful to my promife. It had often been faid in wrath, "You fhall know that I am the Lord;"

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you fhall know it to your coft: but here it is faid in mercy, "You fhall know that I am the Lord;" you fhall know it to your comfort. And it is one of the most precious promifes of the covenant, " They fhall all know the Lord:" by a justifying knowledge; fo as to be delivered from the rule of fin, and from the punishment threatened in the law: by a fanctifying knowledge; fo as to be delivered from the rule of fin, and to be fitted for gofpel-fervice and obedience: by an evangelical knowledge; a knowledge of God in Chrift, which is the beginning of eternal life; "This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom thou haft fent:" and likewife by a humbling knowledge; and here is the humbling effect of it defcribed in the words of the text, "That thou mayeft remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy fhame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou haft done, faith the Lord God."

Here you may obferve both the nature of true Humiliation, and the ground of it.

1. The nature and properties of true humiliation, Thou shalt remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy fhame.

2. The ground and fpring of it, When I am pacified towards thee, for all that thou haft done: when thou fhalt fo know the Lord, as to view him to be a reconciled God in Chrift. He had before faid, "I will remember my covenant;" and when he puts them in mind of the covenant, then they mind their fin and mifery, their evil ways, and are afhamed. And here, when the covenant is further opened, the humiliation is further enlarged alfo. Why, the clearer evidence that perfons have of God's being reconciled to them, the more grieved and afhamed will they be for offending of him.

I fhall farther explain the words, in difcourfing upon the following doctrine.

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OBSERV. "True gofpel-humiliation is rooted in the believing knowledge and view of divine reconci "liation: or, Then is a foul truly humbled, when "it apprehends God as truly pacified, and wellpleafed in Chrift Jefus."

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