your

you pleased that he do so? Are you afraid, that you revolt more and more? I offer him in that promise, "I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. I will put my fear in your heart, and you shall not depart from me." Are you afraid you was never elected? Meddle not with that secret; but according to the revealed will of God, I offer God's chief elect to you, in whom his soul is well pleased; and if your heart go in to the offer, and you make him your elect too, by choosing him, then your election is sure. Are you afraid you have sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost? I tell you, that as your fear of that says you was never guilty of it, so I offer the man that is God's fellow and if you be content to have him, you shall never be guilty of it. Are you full of enmity against God? I offer him as a saviour that can kill enmity: Do you consent that he do so? Are you an impenitent creature, destitute of repentance? I offer him as a Prince and a Saviour, exalted to give repentance and remission of sin. Do you consent? Have you received him formerly? I offer him anew, that you may receive him again, and take a more large armful of him than ever. Have you never received him to this day? 1 offer him, after all the slights you have given him, to be now received and believed in. Are you unable to believe in him? have you no power to close with the offer? Why, I offer him to you as the author of faith, to work it in you powerfully. Do you consent that he put forth his power for this effect? What shall I say? Are you unwilling to believe? Though that be the greatest let and impediment of all; Behold, I offer the man that is God's fellow, as a saviour by power, as well as by price, to work in you both to will and to do. Are you content that he put forth his power to break your enmity, and make you willing? God knows it is neither in you to will nor to do, and that you have neither will nor power of your own; and faith lies not in bringing forth some great things by your own power, but in employing the power of God to work all your works in you and for you. Behold then, the power of God is in your offer, while the man that is God's fellow is offered:

the strength of God is offered; Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me;" and seeing the strength of God is offered, Oh! give it employment, saying, in your heart, O come, come powerful arm of JEHOVAH, and make me go in to its call. The gospel call and offer uses to be the channel of almighty power and grace.

Now what in all the world have you to object more? Why, have you so many objections more, as you think all the ministers of earth cannot answer them? I offer you the man that is God's fellow to answer them all: are you content that he take all the work, and get all the glory? If you consent to this, he seeks no more of you. Are you a captive to the sword of God's justice? I offer you the man that is God's fellow, in whose bowels the sword was bathed and now the flaming sword that guarded the way of the tree of life is taken away, and here is the tree of life full of the apples of grace, glory, and eternal salvation; and the branches of the tree are hanging down among your hands, in the midst of the church of Dunfermline. O take, and eat, and live for ever. What say you now? I allude to the words of Jephthah, Judges xi. 9. "If I fight for you and prevail, shall I be your head ?" O yes, yes, say they; so says Christ to you, If I satisfy justice for you; if I quench the flames of that fiery sword, and drown all your enemies in the red-sea, of my blood, shall I be your head? Shall he be your head, man? Shall he be your head, woman? Does your hearts say, Yes, yes? Does your hearts say, Amen, amen? Yea, say you, I think my heart says, Amen to the blessed offer, and that I would willingly and chearfully consent: but my heart is deceitful, and I know not if my consent be of a true sort, or only a temporary flash, a presumptuous confidence that will evanish: well, if that be your objection, come, I offer you the man that is God's fellow, who can answer that among the rest, and can say to your soul, "Fear not, for I am thy God; I am thy salvation." Are you content to take him for this end, to discover the defect of your faith, and to work in you the faith of his elect? Can you say, That it is not in

your faith, but in Christ himself, that you are seeking salvation? Can you say, Whatever be wrong about me or about my faith, yet I see there is nothing wrong about Christ, and I would have him to right all that is wrong about me? Can you say, However I be in the dark about my faith, and whatever sort of faith it is that I have, yet sometimes I have found my unbelief, and that I could no more believe, than I could move the earth from its centre; but yet the joyful sound of gospel grace has touched my heart; and made me take up so much glory and excellency to be in Christ, that I think all the world nothing, in comparison of him; and I think my heart's desire is, O to have him for my prophet, to take away the darkness of my mind: for my priest, to take away the guilt of my sins; and for my king, to take away the power of my lusts. Is your heart saying, Gladly would I have him; gladly would I have him, that I 'may thus be blessed in him, and that his name may be 'glorified in me?' Are these the breathings of your soul? Then, upon my peril, I undertake to be the happy messenger, and tell you, in the name of the Lord, that whatever you think of your faith, and of yourselves, as the blackest monsters of sin and guilt that ever were out of hell; yet you have the faith of God's elect, and you are married and matched with the man that is God's fellow: yea, the Lord of Hosts is your father and friend, reconciled in him, so as there is no fear of the sword of justice with respect to you. You are the sheep, and it awaked in all its fury and vengeance against the shepherd, that the sheep might escape; and in testimony thereof, he invites you to commemorate this bloody sacrifice in the sacrament of the supper, where you shall see the sword bathed in his heart's blood in your room, and hear the Lord of hosts giving his solemn orders, for that effect, that he might be smitten, and you spared, saying, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow."

The End of The Sermon.

DISCOURSE before the SERVICE of the TABLES.

Now, we are to proceed to the great work of the day, and that I may accommodate my former purpose to the present work, you may remember the doctrine I am upon is,That by special orders from JEHOVAH, the 'great God of hosts, the man Christ, his shepherd and fellow, did fall a sacrifice to the awakened sword of 'infinite justice, in the room of the sheep.'

There are some general inferences I have drawn from this doctrine; and now there are these four more particular inferences may be drawn from it, with a more immediate reference and relation to the great sealing ordinance we have before us.

1. Hence we may see what is the nature and end of this sacrament.

2. Hence we may see who they are that stand debarred and excluded from meddling with the sacred symbols of the body and blood of Christ.

3. Hence we may see the character of these who have a right to approach, and are invited of God to it.

4. Hence we may see in what manner believers are to approach, and come to a communion table.

Now, a word to each of these, and then we shall ceed to the work.

pro

1. Then, the doctrine I am upon, may give us some insight into the nature and end of this sacrament. Why, it is just a celebrating the memorial of the death of the man that is God's fellow, when, as the glorious shepherd, he yielded himself a sacrifice to the awakened sword of justice, in the room of the sheep. In this sacrament, Christ is set forth evidently crucified among us, and therein we may hear the Lord of hosts saying, Awake, O sword! against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow; smite the shepherd." This sacrament is appointed to be a commemorative sign of the death of Christ; "As often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you shew forth the Lord's death till he come. Do this in remembrance of me;" of ME, who became a sacrifice to the sword of justice; by which sa

66

crifice all spiritual blessings, peace, pardon, reconciliation with God, grace, glory, and all good things, are purchased. The sword of justice having bathed itself, to satisfaction, in the blood of this sacrifice, the sacrament of the supper is a feast upon the sacrifice, 2 Cor. v. 7. "Even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast." This is the feast of fat things, and of wines on the lees well refined. Upon the body and blood of Christ, represented by the elements of bread and wine, which is just a feeding upon, and viewing by faith, the value and virtue of the sacrifice for satisfying God, for expiating sin, for vanquishing hell, and for purchasing heaven, and all the means that lead unto it; as also, for sealing the covenant of grace, and all the promises of it, which are all yea and amen in Jesus Christ, the testament being ratified and confirmed by the death of the Testator, Heb. ix. 16. But again,

2. From this doctrine we may see who they are that stand debarred and excluded from meddling with these sacred symbols of the body and blood of Christ in this sacrament; namely, in general, all unbelievers, who never having seen their wicked state, as liable to the stroke of divine wrath, because of their sin and guilt, had not fled under the covert of the blood of the shepherd, of the blood of the man that is God's fellow, who was smitten in the room of the sheep. What have these to do with the sign, who never apprehended the thing signified, namely, the propitiation of the blood of Christ? And therefore, in the great and awful name and authority of the great and glorious JEHOVAH, I solemnly debar and excommunicate, from the table of the Lord, all who never found themselves in any measure pursued by the avenger of blood, the sword of the Lord of hosts, and never have fled for refuge to the blood of Christ, the man that is God's fellow, to stand between them and the avenging sword of justice; these that will not come to Christ, let them not dare to come to his table, nor come to abuse the symbols of his blood; who, by unbelief trample his blood under their feet, and will not make use of it as the sacrifice to satisfy justice in their room. But, that it may appear more distinctly, whom