fometimes you have been fo troubled that you could not speak? Pfal. lxxvii. 4.; that your hearts have been fo bound and ftraitened, that you could do nothing, and fay nothing before the Lord, but fit as dumb and oppreffed, all dark above, all dead within, and all doors fhut upon you? upon you? You durft not negle&t prayer, and yet you could not perform it; but behold, you have quickly found the two-leaved gates caft open to you; your hearts enlarged, and mouths wide opened in afking; the windows of heaven open, and the banks of the river of life broken down, and the ftreams gufhing in upon you, like that in Ifa. xliv. 3. "I will pour water upon him that is thirfty, and floods upon the 'dry ground."-Alfa, this accefs to God within the vail, is fometimes experienced in fweet communion and Fellowship with God; "Truly our fellow fhip is with the Father, and with his Son Jefus Chrift." This communion with God is a mystery, sweet indeed to them that have it, and furpaffing all the delights of fenfe and reason; but to them that have it not, it is incredible and unintelligible: a firanger intermeddles not with this joy. Ye that know not what it is, although the word be full of fuitable and favoury expreffions of it, yet it is a riddle and dark parable to you; it is only tasting of it that can declare its tranfcendent fweetnefs. "O tafle and fee that God is good!" You that know what it is, though you cannot exprefs it, yet you can relifh and underftand fome found words about it. It may be, you feel it fometimes in the fecret retirements of the house, fome. times in the fields, or under a bufh, as Nathanael under the fig-tree; but what you felt, you cannot make the world understand: only when the Lord directs the minifter to speak fomewhat fuitably to it, then you are ready to think, O it is just like the thing I felt at fuch a time and fuch a place; that which the minifter is faying from God's word, hath a fweet found of that which I got yonder, when none in all the world heard me or faw me: "But (Nathanael) when thou waft under the fig-tree I faw thee," fays Chrift: I heard you groaning. to me; I saw you wrefiling with me; I put your tears in my bottle, and poured in my comforts into your foul. O,

know

know you what it is to be brought near to him, and to have the clouds and vails that are on your hearts, or on your faces, scattered, and the light of his countenance lifted up upon you? Have you not been fometimes on the mount, fo as to think, O how good is it to be here? Have you not known what the warm and healing beams of the Sun of righteoufnefs upon you are? Have you not tafted that in his company that hath made all the wells of worldly comfort, like puddle water, loathfome and unfavoury to you; yea, that hath made you grone in this tabernacle, and long to be at that complete and uninterrupted communion above, whereof all you tafted on earth is but a small earnefl?However, the vaik was rent, that you might enter within the vail into the holieft, to a begun heaven even in time. Grace being the fame fpecifically with glory; there is but a gradual difference and therefore the believer, even on earth, is faid to be come to mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerufalem, to the innumerable company of angels, to the general affembly and church of the firft-born that are written in heaven, to Ccd the Judge of al', and to the fpirits of juft men made perfect, Heb. xii. 22 23. Why, when does the believer come to a 1 this? Even when he comes by faith to Jefus the Media tor of the new covenant, and to the blood of fprinkling, then he is come to heaven itself, the true holy of holies inchoatively, or by a begun entrance. But,

(2.) There is a confummative entrance into the holieft, that the believer fhall have, as a fruit of the rending of the vail, and that is when he comes to the heat. n above, to the higher houfe, whither the Forerunner is for us. entered, having rent the vail, which was rent that we might have accefs to God in glory as well as in grace, and then the believer will not be half in, as it were, but completely within the vail; for then will his communion with God be completed, then his knowledge of God, his love to God, his delight in God, his vifion of God's glory, his conformity to God's image, will all be complete; for that which is in part fhall be done away, and that which is perfect fhall conie, 1 Cor. xiii. 10. O what a fweet exchange will that be, when faith will fay to vifion,

vifion, I give place to you; when hope will fay to fruition, I give place to you; when grace will fay to glory, I give place to you; when partial communion will fay to perfection, I give place to you; when short paffing blinks will fay to uninterrupted everlasting joys, give place to you! Little wonder then, believers long to be wholly within the vail (but I infift not on it), for then indeed they fully enter into the holiest by the blood of Jefus.

Thus you fee the two great ends for which the vail was rent, namely, that way might be made for Christ's entering into the holy of holies, and fo for our entering in alfo through him, and after him. But I come

now to

V. The Fifth thing, viz. the Application. Is it fo, that Chrift hath by his death rent the vail that interpofed between God and us, and obftructed our accefs to him? Then, Firft, for Information, Hence we may fee,

1. What a full feaft of love we have to feed upon on a communion-day, namely, the love of Chrift, not only in dying, but in rending the vail, that he might enter into the holieft for us. The apoftle fays, That Christ loved us; and how does he prove it? Eph. v. 2. "He gave himself for us, an offering and a facrifice to God for a fweet-fmelling favour. This favoury and fweet-fmelling facrifice, was the offering of incenfe; and where was the incense offered under the law? Why, it was offered within the vail. God tells Mofes, that Aaron fhould take his handful of fweet incenfe beaten fmall, and bring it within the vail, Lev. xvi. 12. Now, Christ having given himfelf an offering and facrifice to God without the camp in this world, he rends the vail, and goes to heaven, and offers himself as incenfe within the vail. Perhaps you have seen and thought upon the love of Chrift, in his dying upon the crofs, in his making himself a facrifice; but, O fee his love alfo in his incenfe within the vail. We feed too fparingly upon Chrift; and therefore our faith is weak: we eat, for the most part, but of one difh, Chrift, as the pafchal Lamb flain on the crofs, but we fhould learn to feed upon Christ as

t

a Priest gone in within the vail: our faith fhould not tarry on the cross, but we should carry it further, even after Chrift, within the vail, into heaven itself. Our faith fhould flee for refuge, to lay hold upon all the hope that is fet before us: the anchor of our foul will not be fo fure and ftedfast, as it might be, except it enter within the vail, Heb. vi. 19. As the apoftle fays of patience, "Let it have its perfect work;" fo we fay of faith, let it have its perfect work; let us follow Chrift within the vail, and view him, not only fhedding his blood, but entering into the holy of holies within the vail, and fprinkling his blood upon the mercy-feat and before it, Lev. xvi. 15. The priefts under the law fprinkled the mercy-feat, which was within the vail, all over, and when Chrift went to heaven within the vail, he did that in fubflance, which the priests did in ceremony, in order to make a full atonement: and when faith is acted upon all this, then the believer is faid to be come to the blood of fprinkling; and we act not our faith far enough, when we act it no further than the death of Chrift; for the atonement was not actually perfected, though it was made fundamentally on the crofs, yet not formally, till upon the rending of the vail, our HighPrieft entered into the holy place, and fprinkled the mercy-feat with his blood; by which act mercy and juftice are actually met, and kifs each other.

2. If the vail of the temple be rent, hence we may fee the glory of the New-Teftament difpenfation, beyond that of the Old; the vail of the covering is rent, the darkness of that difpenfation removed by the death of Chrift, and OldTeftament myfteries unvailed; fo that now, he that runs may read the meaning of them. Now we fee clearly, that the mercy-feat fignified Chrift, the great propitiation; the pot of manna fignified Chrift, the bread of life. Now we all with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, as in a glafs, which helps the fight as the vail hindered it; and that the vail of the temple was rent, it may give us ground further to expect, that the vail fhall be taken away from the hearts of the Jews; "For even to this day, when Mofes is read, the vail is upon their hearts; neverthelefs when it fhall turn to

the

the Lord, the vail fhall be taken away," 2 Cor. iii. 15.

3. If by the death of Chrift the vail be rent, that interpofed betwixt God and us, hence we may fee what is the way to heaven, and what accefs we have this way; why, "We have boldnefs to come to the holieft by the blood of Jefus, by that new and living way, that he hath confecrated thro' the vail." We may come boldly to the throne of grace, for the vail is rent; by the blood of Jefus, the way is open. How fhall the unholieft of finners venture to come into the holief of all, or to God's prefence? Yea, fays the Holy Ghoft, "By the blood of Jefus," by the rent vail. There are many mistakes. about the way to the holy place; it is a dreadful thing to think, that many who have heard the gofpel, it may be ten, twenty, thirty years, if they be afked of the way to heaven, they will fay, Why, if we do juftly, live honeftly and civilly, and do as we would be done to, we fhall furely be faved. But I tell you, you fhall furely be damned, if no more be done. O fad, that after all the light that hath fhined about the way of falvation by the flain Son of God, that civility that is to be found. among heathens, is all the title that a great many have. to eternal life. Others, they hope to get to heaven by a better righteoufnefs, but it is a righteoufnefs of their own: they fay they will do as well as they can; they must read and pray and hear, and the like, and fo they find out a way to heaven for themfelves: fome cannot endure to hear any thing spoken against felf-righteousness as if no perfon were in danger to be ruined by it; whereas this is a great part of the ftrong man's armour, whereby he keeps poffeffion of fouls. I tell you, Sirs; your falfe righteoufnefs, is fo far from being the way to hea ven, that true holiness itself is but the bufinefs that people have to do who are in the way; there will never be another way to heaven but Chrift: holinefs is the walk, Chrift is the way in which we walk, Col. ii. 6. "As ye have received Christ Jefus the Lord, fo walk ye in him. I am the way, no man comes to the Father, but by me." This is the new and living way, confecrated thro' the vail. The vail of the temple is rent, and the way to the holies thro' the rent vail. Every perfon thinks, that is