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very hard to get to heaven, and that it will coft a great deal of time, and pains, and ftruggling: But, fays one, here is the mifchief of it; people do not know, that, it is hard to know the way to heaven, and that flesh and blood cannot reveal it, till God himfelf fend in a beam of light upon the heart, and give the Spirit of wildom and revelation in the knowledge of Chrift, who is the way, having by his death rent the vail. O this way is little known, and yet we allure you, that there is free accefs for you all this way; and nothing to hinder your accels to God and heaven this way, if it be not your own ignorant unbelieving heart; nothing to hinder your entering into the holieft, for the vail is rent, the law is fulfilled, juftice, is fatisfied, holinefs vindicated, fin is expiated. Will you go to heaven this way, man, woman? for the door is open for you, the vail is rent for you; "To you is the word of this falvation fent:" to you, man, woman, young or old; whofoever hears me, to you is the way to the holieft made patent: and whofoever will, let him come and enter in; and him that cometh he will in no wife caft out. What in all the world is to hinder you from coming in? The law, however holy, needs not hinder you, here is a righteoufnefs; juftice, however awful, needs not hinder you, here is a fatisfaction; your fins, however great, need not hinder. you, here is a. facrifice: all these vails are rent, what fhould hinder? Are there any other vails to be rent? O, fay you, the vail of darkness, ignorance, enmity, and unbelief that is upon my heart. Well, let me tell you, that needs not hinder you neither to come to Chrift, and employ him to rend these vails on your part; that is but little for him to do, who could rend fuch great vails as were on God's part. O Sirs, he is good at rending vails; give him work, and the work is done. Did he not rend a greater vail, when he fatisfied infinite juftice, and flopt up the flood-gates of divine wrath? And if he hath done the greater, O will you not employ him to do the lefs? Why, fay you, if I knew that he rent that great. vail for me, I would not fear, but he would rend the lefier: Why, man, the vail was rent for finners, and why not for you? Chrift came to fave finners. But fay you, all VOL. I.

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fhall not be faved and brought within the vail, and perhaps not I. We anfwer, Some fhall be faved, and why not you? Wherefore are not all that hear this gofpel faved, but becaufe they will not give employment to Chrift to fave them? Through unbelief they think he meant no favour towards them, when he rent the vail, and fo ftand aloft from him, faying, It was not for me; but I declare in his name, it was for you, man; for you, woman; whoever will have the benefit of it. The gofpel notifies in general, that the vail is rent for you all, fo far as that God calls and commands you all to come in to the holieft by this way, this new and living way confecrated through the vail, and if you do not, you fhall be damned for your neglect of it. But as for your particular perfonal knowledge of your actual intereft in the benefit of this rent vail, it is impoffible for you to have it, till you come to Chrift and fue for it therefore, let nothing hinder you to enter, fince the vail is rent, and the way patent: you have nothing to do yourfelf, for you cannot rend any vail; all that you have to do, is to confent that Chrift fhould rend all vails betwixt God and you; for he will be a complete Saviour; he will not leave a rag of the vail for you to rend, but with his own hand will rend all in twain from the top to the bottom. O fay Amen to it, that he may get all the work, and all the praise.

Ufe Second, for Examination. Try what interest you have in this privilege: if the vail be actually rent from the top to the bottom, with respect to you; try whether or not you have gone in within the rent vail of the temple, to the holy of holies. The vail was rent fundamentally, when Chrift gave up the ghoft; it was rent formally, when he entered into the holieft. The vail is rent objectively, in the preaching of this gofpel; and now the queftion is, if the vail be rent fubjectively, and fo as you have the actual faving benefit of it in your own perfon. It is not enough that the vail is rent doctrinally for you, fo as you have liberty to go into the holy place, but whether is the vail rent effectually to you, and in you, fo as you have flept in to the holiest by the rent vail? And,

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1. If you be a believer indeed, in whom the vail is favingly rent, then you have got a humbling fight and fenfe of the vail that interpofed betwixt God and you, and have feen yourfelf to be without the vail. Did you ever fee fuch a vail of wrath on God's part, and fuch a vail of guilt on your part? fuch a vail of a broken law, incenfed juftice, and injured holinefs on the one hand; and fuch a vail of fin, darkness, unbelief, and enmity on the other hand, as hath made you to despair that ever the vail would be rent by you, or any creature in heaven or earth, and made you to see yourself lost and undone, crying out, "Men and brethren, what fhall I do to be faved ?? Did ou never fee your fad ftate, as having a black vail ftanding up betwixt God and you? The exercife of perfons about religion is fufpicious, if they never faw the vail. Some will fay, OI have seen many evils about me, and I have an evil heart, and an evil frame of heart: but I alk, man, did you never fee yourself to be in an evil ftate, in a state of distance from God; in a state of feparation from God, by reafon of the vail that was betwixt him and you? The effectual rending of the vail begins here, namely, at a humbling fight of the feparating vail; the man fees himself without the vail, and fo within the flood-mark of God's wrath.

2. If the vail be effectually rent in you, then you have feen the glory of him that rent the vail, and the glory of God through the rent vail; fomething of the glory of God in Chrift. The apoftle tells us, Heb. x. 19, 20. That Chrift's flefh, that is, his human nature, is the vail for us to enter by to the holy of holies; that is, heaven or God's prefence, God's face: fo that in his flesh, or human nature of Chrift, we may fee the very face; the very brightnefs of the glory of God as in a mirror. Now, if the vail be rent in you, and the face of the covering removed, then you have feen the glory of God in Chrift; you have feen God's law fulfilled by him, God's justice fatisfied in him, God's holiness vindicated by him, and fo God's righteoufnefs declared in the way of faving finners through him, as the propitiation in blood. Have you feen his glory as the only way

to heaven, as God's way to you, and your way to God, as the Render of the vail on God's part and on yours; the glory of his death in the value and virtue of it; in the value of it, for rending of the vails that hindered God's access to you; and in the virtue of it, for rending of the vail within you that hindered your accefs to God? Have you felt fomething of this virtue in rending the vail of darkness and ignorance that was upon your underflanding, and fhining in upon you with the light of life? The effectual fending of the vail makes a man fee fome glory that is within the vail; have you feen God's glory then through the rent vail, and that God's glorious at tributes are all glorified to the higheft in this way?

3. If the vail be effectually rent, then you have caft the anchor of your hope within the vail, Heb. vi. 18,19. After your foul, like a weary veffel toffed upon the waves of convictions, fears, terrors, could find no reft, God hath brought you at last into this haven of reft, to caft anchor within the vail; you have fled for refuge to the hope fet before you; which hope you have as your anchor, fure and ftedfaft, entering into that within the vail, whither the Forerunner hath entered. Whither have you fled for refuge, when the law and justice of God was pursuing you for your debt, when they were ready to condemn you to hell-prifon? Was you then made to fee for refuge to the Surety that God let before you, for paying of your debt, and to fay, Lord, take bail of thy own Son for me? I defpair of ever anfwering fuch a charge as juftice and the law hath against me; but, O Jook for a difcharge in the blood and righteousness of Jefus; and let that anfwer the charge. When Christ entered into the holieft with his blood within the vail, he fprinkled the mercy-feat, and when the foul takes hold of this blood and righteoufnefs of Chrift, as the ground of his acquittance from the charge of justice, then he cafts anchor within the vail.

4. If the vail be effectually rent for you, then furely you cannot but have a fuperlative love for that glorious High-prieft, who, by his death, rent the vail, and went into the holieft for you. O can you fay with Paul," He Joved me and gave himself for me?" Or, can you fay with

Peter,

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Peter, "Thou that knoweft all things, knoweft that I love thee?" Surely, they that love him not, know nothing yet favingly about the rending of the vail. It may be, fome love him, and dare not fo confidently fay it as Peter did; but if you can fay Amen to two texts of fcrip ture, we may warrant you that you love him indeed. The one is a fad text," If any man love not the Lord Jefus Chrift, let him be Anathema Maranatha," 1 Cor. xvi. 22. The true lover of Chrift can fay, Amen; let them be even curled that do not love him, and fhall not love him. They that can fay Amen to that now, they fhall fit at Chrift's right hand at the great day, and fay Amen to the fentence of the great Judge, Depart from me, ye curfed." The other is a fweet text, "Worthy is the Lamb that was flain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and ftrength, and honour, and glory, and bleffing," Rev. v. 12. The true lover of Chrift can fay, Amen; worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb to receive all praifes, of all the redeemed, to all eternity. They that can fet the Amen of faith to this now, they have begun to join with the triumphant company, already within the vail; and they fhall join with them forever hereafter, faying, "Salvation to our God that fits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever." Indeed, if you love Christ at all, you love him with a fuperlative love; above hufband, wife, children, lands, houfes, goods and worldly comforts. You do not love him at all, if you do not love him above all; and if you love him at all, the vail is rent, and you have got into the holieft in part; and if you will have patience, yet a little while and you fhall get in fully. It is impoffible that a man that truly loves Chrift, fhould ever go to hell.

5. If the vail be effectually rent, then all the vails. on your part that continue to feparate betwixt God and you, are matter of fad regret to you; the vail of indwelling-fin and corruption, the vail of darkness and ignorance, the vail of remaining enmity, the vail of unbelief, thefe vails are all whole and intire in the unregenerate; and though in believers thefe vails be rent, yet they are not removed; regenerating grace hath given them a rent that shall never be fhewed up or healed again;

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