again; but yet, alas! they are remaining vails within the believer, while here; though they be rent, yet they hang there, and many times fadly feparate betwixt God and him; and hence he cries, "O wretched man that I am! who fhall deliver me from the body of this death?" O to be above corruption! Q to be within the vail, that Į may see him as he is, and be like unto him. O! when fhall all vails be removed? when fhall the day break, and the fhadows fly away? be taken down? Chrift ftands, behind the curtain, and does not manifeft himfelf. Hath he been a vailed Chrift at this communion? Then I am fure, believer, your heart will be faying, O that the curtain were drawn! O that the vail were rent into ten thousand pieces!

O! when fill the curtain

6. If the vail be effectually rent, then your heart will be effectually rent alfo; when the vail is rent, the heart is rent and there is fomething it is rent for, and fomething it is rent from,

(1.) Something it is rent FOR: it is rent for fin. Indeed the fight of the rent vail, or of God reconciled by the blood of Jefus, will rend the heart for fin more than all the thunders of Sinai, or flames of hell; "They fhall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn." When a man reads his fins, as they are written upon the cross of Chrift, with the red ink of his fin-pardoning blood, O then he reads them over with tears of joy, and his heart is kindly rent for fin; then he cries, "Behold I am vile." When the vail is rent, the heart is rent, not only for his own fins, but for the fins of others; "Rivers of tears run down mine eyes, because of the wicked that break thy law. F beheld tranfgreffors, and was grieved. They that can fee God difhonoured, and hear men curfe and fwear, and blafpheme the holy name of God, and yet never be troubled about it, furely the Vail remains upon their heart, otherwife their hearts would rend for the fins of others, and of the generation: "Set a mark upon the foreheads of them that figh and cry, for all the abo minations that are done in the midst thereof." Again, when the Vail is rent, the heart is rent for the Lord's anger and abfence: nothing fears them more than the Lord's anger; "O rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither. chaften

chaften me in thy hot difpleasure." Nothing affects them more than the Lord's abfence; for thefe things they weep: "Mine eyes, mine eyes run down with waters, because the Comforter that fhould relieve my foul is far from me." O the little lamentation after an abfent God, an angry God at this day!-Again, when the vail is rent, the heart is rent for the calamities of the church, Jer. ix. 1. "O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the flain of the daughters of my people." The miferies of the church, and the fins that bring them on, are heart-rending things to the people of God; and particularly, their hearts are rent for the rents of the church:

For the divifions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart." For my own part, I am but a perfon of little experience in the world, and therefore I defire to be modeft at this juncture, about the prefent rent among us*. It is plain enough that the anger of the Lord hath divided us, and rent us in twain, like the vail of the temple, from the top to the bottom. God is angry becaufe we have finned. Surely, if we had been more valiant for the truth, and zealous for a covenanted work of reformation, when we had fair opportunities for it, our rent had not come to fuch a height. But yet, tho I cannot justify the ignorant zeal of many profeffors, whofe hearts are rent from minifters, and they know not for what; they can give no reasonable account of their feparating-courses; yet, I hope, there is a ferious remnant, whofe hearts are duly rent for the rents of the church, and the finful caufes thereof: and, I hope, the Lord will help fuch to be regular in the way of their diffenting, from whatever they reckon, upon folid grounds, to be the defection of the day they live in.. But that I may not digrefs. too far, I am telling you, that if the vail be effectually rent with you, then there are fome things your heart is rent for, namely, for your own fins, the fins of others, I 4 the

*About this time the fecond form of the ABJURATION OATH was impofed,. wh ch occafioned different fentiments both among mi itters and people: andthe matter was carried fo high by fome, as almoft to make it a term of com munion. It is probably this that the author hath in his eye.

the fins of the land, the fins of the church, the calami ties of the church, the rents of the church. The Lord's anger with her, and abfence from her, may indeed make you weep when you remember Zion, and hang your harps upon the willow trees, while we are gone so far into captivity, and the glory is fo far departed. In a word, if the vail be rent with you, your heart will be rent habitually for all these things, as alfo for all your heart-plagues. Your heart will be fo rent for your atheilm, ignorance, enmity, carnality, hypocrify, roving, wander. ings, worldlinefs, and fuch like, that you will be ready to fay as Rebecca faid to Ifaac, in another cale, "I am weary of my life, becaufe of the daughters of Heth,"

(2.) If the vail be effectually rent, then, as there are some things your heart will be rent for, fo there are fome things your hearts will be rent from. Why, your hearts will be rent from in as well as rent for fin; your heart will fay with Ephraim, "What have I to do any more with idols?" What have I to do any more with lufts? All that expect to get in to the Holy of Holies in the heavenly temple, are ftudents of holinefs and purity: "He that hath this hope purifieth himfelf even as he is pure." Christ having rent the vail, entered into the holieft with blood; and believers are daily befprinkling themselves with that blood, that fo they may enter in all fprinkled over with that blood alfo. Believers want not fin, and it cleaves to them here; but they are fo far from cleaving to it, that it is the defire of their foul to be rent from it, and therefore their daily fins oblige them to make daily application to the blood of fprinkling, Again, if the vail be effectually rent, then your heart will be rent from the world. O but this globe of earth, and all the glory of it, looks but like a filthy mote, a piece of dung, to the man who hath got his heart within the vail. The glory of God in Christ darkens all created glory. What cares he for worldly pleafures, who hath Chrift for his delight? What cares he for worldly profits, who hath Chrift for his gain? What cares he for worldly honour, who hath Chrift for his crown of glory? What cares he for the world's all, who hath Chrift for his all in all? His heart is rent from the world.Again, when the vail is rent, the man's heart is rent

from

from the law; "He that is married to Chrift, is divorced from the law," Rom. vii. 4. The law, as a covenant of works, the believer hath nothing to do with it, He does not owe it a cup of cold water,' as one fays; for Chrift hath perfectly fulfilled the condition of the covenant of works; and therefore, if the law challenge him, he fends it to Chrift for a perfe& obedience; if the penalty challenge him, he fends it to Chrift for a complete fatisfaction. He defires, with Paul, to be found in Chrift, and would not be found in his own righteousnefs for ten thousand worlds: he fees fo much unholinefs in his own holiness; fo much unrighteoufnefs in his own righteoufnefs; fo much carnality, in all his fpirituality; fo much earthlinefs, in all his heavenlinefs; fo much fin in all his duties; that he is fure God may damn him for his beft duties as well as his worft fins: and therefore he hath no expectation from the law, but is rent from it, and joined to the Lord Jefus, faying, "In the Lord only have I righteoufnefs and firength,"In a word, when the vail is effectually rent, the man is rent from Self it is very hard indeed to rend a man from himfelf; felf infinuates itfelf into all our praying, preaching, and communicating. However, the power of felf is broken in all true believers. Inftead of felf-eftimation he is brought to that, "Behold, I am vile;" he hath never a good word to fpeak of himfelf, not a good thought to think of himself; but every time he prays, every time he communicates, he cries out, "Behold, I am vile." Inftead of felf-juftification, he is brought to that, "I will lay my hand upon my mouth;" I will not anfwer, I cannot juftify myfelf, but muft condemn my felf, and juf tify the Lord. Inftead of felf-love, he is brought to that, “I abhor myfelf, and repent in duft and afhes:" Self-lothing and abhorrence takes place. Inftead of felf-will, he is brought to that, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Inftead of felf-eafe and carnal fecurity, he is brought to that, "O what fhall I do to be faved?" And after the first exercife about falvation hath landed in converfion, he is always exercifing himfelf to godlinefs, and giving employment to Chrift to carry on and complete his falvation, and reftlefs till falvation be compleated. Instead of felf-ful

nefa

nefs and fufficiency, he is brought to that, "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing:" he fees himfelf empty of all good, and filled with all evil. Instead of felf-confidence and hope, he is brought to that, “We had the fentence of death in ourselves, that we fhould not truft in ourfelves, but in God; which raifed the dead." They are brought to despair in themselves. And instead of felf-righteoufnefs, of which before, they are brought to that, "All our righteoufneffes are as filthy rags," Thus, in fo far as they fhare of the faving benefit of the rent vail, fo far are they rent from felf: and thus, by these things you may examine yourselves, what in tereft you have in this privilege of Chrift's rending of the vail betwixt God and you.

USE Third, For Terror to unbelievers, who, though they hear that the vail is rent, and fo a free access to the Holy of Holies proclaimed, yet they are not at all concerned about entering in by this rent vail. The door of heaven is open to you, but you will not come in ; the vail of the temple is rent, but you will not enter. O wretched creature, how can you answer that challenge, John v. 40. You will not come to me, that you might have life?" You have no grace, no holiness, no repentance, no good thing; but, fays Chrift, you will not come to me that you might have grace, you will not come to me that you might have holiness, you will not come to me that you might have repentance, you will not come to me that you might have all good things that you need. The vail is rent, the door is open, but you will not come in. "O! what will you do in the day of vifitation?"-What will you do, when he that rent the vail shall rend your foul and body in twain, and fay, Oflighter of the Son of God, come and give account of what ufe you have made of the fabbaths, fermons, and communion-feafons that you enjoyed? Perhaps you are little thinking on death, but what know you but God will fay to you, "Thou fool, this night thy foul fhall be required of thee?" I defy all the minifters on earth to affure you that you fhall live to get another offer of Chrift to-morrow. Many here will not come again to-morrow; and many here may never have another venture for heaven. O!

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